The bunny-ear lawyer is a popular trope that is used to describe characters that have quirks or eccentricities that are overlooked by others because they are so good at what they do. Some of the best examples of this trope are Adrien Monk, Gregory House, and Maverick.
However, while these characters may be the best at what they do sometimes their quirks/eccentricities can be a hindrance. In Monk's case his OCD and phobias make him hard to work with and in one episode a lawyer defending a murderer uses that against him to get his client off scot-free. They still manager to get the guy in the end but it just goes to show that sometimes people like this can end up being more of a liability than an asset. The same can be said about House. While he is a brilliant diagnostician his bedside manner forces the hospital to put aside a legal fund just for him in the event of a lawsuit and by the end of the show he can no longer practice medicine because of his addiction and his abrasive personality. And as for Maverick while there is no doubt that he is a great pilot his cockiness, and blatant disregard for protocols leave so many black marks on his record that by the time the sequel comes out he is stuck at the rank of captain.
In any event are there any deconstruction fics that show that bunny-ear lawyer characters can be just as much as a hindrance as they are a benefit?

Since January 2024, I was without income. Prior to this, I was on short-term disability (SDI) after leaving a job that was causing my mental health to declined and that pushed me into deep deep depression due to the toxic environment of the workplace. Thankfully, I stumbled upon a doctor who took my mental health seriously and pulled me off of work for a year (another manifestation).
A few months before my SDI ended, I had begun looking for work. Although, this time, I was more competent about the law of assumption, Neville, and Florence S. Shinn, and was learning to hone my powers as a creator. Therefore, I was not willing to go back into another full-time job where I had to sit in a office full of people who would eventually make my life miserable.
Side note: As someone who has worked over 15 years, in various types of offices, I've noticed a trend in work culture that just drains me. I've always pushed through and have given each job 1-3+ years minimum. However, as I get older, I can no longer put myself in these draining environments; so, outside of working to build my own business (the long-term goal), I decided that I only want to work part-time and/or with a very flexible, WFH job.
Back to the story...
After months of applying to every WFH job I could find w/ no success, I loosened my restrictions, and decided to look for a part-time, in-person job. When I experienced difficulty securing this type of job, I eventually gave in and started applying to full-time, in-office jobs.
Still, through it all, since December, I had been "manifesting" my perfect job using scripting, affirming, and visualizing. Though, it wasn't until I got very specific, that I'd seen my desire manifest into my life.
In April, a few interview invites started to roll in after months of applying.
1st Job
This one was WFH but very strict about camera being on the whole time and remaining in your seat on a full-time basis - NO FLEXIBILITY whatsoever. The schedule also conflicted with the time I needed to drop off my kid at school. Regardless, I was willing to take the job (if offered) and basically stress myself out trying to make it work. But, just before the interview was expected to take place, I got an email saying that it was cancelled due to me living 10 miles too far from the required location.
2nd Job
I received an offer for this job. But I was forcing myself to be ok with it as it wasn't my preferred situation. It was full-time and in-office. I told myself that maybe this is what God wanted me to have and so I accepted their offer and was just happy to have a source of income again.
As soon as I left the zoom meeting whereby I accepted a verbal offer for job #2 - the third job appears - literally less than 5 mins later.
3rd Job
I get a phone call from a local number. Usually, I don't answer unsaved numbers but something told me to pick it up. When I did, the person on the other end said they received my resume two months prior but had chosen someone else. However, that person ended up leaving for a full-time, in-office job, as this was what they preferred and needed. The employer went on to say that they were always very impressed with my resume and held onto it in case other positions came up in the future. The gentleman asked if I was still in search of a job... I took a second to think about it and then said - "yes, in fact, I am." He went on to describe the position to me and, in doing so, he literally described my DREAM JOB to the "T"!! - i.e., Part-Time, flexible schedule, mainly WFH to do charting (as I am a social worker), the rest of the work would be meeting with my clients in various hospitals and their homes. What's more, the pay is Ahhh-MAZING!
Before ending this call, we set up a zoom meeting to do an official interview with the team.
The interview took place this morning. The team consisted of a small, yet amazing group of people who seem to be genuinely nice. Although, this won't matter much anyway, as I barely have to interact with them.
Less than an hour after the zoom interview - I was offered the job!!
Techniques used:
Scripting
I Scripted my intentions (only once) requesting for an easy interview w/out reference check, to secure the job before June 2024, to be the perfect candidate for the job, to have likeable and relateable colleagues and to have a flexible schedule whereby I can still spend time with family and take care of personal needs without asking for time off.
Affirmations
I affirmed daily (multiple-times per day) from the state of already having it. Some of the affirmations were: "I AM employed," "I got the job!," "My family was so happy when I told them the good news," "I love my new job, it's better than I imagined" "Thank you, God, for blessing me with such a wonderful job. It's perfect for me!," - just to name a few. However, I really just created them on the spot based on how I was feeling at the time.
Intermittent Visualizations (SATS)
I was honestly very inconsistent with my visualization. However, whenever I remembered, I would do my best to play out a scene at night before bed. I haven't fully honed my visualization skills so most times I'd just focus more on hearing myself tell a loved one that I got a job that is perfect for my personality and life. - Funny thing is, I've literally been saying this same thing to people since accepting the job offer.
I hope this story inspires someone to keep persisting and have faith in the law because IT WORKS!!

