Hey everyone, I don't expect anyone to reply to this as it'll probably be shrouded by the other posts. Just needed somewhere to write it all down.
My life has never been good. I've had moments of happiness, even for extended periods of time, but never for longer than a few months at most. I grew up in a horrible environments in and out of CPS where my Mum finally got custody of me at age 3, after I remained in a foster home for around 6 months. My Mom tried so hard for me, even until she won her court case against my birth Father. Until I was around 12, I was raised in a fairly normal environment by myself. Most of my childhood I never endured abuse or anything like that. It wasn't until I was 12, shit got real. At that age, people deemed my problems invalid because I was so young and "it couldn't be that bad" or "other people have it worse". I could never tell my Mum because I didn't want to dissapoint her and make it seem like all her efforts were for naught. As such, I sat alone with my problems, occasionally talking to people online, but nothing helped. When I turned 13, I discovered herbal cigarettes for the first time. I would roll a herb (usually something that produced a relaxing effect or a minor hallucinagen) and smoke it on my porch when my parents weren't home. After I first tried it, I told myself, "It was a good stress reliever, but I'm not gonna do this again. It's bad for me." This cycle repeated daily for around a month. Eventually, my parents found out. Despite my worries, they weren't mad. But the dissapointment in my Mum's eyes were unreal.
This was the moment where I first lost my parents trust.
Eventually, I stopped, as my parents hid everything away from me. Because of this I never wanted to be at my house, so I was with a new group of "friends: I had made. There was this one guy, who I'll name John. John shared a lot of my common interests, and would talk to me during class and we'd hang out at the centre of our city pretty often, just us two messing around and having fun, like a bunch of 8th grade boys. This lasted for a few months. I had one of the best birthdays ever with him. Around a month afterwards, this man somehow tricked me into sending nudes to him. I'm a straight man. I thought this was another one of his jokes and we'd be chill afterwards.
I was wrong.
The next day, I went to school surrounded by weirded stares and comments on the situation. I knew then, that I seriously fucked up bad. I somehow got myself out of the situation by saying it wasn't me, but my friendship with John was diminished. Despite this, he was the only friend I actually hung out with consistently after that. I dealt with his remarks in the times in the future, which grew more and more consistent as the times went on. I knew I had to let him go after he told my principle that I had a weapon on me for self defense (which basically everyone in my city does), which nearly led to me being suspended. Eventually, I abandoned him all together, and ran with whatever little amount of pride I had left. I fell into a huge state of depression after this. Even my online friends didn't want me anymore. Someone had accused me of being a pedophile and falsified screenshots. I had no one.
One day, after school, a friend who I wasn't particularly close with wanted to hang out with me after school. He mentioned his parents had a cabinet full of alcohol.
Seeing no danger with this, I accepted without hesitation. This was my first experience with alcohol. I got wasted with him, and for the first time in months, my worries washed away. Eventually, this became a weekly occurance. I would tell my parents I was going to the park, but instead I would get drunk with my friend. This soon became the only way I could live without stress. Around this time, I became closer with an acuqainted friend and his friend group, who we'll call Terry and his friends. Terry was a chill guy. We didn't share all the same interests, but he liked me for who I was. He didn't care about my past. I became closer with his friends, too. Eventually this became my new friend group. Around the time I formed this new friend group, I stopped going drinking with my other friend. Not because I didn't want to, but because he stopped pestering me to hang out with him like he did the months before. Instead, the roles were reversed at that point. Me and this friend group started hanging out more, and more, and more.
During this time, I met my first love. It was online, but it felt like the best thing in the world. We were young, and stupid. She was beautiful. I remember first talking to her on the phone on the plane ride to my Uncle's wedding. I decided to myself that I really liked this girl. I wanted her more than anything. I remember she was the only thing I dedicated myself for. Something I felt was worth being there for. I finally felt like I had some worth for the first time in forever. I should mention this was slightly before the drinking thing. We talked, we called, we loved for two whole weeks. Towards the end, I made the stupid mistake of telling her that "if I didn't meet her I probably would've killed myself". This wasn't entirely true. I was depressed before talking to her, but I don't think I was suicidal. However, this seemed to be a problem for her. Apparently, she felt trapped. Thus, she left me. I remember having to hide my heartbreak from my parents. I shortly got over it, however, and met a new girl from my school. I realize now I didn't love her, I loved the idea of being in a relationship. I remember joking to my ex about how bad my girtlfriend at the time was. After a while, she found out I was following other girls on instagram. I denied it at first, but discovered it was an opportunity to pin a breakup on her not trusting me enough, so I used that reason and dumped her. She later told the whole school I was unloyal (which I wasn't, I didn't even talk to the girls I followed). She proceeded to post shitty photos of me on her tiktok account. I remember being fuming. If sonething so small was the worst of my problems now, I would be blissful happy right now. A few weeks afterwards, I got back with my first ex. This time, it was one sided. After just over a month, I began to look at girls in my class with desire. I completely broke it off with my ex, telling her I didn't love her anymore. Years later, I still regret this decision. She accepted this, and we remained friends. Every time I felt lonely, I would talk to her again, and we would begin talking like we were together again. This repeated for around 6 months. We kept talking until around a few months ago, where I discovered she blocked me out of nowhere. I believe it was out of respect for her new boyfriend, which I respect.
After we had broken it off for the final time, I began spending time outside of school with my new friend group. Slowly, we began to hang out more and more. I even found a new girlfriend, which I had found off of quick add on snapchat, lol. Around Christmas, things went downhill. My friends asked a personal question, which was whether my girlfriend had sent me explicit pictures (i thought it would make me sound cooler if I said yes), but then they caught me in the lie, and they immediately lost trust for me. I saw the same look in their eyes as I saw in my Mother. Distrust. I tried to salvage the friendship, but I new it wouldn't be the same ever again. It still isn't. I saw the cycle repeat itself. Like last time, I left my girlfriend because I lost interest. I began to become depressed again. I started vaping and drinking to escape the pain. I didn't care as much about my looks anymore. I remember having one of the worst heartbreaks of my life afterwards. I told myself I wouldn't date ever again. I still hung out with my friends, but we all knew inside that we didnt care for each other as much as we acted. For around a month, I lived life in a cycle. A depressed cycle. One day, I caught a glimpse of a girl in my class who was exactly my type in a woman, physically and mentally. I knew she was far too good for me. I barely talked to her, and didn't have her on any social media. I eventually got the courage one afternoon to add her on snapchat, after one of my friends gave me her snap. This was after a mutual friend informed me that she found me attractive, which I didn't buy. The night I added her, we talked, and I rememebr playing games with her and her friends. It was one of the best nights I've ever had. I fucked up my sleep sdchedule just to speak to her longer. I got to know her more, and more. She was the most beautiful and perfect girl in the world. My eternal bliss lasted for a week. I had ordered flowers to ask her out with and I had the whole thing planned out with her friends. I remember going to my first work shift, and coming home, and getting a message from her:
"Hey, I think I'm lesbian. It's not your fault, I promise. I'm so sorry."
I was heartbroken, I kept tryna suffocated myself over and over again. I asked her why, what her thought process was. She eventually tired of my questions and she said that I was being a dick about it. I ended up sending her a message later that day telling her that I was sorry for being a dick about it (I still don't know what I did wrong). I didn't go to school the next day. I remember avoiding her hard for the whole rest of the school term. I was insanely depressed afterwards, the worst I've ever felt. she was the best thing that ever happened to me. I tried weed for the first time afterwards, it was mesmerising. It nearly compared to the feeling of being with her. But it was only a temporary escape. As the weeks went on, I became more and more depressed. Then, my parents found out I smoked weed, and my own mother told the police (I still dont know if thats morally right and im overthinking it) and my whole family found out and now hates me. I'm scheduled to see them tomorrow. I'm being illegally overowkred by my job, and I can;t do anything about it. I didn;t show up today, I'm probably already fired. I tried a cigarette today, it was one last thing I wanted to know before I pass. I went to one last convension today, and asked God for a sign to keep living. I ended up meeting a girl, asking for her number, and she gave me her insta and messaged me "You really thought I'd date you? Not tryna be mean".
In three hours, it'll turn midnight. I'll go to a store, find nitrous oxide, and overdose on that. Asphyxiation isn't that painful. I have nothing at all.

RackNerd.com is a leading provider of cloud-based infrastructure solutions, dedicated to empowering businesses of all sizes to achieve their goals through innovative technology and exceptional customer service. In this chapter, we will delve into the company's rich history, mission, and values that have enabled us to become a trusted partner for our clients.
Early Years (2013-2015)
RackNerd.com was founded in 2013 by a group of passionate entrepreneurs who shared a vision of revolutionizing the way businesses approach infrastructure solutions. Initially, the company focused on providing high-quality server colocation services to small and medium-sized businesses. Our early success was fueled by our commitment to exceptional customer service, competitive pricing, and a relentless pursuit of innovation.
Growth and Expansion (2015-2018)
As the company grew, we expanded our service offerings to include cloud-based infrastructure solutions, such as virtual private servers (VPS) and dedicated servers. This strategic move enabled us to cater to a broader range of clients, from small startups to large enterprises. Our team of experts worked tirelessly to develop and refine our infrastructure, ensuring seamless scalability and reliability.
Mission and Values
At RackNerd.com, our mission is to empower businesses to achieve their goals by providing innovative, reliable, and cost-effective infrastructure solutions. We believe that our success is deeply rooted in our commitment to the following core values:
1. Customer Obsession: We prioritize our clients' needs above all else, ensuring that every interaction with our team is exceptional.
2. Innovation: We continuously invest in research and development to stay ahead of the curve, providing cutting-edge solutions that meet the evolving needs of our clients.
3. Integrity: We uphold the highest standards of ethics and transparency in all our interactions, fostering trust and credibility with our clients and partners.
4. Collaboration: We believe that teamwork is essential to achieving our goals, and we strive to create a culture of open communication, respect, and mutual support within our organization.
5. Inclusivity: We celebrate diversity and promote a culture of inclusivity, ensuring that every individual has the opportunity to contribute their unique perspectives and talents.
Awards and Recognition
RackNerd.com has received numerous awards and recognition for our commitment to innovation, customer service, and community involvement. Some notable accolades include:
· Best Cloud Service Provider (2020) by Cloud Computing Magazine
· Top 10 Cloud Infrastructure Providers (2019) by Cloud Computing News
· Best Place to Work (2018) by the local business community
Conclusion
RackNerd.com's journey is a testament to the power of innovation, hard work, and dedication to our clients. As we continue to evolve and grow, we remain committed to our core values and mission. We are proud to be a trusted partner for businesses of all sizes, empowering them to achieve their goals and succeed in an ever-changing world.

