[18F] Writing buddies, anyone welcome.
I was thinking just now. It would be cool to have a group of teens and young adults express their thoughts/ on society, themselves, etc. and how we can use these thoughts to understand not only ourselves but others, problems and solutions in our world. Especially for minorities/ LGBTQ( I’m African American and pansexual, gender fluid ) who usually don’t have equal access to express themselves this way without being judged or silenced. Hey, I’m Mya and I’ve always liked to write. My great grandma writes books and plays, my mom writes poems, etc. I’ve attempted writing short stories, poems, I love writing essays in class. Now, I mostly write my thoughts down to get a better idea of the person I’m becoming and it’s always good to not get stuck in your way of thinking and always evolve and question ( so, more philosophical). Anyway, writing can be a good outlet for your emotions, thoughts, or just creativity and there is no right or perfect way to do it. Maybe I could make the group on discord so it’ll be easier for people to share or, idk I’m open to suggestions. I’ve also started listing topics that interest me so I can research them and just write what I learned/ my thoughts. ( this is also for introverted people who wanna share their thoughts and interests without an obligation to constantly drain their social battery. Trust me, I get it. We like being around people but it can be too much). I know at our ages we kinda have an idea of who we are but we kinda feel lost still, for me writing even if it’s just random thoughts or idk maybe I watched a video and the ideas made me want to elaborate and add my own thing. It’s really helping me with self discovery. Which discovering and loving myself is what I want to focus on when high school finally ends and I have a gap year.
Thanks for reading and let me know if this is a good idea that you guys are interested in. The group doesn’t have to be big 🥰 ( Ok, I posted this yesterday and I got a few people who were interested so we decided to make the group on discord. Then I started searching for other teen groups on Reddit to let people know) We would like to keep the age between 16-19. I even said people who are 20, 21, 22 would be fine. The people that joined so far are very kind and supportive so don’t be afraid.

Hi, I am 25 years old and work as a freelancer. I am looking to buy my first home in Kolkata. As I am not originally from Kolkata, I have very little help. My parents are equally inexperienced in all this. I absolutely love the city, especially south Kolkata (been here since 2015), but I know I can't get a home in Jadavpur, Tollygunge, that area. So, I have some specific questions, and if someone can answer them, I'd be much obliged!

• My budget is 40L. What is the typical down-payment on a house like this, the interest, the EMI? Just ballpark figures will do, I am not looking for exact numbers, as they can vary.
• I've always liked the life of an independent home (called bungalow I guess) more than apartments in tall buildings. A place with some nature, open space, etc. will be better for me and also for my 8 cats instead of a cramped 2BHK. Is it possible for me to get a bungalow in a half-decent place with 2 floors in this budget at all? If not, what should my budget be?
• I have a monthly income of 1.8L. The problem is I don't have a salary, I've always owned a business (that's just breaking even) and done freelancing. I have a CC, a decent credit score, and I filed ITR just last year for the first time. But apart from this there's no financial history on me. In 2023, I didn't even have a credit score. Will I face any problems in acquiring loans?
• Is there a problem in getting a home in Joka assuming I am fairly inexperienced? A friend of mine said the construction quality is quite poor in those areas, and that's why the rates are so cheap, and I'm worried I might end up making a bad decision.
• I am also thinking of the New Town area. Can someone suggest a neighborhood that's ideal? I do not need the best connectivity. I work completely from home. But yes, common amenities like malls or markets nearby will be really nice.
• Since 2015, I've lived in (on rent) Tollygunge, Jadavpur, Salt Lake, Nagerbazar, and Rajarhat. And I'm open to any area close to any of these places, like at a 1 auto distance from the main bus stand/metro stn. of these areas. Apart from Joka and New Town, what are some other options? And not too far east or north, I still need to do client meetings in central Kolkata.

What’s the #1 thing every founder needs to know?

I’ll give you a few minutes to make a list — top of mind might include sales, marketing, technology, product management (especially product-market fit), technical skills, fundraising, team building, leadership, management, finance, and planning/executing strategic growth and scaling.
Sure… but, sorry, none of that is the correct answer. Because, of course, you know that founders typically are expected to be jacks of all trades. So yes, to all of the above, but that’s not the secret sauce.
The #1 thing every founder needs to know is… themself.
Here’s the truth: founders start companies, and entrepreneurs build them. While not every entrepreneur is a founder (think franchise owners), every founder is an entrepreneur (at least initially).
If you’re like me, you are a forward-obsessed founder. That means where you are now is always building toward where you want to go. That person is always an entrepreneur. Once the company is started, you’ll do what it takes — including relinquishing control — to keep it growing.
Does that sting? We founders think of our companies as our babies, but statistics say we’re likely to be the ones kicked out of the nest. Also, research shows that in the US, only 14 out of the top selling 500 companies still have the original founder running the company. And the Harvard Business Review reports that most founders relinquish control long before their companies go public — and that four out of five are forced to step down as CEO.
It doesn’t have to be that way if you have one critical attribute: self-awareness. That way, you can decide as your company grows how you want to evolve your role in the overall day-to-day running of the company (i.e., learn, delegate, hire, move on). And ultimately, you can make better choices at critical growth junctures in your business progression.
So, to help you become more self-aware, it’s helpful to understand the different types of founders. Let’s dive in.

The Types of Founders

A couple of notes before we get into specifics:

• Much like any other classification, there are gray areas, so you (and many of the examples I share in this article) may fit into more than one category.
• Some traits are common to all founders, such as being open to innovation, passionate about their project, risk-takers, etc. But some founders excel or even over-index in certain attributes, so that’s what you’ll see in the different types.

The bottom line: knowing your strongest/weakest points is a critical piece of the self-awareness pie. That way, you can conduct your business in what I call the Green Zone — aka the Genius Zone, where you have both high passion and high competence — and make the best choices for you and your company.

1. The Solo Founder

Traits:

• Fiercely independent
• Self-assured
• Strong belief in their vision/idea
• Business strongly tied to skill set and experience
• Resilient (i.e., can withstand feelings of loneliness)

Benefits:

• Freedom
• Complete control
• Learn a lot

Pitfalls:

• Solo-founded companies statistically have a higher failure rate
• Harder to raise money/VCs are more reticent
• Health impacts: burnout, loneliness, etc.
• Attention is divided because you wear all the hats (marketing, sales, building your product, finances, fundraising, prospecting for new customers, etc.)
• Complete responsibility for all aspects of the business

Example: Sara Blakely, Spanx Founder
Ten years ago, in 2012, when she was just 38, Sara Blakely became the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire. Her business, built on a significant industry gap (the lack of comfortable, effective shapewear) and her incredible sales hustle, also benefited greatly from Blakely’s abundant self-awareness. Here’s her advice to solo founders at a 2020 business conference:

“I tell people as soon as you can afford to hire your weaknesses, do it… As soon as I could afford to hire someone to do more of the operations side of the business, I did. As an entrepreneur, one of the biggest gifts you can give yourself is to stay in your lane.”

In other words, know what your Green Zone is and play there.
If you’re like Blakely, it’s usually big ideas and sales ability (she could easily qualify as a Visionary Founder, too) or operations and execution (what Blakely realized she needed help with).
Pro tip: If you’re a solo founder, you’ll likely want to lean into an entrepreneurial framework like the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) to help you define and settle into which side you skew toward.

2. The Visionary Founder (or Co-founders)

Traits:

• Driven by a big idea
• Disruptive — recognizes opportunities to upend traditional norms
• Focused and clear
• Persistent
• Natural salesperson
• Can see the big picture
• Collaborative (esp. In co-founder scenario)
• Motivated by the impact they have — more than $$ alone

Benefits:

• Passionate about their work
• Aren’t easily derailed — failures are expected, and mistakes are not made twice
• Inspired leadership

Pitfalls:

• So focused on the big picture that they may miss important details
• A visionary idea doesn’t automatically = visionary leadership
• Disconnected from reality at times
• Easily bored when the mundane takes priority
• May not plan succession well
• Unrealistic expectations
• Poor communication

Example: Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak
Considering that Steve Jobs’ name is pretty much synonymous with “visionary,” I don’t think I need to list more than the products and industries Jobs’ revolutionized at Apple and beyond — Apple Computers, iPod (iTunes), iPad, iPhone, Pixar, iCloud — with many products and points in between. George Lucas, from whom Jobs bought the Graphics Group at Lucasfilm and renamed it “Pixar,” perfectly summarizes his superpower:

“The magic of Steve was that while others simply accepted the status quo, he saw the true potential in everything he touched and never compromised on that vision.”

Steve Wozniak was the technological yin to Jobs’ sales and marketing yang, bringing the vision of a computer with a graphic interface to life. From the visionary files, “Woz” also invented the first programmable universal remote and was an early innovator of wireless GPS (thanks to his clever dogs who routinely evaded electronic fences).

3. The Serial Disruptor

Traits:

• Varied interests & capabilities
• Easily bored — desires variety and change
• Optimistic
• Extremely innovative
• High threshold for pain
• Accepting of failure
• Self-reliant
• Diverse capabilities
• Bold vision
• Motivated by the impact they have — more than $$ alone

Benefits:

• Variety of experiences
• Flexibility and freedom
• Diversification
• Tons of opportunities for creative expression
• Greater earning opportunities
• Disrupts industries
• Attracts high-quality talent

Pitfalls:

• High risk
• Difficulties finding trustworthy partners/can get stuck helming something when you want to move on
• Multitudes of people reliant on you
• Divided focus
• Ego-driven pursuits

Example: Elon Musk
Like him or loathe him, Elon Musk is perhaps the most prolific (and successful) serial founder of all time with startups including Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, and Neuralink, among others. His drive to design opportunities to evolve humanity has redefined both hustle culture and the art of serial entrepreneurship.
For serial founders, having a set of principles is key to their success. In Musk’s case, his use of “first principles” — reducing a process to its essential parts — has served him well, from helping him figure out how to make rockets cheaper and reusable (SpaceX) to shifting the narrative of electric vehicles (Tesla).

