Kiwi Self Improvement: Consoomerism edition

[Cup Noodle]

I don't even have a discrete GPU anymore.
The integrated graphics in my 2400G are enough.

You don't need to play everything with max settings - it won't make the game more fun.

Gotta get all the fps though. I'm not a gamer but I follow computer shit because I'm into tech and crypto mining. Integrated graphics are all I need also but I can't imagine someone calling themselves a pro gamer without a gpu.

Use the library for movies and tv they have almost everything worth watching

thepiratebay.org also has everything worth watching and more. I've watched about everything worth watching in western media so now I watch anime. You can get that at nyaa.si

Removing ads from every part of your life really helps. If you're good at googling things and following instructions then I can't recommend a Pi-hole enough. It's a DNS sinkhole that fucks all ads off everything on your network for good. Also, don't let AI's decide what media you should consume (think youtube, doom scrolling, reddit etc). Take back control over what media you are exposed to and watch yourself quickly lose interest in any of it. That shit is designed to be as addictive as possible.

Brave browser is probably enough for most people and it also pays you so that is a plus. I kinda like the youtube AI because it feeds me what I want when I'm just looking for something to entertain me without anything in particular in mind. What I hate about it is the censorship.

 

[need shoeonhead nudes]

Brave browser is probably enough for most people and it also pays you so that is a plus.

What makes pi-hole cool is that it will work with every device on the network, so stuff that can't usually be adblocked because there's no plugin/extension for it, never makes it into your home.

 

[Canoodler]

There's nothing wrong with buying something you enjoy, even if it's superfluous, but you should wait at least 6 months in between those purchases. This helps to ensure that you are buying something that you actually want, rather than just buying it to consoom.

 

[Cup Noodle]

What makes pi-hole cool is that it will work with every device on the network, so stuff that can't usually be adblocked because there's no plugin/extension for it, never makes it into your home.

I agree that it is cool and that it has it's uses, but for the general population brave is enough and probably more than they could comprehend anyways. If I mention a Raspberry Pi to IRL people they think I'm talking about a pie. I considered setting up a Pi hole for the hell of it, but most of our internet traffic goes through a browser anyways so I didn't invest the time.

 

[BootlegPopeye]

I'll repeat here what I have already said in the main consoomer thread -

Don't collect things you admit are bad. The example I gave is with video games, where you have 'collectors' (hoarders) who get complete sets for systems, including all the forgettable half assed golf and tennis games on those systems. I can find tons of videos on YT with vidya consoomers with walls of games they never play behind them. If you can't remember what games you own, you probably never play them, so why have them at all? I especially hate sealed 'collectors' - I know of one IRL who never plays video games and hasn't in years. He has spent thousands on the things, often for games he isnt even sure if he likes.

I agree with the poster who says banish ads from your life. I own a television, but everything that comes through it is curated by me - I don't watch live tv ever, and I use various programs to block any and all ads. I have no idea what the latest 'thing' is, who the coolest movie star is, what X gay celebrity said this about Y - and I am a million times better off for it.

I go even further than this and mostly ignore the news as well, especially 24 hour news channel created 'news cycles'. It's funny how much power asshole reporters lose when you just blow them off.

Trying to go amish/luddite/unabomber is not feasible, and obviously if you are on this website reading this, you've already failed. But the key thing is to control what you allow in your home. Only what you will actually use/is relevant to your life (so this excludes 99% of 'news')

 

[AdmiralRenae]

To me, privacy guides can help me remove exposure to ads which is filled with consoomerist propaganda. Installing Ublock Origin prevents targeted ads from reaching your eyes. There are good privacy guides out there on the internet too if you don't want big companies like Google or Facebook to track you on the internet so they target you with ads and other consoomerist propaganda.

Techlore’s privacy guide:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3KeV6Ui_4CayDGHw64OFXEPHgXLkrtJO

The Hated One's 2020 privacy guide:

For TV shows, anime, or movies there is The Pirate bay, https://piracy.moe/, 123movies, etc...