History of RackNerd.com

History of RackNerd.com: A Journey of Innovation and Growth
As the world of technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, RackNerd.com has emerged as a leading provider of innovative solutions for data centers and cloud infrastructure. Founded in 2012, RackNerd.com has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a small startup to becoming a global player in the industry. In this chapter, we will delve into the fascinating story of how RackNerd.com was founded and evolved over the years.
The Early Days: Founding and Early Growth (2012-2015)
RackNerd.com was founded in 2012 by a group of passionate entrepreneurs who shared a vision of creating a cutting-edge data center solutions provider. The company's early days were marked by a focus on building a strong team, developing innovative products, and establishing a solid foundation for future growth. The founders' expertise in data center design, infrastructure, and operations played a crucial role in shaping the company's early success.
During this period, RackNerd.com focused on building a robust infrastructure, investing in state-of-the-art equipment, and developing a comprehensive suite of services. The company's early clients were primarily small and medium-sized businesses seeking reliable and scalable data center solutions. As RackNerd.com's reputation grew, so did its client base, with the company expanding its services to include cloud infrastructure, managed services, and consulting.
Expansion and Diversification (2015-2018)
By 2015, RackNerd.com had established itself as a reputable player in the data center solutions market. The company's growth was fueled by its commitment to innovation, customer-centric approach, and strategic partnerships. During this period, RackNerd.com expanded its services to include:
1. Cloud Infrastructure: RackNerd.com launched its cloud infrastructure services, offering a range of cloud-based solutions for businesses of all sizes.
2. Managed Services: The company introduced its managed services portfolio, providing 24/7 monitoring, maintenance, and support for clients' data center infrastructure.
3. Consulting Services: RackNerd.com expanded its consulting services to include data center design, infrastructure planning, and migration assistance.
As RackNerd.com continued to grow, it expanded its team, investing in talent acquisition and development programs. The company also strengthened its partnerships with leading technology vendors, solidifying its position as a trusted advisor in the industry.
Global Expansion and Mergers (2018-Present)
In recent years, RackNerd.com has continued its rapid growth trajectory, expanding its global footprint and diversifying its services. Key milestones include:
1. Global Expansion: RackNerd.com established a presence in key markets, including North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.
2. Mergers and Acquisitions: The company has made strategic acquisitions, expanding its portfolio of services and expertise.
3. Innovation and R&D: RackNerd.com has continued to invest in research and development, driving innovation and staying ahead of the curve in the rapidly evolving data center and cloud infrastructure landscape.
Today, RackNerd.com is a global leader in data center solutions, with a reputation for delivering exceptional service, innovative solutions, and unparalleled expertise. As the company looks to the future, it remains committed to its core values of innovation, customer-centricity, and strategic partnerships.
Conclusion
RackNerd.com's journey from humble beginnings to global recognition is a testament to the power of innovation, hard work, and dedication. From its early days as a small startup to its current status as a leading provider of data center and cloud infrastructure solutions, RackNerd.com has consistently demonstrated its commitment to excellence and customer satisfaction. As the company continues to evolve and grow, its story serves as a beacon of inspiration for entrepreneurs and innovators around the world.

RackNerd.com's Philosophy

RackNerd.com's Philosophy: Description of RackNerd.com's values and approach to web hosting
As a leading provider of web hosting services, RackNerd.com is committed to delivering exceptional quality, reliability, and customer satisfaction. Our philosophy is built on a set of core values that guide our approach to web hosting, ensuring that our customers receive the best possible experience. In this chapter, we will delve into the principles that shape our company culture and approach to web hosting.
I. Customer-Centricity
At RackNerd.com, we believe that our customers are at the heart of everything we do. We understand that our customers are the reason we exist, and we strive to provide them with an unparalleled level of service and support. Our customer-centric approach is built on the following principles:
· Personalized Support: We assign dedicated account managers to each customer, ensuring that their needs are met and concerns are addressed promptly.
· Proactive Communication: We maintain open and transparent communication channels, keeping our customers informed about their services and any issues that may arise.
· Flexibility and Adaptability: We adapt to our customers' evolving needs, offering tailored solutions and flexible pricing options to meet their unique requirements.
II. Quality and Reliability
Quality and reliability are essential components of our philosophy. We understand that our customers rely on our services to operate their online businesses, and we take pride in delivering high-quality hosting solutions that meet their needs. Our commitment to quality and reliability is reflected in:
· State-of-the-Art Infrastructure: We invest in the latest technology and infrastructure to ensure that our services are fast, secure, and reliable.
· 24/7 Monitoring: Our team of experts continuously monitors our systems, detecting and resolving issues before they impact our customers.
· Regular Maintenance: We perform regular maintenance and updates to ensure that our services remain secure, stable, and optimized for performance.
III. Innovation and Improvement
At RackNerd.com, we believe that innovation is key to staying ahead of the curve and delivering exceptional value to our customers. We prioritize innovation and improvement through:
· Research and Development: We invest in research and development to stay up-to-date with the latest technologies and trends in web hosting.
· Customer Feedback: We actively solicit and incorporate customer feedback to improve our services and address their concerns.
· Continuous Improvement: We continuously evaluate and refine our processes to ensure that our services meet the evolving needs of our customers.
IV. Transparency and Accountability
Transparency and accountability are essential components of our philosophy. We believe that our customers have the right to know what they are getting and how we operate. Our commitment to transparency and accountability is reflected in:
· Clear Pricing: We offer transparent pricing with no hidden fees or surprises.
· Service Level Agreements (SLAs): We maintain strict SLAs for our services, ensuring that our customers know what to expect from our services.
· Regular Reporting: We provide regular reporting and updates on our services, keeping our customers informed about their performance and any issues that may arise.
V. Conclusion
At RackNerd.com, our philosophy is built on a foundation of customer-centricity, quality, innovation, transparency, and accountability. We believe that these values are essential to delivering exceptional web hosting services that meet the evolving needs of our customers. By prioritizing these values, we strive to build long-term relationships with our customers, providing them with the best possible experience and ensuring their online success.