4. The Engineer

Traits:

• Engineer by experience and nature
• Technically savvy
• Able to problem-solve technology-driven issues (not just with the product but also operations-wise)
• Strong desire to not just innovate but also to accelerate progress
• Expansive vision of how technology can solve common problems
• Level-headed
• Agile, fast learners
• Focused on execution

Benefits:

• Pragmatic approach
• Own technology
• Problems are solved quickly
• Able to employ technology to reduce time to market
• Solutions for products can become new products in their own right

Pitfalls:

• Not well versed in other crucial areas (i.e., sales, marketing)
• Over-index on having lower Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
• Because they can learn quickly, so may get stuck playing outside of the green zone

Example: Mark Zuckerberg
Much like the other examples I’m sharing, Mark Zuckerberg’s story has been widely told, so you probably know about his development of Facebook. But at his core, Zuckerberg is an engineering prodigy and geek. At just 13 in 1997, he built “ZuckNet,” which enabled the family’s home computers to communicate via Ping (a precursor of AOL’s Instant Messenger) with his father’s dental office computers. He was using AI in his senior year in high school, so the roots of his Meta(verse) focus today are apparent.
A common weakness for engineers is they tend to have a lower EQ, which has been well-researched. As a former engineer, I understand how logic and technology come easier than understanding human behavior. This is why tech founders should seek out mentors early and bring in competent leaders with high EQ and leadership skills — for example, Zuckerberg credits his former COO of 14 years, Sheryl Sandberg, for turning the company into a multi-billion dollar company.

5. The Personality Founder

Traits:

• Charismatic and gregarious
• Attracts a vast audience
• Influential
• Ambitious
• Forward-thinking
• Inwardly motivated (responds to a “calling”)
• Excellent storytellers
• Authentic and honest (ideally 😉)

Benefits:

• Has a built-in audience and established social platforms
• Likely has pre-existing wealth (can help fund the business/mitigate startup money woes)
• Can use their power for good; disruptive in a positive way

Pitfalls:

• Needs to find the right people to trust
• Can’t just be the “face” of the business; needs to accrue real business chops
• Celebrity and influence status don’t equal quality products
• Difficult or impossible for the founder to leave

Example: Oprah
I’m using Oprah as an example, as her products are an outgrowth of her — her eponymous talk show, which ran for 25 years, the OWN network, O Magazine, her book club, and a variety of charitable endeavors comprise her vast empire. But of course, we know plenty of other personality brands that have racked up billions in sales and even transformed, from the Kardashians/Jenners, to Bethany Frankel and Ryan Reynolds (just watch Deadpool 3 to see his brands — coming in 2023).
In today’s age of influence, we’ve seen a surge of personality brands and founders who leverage built-in audiences and communities to scale quickly. All these names are business mavericks in their own right, but many didn’t start out this way — they deftly utilize their charisma and ability to entertain to shape their brands and pave the way to success.

6. The Accidental Founder

Traits:

• Independent
• Resourceful
• Necessity-driven
• Follow their desire/passion
• Creative
• Willing to take risks

Benefits:

• A deep belief in what they’re doing
• Solves real-world problems based on personal experience
• Discover they’re much happier running their own show
• Turns skills, vocation, or avocation into a profitable business

Pitfalls:

• May not have the business chops
• Reluctant business person — may not actually want to run their own business
• Needs to find the right people to trust
• Overwhelm

Example: Yvon Chouinard
Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard has been in the news lately for giving away his company to fight climate change. He’s an OG accidental entrepreneur whose passion for rock climbing led him to develop reusable pitons (rock climbing spikes) and, later, heavy-duty shirts. Famously Chouinard called himself a “dirtbag climber” and didn’t want to become a business mogul. Sixty-five years later, this accidental founder’s company is valued at $3 billion, and his latest innovation is a way of giving away the profits of a company to continue his contribution to society — protecting and preserving the natural world.
As I always say, there are riches in the niches, and accidental entrepreneurs are the leading type of founders to discover a marketplace with little or no competition.

7. The Intentional Founder

Traits:

• Purpose-driven
• Strong ideals and values
• Passionate about the bigger picture impacts
• Socially conscious
• Clear and focused on the brand mission

Benefits:

• An empathetic approach to the product/the company
• Can educate, empower, and motivate others (i.e., team, customers)
• Employees are statistically more satisfied and likely to stay
• Commitment to a higher ideal engenders more loyalty and trust with the general public (customers)

Pitfalls:

• Moving from individual ideals to a group effort is tricky
• Difficult to find employees with perfectly aligned values
• Might not have the business experience to set the organization up for long-term success
• Purpose-driven (belief) isn’t the same as purpose-enabled (capability)
• Might be challenging for the company to survive the loss of the founder

Example: Jessica Alba
While Jessica Alba does have some touches of a Personality Founder (she is an actor) and an Accidental Founder (an allergic reaction to detergent made her worry about her new baby’s sensitive skin), she is an excellent example of an intentional founder. Back in 2008, when Alba had that allergic reaction, influencer marketing wasn’t what it is today — plus, she had some success but was by no means a household name. Ditto for eco-conscious consumer packaged goods — a plus, sure, but didn’t have the same urgency and importance it does today. Alba then spent years researching ingredients in everyday products and even went to DC to lobby for updates to the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act. Convinced that consumers need safe, affordable, environmentally friendly products for kids and home, Alba launched The Honest Company in 2011.
Now, she did have seasoned co-founders, her own wealth to use out the gates, and VC support shortly after that, but it has always been Alba’s commitment to and alignment with the brand’s core principles that have kept the brand growing and thriving — today, as a publicly traded company with a 2021 $412.8 IPO.
What type of founder are you? Definitely feel free to share in the comments.

Just to get it out of the way, this is not particularly a straightforward question, because the terms have like five different definitions, depending on what field you are in Click to Read 5 Different Definitions .
However, on a technical level, with Fixed Effects you are estimating the expected value of each group separately. With Random Effects, you are assuming the groups come from same distribution and partially pool information between them (i.e. the expected value of the group is a weighted mean of the group mean and grand mean).
More practically, the most intuitive explanation is that Fixed Effects are those you're interested in obtaining specific coefficients and statistical evaluations (usually p-values) for every term/level. Random Effects are those you're not interested in expending the required degrees of freedom to estimate because they're not important to your question. Hence why random effects are categorical because there is no point setting a continuous variable as a random effect as it uses the same degrees of freedom to have it as a fixed effect.
The typical model design is therefore:
Fixed - Any terms related to my hypotheses that require evaluation and any continuous control variables.
Random - Categorical control variables you need to include but are not necessarily interested in evaluating. These are often experimental blocks, common spatial groupings that create non-independence (e.g., samples from the same people or countries), or temporal groupings that also create non-independence (e.g., samples collected from different places in the same year).

This is an update from my previous post.
I feel like the title is no longer valid. The change of contract doesn't necessarily stop me from attending therapy but the lack of cooperation on my therapist's side is almost forcing me to terminate... This doesn't come easy at all, and I can't even begin starting processing this.
Since my previous post, I've had two more therapy sessions. Here's a summary:

• First Session:
  
  • I expressed how the new contract doesn't fit my needs and work situation. I explained that the current contract works well for me and asked if there was any way to keep it or find a compromise. He stared at me for 10 minutes, then pressed me to admit I felt punished or that he was acting intentionally against me. I admitted feeling scared about losing therapy due to the new contract, to which he said it was entirely my choice.
  • I used an analogy to explain my situation: "What if I said I could only come on Mondays and Wednesdays, but you said you couldn't accommodate that? If I replied, 'That's your choice, take it or leave it,' it wouldn't be fair." He didn't respond, and I reiterated that it wasn't 100% my choice and that I would choose the current contract if I could.
  • He explained that the new contract is for the patient's benefit, arguing that consistent settings are crucial and that catch-up sessions were detrimental in the long run.
  • He suggested I was taking the contract change personally and feeling rejected. I clarified that while I was disappointed, I didn't think he was acting personally against me. Despite my attempts to discuss our misaligned needs, he told me that I am intellectualizing.
  • I kept trying to focus on the contract while considering his perspective. I emphasized the need for his input to find a solution but was told I was seeking him to "fix my emotions."
• Second Session:
  
  • I asked if he had considered my proposal to keep the current contract, but he remained silent. I acknowledged understanding his need for structure and consistency in therapy, which I now see as somewhat standard for psychodynamic therapy. However, the new terms don't work for my job situation. He didn't address this.
  • I revisited his point about my feelings of rejection and desire for him to "fix my emotions." I explained that my disappointment was about the situation, not him personally. I don’t see this decision as a reflection of his care for me. To which he said "You know, I simply don't agree with this.
  • He extensively discussed how he found it concerning that my attachment to therapy had shifted from intense dependence to a more detached, intellectual negotiation. He suggested I was hiding my true feelings of rejection and hurt, questioning why I previously reacted strongly to his comments but now seemed unaffected.
  • I considered his perspective, acknowledging I might be numb or scared, but it didn't resonate with me. I genuinely don’t hate him or think he's a bad person. I just hoped for more openness to finding a solution after four years of therapy.
  • I said that on very practical level, I simply don’t want to pay for sessions that I’m not doing. And he said that it’s interesting that I am preoccupied with paying for sessions that I’m not going to get, but I’m not preoccupied about him not getting paid for sessions that I was missing. So, apparently those eight sessions that are allowed in the contract, those eight absences, that’s him not being paid and I should be preoccupied about that even though they're in the contract and they're allowed. 🤯

I feel exhausted and heartbroken. I think I might need to terminate therapy next session, despite my immense gratitude for my therapist and the significant role he played in my life. I've learned to protect myself more, and it seems this situation can't be fixed.
If you’ve read this far, do you have any advice or support for someone stuck in transference hell?
PS: I used chatgpt to help me rephrase my post because I'm not native English speaking and I'm emotional enough to write "he said and then I said, and then he was like, and then I was like.." which didn't make much sense...I hope I'm not breaking any rules...