Can someone describe the steps to setup a local area network and connect various laptops(clients ) to the same server(laptop) that is hosting a competition. so that every client has access to the database of the main server . cant dinf anything in the manual about the network access policies.

https://voca.ro/13E7gPgqciEi
I don't think I have super high expectations when it comes to dating but there are certain traits and people that I'm attracted to. To be very straightforward, I'm a woman of color (South Asian) and prefer dating other people of color (any). Growing up as a brown immigrant in certain parts of NY was definitely eye-opening. Apparently, I look racially ambigious since people have hurled slurs for every race towards me lmao It's just been a lot easier for me to connect with other POC with the things I have been through. I think it's also important for me to connect with someone who has similar values. On a political spectrum, I am a leftist and would much prefer my partner to share similar ideologies. In regards to my personality, I have been often described as someone who is full of life/bubbly/optimistic. I love laughing a lot but I love to make others laugh more. It's definitely difficult for me to give up on people so expect me to stick around for a while.
I like someone who is playful and has a good sense of humor. There's a lot of shitty things going on at the moment, so being with someone who can make me smile and laugh often would be a blessing. Rest assure that I'm not looking for a distraction or a therapist, but I hope we could be each other's best friend. I don't mind flirting here and there, but I prefer a love that blossoms slowly over time. But out of everything I have wrote, the most important thing and the characteristic I value/seek the most is someone with high emotional intelligence. Empathy and healthy communication goes a long way.
Im not the most knowledgeable so I love meeting people with different life experiences, different skills, and different interests/hobbies whom I can learn from. Surface level conversations and friendships can be nice for a few days or so, but I cherish those who are not afraid to be vulnerable and to be their authentic self. I'm a pretty open book myself. I think my biggest strength, despite being called foolish for it, is my ability to open up to others. Sure, I had people use it against me before but I really like this part of me. I think it helps me form a sincere connection with the people around me whether it's friends, coworkers, or clients. What you see is what you get, the good and the bad.
In regards to my interests, I am very passionate about social and mental health issues. I am in a MSW program and my dream is to work as a hospice social worker. I like to read a lot of books around those topics but I am a fan of fiction too specifically magical realism from authors like Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I also like to game but I am a console player and right now I am just sticking with OverWatch, Final Fantasy series, and occasionally bullying Real Madrid fans on FIFA. I also have a thing for tattoos and graffiti. Feel free to send me a chat request if any of this catches your interest.

I recently came across this video of chazm on pc with a centered HUD ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLYQLkVt-XM&t=34s ). I was confused at how this could be possible on PC, as the option to adjust for oveunderscan only exists on console, but after a bit of googling I found out that in order to do it you have to add a few lines to the file Settings_v0.ini in Documents\Overwatch\Settings\ .
Now, as the video and some reddit posts describing how to do it were created recently (within the past year) and the video was recorded after the ball rework, I thought it would be as simple as putting the lines into the config file and that would be all. After various attempts at doing that ranging from adjusting the formatting to copy-pasting to manually typing to changing other lines to see if that did anything, I came to the conclusion that my Overwatch 2 installation was not reading the file for some reason, so I deleted everything Overwatch, Blizzard, and battle.net related and reinstalled Overwatch using the battle.net client instead of Steam to see if that would fix it.
To my surprise, when installing Overwatch 2 via battle.net, launching it, and changing / applying some graphics settings, the config file simply didn't appear. I tried restarting the game multiple times, I even played a couple games of QP, but nope! the file nor the directory containing the file ever showed up.
The next step was to manually create a copy of the directory and file to see if it would even read the file when present, and it unsurprisingly did not.
I then removed everything related to OW and Blizz and installed the game via Steam again, and once again, the config file and directory were not created, and everything tried previously didn't work either.
I have done pretty much everything that I can short of DM-ing chazm or manually decrypting OW's files (which is probably against TOS and I don't think that it would be feasible anyways), so here I am asking for help to solve this issue, as I believe that I and several others would appreciate knowing how to do this as it does help massively being able to see details on your HUD more easily during gameplay without having to move your eyes as far, especially people who play in 21:9.
Here are links to posts that mention the config file solution :
POST 1 (overwatch2)
POST 2 (Competitiveoverwatch)
POST 3 (Competitiveovewatch)
POST 4 (Overwatch) (OLD)
UPDATE : I found a solution to the problem. As usual, Windows is to blame. For some ungodly reason the Documents folder inside the OneDrive folder in your User folder is the one that contains the true config file (C:\Users\[username]\OneDrive\Documents\Overwatch\Settings) because Windows 11 preloads OneDrive and assumes you will never uninstall it so it sets the OneDrive documents folder as the default documents folder because Microsoft wants to shove their disgusting bloatware deeper down our throats then they already have.
Adding these lines :
BroadcastMarginBottom = "1.000000"
BroadcastMarginLeft = "1.000000"
BroadcastMarginRight = "1.000000"
BroadcastMarginTop = "1.000000"
to the file under [Render.13] centers the HUD and solves the problem driving me insane for the past 12 hours.
Thanks to u/Becks for reminding me that I hadn't done a full computer search yet, as I thought there was no way that any remnant of OneDrive's disgusting bloatware corpse remained on my computer.
TLDR F**K you microsoft for making this an issue in the first place.

