I’d like to think these are just some of the universal things of what makes a community fulfilling and fun, as I was mostly trying to abstract some of my favorite things about being Jewish from the faith component.

For some people, it’s important to have rules!! Of course you need the standard social construct rules, but the less necessary ones are important too. I think they give structure and consistency to people, so even if they’re arbitrary, it fulfils that need and as long as isn’t disruptive to society, I don’t see the harm. Plus, knowing someone also follows the same rules, rituals and holidays you do gives you instant rapport with them, so it aids in building a sense of community. Polite people outside of the new religion will also be curious and interested in hearing about these rules/rituals and whatever reasoning could uphold them, and the followers likely will enjoy explaining them, so this helps them build friendships outside of the religious group as well.

Tho it’s crucial that others aren’t ostracized for not following the more arbitrary ones and that those that do follow them don’t feel any actionable feelings of superior devotion or what-not. I think you can ostracize people who violate rules that relate to already well established social constructs (theft, murder, etc), but not the more frivolous restrictions and behavioral requirements we’d invent here.

The most fun parts of religion are the camaraderie and intricate, abstracted rituals that used to serve one purpose but now serve a different, often symbolic one.

So lots of that. Spaced out throughout the year as to give followers a way of marking the passing of time and a reason to call out of work at regular intervals.

Oh, let’s toss in a lil religious specific language to aid as a group identifier and how about some arbitrary rules/guidelines that aren’t strictly enforced and vary by region but give those rules loving peoples something to grab onto.

Oh oh oh and unique cuisine! Food goods made in certain ways at certain times, with some slight variation so followers could have techniques and recipes to share and mild, inconsequential things to disagree and hold frivolous, memetic arguments about.

The details don’t really matter all that much, as long as it can serve as a way to find community and camaraderie in new places, reinforce solidarity with your fellow humans, and give some rituals for timekeeping and distraction from modern life.

Oh my God to be in a situation where a $.70 charge at the hospital feels egregious I fucking wish. I have insurance and I had to pay a doctor hundreds for them to tell me the tendinitis in my wrist was caused by the two cigarettes I smoked at a party a month and a half ago. I hate it here y’all

I think most people expected Trump to be a blathering insane idiot and so when he avoids questions to rant about something nonsequitor and bizarre its “normal”. Anyone with all their mental faculties should be able to run circles around someone like Trump.

People are disappointed that Biden is in such shambles as they were hoping he’d be able to debate against a brain-worm ridden bigoted chatterbox and he dropped the ball so fucking bad and now they’re worried about the future of democracy in the country

Naw, it made some kinda sense for a while but the writers really jumped the shark in the past decade.

The debate was a shit show.

Both candidates belong in a nursing home and no where near public life. One looks like they’re hardly awake the other can’t form a sentence that makes any sense.

“May you live in interesting times” eh?

Streaming is just cable

Ahhh, General “Cobalt Collar” MacArthur.

Dude was a fucking monstrosity of a human being with an utter disregard for morality.

I’ll save you a click, the game was ArcheAge and the article doesn’t go into detail about their dispute, but does mention that they flew from Newark NJ to Jacksonville FL to try and attack em.

I think AI can take far fewer jobs than people will try to replace with AI, that’s kind of the issue

I made that kind of mistake often early on in my sales career. The product I sold had a specific use in a specific field by specific disciplines, and was required by law in certain regions.

I always felt like such a dick when I’d get to the purchasing agent, make my hurried nervous pitch because I’m so excited to get through to someone and they’d (often kindly) explain that they literally never have any use case for my product.

After a few of those, I became more aware of how to prune my “leads” (read: list of phone numbers) to make sure I was only reaching out to people who could even use the dang thing and inserted a few exploratory questions into the opening salvo to double check.

I’m glad I don’t have to do this via email, though. At least with the phone, I can hear tone and get quick, definite answers instead of just waiting on a reply.

Lmao there’s some truth to that, but it helps

Oh, one hundred percent. The way I treat people who have zero decision making ability differed greatly from purchasing agents or decision makers. They were largely in the same spot as me. It’s important to understand that the sales agents are also wage slaves, the tasks are just different.

Dealing with people like me was one of the stupid things they gotta do at work to make their pay and go home, just like me making 80+ calls an hour at some points was one of my stupid things. I wanted to get them off the phone as soon as possible, be that either by ending the call or getting passed onto someone who could buy. You can use that to build rapport and speed up the process. You can even make it jovial. The goal is to make the sales process as painless as possible while recognizing that being a pest is effective.

Sales agents who put the big pitch on the second they get someone to talk to em are not thinking straight and hindering themselves. Though, sometimes there’s parts of a service that simplifies their lives, which I’d mention while waiting for a decision maker or during another break.

I’m in the former group. Not just that, but I’m good at sales. Like, nicknamed The Closer and that sorta corporate motivational bullshit at one point good.

I will strike up conversations with people in a bar and make new friends waiting in lines. It’s a talent, but its also a skill that can be taught and learned. It’s a hat you wear to help you at work.

All that said, cold calls suck ass and they’re a nuisance on most any individual. I’d refuse to do them on non-business customers.

As someone who’s had to do cold calls as part of a sales pipeline,

1. it’s spam,
2. I wouldn’t say it’s spam on LinkedIn, that’s where I tell lies to get better jobs,
3. if it’s B2B, I do not feel any shame, every business is a fuck

Edit: I’ll also add that B2B cold calls do work. If you have a good product or service and approach it the right way, you can generate plenty of business this way. That said, it’s wholly a numbers game. When I was training sales agents, they’d ask me “how do I get sales like you do?” and I’d tell em simply “Make more calls.” As I said elsewhere, I’m good at this. I had a roughly 2-3% conversation rate. Understand that means if I made a hundred calls, I made two to three sales. And that’s pretty damn good. Before we were more established and could drop that model, we found that cold calling generally had around a 1.4% conversion rate. It relies on you being chipper and persistent to the point of annoyance. Some people literally do break at one point and say stuff like “Well, I need to get something, and if I sign with you, will you stop calling me?”

It was always far more enjoyable to call established leads, people who already expressed and interest and just needed help making up their mind. Better on the customer, better on the agent, a better process overall.

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I think it’s a good instinct to assume the best of people but let me assure you there is nothing polite about Chairs.

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Outta the 3 mentioned, I gotta pick ketchup, but if we’re talking favorite sauces or condiments, gotta give it out to toum. The incredible garlic taste in a spread is to die for and works wonders on everything from veggies to steaks to chicken to bread. Seriously, try making a grilled cheese but 86’ing butter and subbing toum. Fuck, that’s amazing.

Shout out to kewpie mayo, tho, the condiment I use irresponsibly on so many things it doesn’t belong…