Hi everyone, Firstly id like to say I'm not the Dm, I'm one of the players. We're Looking for one more player to join our group of. We're looking for a fun and friendly player interested in roleplaying and all aspects of D&D. The playtime would be weekly Saturdays 10am MST for roughly 3-4 hours.
It is a 5e Homebrew world
Premise
Dear adventurers,
We will start our journey in the lands of Equanox
These lands are barren and vast, not many venture further than they need to. No one would want to pay the price for traveling in the immense heat of the deserts unless they are truly prepared for it.
Forests, vast fields of grass, and water are rare, and always fought over. Yet people here found peace, in their own cities or so it seemed. In Equanox, they call them cities, but they are as large as kingdoms to sustain the people living within the protective walls and barriers made of magic.
Magic is treasured, it is also as rare. And any city that is able to obtain a magic user is a lucky one. After all, only because of this magic are they able to comfortably live away from the never-ending, scorching heat. Where no night comes and people live from Dusk to Dawn with daylight never fading. There is only the sun in the sky, no stars, no moon. And many don't know that there could be more to the sky.
In Equanox there are seven deserts:
Auri desert
Oreen desert
Myrth desert
Sall desert
Dunes of Daron
Null or Rocky desert
Raft desert
To cross the smallest desert with a mount, it takes around half a month varying on what kind of mount it is and almost a full one on foot. [Do note the number of recourses to do that is really difficult to get. But passing strangers might take you to a place for a reasonable amount of gold.]
There are three main cities. Echos, Quan-Ma, and Goron.
There are also larger or smaller towns in their territories. They are important enough to be on the map but are by no means considered to be kingdom cities like the 3 main ones. But they are crucial to their lifeline, they bring in materials, and trade to these 3 cities. And through them, all work in unity to bring all to the capital which is not easy to enter and not many can even lay their eyes upon it.
[From normal terms Capital is something like an empire but it does not rule over all the land of Equanox, there are cities under the capital but they have their own rulers just like kingdoms do, and in their respected territory lies the stopping points that are known through the whole Equanox and without them it would be impossible to travel through the deserts. And no matter what size, they are towns. What one records on the map is what is deemed important which would be the capital, cities, and towns. Everything else is an uncharted territory.
There are also Race restrictions and most homebrew is generally not allowed but if you do have any homebrew ideas run it through the DM first.
Races within the world:
Most common ones:
Human
Tiefling
Dwarf
Halfling
Gnome
Rarley seen:
Dragonborn (here known as drake folk)
Elf (Sun or Gold elves, Wood or Emerald elves and Blue or Sapphire elves)
Half-elf
Half-orc
Satyr
Very rare:
Yuan-ti
Leonin
Lizardfolk
Deep gnome
Duergar
Drow (Purple Elves, Amethyst) (edited)
Players will be starting at level 1 and again i want to mention that the campaign will have a strong element of roleplaying so if you prefer heavy combat and a constant a dungeon crawl this may not be for you. That doesn't mean combat isn't involved. when creating a player do think of a backstory as you backstory will eventually tie into the campaign to, we're all laid back and joke around and sometimes break character, we're all here to have fun in sessions and out of sessions too. Player 1 - Half-elf paladin Player 2 - Dragonborn Cleric Player 3 - Yuan-ti artificer
There are three players and you will be our 4th and final of our group. we are all in our 20s so ideally we would like to find a player that is close to our age group. We use Discord for voice and Roll20 for our table top. Our Dm is a newer Dm so please have patience and understanding.
Lastly, we are looking for a player that will be respectful of the other people at the table. we are an LGBTQ+ friendly group and everyone is welcome. The group does not tolerate racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia or any other forms of bigotry and attacks on others will not be tolerated. Just be a nice and respectful human being.
If you are interested in joining us, please fill out this application form https://forms.gle/KViMojpt5zMjxBxS6
If you have any questions or anything I've missed out let me know in the comments and ill do my best to answer.

Hi all, Quick question! First of all, great job on all that has come to US Mobile so far! Changing networks depending on situations is huge! I have a quick question. I have family that is interested in porting to US Mobile, however, it looks like the app is mainly letting them port one line, pay for it, and then add more. Is there a way to add multiple at once for the multiline discount, whether it's through the Android/iOS app, or the web? Thank you!

Inspired by a shitpost mocking Destiny's misuse of "who's," I figured I'd see what else was out there and goddamn. Obviously, I think that the work Destiny is doing to expose common debate strategies or logical fallacies is important, but reading through the section in his notes triggered my grammatical autism. I felt like an outside party reading through it would be a bit confused by some of the wording, so I tried my best to rework this section in a way that would be more clear to the average reader.
I'll edit other sections as well if this doesn't get me banned lmao
Debate Pervertry
1.When you accuse the other side of saying a thing, and instead of allowing the other side to explain or clarify, you immediately launch in on an attack of that particular thing.
1. Quote your opponent without context and immediately attack this statement without allowing the opponent to provide clarification.
2."Show, don't tell."
When you constantly refer to other books, speakers, videos, etc..."sources of authority" that you claim to be familiar with, without contextualizing or demonstrating an understanding of any of that underlying material. You are substituting an appeal to authority for an actual argument.
2. "Show, don't tell."
Substitute a mere reference to a book, speaker, video, etc. in the place of demonstrating your own understanding or synthesis of this source material. Invoke the name of an expert instead of using their work to shape your own argument.
3. When you intentionally say the name of your interlocutor incorrectly.
3. Intentionally referring to your opponent by an incorrect name (^{please god call this the Bournelli Identity please please})**

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_the_single_cause

5."The Clown Mirror"
Your opponent never seeming to be able to summarize your position, ever. You constantly having to criticize or refuse to accept ANY other characterization of your position.
5. "The Clown Mirror"
The refusal to accept your opponent's summary of your position. Never acknowledge a good faith attempt at characterizing your position under any circumstances.
6.The "Lazy Gardener," or, "Let's not get in the weeds" strategy
Oftentimes, when the opposition is lacking a thorough understanding of what's being said, they will oftentimes attempt to obfuscate away from crucial details by claiming that they "don't want to get into the weeds" or "don't want to get into technicalities", even though these particularly technicalities might be essential to justifying or attacking a particular argument.
6. The "Lazy Gardener," or "Let's not get into the weeds" strategy
When pressed by your opponent on crucial details of your position, brush aside an in-depth discussion of the issue and state "I don't want to get in the weeds" or "let's not get bogged down by technicalities." Dismiss crucial details as distractions to avoid betraying your own surface-level understanding of an issue.
7.The "Deaf Preacher"
When you refuse to engage with the argument and you just make big sweeping moral/virtue signal statements while avoiding any factual response to what was previously said.
7. The "Deaf Preacher"
Launch into a sweeping moral diatribe, praising your own virtues and/or attacking the morals of your opponent. Ignore any statements by your opposition and continue your sermon unphased.
8."Debate Edging"
When you constantly stack descriptive claims one over another that are clearly leading into a certain prescription that you never actually verbalize, causing other people to attack you on a prescriptive claim you've never made and allowing you to refute their arguments without addressing the obvious implications of what you're saying.
8. "Debate Edging"
Stack descriptive statements in such a manner that would lead an average audience to logically assume a prescription without actually saying it directly. Should your opponent assume this prescription as well, ignore the implications of your statements and attack the opponent for making an (oftentimes very reasonable) assumption.
9."Occam's Mallet"
When someone suggests that simply because a party benefited from something (or because they had something to gain something failing) that there must have been some sort of cohesive plot or scheme in order to bring about that particular thing, often involving highly subversive and unethical means.
9. "Occam's Mallet"
Attribute a plot, scheme, or conspiracy to any party which received a benefit from an action or event. Lead the audience to believe that no material benefit can exist without subversive and unethical tactics.
10."Moral Dodgeball"
Accusing someone of holding a different core value simply because you disagree with an applied position that they have.
10."Moral Dodgeball"
Accuse your opponent of holding a different core value simply because you disagree with an applied position they have. (Nothing really to change here!)
11."Robinhood Complex"
Always siding with the less powerful entity in any conflict, simply due to the amount of power both sides are capable of exercising.
11. "Robinhood Complex"
Take the side of the less powerful entity in any conflict by default. Ignore any complicating variables or extenuating circumstances and reduce the issue to an imbalance of power dynamics alone.
12."The Braveheart"
When someone poses a question about how a person should respond in a situation, where it's obvious that the person would need to act in a certain way to protect their interests, but the more privileged debater responds with "Personally, I wouldn't do this..." instead of acknowledging the need for the affected party to respond and protect their interests in a particular way.

1. "The Braveheart" (I'm actually having a really hard time figuring this one out. Anyone willing to help me out here?)

13."You're being so weird/obsessed!"
When someone does something that you do exactly and then you accuse them of being weird when they do it, e.g. making clips/compilations of what the other person does and then the other community creates something in response.
13. "You're being so weird/obsessed!" (or "Pot, meet Kettle")
Mislead your audience through clips or compilations of your opponent, yet dismiss the opponent as being obsessive should they or their audience respond to your characterization with clips or compilations of their own.
14."Death by a thousand anecdotes"
When someone is incapable of pushing back factually against a heavily data-driven argument and instead relies upon personal (or popular) anecdotes, or unrelated data, to make their point.
14. "Death by a thousand anecdotes"
If your opponent attacks your argument with data, tell a series of personal anecdotes or popular stories rather than provide data of your own.
15. "Tragedy of the Commons Sense"
Basically any time someone invokes common sense because they're unable to explain or justify their position in any other way.
15. Tragedy of the Common Sense"
If unable to explain or justify your position in any way, claim that your argument is simply "common sense" and refuse to elaborate further.

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Item	Condition	Notes	Local, Shipped
MSI 4080 Gaming X Slim White	Open Box - Excellent	Open box card in like new condition. Box is damaged, but card is in pristine condition. Adapter and support bracket included.	975, 1000
ASUS ProArt 4080 Super OC	Open Box - Excellent	Card is new, briefly tested to verify functionality. Smallest 4080/4080 Super card, making it an excellent choice for Small Form Factor builds.	1025, 1050

Ever-shifting Short Seller Claims

The short sellers attacking RILY in 2023-2024 have been relentless, with an ever-shifting list of wild accusations.
It's sickening to watch them compile a never-ending list of baseless wild theories and claims to support their short positions, which are demonstrably false. But as each is proved false, they pivot to new claims, and/or change the goalposts.
The sheer volume of shifting claims makes it hard to track how despotic they are with their "platform," and how many falsehoods they've spun. Even for someone who watched it in real-time, for almost a year

Compiled & Debunked

Sunlight kills vampires. To that end, I've compiled a list of (i) claimants (ii) claims (iii) reality (iv) definitive source proving reality.