When a dating app allowed users to mute specific words, phrases and emojis, singles quickly curated their lists. How did a few overused phrases become an “ick” for so many?
Being “fluent in sarcasm,” a love of tacos, an uncontroversial opinion followed by the words “change my mind.” These are a few well-trodden tropes of the online dating world, and there may be a linguistic explanation for why they don’t work on you.
The popular dating app Hinge added a new feature called Hidden Words this month. It allows users to hide the profiles of matches who use certain words, phrases or emojis in their messages.
Online singles were quick to express their eagerness to take advantage of a “mute” button for specific language that turned them off. “I wish I could mute the phrase ‘pineapple belongs on pizza,’” said Mitchell Allen, a 31-year-old in Toronto who uses Hinge and Bumble, and lamented a lack of meaningful connections on the apps. Mr. Allen said he would also mute any phrases relating to love languages and Myers-Briggs typology: “I don’t believe anyone who speaks like that lives in a universe of reality.”
Liking pineapple on pizza is innocent enough — but expressing it, according to much of the online dating world, is intolerable. And those using such clichés may not realize that they’ve consigned themselves to semantic purgatory.
All dating apps allow users to filter potential matches according to their age, gender and proximity (most also paywall other filters), effectively rendering invisible those who don’t fit the bill. But users’ enthusiasm for a filter according to word choice exposes just how specific their dislikes, or icks, can be.
Malia Griggs, a 34-year-old who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., said that she couldn’t help being turned off by poor grammar, such as someone using the wrong “you’re” or “their” in a message or profile.
“I wish I could filter for punctuation almost,” Ms. Griggs said. She admitted that, while her dating coach had encouraged her to view habits like spelling and grammar as changeable, she continued to see both as a definitive sexual turnoff. “To me, it feels like you’re not taking the time to even read your own profile a couple of times, and we don’t have the same values. My values are grammar.”
Even if spelling errors and grammar aren’t holistic indicators of a person’s dateability, the best online connections are often forged by finding those who communicate through screens the same way you do.
This is often called “typographical tone of voice,” a phrase coined by Gretchen McCulloch, a popular internet linguist, to describe how online writing has come to contain the same social nuance as face-to-face interactions. It may follow, then, that glib statements such as “no drama” and “since apparently it matters” convey far more than those writing them realize — including an inability to read the (virtual) room.
“A lot of these cliché phrases, a lot of people take them to imply something else,” said Erika Ettin, an online dating coach in New York City. “‘No drama,’ for example, might be a euphemism for ‘Don’t bring up your issues to me because I don’t want to hear about them.’”
Having spent years swiping for her clients, Ms. Ettin said she wasn’t surprised to hear that daters could get the ick from an idiom.
“I mean, I could go on all day about the cliché phrases that everyone is sick of,” she said, listing off a series of generalizations of abundant variety — including “I like to go out” and “I like to stay in” — and the bizarrely pervasive love of tacos. “Like, OK, tacos are fine, but gee whiz.”
Adele Goldberg, a professor of linguistics and psychology at Princeton University, suggested that associating a simple phrase and the negative conversations that often follow it might eventually make the two synonymous in daters’ minds.
“This is basically priming,” Professor Goldberg said. “If you hear the word ‘apple,’ the commonly associated word ‘orange’ will also come to mind.” Using a word or emoji that had been primed to be associated with something else in recipients’ minds — like an eggplant emoji (apple) and a particular body part (orange) — was unlikely to pass muster, she said, even if the sender intended it innocently or ironically.
Ms. Ettin was skeptical that certain words could be divorced from their double-entendres on dating apps and was confident in banning a word like “oral” from exchanges. “I don’t think anyone’s talking about an oral report in the first message,” she said. “‘How was your oral report on Woodrow Wilson?’ I don’t think so.”
Reached for comment, a Hinge representative emphasized that Hidden Words was primarily a safety feature and a means of “giving people the agency to create personal boundaries around the types of interactions they want to have.”
But in a swipe-addled era that has increasingly led hopeful romantics to burn out, app users’ boundaries may be a barrier to interaction itself. Ms. Griggs would be happy never to see a profile referring to “The Office” again: “We’ve all seen it. Like, I don’t … it doesn’t even matter if it’s a good show anymore. Get a new show.”
How Language Influences Your Choices in Online Dating - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
What words/phrases would you add? I would add the words fit, cuddle, physical touch is my love language, just ask...

I was reading the lore pages of older seasonal artifacts for fun, and the Seasonal Artifact from Season of the Splicer had an interesting segment that I hadn't noticed before. But before we get to that, a quick note about the word Paradrome. My google searches only came up with the Oxford English Dictionary website. It is the only one that claimed to have a definition, which is unfortunately blocked by a subscription wall.
However, if we look up the root words Para and Drom separately, we get a good image of what it means.
Para, for those that don't know, is a prefix that indicates being close to or next to something else.
Drom, is probably a little less familiar but it comes from the Greek Dromos, which is a word for avenue or walkway, or entrance, or other related concepts.
Paradromic, is an adjective that means running side by side or in paralel. The impression I get is that it would be more likely to refer to two roads or entryways, rather than two people running in parallel, but I suppose either is probably a correct usage.
So the Paradrome Cube then is going to have something to do with things operating or running in parallel. While I think there are multiple layers, an obvious one that you will see below is that when looking at this thing, Mithrax sees two visions. The artistic implication being they visions are parallel to eachother.
On to the lore! The text on the cube is as follows:

PARADROME CUBE - SEASONAL ARTIFACT FOR SEASON 14, SEASON OF THE SPLICER
A CUBE OF LIVING CODE CLAIMED FROM THE VEX DOMAIN.
Mithrax sat on a carpet in his meager quarters, held the Paradrome Cube in his hand, and concentrated.
Hours passed before Eido, concerned, sat beside him. She touched his arm.
"What do you see?" she whispered.
He saw the Endless Night split open. He saw fluid falling like white rain on the City. Massive Minotaurs rising from the shallow seas. He saw the gunfire of the Guardians in the Tower, but it did not reflect on the rippling liquid, and he dismissed the vision.
A hundred more illusions took its place, then a thousand, then a thousand lifetimes' worth:
-a shape frozen inside a crystal prison a towering figure in white recognition flooding bloodshot eyes a city of voices speaking at once shadow taking form the realization they had always been watched tears on metal-
A choice, and its consequences.
"Lies," he answered plainly.