Features

Features: Description of Shared Hosting Features
As the foundation of a reliable and efficient online presence, shared hosting has evolved to cater to the diverse needs of individuals and businesses. In this chapter, we will delve into the various features that make shared hosting an attractive option for webmasters, entrepreneurs, and organizations alike.
1. Storage Space
One of the most critical aspects of shared hosting is the storage space allocated to each account. This refers to the amount of data that can be stored on the server, including files, images, videos, and other digital content. Typical storage space ranges from 1GB to 10GB, depending on the hosting provider and the type of plan chosen.
Benefits:
· Allows for efficient storage and management of digital assets
· Enables the creation of complex websites with multiple pages, images, and multimedia content
· Facilitates the storage of large files, such as videos and audio files
2. Bandwidth
Bandwidth refers to the amount of data that can be transferred between the server and the user's device. This is measured in gigabytes (GB) and is typically calculated based on the number of visitors, page views, and file downloads. A higher bandwidth allocation ensures that websites can handle increased traffic and data transfer without experiencing downtime or slow loading times.
Benefits:
· Ensures fast and seamless website loading times
· Supports high-traffic websites and e-commerce platforms
· Enables the hosting of multimedia content, such as videos and audio files
3. Email Accounts
Email accounts are an essential feature of shared hosting, allowing users to create and manage multiple email addresses. This feature is particularly useful for businesses, as it enables the creation of professional email addresses, such as [info@company.com](mailto:info@company.com).
Benefits:
· Enables the creation of professional email addresses
· Allows for efficient communication and collaboration
· Supports multiple email accounts for different departments or teams
4. Databases
Databases are a crucial aspect of shared hosting, as they enable the storage and management of large amounts of data. This feature is particularly useful for websites that require complex data management, such as e-commerce platforms and online applications.
Benefits:
· Enables the storage and management of large amounts of data
· Supports complex data management and querying
· Facilitates the creation of dynamic websites and applications
5. Control Panel
The control panel is the central hub of shared hosting, providing users with a user-friendly interface to manage their account, files, and settings. Popular control panels include cPanel, Plesk, and DirectAdmin.
Benefits:
· Enables easy management of account settings and files
· Supports the creation and management of databases and email accounts
· Facilitates the installation of third-party applications and scripts
6. Security Features
Security is a top priority in shared hosting, with providers implementing various measures to protect user data and prevent unauthorized access. Common security features include:
· Firewalls: Prevent unauthorized access to the server and data
· Encryption: Protects data in transit and at rest
· Regular Backups: Ensures data integrity and availability
Benefits:
· Protects user data and prevents unauthorized access
· Ensures data integrity and availability
· Supports compliance with industry regulations and standards
7. Scalability
Scalability is a critical feature of shared hosting, enabling users to upgrade or downgrade their plan as needed. This ensures that websites can adapt to changing traffic and demand without experiencing downtime or performance issues.
Benefits:
· Enables flexible and scalable hosting solutions
· Supports the growth and evolution of websites and applications
· Facilitates the adaptation to changing traffic and demand
8. Customer Support
Customer support is an essential aspect of shared hosting, providing users with assistance and guidance throughout the hosting experience. Common support features include:
· 24/7 Support: Available assistance and guidance
· Knowledge Base: Comprehensive documentation and tutorials
· Ticket System: Efficient communication and issue tracking
Benefits:
· Provides assistance and guidance throughout the hosting experience
· Supports the resolution of technical issues and concerns
· Facilitates the adoption and utilization of hosting features and services
In conclusion, shared hosting features play a vital role in ensuring the success and reliability of online presence. By understanding the various features and benefits outlined in this chapter, users can make informed decisions about their hosting needs and choose the best provider for their specific requirements.Features: Description of VPS Hosting Features
Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting has become a popular choice for businesses and individuals alike due to its flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. In this chapter, we will delve into the various features that make VPS hosting an attractive option for those seeking a reliable and secure online presence.
1. Scalability
One of the primary advantages of VPS hosting is its scalability. With a VPS, you can easily scale up or down as your needs change, without having to worry about migrating to a new server or incurring additional costs. This feature is particularly useful for businesses that experience fluctuations in traffic or data storage needs.
2. Root Access
As a VPS user, you have full root access to your server, allowing you to customize and configure your server to meet your specific needs. This feature provides unparalleled flexibility and control, making it an attractive option for developers, programmers, and system administrators.
3. Dedicated Resources
Unlike shared hosting, where resources are shared among multiple users, VPS hosting provides dedicated resources to each user. This means that your server has its own CPU, RAM, and storage, ensuring that your website or application runs smoothly and efficiently.
4. Security
Security is a top priority in VPS hosting. With a VPS, you have full control over your server's security settings, allowing you to implement robust security measures to protect your data and applications. This includes configuring firewalls, setting up access controls, and implementing encryption protocols.
5. Customization
VPS hosting offers unparalleled customization options, allowing you to tailor your server to meet your specific needs. This includes installing custom software, configuring server settings, and optimizing server performance.
6. Flexibility
VPS hosting provides flexibility in terms of operating systems, software applications, and server configurations. This means that you can choose the operating system and software that best suit your needs, rather than being limited to a specific set of options.
7. High-Speed Connectivity
VPS hosting providers typically offer high-speed connectivity options, including fiber-optic connections, ensuring fast and reliable data transfer rates.
8. 24/7 Support
Many VPS hosting providers offer 24/7 technical support, ensuring that you receive assistance whenever you need it. This includes phone, email, and live chat support options.
9. Control Panel
Most VPS hosting providers offer a control panel, such as cPanel or Plesk, which provides an intuitive interface for managing your server, including features like file management, email management, and database management.
10. Backup and Recovery
VPS hosting providers typically offer backup and recovery options, ensuring that your data is safe and can be easily restored in the event of a disaster.
11. Monitoring and Maintenance
Many VPS hosting providers offer monitoring and maintenance services, ensuring that your server is running smoothly and efficiently. This includes monitoring for security threats, performing regular software updates, and conducting routine maintenance tasks.
12. Uptime Guarantee
Many VPS hosting providers offer uptime guarantees, ensuring that your server is available and accessible at all times. This is typically measured in percentage terms, such as 99.9% uptime guarantee.
In conclusion, VPS hosting offers a wide range of features that make it an attractive option for businesses and individuals alike. From scalability and customization to security and support, VPS hosting provides a flexible and reliable solution for those seeking a robust online presence. By understanding the various features and benefits of VPS hosting, you can make an informed decision about whether this type of hosting is right for your needs.Features: Description of Dedicated Hosting Features
In today's digital landscape, dedicated hosting has become an essential component of any successful online presence. With the rise of e-commerce, social media, and online marketing, the need for a reliable and secure hosting solution has never been more pressing. In this chapter, we will delve into the world of dedicated hosting, exploring the key features that make it an attractive option for businesses and individuals alike.
1. Unmatched Control and Customization
One of the primary advantages of dedicated hosting is the level of control and customization it offers. With a dedicated server, you have complete control over the configuration, allowing you to tailor your hosting environment to meet the specific needs of your business. This level of control is unparalleled in shared hosting environments, where resources are shared among multiple users.
2. Scalability and Flexibility
Dedicated hosting offers unparalleled scalability and flexibility. As your business grows, you can easily scale up or down to meet changing demands. This flexibility is particularly important for businesses that experience fluctuations in traffic or require sudden spikes in resource allocation.
3. Enhanced Security and Reliability
Dedicated hosting provides an added layer of security and reliability, thanks to the isolation from other users. With a dedicated server, you can rest assured that your data is protected from potential security threats and that your website is always available to your customers.
4. Customizable Server Configuration
With a dedicated server, you have the ability to customize the server configuration to meet the specific needs of your business. This includes the ability to choose the operating system, software, and hardware specifications to ensure optimal performance.
5. Priority Customer Support
Dedicated hosting providers typically offer priority customer support, ensuring that any issues are addressed promptly and efficiently. This level of support is particularly important for businesses that rely heavily on their online presence.
6. High-Speed Connectivity
Dedicated hosting providers typically offer high-speed connectivity options, ensuring that your website loads quickly and efficiently. This is particularly important for businesses that rely on online sales or rely on a high volume of traffic.
7. Redundant Infrastructure
Many dedicated hosting providers offer redundant infrastructure, ensuring that your website remains available even in the event of hardware failure or network outages.
8. Advanced Monitoring and Maintenance
Dedicated hosting providers typically offer advanced monitoring and maintenance services, ensuring that your server is always running smoothly and efficiently.
9. Compliance and Regulation
Dedicated hosting providers often offer compliance and regulation services, ensuring that your business meets the necessary regulatory requirements.
10. Scalable Storage
Dedicated hosting providers typically offer scalable storage options, allowing you to easily increase or decrease storage capacity as needed.
11. Enhanced Performance
Dedicated hosting provides enhanced performance, thanks to the isolation from other users and the ability to customize server configuration. This results in faster page loads, improved search engine rankings, and a better overall user experience.
12. Customizable Backup and Recovery
Dedicated hosting providers typically offer customizable backup and recovery options, ensuring that your data is always safe and easily recoverable in the event of a disaster.
Conclusion
In conclusion, dedicated hosting offers a range of features that make it an attractive option for businesses and individuals alike. From unmatched control and customization to enhanced security and reliability, dedicated hosting provides a level of flexibility and scalability that is unmatched in shared hosting environments. Whether you're looking to improve performance, enhance security, or simply gain more control over your online presence, dedicated hosting is an excellent choice.Features: Description of Reseller Hosting Features
Reseller hosting is a type of web hosting that allows users to resell hosting services to their clients, while still maintaining control over the hosting environment. In this chapter, we will delve into the key features of reseller hosting, exploring the benefits and advantages of this type of hosting solution.
1. Control Panel
One of the most significant features of reseller hosting is the control panel. A control panel is a web-based interface that allows resellers to manage their hosting accounts, including creating and managing sub-accounts, setting up email accounts, and monitoring resource usage. Popular control panels for reseller hosting include cPanel, Plesk, and DirectAdmin.
Benefits:
· Easy management of hosting accounts
· Ability to create and manage sub-accounts for clients
· Monitoring of resource usage and performance
· Customizable settings for each sub-account
2. Sub-Account Management
Reseller hosting allows resellers to create and manage sub-accounts for their clients. This feature enables resellers to provide customized hosting solutions for their clients, while still maintaining control over the hosting environment.
Benefits:
· Ability to create and manage sub-accounts for clients
· Customizable settings for each sub-account
· Easy management of hosting accounts
· Scalability and flexibility for clients
3. Resource Allocation
Reseller hosting allows resellers to allocate resources to their clients, including disk space, bandwidth, and CPU usage. This feature enables resellers to provide customized hosting solutions for their clients, while still maintaining control over the hosting environment.
Benefits:
· Ability to allocate resources to clients
· Customizable resource allocation for each sub-account
· Scalability and flexibility for clients
· Easy management of resource usage
4. Billing and Invoicing
Reseller hosting often includes billing and invoicing features, allowing resellers to manage their clients' accounts and generate invoices for services rendered.
Benefits:
· Easy management of client accounts
· Ability to generate invoices for services rendered
· Customizable billing and invoicing options
· Scalability and flexibility for clients
5. Security Features
Reseller hosting often includes advanced security features, such as firewalls, intrusion detection, and virus scanning. These features help protect hosting accounts from unauthorized access and malicious attacks.
Benefits:
· Advanced security features for hosting accounts
· Protection from unauthorized access and malicious attacks
· Customizable security settings for each sub-account
· Scalability and flexibility for clients
6. Scalability and Flexibility
Reseller hosting allows resellers to scale their hosting solutions to meet the needs of their clients. This feature enables resellers to provide customized hosting solutions for their clients, while still maintaining control over the hosting environment.
Benefits:
· Scalability and flexibility for clients
· Ability to upgrade or downgrade hosting plans as needed
· Customizable hosting solutions for clients
· Easy management of hosting accounts
7. Support and Maintenance
Reseller hosting often includes support and maintenance features, such as technical support, server monitoring, and software updates. These features help ensure that hosting accounts are running smoothly and efficiently.
Benefits:
· Technical support for hosting accounts
· Server monitoring and maintenance
· Software updates and security patches
· Scalability and flexibility for clients
Conclusion
Reseller hosting is a powerful tool for web professionals, allowing them to provide customized hosting solutions for their clients while still maintaining control over the hosting environment. By understanding the key features of reseller hosting, including control panels, sub-account management, resource allocation, billing and invoicing, security features, scalability and flexibility, and support and maintenance, resellers can provide high-quality hosting solutions for their clients.