Why Did They Target RILY?

One of the most vocal short sellers, Nate Koppikar (who also introduced Marc Cohodes to the "opportunity") has a fund Orso Partners. Based on their SEC registration document, this is their investment thesis:
"The Account’s investment objectives are to achieve capital appreciation primarily by identifying and selling short marketable equity securities of underfollowed and complex companies with misleading or corrective disclosures through a research-intensive process. The Account employs a short-biased investment strategy with an emphasis on primarily small to mid-cap companies that are underfollowed and complex (i.e., companies with market capitalizations of less than $5 billion which the market does not yet have a wellformed bull and/or bear perspective)."
RILY fits their description. The icing on the cake was the relatively large market cap, and the relatively small float. Given extremely high insider ownership (32.9% of shares per the proxy), and limitations on when and how insiders can trade, the "free float" of the stock (i.e., the shares that regularly trade) is very small for the size of the company. Moreover, the setup would only get better - given insiders have consistently used their free cash to buy additional shares hand-over-fist (further reducing the float).
That meant, with relatively small amounts of capital, the short sellers could shove around the stock price. That ability to move price opens another profit avenue - taking large derivative positions (buying puts, and selling calls), and shoving the price (or allowing it to drift up) to profit all along the way. It looked so good, the stock has been the highest-shorted on the US indices for several months. Even after the release of the 10-K, shares remain "hard to borrow" with elevated borrow fees.

Debunked Claims

The claims made by vocal short sellers could fill a book. Most were outrageous and fanciful when they were proposed. Virtually all have objectively debunked. This isn't a comprehensive list, as their claims are too numerous and varied. But it paints an illuminating picture.
With a track record this poor, one would expect the short sellers to exit - rather than continuing to spin new narratives. Perhaps the continued attacks are their exit strategy to avoid bankruptcy... Well, #Bullish.
With the highest short interest of all US stocks (albeit likely decreased from the highs of ~76% of the float), I think this is more than ripe for a return to fair value - or well above, if a short squeeze occurs.
Note that the list below deliberately excludes three types of posts/claims from the short sellers:
A) Juvenile personal attacks and attempts to character assassinate and dox a long list of people (RILY CEO, RILY new hires, RILY clients, Marcum the auditor, Marcum's lead audit professional, any firm or individual publicly posting a bull thesis on RILY, etc.).
B) Those that make no objective claims, but simply exist as a product of malicious degeneracy (like pictures of roasted pigs in ovens labeled Bryant Riley the CEO, photoshopped pictures of the CEO in prison chains next to convicted felons, video of an obese woman barely able to walk being gored by a bull labeled Mrs. Riley the CEO's wife, etc.).
C) Those that are impossible for short sellers to know, and impossible to objectively verify (e.g., Marc Cohodes claiming a single RILY trader front runs the CEOs personal short trades in front of clients taking following the firm's bullish advice on those stocks, to guarantee profits).

Claimant	Claim	Reality
1) Wolfpack	Wolfpack “RILY will record investment losses of up to ~$700 million in 2023” FALSE 10-K	FALSE
2) Wolfpack	“new loan to CORZQ will work out just as badly as the last and end in default (again) before June 2023”	FALSE Repaid in full, early, on 1/6/2024.
3) Wolfpack	“The coupon rate on RILY’s seven issues of baby bonds ranges from 5% to 6.75%, which we believe to be far too low to compensate investors for the existential risk that accompanies these securities.”	FALSE Full redemption of May 2024 came early. Far more than sufficient cash to cover debt payments.
4) Wolfpack	“According to our analysis, 4 of RILY’s largest 7 corporate borrowers with outstanding loan balances of $295.3 million are at a high risk of default, or in the case of CORZQ, is already in default.”	FALSE a. Core Scientific Inc. repaid early and in full ($111MM of the “risk”) b. Exela Technologies repaid term loan in full ($55.8MM of the “risk”) c. Arena Group Holdings debt retired in full ($99MM of the “risk”). Publicly disclosed in the most recent 10-K for each company (search for "Riley" in the filing)
5) Wolfpack	“RILY’s NAV is Far Below the $1.1 Billion Minimum NAV Requirement That Is Required for the Nomura Credit Agreement Putting RILY at Risk of Collapse in 2023”	FALSE RILY is in full compliance with the Nomura credit agreement. Moreover, reflecting the strength of the relationship, Nomura even granted a no-fee extension when the 10-K filing was delayed. Also see 10-K for current status.
6) Wolfpack	“Over $200 Million of the Goodwill and Intangible Assets on RILY’s Balance Sheet is Attributable to its Telecom Rollup, which is Centered on Dial-up and DSL Internet:” - criticizing them as dying businesses with no value	FALSE Segment is extremely valuable. From just 2020 to 2023, the communications segment has returned over $212.2MM in adjusted EBITDA.
7) Nate Koppikar (TheFriendlyBear) + Bill Abbate Jr. (JrAbbate), Various	RILY committed fraud with loans and closing the FRG acquisition. "The fact $RILY closed the FRG deal while hiding the Kahn loan - an all PIK defaulted loan backed by $FRG shares - is a Hall of Fame worthy act of fraud. I thought after Enron/Sarbox we couldn't have something like this happen in US markets."	FALSE A law firm led an internal investigation, and an independent external investigation both found “The review confirmed what the Company previously disclosed: that the Company and its executives, including Bryant Riley, had no involvement with, or knowledge of, any of the alleged misconduct concerning Prophecy.” “The results of the independent investigation confirmed that the Company and its executives had no involvement with, or knowledge of, any of the alleged misconduct concerning Mr. Kahn or any of his affiliates. This independent investigation was conducted subsequent to the Company's February 22, 2024 disclosure of the internal review performed with the assistance of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP as outside counsel.” Also see 10-K
8) Marc Cohodes (AlderlaneEggs), ParrotCapital, Bill Abbate Jr. (JrAbbate), Various	The 10-K will never be filed. They can't produce audited financials.	FALSE Audited 10-K was filed. Delay was due to Audit committee fulfilling its responsibilities and proactively conducting investigations (internal and external).
9) Marc Cohodes (AlderLaneEggs) + Nate Koppikar (TheFriendlyBear) + Bill Abbate Jr. (JrAbbate) + ParrotCapital	Sullivan and Cromwell knew about Massive Fraud, and did a "sham investigation"	FALSE Sullivan and Cromwell is one of the most respected law firms, in the US and worldwide. "Sullivan & Cromwell continues to lead all law firm advisers in announced and completed global deals in 2023, according to Bloomberg and LSEG. The Firm advised on global announced deals totaling more than $345 billion, representing a 12.1 percent market share, per Bloomberg, and on completed global deals totaling more than $431 billion, representing a 16.9 percent market share, per LSEG." They're not compromising themselves for a relatively small client.
10) Marc Cohodes (AlderLaneEggs), Nate Koppikar (TheFriendlyBear), Bill Abbate Jr. (JrAbbate), Parrot Capital	Marcum is enabling Massive Fraud	FALSE Marcum is a respected audit firm, and 13th largest by revenue. "Marcum LLP advanced into the Top 15 in the 2023 Vault Accounting list of top-ranked accounting firms. Marcum climbed six levels to the No. 13 ranking overall and earned a ranking of 14 in prestige. The Firm also won Top 20 rankings across all Practice Area, Quality of Life, and Diversity categories, including several new classifications added this year."
11) Marc Cohodes (AlderLaneEggs)	Nomura is enabling Massive Fraud	FALSE Nomura is a global financial services company, and the oldest brokerage firm in Japan. They operate in a highly regulated industry. They're not putting themselves on the line for a relatively small client.
12) Parrot Capital	"The list of $RILY enablers is massive: Marcum LLP, Sullivan and Cromwell, Seeking Alpha, Holbrook Holdings, $AX Axos Bank, Many, many more."	FALSE There's no global conspiracy whereby these companies - all respected law firms, auditors, banks, and media outlets - are collectively colluding to enable RILY to commit fraud. Requires only two brain cells and one functioning synapse to know there's no grand collusion cabal between these disparate companies.
13) Marc Cohodes (AlderLaneEggs), Jonathan Weil at WSJ	Franchise Group shares used to secure Kahn loan: "It is unclear whether Kahn pledged the same shares twice—to both Prophecy and B. Riley."	FALSE As stated by the company, Simple UCC search disproves this. UCC # 202302295747
14) Marc Cohodes (AlderLaneEggs)	“Bryant Riley is on the Road, telling people the ‘audit partner at Marcum left’ and that ‘I have made mistakes’ “	FALSE Marcum audit partner was working on the audit the whole time; the original audit partner had hit the 5yr SEC rule, so he was never working on this year’s audit.
15) Marc Cohodes (AlderLaneEggs)	"So it turns out James La Rocca was Fired by MarcumLLP If nothing was wrong with prior $RILY Audits, why is he gone? This will be great in discovery of what exactly went on.	FALSE Marcum audit partner was working on the audit the whole time; the original audit partner had hit the 5yr SEC rule, so he was never working on this year’s audit.
16) Koppikar (TheFriendlyBear)	“So Bryant Riley did disseminate MNPI back in March” in response to Cohodes claim that he told people the Marcum partner left	FALSE Cohodes claimed Bryant Riley was telling people the Marcum auditor left. Koppikar called that disseminating MNPI. Cohodes statement was false (and thus Koppikar's derivate claim is also false). A different auditor worked on RILY, as Marcum follows the SEC rules; the lead auditor can only serve the client for 5 consecutive years. As such, Koppikar’s derivative claim of disseminating MNPI is false.
17) Koppikar (TheFriendlyBear)	“He appears to still not be familiar with the voting interest model of consolidation… why is a life science and tech partner signing an extremely complex investment company / broker dealer audit ???” i.e., auditor is unqualified	FALSE The auditor is fully qualified. Marcum is a highly respected auditor; they don't hire unqualified people, or assign them to clients they're unqualified to audit. RILY is continuing to use Marcum as the 2024 auditor.
18) Marc Cohodes (AlderLaneEggs)	"Now that the $RILY dividend is going away, this omission is serious stuff"	FALSE The dividend did not go away. It was reduced from $1.00/share to $0.50/share, to allow them to opportunistically allocate capital. 23Q4 and 24Q1

A sampling of the source claims listed above can be found in the images embedded in this post, with additional claims found here https://wolfpackresearch.com/research/rily/ and here https://friendlybearresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/RILY-Analyst-Day-Questions-12_11_13-Final.pdf and https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/2cpgaejc45gocvoqb1ngg/corner-office/how-b-riley-garnered-the-biggest-short-interest-of-2023 and https://www.wsj.com/finance/how-an-unremarkable-deal-became-a-big-threat-to-a-small-investment-bank-f819a169 . https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/304196 form ADV. Additional claims can be sourced on the various social media venues and websites utilized by the short sellers. This is not financial advice. All claim summarizations reflect my interpretation of the short seller claims, and should be verified against original sources, along with all counters. Due to Reddit image attachment limits, not all source images are included (but any missing can be found on TwitteX or other publicly available sources).
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I just finished igcse o level. I am thinking of taking SAT and ielts later. My goal is to study abroad in usa. My interest is in cybersecurity. So my question is Can i join university with the edu level i mentioned above ? If not are my options to get bechlor in cybersec asap
Must study abroad as soon as possible bec of country reason!