There is a lot of symbolism here, but the thing that I wanted to bring to our attention is the phrase "a towering figure in white". Season of the Splicer is the midpoint in the year following Beyond Light. WQ hasn't released yet, so no one has even imagined the Witness as an antagonist yet, and when we first get this artifact no one will have guessed that Savathun is posing as Osiris. Yet here we have a direct foreshadowing of the Witness coming, and of the Vex's knowledge of it, as this cube came out of their general network. And crucially this is NOT the Sol Divisive. This is something he pulled out of their network that we use to splice into it later as we hunt for Vex Minds and ultimately for Queria.
For fun, here is a short list of possible literal definitions. But there may be symbolic or figurative definitions as well:
First Vision - Seems to mostly be an account of the Vex plan to assault the City with overwhelming force.
Second Vision -
A shape frozen inside a crystal prison - The most obvious option is Eramis being frozen back on Europa, but I think this is more likely a way that this cube of Vex is conceptualizing the Witness's "final shape" because...
A towering figure in white - clearly fits the description of the Witness. It is a towering figure, and it is pasty
Recognition flooding bloodshot eyes - I'm less sure of this, but I do know that Vex eyes are red, and that The Gate Lord's Eye seasonal artifact references bleeding as part of it's internal structure. So my thought here is that this is the Vex recognizing the Witness in some capacity.
A city of voices speaking at once - Witness's plurality of form. It is a multitude of beings crammed together into a single body. A multitude of voices speaking as one, with one voice.
Shadow taking form - I think this is probably referring to the Witness's plans starting to move again. Things are in motion, and the Pyramids are here, and the Witness is coming for the Traveler.
The realization they had always been watched - The Witness has been watching us, watching the Vex, watching everything. Witnessing the universe.
Tears on metal - I don't know if this is tears as in crying tears, or if this is tears as in tearing fabric. And either way, I don't know what this is referencing.
So to me, this "vision" he sees is a version of what the Vex in this cube think will happen. What is going to happen in the future. And it is a direct foreshadowing of the Witness itself as a villain, as well as it's ultimate plans for the universe. Later, during the Vow of the Disciple Raid, Guardians will discover a prophecy wall inside Rhulk's Pyramid that describes everything the Witness does in Lightfall perfectly.
Just a nice piece of continuity I noticed. Thanks for reading!

Throwaway because moms. I'm an X-er, my sisters are Millennials, if that matters.
Had a perfect encapsulation of Boomer humor this weekend at Mother's Day lunch. Was with my mom, her husband, and my sisters. My sister tells us that she's pretty sure her boyfriend (who is one of those never-goes-to-the-doctor types) has Tourette syndrome. My younger sis and I are like, yeah, that tracks. He has a few tics that seem completely involuntary, no big. Mom says "He just blurts out curse words?!" Sis says no, that only like 2% of people w/ Tourette's do that (I have no idea how accurate that number is), explains that most people with it just have tics, and describes his to my mom.
Mom doesn't acknowledge that she heard or processed any of that info, or even try to think if she can remember sis' BF doing something like that. Instead she launches into a story. "I used to have a client whose husband had Tourette syndrome. She would complain about him every time I saw her. Every Sunday in church he would just start saying stuff like 'Son of a bitch! Son of a bitch! Son of a bitch!'" At this point she and her husband start laughing like this was the funniest story ever told, and she even repeats the "impression" of him and starts laughing again.
Like, what the fuck? I get it, Boomer humor tends to kick downward, but damn. They're just laughing their asses off at a man who has probably experienced a lifetime of frustration and ridicule because of an incurable disease, and one that my sister has just told us she's pretty sure her SO has. Zero empathy, zero social awareness.

Bryan and Bo often say “There’s get wealthy behaviors and there’s stay wealthy behaviors.”
Lots of content has been created describing the get wealthy behaviors such as follow the FOO, save 25%, be disciplined about purchase decisions, practice risk management, etc.
But I haven’t seen a lot that describes “stay wealthy behaviors.”
Is there any content (video, blog articles etc) from them that outlines what their view of these stay wealthy behaviors actually are?
Or do they simply focus on pushing people to become clients before they divulge that information?

Do any of your guys's conlangs use vowel harmony? And it doesnt have to be in the typical sense... I know in Turkish and Mongolian its quite complex and depending on the suffix used vowels will change etc, but in Korean, vowel harmony is actually used within words to describe different nuances in feeling, and since I thought that was interesting and pretty cool, I decided to incorporate it in my conlang.
For example, in my conlang Ceron, there is only 5 vowel sounds, and only 4 are capable of "harmonizing"
a-e
o-u
The vowels 'a' and 'o' are considered strong vowels, and 'e' and 'o' are considered weak. So a words meaning can be changed from "strong" to "weak" by changing the vowels. For example in the word "egeg" which means abruptly ending or steep, (of a small cliff or drop), vowel harmonization can occur and change to "agag" which means also abruptly ending or steep, but of a large drop or cliff, more intense. Another adjective "bacbac" means screeching or sharp sounds like scraping, whereas "becbec" means gentle rubs or gentle tapping! I usually use vowel harmony with onomatopoeic words, but I also use it sometimes with regular words.
Anyways, do any of your guy's conlangs use vowel harmony in unique ways? I'd love to expand how my conlang uses them! :)

I’ve shared my story on how I started, ran for 10 years, and remotely sold my 3dp business HERE.
Now I would like to speculate on How I would start it if I had to do it again. Why? 2 reasons:

1. When it was time to sell, I discovered, that the most valuable assets of my business were NOT the printers or production base and that I could've significantly grown and therefore increased business value if I did certain things a certain way.

Knowing that and other things - I would've tried to do "the right things" from the beginning, and I hope it would help those who are thinking about or starting it right now.
I concentrate on the business side since the 3dp business is first of all a business, and I go through with it as I would’ve done it (not just some average avatar model).
This article doesn’t cover everything and simplifies some parts, but I tried to make it as real and in-depth as possible since the devil is in the details.

1. I am starting new business projects right now, and the path I am taking is almost the same (minus printers basically) path;

Vision

First I need to ask myself: what kind of 3dp business would I like to start? It may be hard to answer right at the start, but I do know 4 things:

1. I want it to be service-based (at least in the beginning, then I may consider a hybrid: service+product model);
2. I want it to be B2B (higher check, less transactional costs);
3. I want to gravitate towards big/complicated models;
4. I will offer some post-processing (get hand dirty, mot many others willing to do that);

Here I may also need to identify, who my target audience is. But It is hard, and may sometimes be harmful in the beginning, so I will stick with 4 general assumptions listed above, and see where keywords lead me.
But I will revisit this very important question (let's call it a “vision”) as soon as I have a meaningful chunk of data and experience.