Pricing Plans

Pricing Plans: Description of Shared Hosting Pricing Plans
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In the 19, nearly 20, years I have lived my life, I was raised a Christian by American conservatives in a middle class environment and am fortunate to experience countless memories of joy, laughter, and growth with (mostly) everybody I have met. Each memory with the people in my life holds a special place in my heart, and I will forever cherish the bond we built.
The thing is that until the end of eighth grade, I had a strange obsession with East Asia. Looking back, it was very embarrassing and I condemn my parents for enabling me to become a weeaboo (by “weeaboo”, I mean “a person who is overly obsessed with East Asian culture, especially Japanese culture, to the point that they fetishize the culture in an unhealthy way”). I was the textbook example of a weeaboo who had a terrible case of “yellow fever” (sexual preference towards East Asians). Loving the image of East Asian culture without having any real idea what it stood for and seeing the East as a utopia, my fetishization of East Asia, especially Japan, was born out of the shame I have with the Western culture I was raised in. I never felt like I could fit in with my Western peers who I often looked down upon and did not want to be associated with. It got to the point that I became unsatisfied with my home town, my physical appearance, and even my closest friends. This combined with the surge in anime, K-pop, and other media on the internet really got me hooked and believing really fetish-y things about the Sinosphere. I hate being reminded of it and have tried to move on.
However, I am thankful for my exposure to Eastern culture, though it was through a very bastardized, Westernized lens. I am grateful for my exposure, even though it started out with something as intellectually undemanding as Vocaloid music (songs sung by a Japanese voice synthesizer). The best part about the exposure was that it helped me leave Christianity and join Buddhism at age 11, which greatly helped with my mental health considering I was experiencing suicidal thoughts since the age of 8. Though I had awful misunderstandings of Buddhism in the beginning and still do not really have a Buddhist teacher, I am glad that I have the resources to connect myself with other Buddhists and take refuge in the Triple Gem.
As I left my gross misconceptions of the Sinosphere behind back when I was 14 while still having a healthy interest in it, my eyes were eventually opened to perils which threaten not only the homelands of Buddhism (East, South, and Southeast Asia), but also the sustainability of modern humans. These two perils are Western culture and capitalist fascism.
The West exoticizes and misrepresents Buddhism and the culture of its home, the East, as a whole. I am ashamed to be born in a culture where this was encouraged, which I am worried could lead me to fetishizing Eastern culture again.
But what I know for sure is that the West’s hyperindividualism is harming people, both those whose lands are invaded and its own people. This combined with the West’s growing rejection of education, including that of the knowledge the West itself has given to the world for humanity’s benefit, makes it clear that it is lacking some of the Sinosphere’s cultural strengths. Everybody should hold collectivism and education to the same degree that the Sinosphere does, otherwise we would be left with an unsustainable society that would destroy itself.
There is nothing wrong with speaking Western languages, eating Western foods, watching (most types of) Western media, wearing Western clothes, and especially nothing wrong with using Western inventions, but we are now seeing that the West’s hyperindividualism and rejection of education is destructive and spreading like a cancer.
It is only Buddhists who make an effort to assimilate to the East (had they not been born into it) who can see the West with its hyperindividualism and uneducatedness, promoted by its creation of its spreading ideologies such as capitalist fascism and social Darwinism, for what it really is: a cancer. I can now see the direction the United States, the most populated and powerful country in the West, is going due to the rise of ultra-capitalism and/or fascism supporters.
Rarely the phrase “Western”, as in “formed by the combined foundations of Greco-Roman civilization and Western Christianity” (Gabbe), raised positive thoughts in my mind since I learned about it shortly after discovering Buddhism. “Western” when used in the context of medicine is an exception to this, but we are now seeing more and more Westerners dishonor the progress their ancestors made towards modern, mainstream, dare I say, Western medicine as they fall for anti-vaccine and anti-mask pseudoscience.
Nowadays, some who use the word in a derogatory context are uneducated reactionaries that bash anything and everything Western, yet hypocritically promote the Western political ideology of fascism. A strength that a majority (though now a decreasing number) of Western countries have is their progressivism, supporting scientific advancements, women’s rights, racial equality, and the LGBT+. However, this is not just becoming less common; being a progressive Westerner is not enough, not enough to end Western imperialism, to save the sacred truths taught to us by the Shakyamuni Buddha, or to empower the working class.
Although I never fully approved of Western culture after my weeaboo phase ended, my early teen self still ended up falling into the anti-social justice warrior side of YouTube that I now recognized hindered my understanding of what actually ruined my country, the United States of America. I still did not feel comfortable calling myself a Westerner but mainly because the West did not widely accept Buddhism and has several times in its history persecuted Buddhists. At the same time, I was deceived by a bastardized form of Buddhism common among Westerners (known as “secular Buddhism”, which picks and chooses aspects of the Buddha’s teachings instead of accepting them as a whole), so I was a bit more of the classic, stereotypical atheist neckbeard who fetishized the East up until 2020. Since then, my views became more progressive similar to those of American liberals and I denounced traditionalist Western beliefs, but like the average American liberal, I did not see Western culture, both traditional and progressive, as the peril I now see it. It was not until around the end of 2023 when I discovered the Western problem.
It was a slow burn that started with my discovery of Buddhists on the internet talking about how the West misrepresented Buddhism to appeal to “self-help” consumerists, Christians, and New Age followers. In the Westerner, I originally saw only a person who followed harmless customs, traditions, and other norms that came from a part of the world where Buddhism was not the dominant religion (if you could even call the non-theistic dharma as taught by the Gautama Buddha a religion). And so, I did not believe that Western civilization needed to fall for the safety of the dharma, let alone for its own people. After all, I thought to myself, the West has contributed so much to science and the modern world as we know it. I still believe to this day that there are no superior cultures and that each one simply has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, some of which are only subjective. However, while looking through Buddhist forums, I was shocked to hear about the West’s pollution of Buddhism and my knowledge on Buddhism skyrocketed as I learned that I fell victim to the Dunning-Kruger effect. I started reading sutras and immersing myself with Buddhism by listening to those who have much more experience than I do. There are hardly any Buddhists in my community and the only Buddhist center within reach is a New Kadampa Tradition meditation center (FYI: the New Kadampa Tradition must be avoided since it has a reputation for financially exploiting members and its monastics have allegations of drug trafficking and sexual abuse), so books and the internet are all I have left.
Practicing Buddhism in the West is nearly impossible without a community, without a Buddhist teacher, without any resources written by Eastern Buddhists. Reddit user u/Tendai-Student, a “lay Tendai Student [sic] with aspirations to become a Priest [sic]” states the following:
It is exceedingly challenging for a Westerner who is interested in Buddhism to find reliable information. Bookstores' Buddhist sections are rife with myths about the religion (we will come to some of these misconceptions below). Buddhism-related disinformation abounds in university classes. Misinformation about Buddhism abounds in publications with a Buddhist theme. Even Buddhism-related english-speaking [sic] Reddit boards are prone to carry false information.
Buddhism is constantly distorted in the same way: to make it more agreeable to Abrahamic faiths(especially Christianity in the west) [sic]. To imply that it is subject to Western standards, Western religion, and Western consumerism and materialism.
…Asian teachers are frequently excluded from English-speaking Buddhist places (meditation centers, university forums, periodicals). Asians make up the majority of Buddhists in the United States, despite the fact that popular images of Buddhism in the West make it appear otherwise. In the minds of Westerners, Buddhism is a religion of white converts. They don't even pay attention to the odd lack of Asians in some Buddhist areas. (u/Tendai-Student)
It is no wonder that I went through a phase when I was a weeaboo with “yellow fever”. The Westerner commodifies and commercializes these Buddhist practices and East Asian customs like they do with several other cultures. Its misuse and stealing of Buddhism is the worst because its teachings are for us to end suffering by ridding ourselves of the three poisons: greed, ignorance, and hatred (which the Westerner promotes).
My realization of this drew me away from the West, similar to when my obsession with the East began. The difference is that my interest in the East now is not because of a fantasy born out of misguidance, especially not a sexual one. I now know that there is more to the East than its pop culture. But I cannot help thinking that none of this would have happened and I would better understand Buddhism had I been born to and raised by Buddhists in East Asia, or even a majority Buddhist country in South or Southeast Asia.
However, the possibility of a cycle starting with a yo-yoing fetishization of the East makes me anxious. When I realized what I was doing at first was fetishization, I did further research and found out that the West is to blame for its portrayal of the East in its media. This in turn makes me denounce the West and brings me back towards my obsession with the Sinosphere, which could lead to more fetishization.
Despite this, I am glad that at the very least, my interest is more than just wanting to live a kawaii lifestyle, hoping to have a “submissive housewife who will look young forever”, or all that neckbeard squick. I do have to say that there is something else that is drawing me towards the Sinosphere, not to mention that it is the region where Buddhism is dominant (the same is true to a lesser extent with the Indosphere). Even though I am not a huge fan of tradition since I am very progressive, when a region’s culture gets something right, they get it right. In addition to Buddhist values, the Sinosphere holds education and collectivism to a high degree. It is no wonder I find their people so much more intelligent and caring than people from my culture.