Hiya everyone, I'm a neurodivergent nineteen-years old author and I'm looking for beta readers on an epic fantasy novel I'm trying to get noticed. If you're interested, let me know!
Here's the synopsis:
We know Heaven has a Kingdom: God and Jesus, the Angels… We know Hell has a Kingdom: Satan and Lilith, Beelzebub, the Demons…
But what about Purgatory? And if Purgatory had a Kingdom, what happened to it?
Set seconds after a war that tore apart the lives of two lovers, their friends and their Godlike partner, Luke Bightfall now knows the truth – he is to become the King of Purgatory. While their home is devastated by an Earthly threat, Luke and Winter desperately try to bring together their friends and their home before they lose themselves and each other. However, when all is said and done – they ignore the threat of Hell, Purgatory, and the simple fact that they are lying to one another. Luke Bightfall hides his truth, and Winter hides the fact she saved the man who murdered his mother to ‘save’ her own doomed homeworld. With these lies and Hell turning its head upon Purgatory’s Heir, their ‘oh-so-simple let’s save our home and have a happily ever after’ is, quite frankly, out of the cards.

I had a question about pricing for multiple patterns. I designed a top which I will be releasing soon. I'm working on at least two other variations of this top which are similar in design, but different enough that additional instructions would be needed on a major part of the design.
I currently have the price set for the first top, but I'm wondering how I should price the other ones. I'm anticipating that people who buy the first pattern would be interested in the others. Should I price the second top lower with references to the first pattern, anticipating that people who are buying this top would have already purchased the first pattern OR should I price it a similar amount with the entirety of the instructions, anticipating that people who find me down the road may only want to purchase one pattern?
I was also considering creating two versions, one where people can purchase future variations as an add-on and one where people can purchase the full second pattern. But I won't make an add-on of the first pattern.
Any advice would be appreciated!

Hi reddit,
My husband and I have been house hunting in Westchester County, NY, for about a month or so. We've so far put in an offer on one house we fell in love with, but we were way outbid, which is happening very commonly in this area (most houses seem to be going over asking by $100k-$200k which is just insane). We do not have a very large budget given the high property taxes in the county, so houses in our price range and location we are looking for are pretty difficult to come by & inventory is super low.
That being said, we saw a house last week that we both liked, but upon looking further in the basement we noticed a couple of things that could be structural problems related to the support beams. Granted, the house was built in 1900 and is pretty old but otherwise seems well-maintained. We are also nowhere near professionals in assessing the structure of a house, but we brought along my father-in-law who has a bit more experience in looking at this stuff than we do and he was very nervous about what he saw. Not sure if it's worth noting that the disclosures point out that the sellers have no known structural issues, but obvi I know their info doesn't always mean too much.
Otherwise, we both liked the house (though we don't LOVE it) and we were interested in putting in an offer as it's affordable for us (even if we had to go over asking) and in a great location and ticks most of our major boxes. I'm questioning though if we should even bother putting in an offer knowing we might be out $800-$1k if the inspection results in massive issues. I have a feeling it will and am not sure it's worth it to put in an offer if we don't REALLY love the house, but I'm also torn because I know opportunities to buy an affordable house in a nice neighborhood in our town are very very slim. Anyone been through anything similar?

Hi everyone,
Thank you so much for your help with this issue.
I opened a CD account with JP Morgan Chase in January 2023, with a maturity period of over a year (maturing in February 2024). I did not report the interest income on my 2023 tax filing because I did not receive a 1099 form from Chase. However, as I am filling out my W-4 form this year, I realized that I might need to pay taxes on the interest accrued in 2023, even though the CD hasn't matured and I haven't received the money or a 1099 form from Chase. Is this correct?
I have already filed my taxes for 2023. Will this be an issue with the IRS? I thought I only had to report and pay taxes on the interest in the year my CD matures or when I receive a 1099 form from the bank.
This leads to another question. I am currently filling out my W-4 form for my new job and using the IRS calculator to determine my federal tax withholding rate. I have renewed the CD for another year, so it will now mature in 2025 instead of 2024. Should I include my expected 2024 interest in my W-4 calculation even though I won't receive that money until 2025?
Thank you so much for your help and assistance!

I can't make my mind up between the AMD and Intel specs, let me know which would last 3 to 4 years or more with Mid to High work/office use. Not into gaming much, so I most likely won't game on it, but may need gpu for video/site building in the future.
Max budget £1090.00

hey folks, just found this sub & i'm glad that lmop still gets attention! apologies in advance for any typos, my phone is old as balls and hates typing on reddit mobile.
I'm running the mod for three of my good friends; one is an experienced player and the other two are brand new, so we decided to start "simple".
BUT (big but) a few things led me to want to rewrite a lot of the module: - my players are a bunch of hippie nerds with interests in ecology, moral philosophy, etc. and don't gravitate toward the typical dungeon crawl. - 2/3 of my players listened to TAZ: Balance and would be insufferably annoying with references if i left the majority of the plot and NPCs alone (we're only two sessions in and I've already had to stop play to shut down repeated references to barry bluejeans and the fantasy costco jingle) - the experienced player was also in the party last time I ran this module as-written and she's a good sport but I'd love to shake things up for her
So, I decided to keep the skeleton of the module but slant it heavily towards a sort of environmentalist angle where motivations and impact aren't necessarily cut-and-dried, and the PCs have to make in-character decisions based on their internal morality instead of just playing as 'protags actions good, antagonists actions bad'.

• I changed the background of the pact/mine so that the history as-written is the accepted version of events; but the truth of the mine's collapse was something more like, harnessing the natural font of magic to create the Forge of Spells upset the balance of the surrounding area, and the town/mine fell to attacks from monsters driven to desperation by the lack of resources to support them, and the orcs' involvement was inflated to pin them as the perpetrators instead of the pactmakers admitting they fucked up.
  
• I've reskinned the Redbrands from a straight-out bandit group, now they started out as kind of a citizen's militia to defend against further attacks during the rebuilding of Phandalin, then as time passed several compounding factors (incl. the installation of Glasstaff) led them to start throwing their influence around and hassling the townsfolk for 'protection' taxes and whatnot. (loosely inspired by disco elysium's hardy boys)
  
• Nezznar just sucks so I replaced him with a half-orc sorcerer PC i played in a one-shot before and really enjoy, and she's recruited Reidoth the druid to help instigate more monster attacks on the town/party and do ecoterrorism with her (instead of her acting through glasstaff and the goblins)
  
• "sildar" and "gundren" are reskinned as a variant "fighter" and a forge cleric, and are acting to reopen the mine without the party's input (one pc met them early on and they told him his peaceful hermetic druid life was going to be disrupted by the 'inevitable' gold rush when they reopened the mine so he wants to stop them... he is doing a shrek plot. it's fine.) and they may end up being the actual BBEG's depending on the party's actions. They have many opportunities and resources to aid the party with up until the party actually has cause to communicate with them that they don't want the mine reopened. (I also have a very weird party makeup with some extraplanar races so the original idea was that this band of misfits would be kind of 'cleaning up after' a couple of more conventional adventurers that don't pay attention to the consequences of their actions)
  
• I have a potential concept for the goblins in cragmaw cave to be affected by some kind of curse or illness, possibly caused by the nothic in tresendar manor and implemented by the RB's to 'cull the monster population'? - that the party can investigate the cause of and possibly cure, instead of having the goblins just be bandits (none of us are huge fans of any sapient race having a default alignment)
  

If anyone has any suggestions for other twists or ways fo rework some of the other sidequests, I'd love to hear ideas! Clarifying questions about this variant are welcome too, if you want to borrow any of my rewritten material feel free :) TIA!

Hi, I'm Harley (M21). The tarot piqued my interest lately. I was reading a novel based on tarot cards, and yesterday I watched this horror movie Tarot yesterday. As a joke, I decided to buy a tarot card deck.
Earlier this morning, my friend and I met to have a quick chat and to catch up about life. We talked about our recent goals, achievements, wants, and struggles.
Soon, we're home, but then we decided to watch a basketball game outside and, at the game, we met new people. After the game, we went on to one of the new guy's houses (which happened to be someone I know 10 or so years ago). I jokingly said, "I recently bought this set of cards. Do you want to try it?". One of them volunteered to have his fate read. We decided to do a simple reading. I have them choose 6 cards, each representing a question. The 1st card tells how or what they feel about themselves, 2nd card tells what they want for themselves, 3rd card tells their fears, 4th card tells what they will be, 5th card tells what will go against them, and lasly, 6th card will tell the outcome of their fate.
The first person chose his fate. I read it according to my interpretation and what the card says about them. The guy confirms each interpretation and becomes silent. We were both skeptical at first, after his reading he thoight a lot about it. (At this moment, I was still skeptical.) One after another, got their fate read, each and every one of them turned silent and confirmed the reading. Soon, it was my friend's turn. She picked her cards, and I read it. At this point, we weren't expecting the outcome of the reading to show EXACTLY what we were talking about this morning. Literally detail to detail. She and I looked at each other and felt weird and shocked about the outcome.
After that, I felt my energy draining, and I felt weak after a few readings.
It was just for fun at first, now that I did for 8 people, and ALL of them confirmed the reading. I don't know what happened earlier, but that next level freaky tuesday.