Research

Then I will conduct research.
For that, I need to pick a place (3dp business is place-bound to a certain degree). Let's say a city - Austin - TX.
Note here - the bigger city, the better.
Now I need 3 lists:

1. First is a List of keywords with average monthly searches and cost of clicks for different areas:
   
   1. Austin;
   2. Other big cities nearby;
   3. State of Texas;
   4. Nearby states;
   5. The whole of the US.

One tab for each. You can pick as many areas as you see fit, and the logic behind it is that you want to know the demand in places you may be able to serve.
I need general high-frequency keywords as well as Google suggestions and low-frequency keywords. The broader the scope, the better. There is a free tool called Keyword Planner (it also provides a click cost estimation for Google ads) inside a Google Ads account. If you don’t use Google ads, you can pick any keyword search tool out there.
Now I need to sort it, vet out unneeded ones, and separate them into groups based on intent (informational or commercial). I will also create a list of “minus” words (will use them later).
When it is all done, I need to assemble a “core”: a few groups of keywords united by intention.
If I don’t use keys/groups for commercial purposes, I may use them for info articles (SEO). The most visited (by a long shot) page on the site, which I sold as a part of the business was “The History of 3d printing”.
📜 Research should also include many other “places”, basically one should identify where potential customers hang out, what they need (their problems), and how one can reach them, and as a result will have some potential acquisition channels, and a list of “problems” to form an offer with.
I will only cover the fastest and the one I know best - Google ads (+ a bit of SEO for the long game). This channel corresponds rather well, with my understanding, of where my “target audience” may be (more on that below).

1. Second is a List of competitors. I will only need ones’ that will compete with me for my target demographic. Specifically, I would like to know:
   
   1. Domain name;
   2. Their offer (range of services, materials, unique propositions);
   3. Their main (and all significant pages) Title, H1, description, “subtitle”, unique selling propositions, and maybe a screenshot of HERO;
   4. Their CTAs (calls to action - do they use online calculators, contact form…).

The list can go on, but those are the most important (probably), the logic behind it - I want to know what has been offered so far, compare it to the demand from list 1, and identify where I can “squeeze in”.

1. Third list - competitor’s prices. Based on my initial ”vision” (what/for whom I will try to do) I prepare a couple of inquiries, which I send to competitors to quote.

I would like to know:

• Price;
• Fulfillment time;
• Conditions;
• How competitors interact with prospects.

Inquiries may be:

1. A somewhat complicated “technical” model of a middle size;
2. Small-to-mid batch of parts (up to 100-300);
3. A somewhat big (that will probably require printing in parts and assembly) model + separately I would inquire about painting;

As a result, I understand how I may price my services. I prefer to start somewhere in the lower middle of a price range and slowly go up.
I know what I won't do - I won't try to go for the cheapest price - it is a road to nowhere. I may go for it once or twice to snatch an order, which will be beneficial to my portfolio, but that is it!
Now I also understand how my competitors interact with their customers and what I can offer in this regard.

Plan

With that data gathered I am now ready to compose a “business plan” /set up business goals for 1-3 years, and lay out a tactical (more detailed) plan for a quarter or so.
Usually, the latter shall be detailed like: I need to reach X revenue/per day, to get Y rev per month, and for that, I will need Z inquiries and so on... But as I am just starting, it may not make a lot of sense, since there are no "base" numbers. But I will use that type of planning as soon as I have those numbers (after 6-12 months).
I also will align the plan with my vision, and maybe add some details to it, based on the data I’ve gathered.
I will have a somewhat united note/doc with actionable tasks, equipped with due dates (those are very important), and an overall plan.
I like to unify all of the above (lists, vision, tasks…) as a project in a project management software (later about that). Much easier to manage and keep track of.

Offer and Site creation

Now I can form my offer.
This offer will be presented on my site, in my ads, and everywhere else.
I need to describe CLEARLY what do I do exactly, for whom, and why those people should take their business to me (competitive advantages).
I pick a name, and domain name and make a logo. I keep in mind that they are a part of the offer (everything is), and I keep them as short, direct, and close to the point as possible. I squeeze a relevant keyword in if I can.
Before I decide I type the name into the search and see what pops up (don’t skip that part).
Now I can make a site. I pick one of the No-code options to create it myself or delegate it. Keep in mind that you will need to correct and change the site: an offer (text. headings), portfolio, blog (for SEO purposes), services, etc. The no-code solution will allow you to do that yourself.
It will be a landing page (in the beginning), and it will include:

• Title (shown as a first string in search);
• Description (shown as a second string in the search);

HERO SECTION (first screen basically - 80% of people won’t go below it)

• H1 (main “title” shown on the top of the page)
• Subtitle (text below the H1, usually supports the H1 and includes unique selling points);
• Clear CTA (Call to action);
• Foto or video of what I’ve done (the visual representation of services works really well);
• Unique selling points (not included in the subtitle, or supporting/elaborating on them);

END OF THE HERO SECTION

• Unique selling points;
• All other headers;
• All other text;
• Examples (what I’ve done) and/or testimonials - if I truly just starting I may need to make some examples of objects I would like to make (as close to desired nich as possible) and take GOOD photos of them (It can be powerful, that is what I did and people told me many times, that they “came” because of “beautiful” thing that we’ve done (“beautiful” is mostly attribute off a picture, then a thing);
• FAQ (those shall be questions that your customers ask you the most, I mean REAL questions - they work rather well as objection handlers);
• Clear CTA (Call to action);

As there is just one page, it should target the most relevant oand big commercial keyword group.
The “art” of creating a Title, H1, and the rest of the text, headings, and attributes is a delicate dance between the need to be different from competitors, the need to incorporate the right keywords, basic SEO guidelines, and most importantly - to present a compelling offer.
📜 An important thing to keep in mind - your first screen should tell, straight and clearly - what services you provide, for whom, and why a visitor should click your CTA, or continue reading.
Last thing - make sure that it looks fine and loads quickly on mobile. More than half of the traffic will be from there.
Research says, that If it loads more than 3 seconds - more than 70% of people bounce.
Check your speed here - https://pagespeed.web.dev/
There is A LOT more to that, but it is beyond the scope of this article.