I plan on buying a gaming computer to replace my laptop but my old laptop still plays games like new. I intend to play on this laptop until I get a Desktop in which I will build a new gaming computer. My old laptop has issues with overheating when I play, so when I have more money, I do not want to but a "OMG A $3000 GAMING RIG" just something that can run games without lagging like hell or cause overheating issues, so around $1300 will do if I am more financially stable and this COVID thing is over.

For my videogaming hobby, I tend to avoid the consoomer Triple AAA gaming garbage that I encounter, and pay more attention to indie games. I have also began to branch out to other hobbies like Astronomy, too. My dad has taught me how to fish, and while it may be boring, knowing this can help me potentially start a hobby that could give back.

Learn to be more self reliant, Learn to cook, clean the house, do yardwork and fix shit yourself. There is no exception to this. Knowing how to do this alone can help you in the long run and save you money too.

Also quit porn Kings, I know it may be hard but I think consoomerism is just a distraction from achieving true happiness; Keep the posts coming!
PS: I am also currently learning hot to manage my time effectively too

 

[Cup Noodle]

Don't collect things you admit are bad.

If you looked in my house you would probably think that I was a consoomer hoarder, but everything is for sale and it is a revolving door. I collected a twenty year old CRT monitor for two years, but I sold it this past weekend for $150. Twenty year old CRT monitors are a horrible investment in general, but if you know what you are doing you can make bank by being a hoarder, sometimes.

 

[Idiotron]

Stop caring about brands.
I get it, you liked that one thing that had this brand 15 years ago and you feel emotionally connected to it... but you're a moron for thinking that.
Companies want you to be emotionally attached to a logo and a name because they want your money to be pouring in non-stop.
They will make as many products as they can that have this logo because they know that you will buy at least a portion of them and those you won't buy will be bought by some other moron.
The quality of the product will be an afterthought because the number 1 selling point is the brand, not the product, so chances are that you're buying something that's subpar but you're still paying a lot for it because of the brand.
Brands are a scam.

 

[Overly Serious]

Games and gaming PCs seem to the go to debate point for several here. Unsurprising as they're both expensive and undeniably a luxury good that will be valued by some and not by others. If you enjoy the machine or the game for its own sake then that's not consoomerism. If your enjoyment comes from buying it or from telling other people you have it, then that's consooming. There's no obvious and universal line between the two, things can be a little of both. But deep in your heart you know what was the biggest factor and if three months down the line you're not getting more enjoyment from it than you did the last one, that will tell you all you really need to know.

I was thinking only last month that not buying things is one of the only safe forms of protest people have left to them now. And it's very powerful if it could only be organized. What if every Trump supporter who believed the election was stolen (didn't they illegally delete database copies in Maricopa last week to prevent them being audited?) declared they wouldn't buy non-essentials until an audit took place. 70% of the USA believes fraud took place. You wouldn't have to have anywhere near that number to participate to cause US politicians and industry leaders to shit their bowels out. They'd probably make not buying stuff illegal. (Oh wait - some States already have, BDS!).

 

[Spunt]

If it has its own Subreddit, don't buy it.

 

[General Tug Boat]

Never take advice from grifters or chuckle heads on internet forums. Pirate everything, quit selling your metadata to bugmen for stickers.

Invest in tangible assets such as PM instead of relying on a retirement pension you will never have. Learn about investing and crypto. Quit spending your life playing video games and learn a new skill. Always will be value in that, opposed to thinking you will break it big as the next Twitch sensation.

Most of all, learn how to cook. If even you have a bit of proficiency in cooking, you will save money.

This was my 12 rules of life, send me $24.95 for the hardcover copy of my extensive penis washing guide.

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

That's going to be a hard one. The pc I'm on right now had a msrp over $600 and it doesn't even have a graphics card. I bought it on clearance something like 40% off. I remember that the whole thing cost me what the cpu would have cost at the time by itself. With today's market you can't even get a decent gpu for under $500.