It is common knowledge that countries such as Japan, China, South Korea, and Singapore have the highest average IQs. To add to this (unbeknownst to many), even less developed countries, e.g. Mongolia, with high Buddhist populations around the same region, have average IQs higher than developing and undeveloped nations outside the region. The most agreed upon reason for this is cultural factors rather than genetic or economic factors. To conclude, Buddhism combined with values in the East Asian cultural sphere creates the best “brains” to represent humanity, thus the West should make way for them, especially considering the East’s superior collectivism.
Of course cultures do not stay the same forever because they change over time. One big thing that is different now in the Sinosphere and Indosphere (the latter I am mentioning because it is where Buddhism came from, though it is not as dominant in the cultural region as it was) is that they are generally much more patriarchal and anti-LGBT+ than they were up until the last several centuries. However, Buddhism treats same-sex relations and being transgender the same as heterosexuality and being cisgender (preferring celibacy among monastics, though depending on the school of Buddhism, those in the monastic order may be treated as their birth gender, even if they are transgender), and in addition, the Buddha taught that women are just as capable of attaining enlightenment as men. Even outside of Buddhism, there are records of same-sex relations as early as the Shang dynasty in China and the temple walls in Khajuraho, India depict homosexual activity. As for feminism, China was matrilineal until the Han dynasty era, when Confucianism and filial piety became mainstream in the area, while India, home to over 100 different ethnic communities, has had a few matriarchal and egalitarian societies pre-European colonization. In the modern era, numerous people in the two cultural spheres are becoming more supportive of gender equality and the LGBT+, which in some cases may be due to Westernization (not that it redeems it) or simply the individuals’ progressive political views not influenced by Western culture.
What has stayed the same for the most part, besides Buddhism, is the Sinosphere’s and Indosphere’s value of collectivism in honor-shame societies and the former cultural sphere’s emphasis on education; this is what Westerners, as well as people all over the world, need for themselves. If the West is going to fall due to hyperconsumerism, late stage capitalism, and uneducated leaders, those living in the West would be better off joining Buddhism and assimilating to the East. Arguably, the best way to do this is to move to a majority Buddhist country, preferably one in the Sinosphere (its core countries being China, Japan, the Koreas, Taiwan, and Vietnam). Leave everybody you know from your home behind, especially non-Buddhists. Just to make things clear, Westerners are not necessarily evil and it is not their fault they were raised in a Western culture, but having these people in your life will hold you back from collectivism, quality education free of anti-intellectual quackery, and above all, understanding the dharma.
After you have left everybody in your life and started anew, you can immerse yourself in the culture. Again, abandoning Western food, media, clothing, and especially inventions and scientific breakthroughs is very unnecessary. Your main focus is reprogramming your mind to think like a person (specifically a Buddhist person) in the Sinosphere/Indosphere, utilizing the high educational standards, putting the collective over the individual, and taking refuge in the Triple Gem. Before moving, though, it is best to make yourself familiar with the customs and learn the language of the place you are moving to. To aid your assimilation, it would not hurt to start dating one of the locals who strongly identifies with the culture, regardless of their race. Someone living there who is not ethnically East, South, or Southeast Asian who is still very involved in the culture would be very helpful to your assimilation as one who is ethnically East, South, or Southeast Asian (I am clarifying this to discourage racial fetishization). This may be difficult as you would have to win over approval from their parents, let alone convince them to see you as another Easterner, but if you manage to do so, that would be fantastic. To make things easier, you could plan to move to a country where people treat women as equals and are relatively accepting of the LGBT+ so you would not have to worry about gender roles or whatever. Think of places in the Sinosphere such as Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, or if you are planning on going to the Indosphere (which is not too big of a step down) since they did give us Buddhism after all, Nepal and Thailand. Your most important goal, however, is to rewire your brain to think in a more Sinic or Indic way and be more in touch with Buddhism.
You can hardly consider yourself a Westerner if you manage to do so, being Western only in your country of origin (and possibly race as well). I am definitely not like those other “people” from the West who strongly cling to Western culture because they just do not understand. Western cultural merit is almost solely from the proxy of our ancestors’ inventions, scientific discoveries, and political revolutions. Considering that the West is being brought towards the wrong direction in the modern era, we should get out of there culturally, if not physically, until it all hits the fan.
If the West continues its defilement of the rest of the world, when it falls, it will bring it all down with it. We must not lose or else everybody loses.
This pressure has a good side; because the bigger the great threat becomes, the more we will push ourselves to assimilate and raise children to fight for us. Considering the infectability of Western anti-intellectualism and “main character syndrome”, how could our Western peers know better? Buddhism is not a proselytizing “religion”, so our best bet is eliminating the promoter of the three poisons, the Westerner (especially the Christian Westerner), from our own lives. How it will run to us as its society collapses under itself and we welcome it to assimilate but say “we told you so”! The older I get, the better I know the Westerner. The better I know the Westerner, the easier it gets to excuse hostility against them, especially from the Sinosphere.
From my perspective, the ones to blame are not the angry, low-middle class white males in the rural United States nor the boba conservative bananas and right-wing coconuts who suck up to the West’s biggest scum, but rather the ones who have brainwashed them to fall for chauvinism, reactionarism, and laissez faire capitalism.
Realizing this, I am now closely investigating the sources of these beliefs which make up the foundation of social Darwinism and, when combined with totalitarian thinking, capitalist fascism. This is after I noticed that these systems are unsustainable and would destroy themselves from the inside out. The slow, painful destruction of communities who fall victim to them are well known to me. If one looks carefully, they can see the consequences that have been unfolding since the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic. You may wonder: were the founders aware of this? My guess would be that they were not but were evil nonetheless because they were too selfish to think about the future, their descendants.
If this is the case, then it is the duty of us, the opponents of these ideologies, to spread the word faster than the ideologies are currently spreading in the West. It is hard for me to believe it is not the case considering that both Western political ideologies are fundamentally reactionary. Besides, I doubt they would want civilization as we know it to collapse.
I have a social Darwinist as a maternal uncle who sometimes meets with my parents, maternal grandfather, and younger brother and with his political conversations, often sourced from flawed studies, Russian news, and 4chan, I can easily study the principles of its theories. Both of my parents are also conservatives who support Trump and other immoral American politicians. Being raised by the two of them, I bet I could disguise myself as a Western right-wing traditionalist, maybe even a social Darwinist, since I know the way they speak, to whom they flock to, and how to make them give one their full attention. It would probably be easy to do this as some right-wing grifters can fool American right-wing audiences into thinking that they share the same beliefs (e.g. Thomas MacDonald).
Their kind are gullible because they do not listen to fact checkers and often do not do research to see if who they are listening to really practices what they preach.
Even though there are Westerners who are not like this, the West cannot coexist with Buddhism, let alone the cultures where it is dominant, as the West ruled by colonizing tirthikas and it will likely always be for as long as it lasts. And just because their culture is not as viable as the one founded on Buddhist, Sinic, or even Indic values does not give them the right to imperialize the rest of the world and bring it down with them. We can welcome the Westerner willing to change its ways, turn it into one of an Easterner, and have its culture go through a quick and painless demise, or the Westerner can continue its power trip, destroy everything it touches along with itself, and society will suffer a slow and painful death. This is what the conclusion that I have come to so far as I examine capitalist fascism and Westerners’ connection to it.
The Western doctrine of capitalist fascism rejects an aspect of maitrī, fulfilling beings’ basic needs, and substitutes it for a privilege towards the bourgeoisie and the exploitation of the workers’ labor (also known as Vergegenständlichung or “objectification”). Thus it denies the worth of the collective, only concerns itself with greedy individuals, and thus is immoral. Unlike what the non-Buddhist capitalist wants people to believe, all beings have an altruistic Buddha nature, but it is corrupted, being difficult to notice as it has only conditions without a beginning (listed in the Avijjā Sutta). Abandoning capitalism, both fascist and non-fascist, gives power to the people as it ensures a more guaranteed right to life instead of having not even one thousand billionaires own more than half of Earth’s population combined, more than each one of those billionaires could ever spend in their lifetimes.
Should the Westerner, especially one who pushes capitalist fascism, strengthen its grip on humanity, it can be said that it would make its own naraka.
And so I stand by my plan and encourage others to do the same because it is in the name of the Unsurpassable Enlightened One. By protecting our kind against the Westerner, we are defending the Triple Gem.
If it is not already clear, the disapproval I feel towards the societal values and prevailing norms of the West has led me to question my place in this environment. I believe that meaningful change can only be fostered if the West is put into its place and the Sino-Buddhist East motivates our minds.
In Vietnam, where the culture is predominantly Sinic with some Indic aspects and little European influence, we can see the promotion of quality education, collectivism, and Buddhism (practiced by a forgivable 15% of the population), very unlike the nearby country of the Philippines. In the Philippines, its citizens cling to the Anglo-Saxon and Hispanic culture brought to the country by American and Spaniard imperialists. The effects of this are very clear in their average IQs (Vietnam: 89.53 vs. Philippines: 81.64) and PISA scores (Vietnam: 1403 vs. Philippines: 1058). They are both developing countries in Southeast Asia that were colonized by the West, but because Vietnam kept its culture more pure and stuck to Buddhism (or at least Sinic philosophies), its people are better educated compared to the nearby Westernized countries in a similar economic situation.
In short, Westernization leads to the following:

1. The native culture becomes diluted
2. If Western thinking intrudes, mental degeneration takes hold of the native population and its society slowly degrades along with the West itself as it eats itself from the inside out

Those who cause this to happen must be stopped, especially those who endanger Buddhism. We must not wait for the fruition of their karma for their sacrilege of the Tathagata’s teachings because by then it would be too late, and even if it is instant karma, every bodhisattva’s job is to end suffering.
Those who spread the harmful ideologies bring themselves and others away from the Buddha’s word are polluting humanity by having them join their rat race that will only end in their own demise. They are leading to the ruin of many and thus, I do not consider them to be human but instead parasites.
There is a disgraceful Western belief that for a short amount of time was not held by the majority but is now very pervasive in the West and also is the foundation of reactionarism, chauvinism, and capitalism in all cultures. It says: “My individual rights matter the most and freedom means my right to violate the rights of others.”
This Western babble is followed by numerous all around the world and sows disharmony in societies where it becomes the norm. This idea provides basis for several types of Westerners, including but not limited to:

• the “Karen”; a middle-aged, entitled, often white and anti-mask/anti-vaccine female who makes trivial complaints
• the “Chud”; a racist, misogynistic, right-wing male (usually young) who browses 4chan everyday and has a high likelihood of becoming a mass shooter
• the dayangma (Hanzi: 大洋马); a sex-obsessed young adult Western female, majority white but sometimes POC, is conventionally attractive (to Westerners), sleeps around, and in some cases creates spawn that do not know their father(s)
• the angry white male; self-explanatory, right-wing and traditionalist (sometimes a social Darwnist or capitalist fascist), commonly rural, evangelical Christian and have never seen a POC before
• the “Trad Wife”; a prudish, sometimes uneducated, female who lets Western males walk all over it and raises spawn who are likely to become angry whites
• the New Agehippy; generally a teenager or young adult, a well-meaning but poorly educated white liberal or social democrat who misappropriates Buddhism and appeases Muslims
• the AmeriKKKan fathegrandfather; a middle-aged to elderly, chauvinist male with children, sometimes also grandchildren, and is unconcerned about social justice and similarly to the “Karen”, falls for pseudoscientific conspiracy theories
• the neckbearded otaku (Hiragana: おたく); a hairy white male with “yellow fever” and mediocre hygiene, for the most part subreddit/Discord server moderators who stalk and kidnap East Asian ladies (if not teenage girls)