Traffic: Ads and SEO

Now I need traffic:
Google ads. As I just starting, I need to be as targeted as possible. So I will:

• Vet keywords carefully, avoid high-frequency ones, and compose them into groups.
• Start with one or two groups, with a limited number of keywords with clear commercial intent.
• Limit the location to the city I am in.
• Add a minus keywords list. If a search query includes one of the words from the list (like FREE, or CHEAP) - ads won't be shown.

Google pushes everyone really hard to use responsive search ads + broad match + AI-suggested keywords (performance MAX they call it), but I won't.
Why?

1. It will greatly disperse the focus, and therefore results of my campaign.
2. It is still not working properly, especially for small and/or “complicated” niches. In other words, it will waste my money, (relocate it to Google), without bringing back results (or at least as many).

And I don't want that.
I will use exact match, fix (pin) headings and descriptions, and practically make "an old school" text ad from a responsive search ad. I will have to do different ads for different keywords (if the keyword or phrase is matched in the title, conversion is higher); Yes, it will be more work, but results will be better, and controllable.
Just how I like them.
Now I will compose my "SEO plan", I will:

• Plan to add new "commercial" pages to the site (one page per meaningful keyword group) as I go.
• Create a schedule: after the main page is up, I will try to “deploy” them in 2-4 week intervals, starting with the most meaningful/impactful.
• Make Google index it through its search console after the first publishable version of the site is done. I will repeat the operation with every meaningful page I add, including info SEO pages (below).
• Form a few groups from keywords with informational intent, vet groups that align with my direction, and plan an article for each vetted group - a separate page on the site with a personal set of SEO attributes.
• Publish them with the same or longer intervals as for the "commercial" pages.
• Try to make those articles as valuable for the reader as possible. Everything I do shall be client-oriented (bring value), and user behavior is more and more important for SEO.

This “article” is an example of such a page.
I won't cover social media here, since its plenty of info on that topic.
From my experience, if I plan (and I do) to offer 3d printing services to businesses (B2B), social media (with the exception of LinkedIn maybe, not sure nowadays what is what) is not exactly a place for “fishing” (I might be wrong).

Legal+

Moving along to the legal land.
I will not go deep into the business structure (LLCs or sole proprietorships), just say that you need one. Figure out what works best in your case, but note: if you are planning (envisioning) to sell your business one day (or a part of it) - you will need it to be at least an LLC.
This structure (as stated in the name), also limits your liability, which is not a bad thing. One more thing that does that, and at times viewed as a formality - is a contract.
I’ve learned to appreciate contracts and pay attention to their "design". The contract sets expectations, protects both you and your client, and serves as an extension to your offer - a clear, correct, and honest contract, that picks up on promises you’ve made will reassure your client that you are a trustworthy professional.
Create a clear, correct contract template (or templates), seek professional help/advice if needed, and try not to overcomplicate it (easier-smaller the better).
📜 Before the contract, expectations are set during all interactions with a client: nuances, limitations, examples, samples, etc. As the number of interactions with clients starts to grow you will notice repetitive patterns in questions and answers. Create a base with answer templates - those saved me a ton of time and improved the quality of my communication.

3d printers and a space (finally here they are)

Well, and yeah, I need 3d printers to start a 3d printing business.
If you plan to start such a business, you may already have some, and/or possess the needed knowledge in the matter, but I still going to say a few things. No specific models, or vendors though, since there is a lot of printer-related content out there, and the scene is rapidly (wink) changing.
I would try to pick one type of printer (or at least a vendor) and stick to it. Benefits:

• Somewhat stable overall quality;
• Same spare parts;
• Same repair and maintenance routine;
• Same working protocols;
• Same slicing…

I also will (at least in the beginning) look for stable machines, that would not require a ton of maintenance.
Note here: your choice shall also be based on your perceived goal (niche you want to end up with/customers you want to serve), and you may need different types of printers for that.
Depending on my situation, I may not need an office/working space right from the start (at least not until the idea has been validated). If I do, I would get something with a space to grow (aligned with my plan/goals), but I would try not to jump over my head with it.

One software to control it all

There is one more thing that I will need right from the start (because I don’t want to replicate my own mistakes) - a software suite to manage the business. Getting it from the start will provide the most leverage and set me up on the right path.
I will need:

• CRM - all work with a client: pricing, offers, deals, followups, deadlines, docs… +
• ERP - control and management of all resources: materials, printers, team… +
• Production scheduling +
• Maintenance, Repairs, Spare parts, and materials control +
• Team + Docs + Files storage + Contractors + Spending + everything else.

I couldn't find one that incorporates all of it, so I’ve made my own (there is a Free version, try it out, let me know what you think).
Management software and CRM might not be obvious must-haves, but they are if I want to make it into a controllable and growing business (and I do).
There is no other way, look at any business that made it - they all without exception use such systems.
One more thing - all business decisions shall be based on data: how would I know, for example, if my ads campaign is making (and how much) or losing money, without knowing what my average check, margin, or LTV is for any type of service for a needed time period?

Summary and Q&A

There is a lot more to that, but it is already too long.
So I’ve got:

1. List of keywords;
2. List of competitors;
3. Price research (and base price level as a result);
4. A plan;
5. An offer;
6. Name and logo;
7. Website (with offer and good photos of done jobs on it);
8. Google ads campaign (or other acquisition channel, start from one you know best/where your customers are);
9. SEO plan;
10. Legal entity;
11. Contract templates;
12. “Sales templates” base (those collected on the go, but you may already have something since you talked to people before);
13. Printers;
14. Some physical space;
15. Management system/software (like this one)

3 BONUS reminders for myself:

• To get paid in advance. ALWAYS, at least partially;
• To do extra for customers. If I can, when I can;
• To be patient- business is a marathon, not a sprint;

Some Q&A:

• Is the 3d printing business a good business to start?