$600 or $700 is a fair cutoff. That can get you a Ryzen 7 5700G system, which is the fastest APU on the market, or something like an Intel Core i5-10400 + GTX 1660 Super. And those prices are in the currently fucked up PC market. You'll get 6-8 cores and acceptable 1080p gaming performance.

This time next year, AMD will switch to RDNA 2 graphics on their APUs, the systems with dedicated GPUs should be better and cheaper, and DIY PC building shouldn't be as much of a shitshow.

 

[Sped Xing]

This thread is like junkies telling one another to kick heroin by switching to fentanyl.

 

[Gun Safety]

- never pre-order
- never be an early adopter
- never pay over 600$ for a gaming pc

Spending a lot on a computer is something I find extremely degenerate. There is a new guy at work who I was getting to know, sort of a younger guy, who was telling me about how he likes 'building computers'. Whenever people say this stuff they're not talking about buying bread box circuits or old processors and making simple computers, which is actually pretty cool, but they just spend thousands of dollars to play legos. What makes it so degenerate is spending thousands, in this guy's case it was close to five-grand including a gamer chair and one of those curved monitors, just so they can consoom these video games that are designed to be as addictive as possible without any kind of edifying aspect. No one puts hundreds or thousands of hours into these modern games [or most games in general] and really remembers anything about that time spent. Consooming to consoom, is there any worse thing?

Tangentially related, why do people even care about computer graphics anymore, I feel like we hit a point about a decade ago that improvements in graphics became so small that most people will never notice. Does anyone notice these high-resolution textures when playing? Or that the models have five thousand more polygons? It seems like most people don't care about graphics anymore, maybe I'm not tapped into gaming culture like I used to be, but are there any new games people ogle like people used to with Crysis? There doesn't seem to be any, but people still keep spending hundreds on new graphics cards. Maybe game companies and computer parts manufacturers are in cahoots, make games more demanding so people need to keep upgrading to consoom.

 

[tehpope]

Buy used. I try to do that, but sometimes the prices aren't worth it. Also helps keeps waste down. As that item could end up in a landfill or somewhere else but now can be enjoyed again.

If you have to buy something, shop local. Support your local economy and not the giant corps. And if you do shop online, find a local seller or a small business to buy from.

Think about what you're gonna buy. I usually put stuff in my cart on Amazon or ebay and just let it sit.

Use privacy addons for your browser to block tracking and ads.

 

[Yeeted Teet]

Precious things are rare. If you go around your house and pick out all the things that genuinely mean a lot to you, you could easily count them on both hands and probably on one. Remember that. Whatever it is you want is not going to be that important to you, so don't buy it thinking it's going to make you happy.

On the flip side, don't buy 5 cheap, similar but not quite good enough versions of something you want instead of just saving up for the good one.

 

[Not Jewish Wario]

Try to avoid blind buying. When it comes to entertainment, test it yourself before you commit to buying. Borrow a game from a friend, use the library, pirate, even streaming services can be helpful. If you can't/don't want to do any of those, then read opinions from trusted sources (not major "journalist" or news sites). This way, you can find out if what you are buying is truly something you would use and get enjoyment out of.

 

[drfuzzyballs]

I'm consooming in a different way: I'm collecting stocks and other investment products. Over 4 years I've built a portfolio worth $13,000 and like $5000 is what I've gained from the stocks themselves so far.

 

[NoReturn]

Some quick things about sleep.

• Most people don't get enough sleep. Try to give yourself at least 9 hours of "sleep opportunity" every day.
• Sleeping pills don't work. Even if they "put you to sleep" what happens in your brain is functionally different.
• Not all sleep is the same. You can't just cut sleep short because NREM is front-loaded and REM occurs later in the night, so if you don't go through enough sleep cycles every night your brain isn't actually able to complete the work its supposed to do during sleep.

 

[Fentanyl Floyd]

When it comes to vidya, anime, movies, music or any other form of entertainment, just pirate it (or find a version for free if you don't want to risk it). The companies already make billions of dollars a year and you won't miss anything with a pirated copy. Only support creators and companies that you really like, that's what I do