INTRO

• Dan John has once again released another book, and I, once again, voraciously consumed it, because Dan John could write instructions on a tube of toothpaste and I would read every single word of it. In turn, I’ll save you all the suspense of reading this full review just to say: yes, BUY Dan’s latest book, because irrespective of if you run the program(s) in it, the book itself is pure concentrated Dan John gold and absolutely worth any price tag. And, since the book JUST came out and I JUST finished reading it, I want to be clear that I am not reviewing the PROGRAM(S) in the book, but just the book itself.
  
• But I certainly see myself using what’s in the book someday.
  

WHERE AND WHAT

• To start, you can get the book here
  
• There are 3 books listed. Do yourself a favor and buy all 3, BUT, if you want the one I’m talking about, it’s the one listed “The Armor Building Formula: Bodybuilding for Real People eBook”
  
• And that, in turn, describes WHAT this book is: bodybuilding for real people. In that sense, bodybuilding does not mean “bodybuilding”: the competitive event wherein you put on posing trunks, step out on stage and get evaluated on your physique, nor is this a book to achieve the goals OF that event. This is a very classical sense of the word bodybuilding: to build one’s body, through the concentrated effort of resistance training, in order to specifically achieve an increase in the size of one’s muscles (and, ideally, muscles that are pleasing to the eyes of others). And by “Real People”, he’s referring to those of us that live in the real world and have real world obligations (work, family, school, etc) and don’t get to live the influencer lifestyle of being able to train for hours a day everyday.
  
• There’s a fair chance that YOU are a real person who is also more interested in Dan John’s bodybuilding than in “bodybuilding”, so you may find that the contents of the book appeal to you.
  

WHAT YOU GET

• Inside the book is THE Armor Building Formula, which is Dan John’s bodybuilding program that is entirely reliant on just kettlebells. Before you stop reading because you don’t have/don’t like kettlebells, there is a section with barbells too, I’ll talk about that too. But yes: you get Dan’s program in this book.
  
• “Armor Building” is here because it references an idea Dan has regarding “armor building” in the athletic sense: putting on the muscle in the right spots that allow a collision athlete to be able to handle what is thrown at them. BUT it ALSO references Dan John’s “Armor Building Complex” (ABC), which is a kettlebell complex that does a fantastic job of accomplishing this very goal of building armor. The ABC is comprised of 2 double kettlebell cleans, 1 double kettlebell press, and 3 double kettlebell front squats. It is a fantastic full body complex that hits just about everything, and can be used to absolutely blow out your lungs, finish out a kettlebell certification, get strong AND, in the case of this book, bodybuilding.
  
• The OTHER half of the Armor Building Formula is the kettlebell clean and press, with Dan providing 4 specific pressing variations to satisfy to ADHD demands of any trainee. Dan makes a compelling argument for WHY the KB Clean and Press reigns in the world of physique building, specifically referencing how a pair of big strong shoulders and well developed glutes tend to be the secret to a wonderful physique. Given my own prescription in “Chaos is the Plan”, you know I’m a fan of this philosophy.
  
• In the book, Dan details an 8 week program to follow for the Armor Building Formula. In true Dan John style, there are no prescribed weights, reps or sets: merely guidelines BUT, with an end goal in weeks 7 and 8: 30 ABCs in 30 minutes, and 100 KB clean and presses. Very similar to Mass Made Simple, you know the goal going in (squat your bodyweight for 50 reps) and you know the method: it’s on you to do the work.
  

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE

• Also contained in the book is “The Barbell Armor Building Formula”: a program that can be run with just a barbell. Dan John’s Barbell ABC is premised around 2 movements: the “continuous clean and press” and the front squat. For those of you that speak strongman, the continuous clean and press is “clean each rep and press”, as opposed to “clean and press away”, wherein you clean the weight once and then do all your presses. With this, Dan gives you 3 programs to be run sequentially for a total of 11 weeks, followed by another 8 week barbell program that includes a few more movements (curl, press, row and deadlift) which, with some breaks, totals out to 20 weeks of training.
  
• On top of THIS, Dan ALSO gives you a prescription on how to perform the ABC if you only have one kettlebell, along with what to do if you only have mixed loads (no 2 KBs of the same weight).
  
• He ALSO includes methodology on including his “Easy Strength” program into these bodybuilding programs, which I personally appreciated because it meant I wasn’t absolutely off my rocker when I combined Easy Strength with Mass Made Simple.
  
• Dan ALSO includes a few other programs in the book, one simply titled “A Bonus Program”, which requires a bit more equipment (most notably, a machine row), one of Reg Park’s programs, a sample of Frank Zane’s programming (more as an example of what the book ISN’T…but hey, it’s still there), and some helpful warm up instructions too.
  

WHAT YOU ALSO GET

• Just tons and tons of nuggets of Dan John wisdom, all on the topic of bodybuilding for sure, but also very easy to expand into the realm of for real training in general, and life as well. Dan goes into topics on warming up, cooling down, the value of walking, nutrition, the science of muscular development, historical precedents, strength standards, etc. It’s 198 pages, and they’re all pretty awesome.

WHAT COULD BE DONE BETTER?

• If you are the kind of guy that just wants someone to lay out a program for you: that’s not this book. It takes a LOT of reading to even get to the program in the first place, and once you get there, it’s in a narrative style, rather than a prescriptive style. I, personally, PREFER that manner of delivery, and, in turn, enjoyed the hell out of this book, but I know that some folks are going to get chapped about this.
  
• I’ve heard Dan speaking about this book a bunch on his podcast, and he actually almost quoted whole sections of it in answering some questions (which is awesome, because it’s like you have a printed copy of his podcast), but despite all the time and effort reading, reviewing and editing, there’s still a few typos and sentences that start and end the same (something like “lifting weights is one of the greatest ways to achieve physical transformation is lifting weights”). Given my blog (and most likely this very review) is full of these issues, I’m not one to judge, but those paying for a product might be put off by it.
  
• Some of the sections in the book are just blatant reprints of articles previously written by Dan. They’re still incredibly on topic and value added in the book, but if you’ve already read them before, it can feel like you got stiffed out of content. But, of course, that’s a GOOD thing as well: the fact I was upset there wasn’t even MORE content there means I enjoyed the hell out of it. I’ve read my fair share of books that I wished would just be over.
  
• The only thing keeping this from being a for real “all in one” manual is a lack of actual instruction on how to perform the movements in the program. Mass Made Simple contained that, which I felt was pretty awesome. In addition, I WISH Dan had released this book in 2020, for his sake and the sake of the world, because he would have made a killing giving people full on programs they could run with just some kettlebells or a barbell, and we all would have gotten a lot more jacked if we had this resource.
  

WHAT ABOUT MASS MADE SIMPLE?

• That’s the most immediate question: why would I read and follow THIS Dan John bodybuilding book and not his other one? This is just plain different from MMS, and that’s not a bad thing. MMS is another fantastic book also full of Dan John wisdom on the subject of building mass, but his audience there is less “real people” and more “real athletes”. To run that program, you have to be ready to really do some suffering and put in the work in the gym and at the table. * * You also have to be willing to set aside 6-7 weeks of your life to really dedicate yourself to the effort. In turn, I honestly like the idea of new trainees taking on MMS, because it’s a very solid gut check, recalibrates expectations of the self, and Dan does a great job walking the trainee through the entire program, to include instruction on the movements themselves.
  
• The Armor Building Formula seems far more sustainable than MMS. Dan recommends MMS be run, at most, 2x a year, whereas the ABF definitely has legs to go on for long stretches. ABF is more akin to a baseline 5/3/1 program, while MMS is more like Super Squats, if I were to employ analogy.
  

SHOULD YOU GET IT?

• Absolutely, 100%. No matter your goals or your equipment, you are sure to get something out of this book.

I have to be the nicest and most harmless person with the most "normal" fake expression (not because I fell not normal, but my face has a weird expression) in the room just to have my presece tolerated. The nicest most harmless person will get me as far as greeting me with hello and goodby, and even then is only with some people (mostly women). Not only that no one ever contacts me about everything - studing, general topics, technical little things - anything, ever - they actually don't reply when I need help with those things. Over the past months I have texted 3 different girls (of course girls, I will never approach guys with anything, god forbid) study realted questions - only one question for each - and they didn't reply. I don't want to think what would have happened if I had offered them to do assignments together or anything that will make them, how terrible, talk to me for a few minutes. When I go get some service if I ask more than question I am "hard" and "annoying", when other people ask millions of questions and no body sees that as anything wrong. I have always concidered to be annyoing when I am barely even speaking or not speaking at all.
I asked on another sub is being unattractive makes it hard for them to get friends. With me -friends? I can't get anyone to interact with me for a few minutes over techniqal trivial issues, even virtually, when they know how I look like. These girls I mentioned (who are all really nice girls) will say hi to me if they see me, usually with the weirdest of expression every single time (even people who have seen me from the day I was born still look at my face with this unbreakable weirdness), and that's the end of that for all of my life. Not a single conversation, not ever any meeting, even when it's on completley un-personal things with common interest like doing school assignments, because of this huge broken nose and malformed-shut down-demon looking eyes. Who in the world would have accept this?
I constantly have to prove that my presence wll not be any annoyance, that I won't approcach ot talk to anyone. "You will never have to look at this hidious thing so please just tolerate me being in the same room with you". This is really like this. I have tried different approach, which comes naturally to me now, with just being my self and to be confident in who I am. And I am. I have changed a lot, I am very confident about my personality now. But the socail rejection is the same or maybe even worse than it was years ago. Not even any other WOMAN for god's sake would talk to me like she does with every other person.
The only thing I think bothers them other than my face is that they find me too serious and boring to hang out with because I don't have daily normal expiriences that everyone else does - but that's just an excuse. Even if you find someone to be boring you don't reffrain from talking to him about EVERY TOPIC for the rest of his life. So you won't be his best friend cause you wanna have fun , but you will still speak to him occassionaly about general or common interests, and without this weirdness like you look at something demonic.
I can take being ugly and therefore rejected, what I think about anyway doesn't meet with the grand majority around me so it works fine, but this? That I can't get any technical help when I really need it? That I always have to prove I am never gonna bother anyone (and by 'bother' I mean just talking)? that someone saying "hello" to me is, if it happens, the best expirience I have? I know this is too hidieous to look at. So I am not seeking for friendship with anyone, but just the most basic normal day to day interactios, get help when I need it. I promise not to try in be their friend, I know it terrifies them because of my face. But just that. Who in the world would agree to living like this?