It is not a get-rich-quick scheme, and it is not particularly easy, but all things that are worth doing are hard (that is what they say).
If you like it/are passionate about it/good at it (the most important factor in my opinion.) - it certainly might be.
I’ve planned to go with the B2B service model (on-demand manufacturing), and that trend will only grow over time.
Since we talked about the US, let's take a look at this article and specifically the chart of Construction spending on US manufacturing https://www.businessinsider.com/us-building-factories-census-data-chips-act-inflation-reduction-act-2023-6?op=1 + big new “infrastructure rebuild projects” might be somewhere around the corner.
What does it all have to do with a small 3dp service? The economy is an interconnected system. All of those “big projects” will require a lot of smaller contractors/suppliers, and they will need smaller ones…and that is where I come in.

• Why the service model?

2 reasons:

1. I know how to do it (done it for 10 years), the data above backs the idea up, and I still see a lot of upsides and opportunities there (aside from the data).
2. It is a lot easier to “search” for product ideas - they come to you (for that you will have to have a B2C “department” though). I’ve recently talked to a few 3dp business owners (and read a few stories over the years), and almost all of them had their product ideas brought to them by clients.

• Is it profitable?

If you create a system (management software can help with that) with processes in place, create and maintain customer acquisition channels, and price correctly - it will be.
I hope you got some value out of it.
Thanks for reading.

Building a Gojek clone app involves several key steps and considerations:
1. Market Research: Recognize consumer preferences and market needs for on-demand services in the area you are targeting. Analyse competitors and find areas where you can stand apart.
2. Feature Set: Describe the main functionalities of your Gojek clone, such as user registration, real-time tracking, payments, ratings, and an admin dashboard along with the ability to select services (such as food delivery and transportation).
3. Technology Stack: For frontend (React Native, Flutter) and backend (Node.js, MongoDB) development, select the appropriate technology stack depending on the developer's comfort level, scalability, and performance.
4. UI/UX Design: Use wireframes, mockups, and prototypes to create an interface that is simple to use and intuitive for users. To improve the user experience, pay attention to consistency, clarity, and simplicity.
5. Backend Development: Provide a strong backend architecture to manage data storage, user authentication, and client-server communication. Put security measures in place to safeguard user information and ensure compliance with legal requirements.
6. Frontend Development: Utilizing selected technologies and frameworks, create the app's front end. Use design standards and user requirements to guide the implementation of user interface displays, features, and components.
7. Third-Party Integrations: To improve the functionality of your app, integrate third-party services and APIs for payments, mapping, communication, and notifications.
8. Testing: To find and address bugs, mistakes, and usability concerns, thoroughly test the system. Conduct performance, compatibility, and functional testing to guarantee a dependable and high-quality application.
9. Deployment and Launch: Release the software with platform-specific instructions to app stores or other distribution outlets. Use a marketing plan while launching the app to draw users and raise awareness.
10. Post-Launch Support: Maintain and support the app continuously to respond to user comments, release updates, and enhance user experience. Keep an eye on analytics and app performance to make data-driven decisions for ongoing enhancement.