The growth of these groups is evidence of the degradation of Western culture, showing that it must retire as the dominant culture and make way for the much more sustainable East. Once the manuṣya realm on Earth is completely tainted by the West, Buddhas can no longer arise in the world because the dharma would be known by nobody and the Vinaya are forgotten or destroyed.
The future generation will not remember the dharma unless we halt the growth of the parasitic culture that promotes overconsumption, hyperindividualism, and anti-intellectualism.
The Westerner has a remarkable contrast to the Sinic or Indic. The Westerner has a grasp on this world so strong with its weaponry since the 16th century, using force to disrupt the traditional lives of whatever native people it saw, safe for those in a few countries (even though some of those countries are still being Westernized). The Dutch, English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish built colonies from the Americas to Southeast Asia. The kingdoms were blessed with powerful militaries, strong economies, stable governments, and advanced technology that allowed their cultures to spread. But after half a millennium and looking back, was any of this really earned? And is the Westerner’s conquest over yet?
Since the Great Schism of Christianity, the Westerner trained itself for roughly one thousand years. It trained itself in several aspects, but it forgot an important piece, the dharma. The cunning Westerner, blessed with advancements, used them to tyrannize other peoples on a scale never before seen. This was the beginning of the Latter Day of the Dharma. The dharma is declining because of the savage Westerner. And so, it leeched off of any people it got a hold of, including predominantly Buddhist peoples. Even during the decolonization of the 20th century, fundamentalist Christianity spread and threatened the dharma. To make matters worse, previously Buddhist peoples clung to Christianity as taught by their colonizers; the French in Vietnam and the Spanish and Americans in the Philippines. To this day, the Philippines is a lost cause along with its majority Muslim neighbors in Maritime Southeast Asia. The cunning Westerner turned the Filipino against us and now Buddhists make up only 2% of the Philippines’ population. Now, the Westerner sees Buddhism as nothing more than an aesthetic, a self-help lifestyle, or a decoration that they can commercialize and cherry pick aspects to integrate into their religion or lack thereof.
It is excellent for someone from the West to learn the dharma as this will turn them into a more compassionate and wise person, but they must not enforce the Western gaze onto it and discard parts of the Shakyamuni Buddha’s words they do not like. To be fair, some aspects of Buddhism would be nearly impossible for a Westerner to understand unless they assimilate.
Buddhism is not materialist or blind belief without evidence and it belongs to the East, so stop pretending to be something you are not while pushing stereotypes of Asian Buddhists.
However, even though Buddhism is not materialist or very in line with the Western worldview, it is uniquely human. Walpola Rahula, a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk and writer explains it this way:
Among the founders of religions the Buddha (if we are permitted to call him the founder of a religion in the popular sense of the term) was the only teacher who did not claim to be other than a human being, pure and simple. Other teachers were either God, or his incarnations in different forms, or inspired by him. The Buddha was not only a human being; he claimed no inspiration from any god or external power either. He attributed all his realization, attainments and achievements to human endeavour and human intelligence. A man and only a man can become Buddha. Every man has within himself the potentiality of becoming a Buddha, if he so wills it and endeavours. We can call the Buddha a man par excellence. He was so perfect in his 'human-ness' that he came to be regarded later in popular religion almost as 'super-human'. Man's position, according to Buddhism, is supreme. Man is his own master, and there is no higher being or power that sits in judgment over his destiny. (Rahula 3)
How could one even consider the Westerners who diluted Buddhism human themselves at this point? If it were not for them, Westerners may have a better understanding of the teachings of the “man par excellence”. We are lucky that the only Westerners who necessarily see us as inferior are white nationalists and fundamentalist Christians, otherwise the Westerner could have committed a genocide that would have left millions of us dead. Westerners are competitive beings, so they rarely act in concord towards each other. It is only when there is something that draws them together or away from a common danger.
If everybody on Earth becomes a Westerner, they would wallow in their shamelessness and would have nobody left to exploit except for each other until they destroy themselves.
Until they are the only ones left, they will vilify and exploit anything non-Western until they only have each other, then leading to a chaotic world of undignified militaries, economic inequality, corrupt governments, and little or no innovations.
Unless the Westerner considers even the slightest of inspiration from the East, it will continue to follow hyperindividualism and have apathy towards its education. That is why the West is falling. Those from the West who are smart enough to realize that the West’s flaws that it spreads are deciding that the West is not worth maintaining and its resignation is overdue. If those from the West abandon it to assimilate to the East, it would make the West’s death quicker but more dignified.
This is more than a fad but rather the realization that Western society would be best being a passing fad itself. The West gave us great inventions, food, clothes, scientific discoveries, etc. and once it is gone, the East can pick up where it left off just fine.
We will never abandon the Triple Gem because we recognize it to be more than a spiritual, exotic aesthetic or trend. To do so would make us just like those others in the West who Asian Buddhists look down upon. When the time is right, each and every one of us will surround ourselves with the people who know the dharma better than anyone you have met in the West and we can finally be at their level. We shall be Western only in our country of origin and/or race, but in every other way, we will be Easterners; Buddhist Easterners who will take back what rightfully belongs to us.
When we (and hopefully Buddhists outside of both the Eastern and the Western world) do this, consumerism will lose some of its biggest prey. Even though it may not seem like it at first considering we are abandoning everyone we have ever known, we are doing our ancestors a favor by joining the culture that strives towards the end of suffering. We will be leaving our cultures’ ways of thinking behind, but doing this will save face for our lineage, especially the Western lineage as we would be preventing the creation of more “Karens”, “Chuds”, dayangmas, “neckbeards”, and other degenerates. We will not be annoying dorky nerds and certainly not “neckbeards” who are overly obsessed with and fetishize the culture but people making an effort to get closer to the dharma and surrender to the East.
Although we are collectivists, we must seek personal liberation first for the good of other beings. Once the West collapses and its former supporters come running to us, we shall welcome them. If some do not recognize this before it is too late, well boo hoo! They will have a better birth with the world we will create. Some of them, especially their unlucky spawn, would probably be better off dead and reborn into a better life, maybe even the Pure Land.
The way it is looking now, the West is falling and becoming the world’s laughingstock, which is a good thing. The quicker it falls, the less painful it will be for the Westerner and everybody else. Western culture will not be missed, but we can keep the best of it and continue the innovations that the creators would wish to see. We will remember the legacy of them and be thankful while never forgiving or forgetting the ones who ruined the West.
Works Cited
“Ignorance Avijjā Sutta (AN 10:61).” Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. Dhammatalks. 2017, https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/AN/AN10_61.html. Accessed 31 May 2024.
Gabbe. “Western Culture.” Wikipedia. 25 May 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_culture#:~:text=The%20core%20of%20Western%20civilization,Roman%20civilization%20and%20Western%20Christianity. Accessed 31 May 2024.
Rahula Thero, Walpola. What the Buddha Taught. Oneworld Publications, 1959. Accessed 31 May 2024.
u/Tendai-Student. “栄真Eishin (u/Tendai-Student).” Reddit, 31 May 2024, https://www.reddit.com/useTendai-Student/. Accessed 31 May 2024.
u/Tendai-Student. “Buddhism is being MISREPRESENTED in the West Marginalisation, cultural appropriation, misconceptions and what you can do.” Reddit, 2023, https://www.reddit.com/WrongBuddhism/comments/14zc6xg/buddhism_is_being_misrepresented_in_the_west/. Accessed 31 May 2024.

Please, seeking some advice or positive nudges forward.
Some background, I’ve been in therapy for several years now, the last couple have been most effective in seeing tremendous turnaround, but it hasn’t come without some serious effort and change. It’s been painful to change and adapt, and at this point I’ve begun isolating and withdrawing because I seem unable to find much peace, except for some of the moments I do get alone to myself and I can actually get myself to unwind and reflect or meditate, in the healthiest way. But it seems I’m running myself ragged trying to control myself. Letting go has always been the hardest thing for me to do, that even means stopping whatever I’m doing to just breathe.
I don’t do social media, I don’t go out much anymore aside from work and groceries/necessities and occasional food or coffee, even then I’ve had to cut back on bc of the expense. I’ve dedicated my time to school and my recovery journey. I’m what you might call that poor, young, broke American. I’ve been trying to rebalance my life after throwing myself haphazardly into a religious group that left me feeling much cognitive dissonance and has also contributed to my obsessive compulsiveness. I was raised in it w/some dysfunctional family experiences growing up, experienced some trauma that led to addiction and avoidance and I’ve been working hard to get a serious handle on my life in the last several years and I fear I’m now hanging by a thread.
Been an interesting few months, to say the least… I have been breaking down some religious beliefs of mine, like a faith deconstruction. While I think it’s necessary, I’ve become so tired of feeling as if I’m searching for answers. The answers are either not enough or never ending? Maybe it’s the questions and I’m exhausted. I keep finding myself overstimulated by information. Like I’m trying to process too much too fast. The constant jumping into rabbit holes is what led me to pull back from my faith, along with recognizing compulsive behaviors that began arising back in Feb after becoming more involved in the community. I realized I didn’t want to actually be there and I was putting on this fucking mask like I have always done. I had hopes that my faith was working, but the connections felt so false and my efforts vain. I’ve suffered identity loss before, and just when I was putting healthier boundaries in place and I thought I was finding myself being recovered, it’s like I lost myself all over again. The dissociating was hitting hard and real, everything began distracting myself from me, my voice drowned. Being independent of and going my own way from my family (very large family and I’m youngest, only one unmarried, no kids) has been incredibly challenging. I’ve been a fucking codependent people pleaser, it makes me sick. I still live with my parents, have a bachelors, debt, and barely make more than minimum wage (for now ha).
Today, I discussed w/my therapist about the disturbing visceral/emotional responses I’ve been having at work in recent weeks. It occurred to me how unhappy I am and that I’ve been lying to myself and forcing myself to make it work, when I barely feel myself keeping up, don’t feel I connect well w coworkers either, and all the personal work has just taken much of my energy, so I impulsively turned in my notice and have nothing to fall back on. That maybe these emotional responses are because of how much of my expression was suppressed for so long that it might be coming up in intense spurts and I have to let myself feel them. I wasn’t a very emotionally expressive child, and hid everytime I would cry in my teens because I couldn’t explain what I was thinking/feeling, and then for the few years I was on antidepressants bc I was having volatile reactions then (first time starting therapy ever). I am so tired from suppressing or controlling my self expression.
In search of authenticity, I’m not sure I know how to act like myself. It’s like I’m on some edge of breakthrough. I’m either on the verge of collapse, or I’m about to die because I can’t tell if I’m giving up on my life since I’ve been slowly pulling back from more and more because it’s all become too much happening too fast. I also have nobody left to share with, I’ve always been “too much” for “friends” in the past that I cut ties a long time ago and have struggled making new ones, and my family either doesn’t need this heavy load of information or they might project their own take on it. I’ve run out of many people I trust with my life. Probably why I’m trying to put all my faith in self.
So, it’s evident I need a clean break, a clean slate, and I feel the universe is literally serving me up that dish. So, either my body and mind are giving up this fight and I’m somehow preparing myself to dust, or it’s ego death and I’m beginning anew. I just have never before thought it would happen for me, breaking free and rightfully claiming my voice. I feel insane.