Ever-shifting Short Seller Claims

The short sellers attacking RILY in 2023-2024 have been relentless, with an ever-shifting list of wild accusations.
It's sickening to watch them compile a never-ending list of baseless wild theories and claims to support their short positions, which are demonstrably false. But as each is proved false, they pivot to new claims, and/or change the goalposts.
The sheer volume of shifting claims makes it hard to track how despotic they are with their "platform," and how many falsehoods they've spun. Even for someone who watched it in real-time, for almost a year

Compiled & Debunked

Sunlight kills vampires. To that end, I've compiled a list of (i) claimants (ii) claims (iii) reality (iv) definitive source proving reality.

Why Did They Target RILY?

One of the most vocal short sellers, Nate Koppikar (who also introduced Marc Cohodes to the "opportunity") has a fund Orso Partners. Based on their SEC registration document, this is their investment thesis:
"The Account’s investment objectives are to achieve capital appreciation primarily by identifying and selling short marketable equity securities of underfollowed and complex companies with misleading or corrective disclosures through a research-intensive process. The Account employs a short-biased investment strategy with an emphasis on primarily small to mid-cap companies that are underfollowed and complex (i.e., companies with market capitalizations of less than $5 billion which the market does not yet have a wellformed bull and/or bear perspective)."
RILY fits their description. The icing on the cake was the relatively large market cap, and the relatively small float. Given extremely high insider ownership (32.9% of shares per the proxy), and limitations on when and how insiders can trade, the "free float" of the stock (i.e., the shares that regularly trade) is very small for the size of the company. Moreover, the setup would only get better - given insiders have consistently used their free cash to buy additional shares hand-over-fist (further reducing the float).
That meant, with relatively small amounts of capital, the short sellers could shove around the stock price. That ability to move price opens another profit avenue - taking large derivative positions (buying puts, and selling calls), and shoving the price (or allowing it to drift up) to profit all along the way. It looked so good, the stock has been the highest-shorted on the US indices for several months. Even after the release of the 10-K, shares remain "hard to borrow" with elevated borrow fees.

Debunked Claims

The claims made by vocal short sellers could fill a book. Most were outrageous and fanciful when they were proposed. Virtually all have objectively debunked. This isn't a comprehensive list, as their claims are too numerous and varied. But it paints an illuminating picture.
With a track record this poor, one would expect the short sellers to exit - rather than continuing to spin new narratives. Perhaps the continued attacks are their exit strategy to avoid bankruptcy... Well, #Bullish.
With the highest short interest of all US stocks (albeit likely decreased from the highs of ~76% of the float), I think this is more than ripe for a return to fair value - or well above, if a short squeeze occurs.
Note that the list below deliberately excludes three types of posts/claims from the short sellers:
A) Juvenile personal attacks and attempts to character assassinate and dox a long list of people (RILY CEO, RILY new hires, RILY clients, Marcum the auditor, Marcum's lead audit professional, any firm or individual publicly posting a bull thesis on RILY, etc.).
B) Those that make no objective claims, but simply exist as a product of malicious degeneracy (like pictures of roasted pigs in ovens labeled Bryant Riley the CEO, photoshopped pictures of the CEO in prison chains next to convicted felons, video of an obese woman barely able to walk being gored by a bull labeled Mrs. Riley the CEO's wife, etc.).
C) Those that are impossible for short sellers to know, and impossible to objectively verify (e.g., Marc Cohodes claiming a single RILY trader front runs the CEOs personal short trades in front of clients taking following the firm's bullish advice on those stocks, to guarantee profits).

Claimant	Claim	Reality
1) Wolfpack	Wolfpack “RILY will record investment losses of up to ~$700 million in 2023” FALSE 10-K	FALSE
2) Wolfpack	“new loan to CORZQ will work out just as badly as the last and end in default (again) before June 2023”	FALSE Repaid in full, early, on 1/6/2024.
3) Wolfpack	“The coupon rate on RILY’s seven issues of baby bonds ranges from 5% to 6.75%, which we believe to be far too low to compensate investors for the existential risk that accompanies these securities.”	FALSE Full redemption of May 2024 came early. Far more than sufficient cash to cover debt payments.
4) Wolfpack	“According to our analysis, 4 of RILY’s largest 7 corporate borrowers with outstanding loan balances of $295.3 million are at a high risk of default, or in the case of CORZQ, is already in default.”	FALSE a. Core Scientific Inc. repaid early and in full ($111MM of the “risk”) b. Exela Technologies repaid term loan in full ($55.8MM of the “risk”) c. Arena Group Holdings debt retired in full ($99MM of the “risk”). Publicly disclosed in the most recent 10-K for each company (search for "Riley" in the filing)
5) Wolfpack	“RILY’s NAV is Far Below the $1.1 Billion Minimum NAV Requirement That Is Required for the Nomura Credit Agreement Putting RILY at Risk of Collapse in 2023”	FALSE RILY is in full compliance with the Nomura credit agreement. Moreover, reflecting the strength of the relationship, Nomura even granted a no-fee extension when the 10-K filing was delayed. Also see 10-K for current status.
6) Wolfpack	“Over $200 Million of the Goodwill and Intangible Assets on RILY’s Balance Sheet is Attributable to its Telecom Rollup, which is Centered on Dial-up and DSL Internet:” - criticizing them as dying businesses with no value	FALSE Segment is extremely valuable. From just 2020 to 2023, the communications segment has returned over $212.2MM in adjusted EBITDA.
7) Nate Koppikar (TheFriendlyBear) + Bill Abbate Jr. (JrAbbate), Various	RILY committed fraud with loans and closing the FRG acquisition. "The fact $RILY closed the FRG deal while hiding the Kahn loan - an all PIK defaulted loan backed by $FRG shares - is a Hall of Fame worthy act of fraud. I thought after Enron/Sarbox we couldn't have something like this happen in US markets."	FALSE A law firm led an internal investigation, and an independent external investigation both found “The review confirmed what the Company previously disclosed: that the Company and its executives, including Bryant Riley, had no involvement with, or knowledge of, any of the alleged misconduct concerning Prophecy.” “The results of the independent investigation confirmed that the Company and its executives had no involvement with, or knowledge of, any of the alleged misconduct concerning Mr. Kahn or any of his affiliates. This independent investigation was conducted subsequent to the Company's February 22, 2024 disclosure of the internal review performed with the assistance of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP as outside counsel.” Also see 10-K
8) Marc Cohodes (AlderlaneEggs), ParrotCapital, Bill Abbate Jr. (JrAbbate), Various	The 10-K will never be filed. They can't produce audited financials.	FALSE Audited 10-K was filed. Delay was due to Audit committee fulfilling its responsibilities and proactively conducting investigations (internal and external).
9) Marc Cohodes (AlderLaneEggs) + Nate Koppikar (TheFriendlyBear) + Bill Abbate Jr. (JrAbbate) + ParrotCapital	Sullivan and Cromwell knew about Massive Fraud, and did a "sham investigation"	FALSE Sullivan and Cromwell is one of the most respected law firms, in the US and worldwide. "Sullivan & Cromwell continues to lead all law firm advisers in announced and completed global deals in 2023, according to Bloomberg and LSEG. The Firm advised on global announced deals totaling more than $345 billion, representing a 12.1 percent market share, per Bloomberg, and on completed global deals totaling more than $431 billion, representing a 16.9 percent market share, per LSEG." They're not compromising themselves for a relatively small client.
10) Marc Cohodes (AlderLaneEggs), Nate Koppikar (TheFriendlyBear), Bill Abbate Jr. (JrAbbate), Parrot Capital	Marcum is enabling Massive Fraud	FALSE Marcum is a respected audit firm, and 13th largest by revenue. "Marcum LLP advanced into the Top 15 in the 2023 Vault Accounting list of top-ranked accounting firms. Marcum climbed six levels to the No. 13 ranking overall and earned a ranking of 14 in prestige. The Firm also won Top 20 rankings across all Practice Area, Quality of Life, and Diversity categories, including several new classifications added this year."
11) Marc Cohodes (AlderLaneEggs)	Nomura is enabling Massive Fraud	FALSE Nomura is a global financial services company, and the oldest brokerage firm in Japan. They operate in a highly regulated industry. They're not putting themselves on the line for a relatively small client.
12) Parrot Capital	"The list of $RILY enablers is massive: Marcum LLP, Sullivan and Cromwell, Seeking Alpha, Holbrook Holdings, $AX Axos Bank, Many, many more."	FALSE There's no global conspiracy whereby these companies - all respected law firms, auditors, banks, and media outlets - are collectively colluding to enable RILY to commit fraud. Requires only two brain cells and one functioning synapse to know there's no grand collusion cabal between these disparate companies.
13) Marc Cohodes (AlderLaneEggs), Jonathan Weil at WSJ	Franchise Group shares used to secure Kahn loan: "It is unclear whether Kahn pledged the same shares twice—to both Prophecy and B. Riley."	FALSE As stated by the company, Simple UCC search disproves this. UCC # 202302295747
14) Marc Cohodes (AlderLaneEggs)	“Bryant Riley is on the Road, telling people the ‘audit partner at Marcum left’ and that ‘I have made mistakes’ “	FALSE Marcum audit partner was working on the audit the whole time; the original audit partner had hit the 5yr SEC rule, so he was never working on this year’s audit.
15) Marc Cohodes (AlderLaneEggs)	"So it turns out James La Rocca was Fired by MarcumLLP If nothing was wrong with prior $RILY Audits, why is he gone? This will be great in discovery of what exactly went on.	FALSE Marcum audit partner was working on the audit the whole time; the original audit partner had hit the 5yr SEC rule, so he was never working on this year’s audit.
16) Koppikar (TheFriendlyBear)	“So Bryant Riley did disseminate MNPI back in March” in response to Cohodes claim that he told people the Marcum partner left	FALSE Cohodes claimed Bryant Riley was telling people the Marcum auditor left. Koppikar called that disseminating MNPI. Cohodes statement was false (and thus Koppikar's derivate claim is also false). A different auditor worked on RILY, as Marcum follows the SEC rules; the lead auditor can only serve the client for 5 consecutive years. As such, Koppikar’s derivative claim of disseminating MNPI is false.
17) Koppikar (TheFriendlyBear)	“He appears to still not be familiar with the voting interest model of consolidation… why is a life science and tech partner signing an extremely complex investment company / broker dealer audit ???” i.e., auditor is unqualified	FALSE The auditor is fully qualified. Marcum is a highly respected auditor; they don't hire unqualified people, or assign them to clients they're unqualified to audit. RILY is continuing to use Marcum as the 2024 auditor.
18) Marc Cohodes (AlderLaneEggs)	"Now that the $RILY dividend is going away, this omission is serious stuff"	FALSE The dividend did not go away. It was reduced from $1.00/share to $0.50/share, to allow them to opportunistically allocate capital. 23Q4 and 24Q1

