On occasion, we here do a thread of random positivity, where we start with a thematic prompt and talk about things that are enjoyable just for the fun of it. Past examples:

We have also had a couple threads of educational-resource recommendations. These are marginally more serious, since they’re about gathering actually good explanations of things that sneerable people like to pontificate ignorantly on. But I’ll list them here because learning is fun:

Feel free to comment in the old threads and/or suggest new ones in the comments here.

  • saucerwizard@awful.systems
    7·
    8 days ago

    Tires are actually more interesting than you would expect. I really love hearing customer opinions on how they perform in actual use.

    Also we get a real mix of vehicles at the shop. I’ve seen multiple Mercedes and even a Rivian!

    (I’m also the last seasonal employee left standing/got a month long extension as apparently I’m good at this?!?! I’m going to have like a year of unemployment to draw on for RMT school when this ends so I’m pretty happy. Not going to lie, its kinda stressful but I’m actually enjoying being challenged for once).

  • Soyweiser@awful.systems
    6·
    7 days ago

    I don’t have much to share (various positive stuff is a bit too personal to share, or just too banal (like how I got a new fan cheap while it was still freezing a few weeks before the heat wave)) but I do enjoy the thread. Thanks for making it.

  • o7___o7@awful.systems
    2·
    1 month ago

    Many thanks for starting the thread!

    My kids discovered Homestar Runner over the weekend and my eldest demanded that we write an email to Strong Bad right now. We asked the most natural question: “What’s your favorite pokemon?”

    The email address is still alive!

    Also finished Robert Brockway’s new novel “I Will Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200.” 5/5 stars. Hug your kids and brace yourself for some real emotional extremes. Probably should do those things separately, because while the book is about lonely kids coping with the horrors, it’s not really for them. Also, you might cry. Served with good politics and graphic puppet murder.

  • diz@awful.systemsEnglish
    2·
    1 month ago

    A guy I know because he invented a mechanism and I built an alternative implementation of the same behavior out of Lego and put on youtube, cited my thing in his doctoral thesis and will be defending on Monday, and I can watch that online. Can’t wait.

  • CinnasVerses@awful.systems
    1·
    30 days ago

    Nagoski’s Come as You Are is quite good! She put in just enough “men are from Mars, women are from Venus” to keep her trade publisher happy, but broadly it is a model of human sexuality which is more complete than any of the pop and folk theories I have seen and more relevant to people I know. Pop psychology may be mostly bullshit and fraud but this specific book is useful.

  • CinnasVerses@awful.systems
    1·
    1 month ago

    I’m grateful for all the queer people, kinky people, and women who taught me things about intimacy that the tech bro on Twitter never seems to have learned. OJST webcomic is still around too.

  • CinnasVerses@awful.systems
    1·
    1 month ago

    in April I got to visit one group of friends trading thoughts on things we make with our hands, then another group to talk about the profession I trained for but can’t practice. The wannabe Malcolm Gladwells and David Brookses on Twitter and Substack and YouTube will never have either experience, because they don’t have any hard-acquired skill and knowledge that a community with the same hard-won skill and knowledge will respect them for. Communities that do things in the material world which visibly succeed or fail also have less drama than social media and communities where everything is subjective

    Some of my berries and herbs are starting to sprout.