I don't normally post my work because most of my time is spent between an IDE and a stack trace, but I've arrived at a milestone where I thought it might be worthwhile to share a bit of the process up to this point.
I'm using Unreal Engine with C++. I haven't used any blueprints or third party libraries (outside UE) for anything.
The game will be a 2.5d adventure game (Terraria would be a fair comparison, just to give a more clear idea.) My original plan was to create a procedural mesh that could be deformed by digging or impacts/explosions. Think of it as being like a tuna can on its side, and this ended up being my very first prototype object for the game:
Tuna can from the front. Being my first mesh displayed in the Unreal Editor, I was quite proud of it so I shared it on social media and even though I described it, the only response was from someone asking, "What am I looking at?" That's when I learned that just because it's interesting and exciting for me doesn't mean anyone else cares.
Tuna can from the back showing the mesh structure. This is more significant than the front view, because it shows more of what's happening. The plan was to generate concentric circles and then stitch them together into a mesh, so that's what I did. The main issue was figuring out how to arrange it so that the mesh I made was as close to uniform as possible because wonky triangles will always look like wonky triangles.
This is what followed after more work and a couple of hard lessons about floating point precision errors. The two main differences between this mesh and the previous one is that this one is 2d. I didn't need to worry about pushing it into the 3d space because I was only testing the formation of the face mesh. The circular mesh in this image represents a fully procedurally generated mesh with uniform segments that could be scaled to any size just by changing a number or two in the code.
The trouble with procedurally generated meshes is that generating them is only the first part. If you want to edit them in real-time, like in a game, it gets very heavy very fast. Lots of math, lots of testing, endless edge cases. Given the time I had already spent generating these procedural circles, I decided pushing forward was going to be a slog and I didn't think the ends were going to justify the means, so for the terrain I decided to go with a voxel system.
There are some voxel tools for Unreal but I didn't find anything that called to me, so I decided to do it myself. First thing I did was spin up another prototype, this time generating a circle out of squares.
This was the result. Much easier to put together than the circular mesh, but not without limitations. I'm going to have to be careful about how I manage the size of blocks, for example, otherwise there will be certain parts of the world that will seem very jagged because you'll be walking on the edges of the cubes instead of the faces. Nevertheless, those are problems with solutions for another time.
Around this time, things started to go all internal. Lots of work, nothing to show for it. Setting up a custom quadtree, for example, that will be used to indicate to the client what chunks it needs to render in order to present the current area around the player character, and then to update itself as the camera moves to make sure the needed chunks are always available for display. That took a while. Setting up the internal representation of the voxels and chunks took a while.
And learning to spot toolchain errors takes a while. I once lost two weeks trying to track down an infuriating "bug" that wasn't a bug...it was the IDE/plugin/editor that broke and started throwing errors that didn't actually exist. Once you learn how to spot it, it's a nuisance. Before you learn how to spot it, it's soul crushing.
So I made this hand-coded star. I call it, "A Glimmer of Hope" and it's the root component for the world. All of the other chunks that are being displayed are attached to that root component.
Eventually things started to come together. A few complete re-writes took place (usually triggered by the previously mentioned phantom bug) but helped me practice my programming skills and refine the work a little more.
Just in the last week or two, the core of the voxel engine finally came together. This was the first screenshot I thought to take. It's pretty ugly, but it's not about being pretty at this point. There's a little test '+' symbol hiding in there, and then a low-res voxel sphere that is clipping outside the world boundary. That was a deliberate test because I had to be sure that the system would correctly handle the parts that fell out of bounds. If you're familiar with the process of greedy meshing, you should be able to recognize it here. The chunks in this example are only 4 blocks wide (because it's just a test), and the greedy meshing doesn't extend to adjacent chunks, which is why you see the shapes that you do.
And then finally, by simply changing the values that indicate the sphere's position, and the values indicating the size of the voxels and chunks, I got this:
https://imgur.com/tdkzKC7
In the bottom left you can see the test '+' symbol again, and in the top right is another test shape that you couldn't see before because the sphere was covering it. And in the middle, a fairly convincing rendition of a voxel sphere. For reference, that sphere has a diameter of 65 blocks (a Minecraft chunk is 64 blocks wide). I haven't done any specific timed tests, but early tests show that it is fairly quick to build, mesh, and display the sphere. I have a lot of debugging output to remove before I can do time trials.
What's Next?
While taking the last screenshot, I noticed a couple of artifacts that I'll have to fix. Other than that, next steps will be to get materials working properly on the mesh. Then I'll be doing the actual world sculpting, which will be using noise generators and modifying some of the tools I've already made to give the world a more natural looking appearance.
After that is generating nav maps, and then finally the fluid simulation. Somewhere in there I'm sure I'll be able to finally start prototyping some basic gameplay, but I'm trying not to get too far ahead of myself.
If you're not impressed or interested by any of this, that's cool. I wasn't trying to impress anyone. I just thought it might be useful to demonstrate a bit of the process. I'm pretty determined to see this one through, and I'm hoping it will start to look like something before the end of the year.
Cheers!
(I have a Steam page but it's not set up, and won't be until I have a playable demo. I also don't have a Discord and don't care to. I'll start marketing when I have something to market. In the meantime, if there's anything worth sharing for informational purposes, I'll just post it here.)

No d*** pics please. Male/Female, as long as you're decent, I'm cool with that. I took a break for about a month and decided to download this app again. Dating apps suck and I would often pay for a premium account and it's not even worth it. Funny how this app became a dating app. People seem nice and harmless but turns out to be someone hungry for s**. I would rather maintain that anonymity too. Don't ask for my photos. I am fat and ugly. A client described me as the "fat girl". I've been really stressed with work lately and sometimes I don't even have the motivation to stay alive. I always have dark thoughts. And even when I laugh with my colleagues, I still feel empty and lonely inside.
Btw, I would prefer talking with People ages 29-38. I hope you understand.
Let's just talk in Telegram. I don't like to chat, I prefer vm/vc.

Hey all,
(Post adjusted for word length, sorry mods, I thought it was UNDER 250 not over!)
I am looking for a bit of help with some brain storming and brain picks for a project we're working on that's in its early stages.
It's an online shooter (yep, sorry, another one of those) and would love to chat to a few people about potential ideas around 1) mechanics and 2) client/server implementation as well as possible levels (if at all) of any 3) monetization elements of it.

1. The online element is I suppose best described as a tournament based mechanic, players play in teams and would get ratings depending on their performance in rounds and it’d be collated in a sort of global rankings system. I think the thought behind that is that you might be able to allocate team members based on their previous ratings/skill levels.
   
2. Hoping to understand how this might be implemented in a central solution so that this player rating data can be passed to servers hosting sessions.
   
3. The plan is to release at a lower level price, if the average AAA game is now retailing at $70 – I can see us looking at easily half that or even less. But having a simple (and relatively low-cost) monetisation model that, essentially, help keep funds coming in to keep servers online and that sort of thing “feels” preferable to higher price or aggressive monetisation models.
   

It is still very early days so trading on kind hearts right now, and not looking for hours and hours of your time.
Just really appreciate the chance to throw a few questions/bounce some ideas around maybe tell us our idea is stupid etc!
Happy to chat over dm's here if that's cool?
Cheers

Yeah basically what the title says. I don't want to say the name of the company just in case, but l'll just list out some red flags to me, hopefully someone else here has gone through something similar:

1. The company has barely any online presence. The website is literally one page, with some vague information about how they train and teach their staff, saying "it's all about building rapport". I also can't seem to find a Linkedin and while there is an Instagram, there are no testimonials or reviews from clients. Just posts about their summer parties and trips abroad.
   
2. There are 4 reviews on their Indeed profile and one of them basically explains that the company is not actually in marketing as previously described but in door to door sales. Funnily enough, as soon as I went to look at the job description again it was taken down, but this has happened to me before.
   
3. The pay is listed as per week and not per hour which tells me that it's either below minimum or that it may be dependent on a certain factor.
   
4. The call I got scheduling an interview was from a very soft spoken lady who said nothing much about the job itself and just reassured me that the interview would be very casual. She also asked if I would be able to work full or part time.
   

All in all, the job makes me feel a little uneasy at best and other people's input would be much appreciated. I am a college student trying to find summer work to pay rent so it's kind of a pain in the arse to look for a job when it feels like this is all that's out there...