A sampling of the source claims listed above can be found in the images embedded in this post, with additional claims found here https://wolfpackresearch.com/research/rily/ and here https://friendlybearresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/RILY-Analyst-Day-Questions-12_11_13-Final.pdf and https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/2cpgaejc45gocvoqb1ngg/corner-office/how-b-riley-garnered-the-biggest-short-interest-of-2023 and https://www.wsj.com/finance/how-an-unremarkable-deal-became-a-big-threat-to-a-small-investment-bank-f819a169 . https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/304196 form ADV. Additional claims can be sourced on the various social media venues and websites utilized by the short sellers. This is not financial advice. All claim summarizations reflect my interpretation of the short seller claims, and should be verified against original sources, along with all counters. Due to Reddit image attachment limits, not all source images are included (but any missing can be found on TwitteX or other publicly available sources).
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INTRO

• Dan John has once again released another book, and I, once again, voraciously consumed it, because Dan John could write instructions on a tube of toothpaste and I would read every single word of it. In turn, I’ll save you all the suspense of reading this full review just to say: yes, BUY Dan’s latest book, because irrespective of if you run the program(s) in it, the book itself is pure concentrated Dan John gold and absolutely worth any price tag. And, since the book JUST came out and I JUST finished reading it, I want to be clear that I am not reviewing the PROGRAM(S) in the book, but just the book itself.
  
• But I certainly see myself using what’s in the book someday.
  

WHERE AND WHAT

• To start, you can get the book here
  
• There are 3 books listed. Do yourself a favor and buy all 3, BUT, if you want the one I’m talking about, it’s the one listed “The Armor Building Formula: Bodybuilding for Real People eBook”
  
• And that, in turn, describes WHAT this book is: bodybuilding for real people. In that sense, bodybuilding does not mean “bodybuilding”: the competitive event wherein you put on posing trunks, step out on stage and get evaluated on your physique, nor is this a book to achieve the goals OF that event. This is a very classical sense of the word bodybuilding: to build one’s body, through the concentrated effort of resistance training, in order to specifically achieve an increase in the size of one’s muscles (and, ideally, muscles that are pleasing to the eyes of others). And by “Real People”, he’s referring to those of us that live in the real world and have real world obligations (work, family, school, etc) and don’t get to live the influencer lifestyle of being able to train for hours a day everyday.
  
• There’s a fair chance that YOU are a real person who is also more interested in Dan John’s bodybuilding than in “bodybuilding”, so you may find that the contents of the book appeal to you.
  

WHAT YOU GET

• Inside the book is THE Armor Building Formula, which is Dan John’s bodybuilding program that is entirely reliant on just kettlebells. Before you stop reading because you don’t have/don’t like kettlebells, there is a section with barbells too, I’ll talk about that too. But yes: you get Dan’s program in this book.
  
• “Armor Building” is here because it references an idea Dan has regarding “armor building” in the athletic sense: putting on the muscle in the right spots that allow a collision athlete to be able to handle what is thrown at them. BUT it ALSO references Dan John’s “Armor Building Complex” (ABC), which is a kettlebell complex that does a fantastic job of accomplishing this very goal of building armor. The ABC is comprised of 2 double kettlebell cleans, 1 double kettlebell press, and 3 double kettlebell front squats. It is a fantastic full body complex that hits just about everything, and can be used to absolutely blow out your lungs, finish out a kettlebell certification, get strong AND, in the case of this book, bodybuilding.
  
• The OTHER half of the Armor Building Formula is the kettlebell clean and press, with Dan providing 4 specific pressing variations to satisfy to ADHD demands of any trainee. Dan makes a compelling argument for WHY the KB Clean and Press reigns in the world of physique building, specifically referencing how a pair of big strong shoulders and well developed glutes tend to be the secret to a wonderful physique. Given my own prescription in “Chaos is the Plan”, you know I’m a fan of this philosophy.
  
• In the book, Dan details an 8 week program to follow for the Armor Building Formula. In true Dan John style, there are no prescribed weights, reps or sets: merely guidelines BUT, with an end goal in weeks 7 and 8: 30 ABCs in 30 minutes, and 100 KB clean and presses. Very similar to Mass Made Simple, you know the goal going in (squat your bodyweight for 50 reps) and you know the method: it’s on you to do the work.
  

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE

• Also contained in the book is “The Barbell Armor Building Formula”: a program that can be run with just a barbell. Dan John’s Barbell ABC is premised around 2 movements: the “continuous clean and press” and the front squat. For those of you that speak strongman, the continuous clean and press is “clean each rep and press”, as opposed to “clean and press away”, wherein you clean the weight once and then do all your presses. With this, Dan gives you 3 programs to be run sequentially for a total of 11 weeks, followed by another 8 week barbell program that includes a few more movements (curl, press, row and deadlift) which, with some breaks, totals out to 20 weeks of training.
  
• On top of THIS, Dan ALSO gives you a prescription on how to perform the ABC if you only have one kettlebell, along with what to do if you only have mixed loads (no 2 KBs of the same weight).
  
• He ALSO includes methodology on including his “Easy Strength” program into these bodybuilding programs, which I personally appreciated because it meant I wasn’t absolutely off my rocker when I combined Easy Strength with Mass Made Simple.
  
• Dan ALSO includes a few other programs in the book, one simply titled “A Bonus Program”, which requires a bit more equipment (most notably, a machine row), one of Reg Park’s programs, a sample of Frank Zane’s programming (more as an example of what the book ISN’T…but hey, it’s still there), and some helpful warm up instructions too.
  

WHAT YOU ALSO GET

• Just tons and tons of nuggets of Dan John wisdom, all on the topic of bodybuilding for sure, but also very easy to expand into the realm of for real training in general, and life as well. Dan goes into topics on warming up, cooling down, the value of walking, nutrition, the science of muscular development, historical precedents, strength standards, etc. It’s 198 pages, and they’re all pretty awesome.

WHAT COULD BE DONE BETTER?

• If you are the kind of guy that just wants someone to lay out a program for you: that’s not this book. It takes a LOT of reading to even get to the program in the first place, and once you get there, it’s in a narrative style, rather than a prescriptive style. I, personally, PREFER that manner of delivery, and, in turn, enjoyed the hell out of this book, but I know that some folks are going to get chapped about this.
  
• I’ve heard Dan speaking about this book a bunch on his podcast, and he actually almost quoted whole sections of it in answering some questions (which is awesome, because it’s like you have a printed copy of his podcast), but despite all the time and effort reading, reviewing and editing, there’s still a few typos and sentences that start and end the same (something like “lifting weights is one of the greatest ways to achieve physical transformation is lifting weights”). Given my blog (and most likely this very review) is full of these issues, I’m not one to judge, but those paying for a product might be put off by it.
  
• Some of the sections in the book are just blatant reprints of articles previously written by Dan. They’re still incredibly on topic and value added in the book, but if you’ve already read them before, it can feel like you got stiffed out of content. But, of course, that’s a GOOD thing as well: the fact I was upset there wasn’t even MORE content there means I enjoyed the hell out of it. I’ve read my fair share of books that I wished would just be over.
  
• The only thing keeping this from being a for real “all in one” manual is a lack of actual instruction on how to perform the movements in the program. Mass Made Simple contained that, which I felt was pretty awesome. In addition, I WISH Dan had released this book in 2020, for his sake and the sake of the world, because he would have made a killing giving people full on programs they could run with just some kettlebells or a barbell, and we all would have gotten a lot more jacked if we had this resource.
  

WHAT ABOUT MASS MADE SIMPLE?

• That’s the most immediate question: why would I read and follow THIS Dan John bodybuilding book and not his other one? This is just plain different from MMS, and that’s not a bad thing. MMS is another fantastic book also full of Dan John wisdom on the subject of building mass, but his audience there is less “real people” and more “real athletes”. To run that program, you have to be ready to really do some suffering and put in the work in the gym and at the table. * * You also have to be willing to set aside 6-7 weeks of your life to really dedicate yourself to the effort. In turn, I honestly like the idea of new trainees taking on MMS, because it’s a very solid gut check, recalibrates expectations of the self, and Dan does a great job walking the trainee through the entire program, to include instruction on the movements themselves.
  
• The Armor Building Formula seems far more sustainable than MMS. Dan recommends MMS be run, at most, 2x a year, whereas the ABF definitely has legs to go on for long stretches. ABF is more akin to a baseline 5/3/1 program, while MMS is more like Super Squats, if I were to employ analogy.
  

SHOULD YOU GET IT?

• Absolutely, 100%. No matter your goals or your equipment, you are sure to get something out of this book.