Apologies for the absolutely insane number of words, got carried away trying to compensate for being slower than usual with my recap.
The cold open for the finale has a nice little parallel to the cold open in S1E2, which similarly has Deborah walk in to Marty who’s in a somewhat compromising position with his trainer to deliver good news, although in this case her news is something they both celebrate, rather than a win she uses to gloat over Marty
Even though she’s in a much less combative place with Marty, Deborah still isn’t willing to admit that she came over to tell him the news in person and insists that she’s only there to return the key, showing the limited extent to which she is willing to open up even to people she’s known for a long time.
Deborah and Marty doing the tango together to basically celebrate the news is quite cute and a fun way to kick off the episode
I do think it’s kind of sweet that Kathy is quite looking forward to Deborah’s visit, and J Smith Cameron plays up Kathy’s somewhat childlike excitement at this during the opening of the phone call
Nice to see Deborah making an effort to follow up after inviting Kathy for Christmas, committing to a sister’s weekend is a not insignificant step although it also becomes clear that she’s not 100% committed to it. Waiting for Kathy to call and then tell her there’s a change in plans instead of just straight up telling her isn’t a particularly nice thing to do
Deborah has a weird look on her face when Kathy brings up her parents at the mausoleum, which I initially thought was because she didn’t really like to reflect on the past, although on a rewatch it becomes clear it’s because she knows the truth about the mausoleum.
“She’s pivoting into being an adult” Found the way Kayla phrased this part of the child star to adult actor experience to be very funny. I guess the Bella Donaldson character is supposed to be a reference to people like Zendaya, Zac Efron and Selena Gomez (Cannes Best Actress winner!!???), Disney child stars who are trying to shed their past image and be taken as serious adult actors to varying degrees of success. Also the bit about getting awards buzz for an Aronofsky movie feels a bit like what happened/ was projected to happen with Sadie Sink and The Whale
Deborah watching her old Late Night tape and Ava seeing her do that is a nice callback to and reversal of S1E3, where it was Ava watching Deborah’s tape and discovering more about her past
I love Hannah Einbinder’s simple but sincere delivery of “I knew you would” as Ava, and the way Jean Smart lets just the tiniest smile play across Deborah’s lips in response to Ava’s belief in her
Ava being able to only write stuff for Deborah’s Late Night show and not any actual material of her own shows that even though it’s been a year plus since the S2 Finale she still has the same issue of Deborah being “the one with all the stories. What do I even have to say?”
Ava’s voice going up endearingly high when she says “This is gonna be amazing” is very cute, what a touching and lovely scene between Deborah and Ava showing the respect and admiration they have for each other. I’m sure that will continue for the rest of the finale!
How does a safe in the floor of the pool even work lol
Very fun comedy freaking out by Mark Indelicato as Damien, him becoming hysterical at the thought of becoming the new Marcus is hugely entertaining.
According to Hannah Einbinder and Jean Smart on Variety’s Award Circuit podcast, thy did shoot a scene for this episode where Marcus does tell Deborah that he’s leaving but it was cut from the episode. Honestly not sure what role Marcus will play next season and curious to see what the writers will do since it seems he’s going on a very different plotline than the rest of the show. If this was another show I’d say he’s being written out but from interviews and other behind the scenes material the cast and showrunners are fairly tight knit, so I’d imagine they’ll find a way which makes sense for Marcus to continue being around
Between this guest appearance as Bella Donaldson and the release of Lisa Frankenstein and Abigail, Kathryn Newton is quietly having a pretty cool 2024. She absolutely nails the passive-aggressive “nice” girl type that she’s asked to play here. Also the Zack and Cody mention is kind of neat since Newton starred along with Cole Sprouse in Lisa Frankenstein earlier this year, while the goat demon movie mentioned might possibly be a nod to Newton’s affinity for the horro horror adjacent genre?
Quite like this Jimmy/Kayla B plot, allows Meg Stalter to show a different/more emotional side to Kayla who’s usually just the very fun comedic relief. Her smiling nicely and trying to politely ward off Bella’s passive-aggressive “niceness” is such a deeply human character beat.
Deborah Margesson doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as Deborah Vance, so I guess that’s why she didn’t go back to her maiden name after the divorce.
Deborah moving her parent’s remains to Vegas and not telling Kathy for twenty plus years is absolutely deranged behaviour. “It was a corner plot” and “I used my art shipper!” are ridiculously bad responses to the situation, this being the last straw for Kathy is very understandable. Although in Deborah’s defence I guess the fact that she was willing to accompany Kathy to the mausoleum for what she knows to be a completely empty gesture is her deranged way of showing care for her sister and not wanting to hurt her feelings.
Also in hindsight Deborah lying to/not telling Kathy about their parents to avoid hurting her feelings and any conflict is good foreshadowing since that pretty much turns out to be what she does regarding Ava and the head writer job
Deborah’s look of absolute disdain/confusion after hearing the “going to the hardware store for milk” line is gold from Jean Smart
I think Kathy’s reaction to Deborah here and deciding that she’s had enough of her BS and not wanting to put herself through even more hurt in attempting to maintain a relationship is completely reasonable, really liked J Smith Cameron’s work here, as well as Jean Smart playing Deborah’s silent acceptance of this relationship blowing up yet again
Deborah standing alone in the mausoleum is a great shot
Kathy’s reaction to Deborah’s BS here serves as a great contrast to how Ava deals with Deborah’s BS later on in the episode, it truly takes someone special/equally deranged to want to continue being with Deborah despite all her flaws and the hurt she causes to those around her. To use some internet parlance, Kathy is unwilling to put up with Deborah’s freak, while Ava ends up being more than willing to match Deborah’s
Lewis Benton/ fake John Oliver’s line to Ava about her being the hardest-working person in the office is a nice reminder of how working with Deborah has changed Ava for the better in some ways by giving her a stronger work ethic
“Maybe our paths will cross again” Just speculating here, and maybe this would be too inside baseball of a storyline for a show that initially at least was about two people on the “outside” of the entertainment industry, but might there be a future storyline of Deborah competing against fake John Oliver for an Emmy? A recent Emmy rule change starting from the Emmys earlier this year means that Oliver no longer competes with the more traditional Late Night shows like Colbert, Kimmel, Meyers, The Daily Show etc prior to that this had been the case for the past ten or so years
Kayla being the funny one growing up as a defense mechanism against bullies like Bella is such a great character detail on the part of the writers, makes so much sense and explains so much about Kayla’s outlook and attitude
This conflict is so great because both Jimmy and Kayla do have a point. Obviously Jimmy standing up for Kayla who’s being bullied is a good thing for him to do as a friend, but Kayla’s also not wrong in feeling that Jimmy is kind of ignoring her work and being a bit patronising. Really liked how Meg Stalter plays Kayla’s hurt feelings in this scene, it’s a well-executed emotional beat for a generally comedic character. And this continues the throughline about whether Jimmy has what it takes/enough stones and guts to be in the business which was also seen in the back part of S2
Quite liked the scene between Deborah and Biff Cliff (what a name!), a pretty sobering reminder of the obstacles faced by women in entertainment and just how precarious making it in the business actually is, makes complete sense that it would spook Deborah to do what she does later on
I thought the Jimmy Page dating a 14 year old story was meant to be a jab and Jerry Seinfeld and his 17 year old girlfriend, but googled and found out that that was a true story too
I feel like the bit Ava has as a writer taking new headshots and the different treatment they receive compared to actors must be drawn from the real-life experiences of the writers/showrunners, it’s such a specific joke. That said I think if you asked a layperson to tell who’s a writer and who’s an actor from this Deadline photoshoot I think they’d be hard pressed to tell the difference (very complimentary).
Ava sharing her excitement over her “dream job” as head writer for Deborah with a random make-up artist is very endearing, and just makes what happens later on even more crushing
Deborah going to the exec meeting and slowly realising just how much is being invested in her is a great bit of reaction acting from Jean Smart, and further helps reinforce the pressure she’s under and explains her choices
Quite liked the scene of Deborah telling Ava that the network doesn’t want her as head writer, on first watch it seems like Deborah is just worried about how to break the bad news to Ava and let her down easy, but on rewatch it feels so obvious that Deborah is just lying through her teeth to Ava and struggling with it big time.
Jimmy’s “proposal” to Kayla on the plane is such a great comedic setpiece/skewing of the rom-con trope, everything from the overly-excited passenger who completely misreads the situation to Jimmy kneeling because the flight attendant says there’s no standing in the aisle is just perfect.
It’s also just a really good way to cap off the season long plot involving Jimmy and Kayla, we’ve seen throughout the season that they make a very good thing and that Kayla’s kind of a genius at this in her own unique way, very satisfying to see Jimmy finally recognise this and promote her. Jimmy and Kayla’s mentomentee relationship serves as a healthy contrast to Deborah and Ava,with Jimmy as a mentor who recognises the mentee’s contributions and is willing to make compromises (see his acceptance of Kayla’s three funny videos a day)
Jimmy’s voice going up absurdly high when he says “Leave us alone!!!” and “What is your deal” is fantastic comedic work from co-showrunner Paul W Downs, he’ll get Writing and Series Emmy nominations this year, but he should really be getting one for Supporting Actor too.
I guess if you want to nitpick you could say Ava running into Winnie is a very convenient thing to move the plot along, but I choose to look at is as a reminder that Ava has moved on up in the world since the end of S2 and is now at a place where she can get takeout from fancy places where a high-level network head might also dine
Ava’s look of betrayal and anger after realising that Deborah lied to her is great work from Hannah Einbinder
Deborah is reading a Churchill biography when Ava storms in
My god, Ava confronting Deborah is just a perfect perfect scene, the writing is so sharp and Jean Smart is fantastic at playing Deborah going into ice/hardened mode when being confronted, but what a tremendous performance by Hannah Einbinder. She just captures the mixture of betrayal, hurt and anger that Ava feels so naturally and powerfully
There’s so many callbacks and references to previous Deborah/Ava confrontations and scenes from across the show. Ava accusing Deborah of just doing the same thing is from their very first meeting S1E1 where she calls her a hack as well as from their argument in S1E10 when she calls her the same thing. The line about being “a shark or whatever” comes from S2E5 which is what Deborah’s retired comedian friend Susan describes her as, with Deborah later then telling Ava that “You’ve got to be a shark” at the end of S2E8. And Deborah’s advice to Ava to be ambitious and saying that she feels lonely when opening a champagne bottle comes from S3E5 (take that people who said the woods episode was pointless filler).
“You can be the woman behind the man behind the woman” What an unappealing job description, and also a sign of how far Ava has comes since the S2 finale when she was unwilling to take the credit for writing Deborah’s special. Now her time away from Deborah has allowed Ava the space to truly value herself, her achievements and be justifiably proud of them (she stresses her job at On The Contrary to Deborah back in S3E1 and stresses her co-producer role when in bed with Christina Hendricks in S3E6), and she’s no longer willing to accept this demotion and wants credit for her work.
“You’re already making decisions out of fear and you’ll keep doing it” A really cutting observation from Ava which completely nails what Deborah is doing, much like how she immediately clocks in S2E8 that Deborah is pushing her away because she’s afraid.
“It has to work. I’ve lost way too much for it not too” Deborah’s sentiment applies equally to Ava as it does to herself, and helps explain just why Ava would go to the the extremes she does later on
As much as the dialogue in the scene is great, this Deborah and Ava argument also hits hard because of the silent moments in between. The wordless ten seconds or so which rests entirely on Ava after Deborah says that she’s willing to lose her is just tremendous stuff from Hannah Einbinder, all the hurt plays across her face and Einbinder is simply terrific in making the audience feel the deep hurt and sense of betrayal of that moment
Ava saying that Deborah will die alone is something that Deborah has thought about before, saying back in S1E9 in her interview with a journalist that she accepts the truth that people leave the world completely alone and refuses to pretend otherwise
One Last Time - Deb’s Final Stand Up is the track which plays as the big Deborah/Ava argument scene closes out according to Shazam, with the track (that played in the S1 Finale) taking on a whole new meaning in this context. The soundtrack isn’t a big selling point of the show unlike something like say Succession, but the themes by Carlos Rafael Rivera are simple but always effective
Jimmy taking a selfie in his new office is quite cute, and him saying that he didn’t do it alone and comforting Ava at the end of this scene is a much needed nice beat after the intensity of the previous scene
“shows that already exist with one tiny tweak, or huge global hits” Honestly a pretty depressing but frankly accurate read of the current media/television landscape
Jimmy saying that he knows Ava will do the right thing brings to mind these Deborah lines to Ava from the previous episode “It’s so easy for you to say what’s right or wrong. It’s never that simple. One day you’ll understand that” Ava’s move of blackmailing to get Deborah to do right by her certainly falls into the “never that simple” category
Curious about the politics/legal behind the scenes stuff that needed to be cleared to have Deborah be the host of a CBS late night show in the world of Hacks, while Hacks the actual show is under Warner Bros. Discovery which does not own hacks. I guess in this universe Deborah gets the Late Late Show timeslot instead of Taylor Tomlinson with After Midnight
Deborah’s left Vegas but the vanity plate for her car will continue to follow her and be updated
Deborah excitedly taking a photo of her Host parking spot is very cute, but the beat immediately after when we see a hint of her being sad and uneasy/regretful is also great, she’s achieved her dream but at great personal cost, and has no one to share the photo and moment with
It’s been a central thesis of the show that Deborah and Ava are ultimately more alike than different despite their different ages, backgrounds etc. Even in S1E2 the antiques dealer says that Deborah and Ava are “the same” and are “both psychotic b*tches”, and in episode after episode we see just how alike they are. For example in S2E2 after Deborah finds out about the email she says that Ava is just like her, being equally cruel and selfish. Ava blackmailing her abusive boss so that she can continue to work with her is just a completely insane thing to do, and also very much something Deborah would do herself to help her career, as we saw back in S1E5 when Deborah blackmailed Marty to secure her dates at the Palmetto
This move also shows just how much Ava has learnt from Deborah and how much the student has learnt from the master. Ava takes Deborah’s advice from S2E8 to be a shark, and her advice from S3E5 to “concentrate on what’s best for you”. It’s also ends up becoming a twisted version of Ava saying that she won’t leave Deborah in that same episode too, with Ava resorting to blackmail to stay with Deborah. And Ava finally does what she said back in S2E8, which is that “I get to decide what’s best for me”. I love love love the layers to this show!
I love love love the cocky and slightly confident/smirking Ava that we get a brief glimpse of from this scene, coupled with the power suit she’s rocking it makes for such a satisfying moment as she gets one up over Deborah after being on the back foot previously
We’ve seen a different and more vulnerable side of Deborah this season in S3E5 and S3E7, and seen her be like a fangirl in S3E4, but this scene and her stepping up to Ava and slightly seething as she says “You wouldn’t” is a nice reminder that she can be absolutely terrifying when she wants to be
That tiny tiny little gulp that Hannah Einbinder does when/just after Ava says “I would” is so so good, Ava’s standing up to Deborah but Deborah is still one very scary person. Also really love her cocking her head to one side as she says “Wouldn’t you?”
This has already been pointed out on Twitter, but Deborah and Ava sitting apart in the writer’s room at the end is kind of like the pepper shakers which Deborah rearranged to be apart in S3E1. Also a nice contrast to S3E8 when they were sitting apart as Ava was reporting the journalist’s article to Deborah, even despite them sitting separately they were still very close emotionally, but now the physical distance between them is reflective of the division between them as friends/colleagues
Spoilers for Succession S2E10: This Hacks finale is very reminiscent of the Succession S2 Final This Is Not For Tears. In both episodes the older mentor who’s been trying to teach their protege/successor to be harder and tougher ends up being too good at their job and get betrayed by their mentee in a stunning rug pull moment, even though for much of the season it seems the mentee is perfectly content working undefor their mentor. It’s a plot twist that’s both completely shocking in the moment yet makes so much sense when looking back on the season and the series as a whole. And of course the finale ends on a shot of the older mentor as they take in what their mentee has done, with a mixture of anger but also just the slightest hint of pride and begrudging admiration
This final twist in the finale of Ava blackmailing Deborah is so so good and satisfying, does what great season finales do which is deliver a “twist” that feels like a gut punch initially but has actually been building over the season, and sets up a really juicy scenario/ status quo for next season
Ava blackmailing her way to head writer on Deborah’s show is such a juicy scenario to leave things for Season 4, Ava has never had power over Deborah like she does now and I’m personally very much looking forward to how that changes their dynamic next season
My only concern is that I do hope the Vegas aspect and the characters from that part of the Hacks universe don’t get left behind with the focus shifting to running a Late Night show. If there is something to ding this season of the show it’s that there’s not enough Kiki, I’m not smart enough to figure out how a Vegas casino dealer will be able to regularly show up in LA but I selfishly want the writers to figure that out because Poppy Liu is just too fun as Kiki to leave out. Also kind of curious as to how they’ll keep Marcus around since he’s now leaving Deborah’s QVC empire.
Overall a really really great season finale and a very strong season as a whole, easily the best Comedy of the year and one of the best shows of the year. Really rooting for the show to win big prizes at the Emmys later this year against the Bear although that will be tough, pulling hard for Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder to win and for the show to at least win Writing if it can’t win for Comedy Series. Also would be very happy if Meg Stalter and Paul W Downs got their first-time noms this year, they were both great this season

Pluralistic ignorance is a phenomenon in which people mistakenly believe that others predominantly hold an opinion different from their own. In this phenomenon, most people in a group may go along with a view they do not hold because they think, incorrectly, that most other people in the group hold it.
Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Emperor's New Clothes" is a famous fictional case of pluralistic ignorance.

Asch Conformity Experiments

The Asch conformity experiments, conducted by Solomon Asch, investigated how individuals conform to or defy a majority group's influence on beliefs and opinions. Groups of eight male college students participated in a simple "perceptual" task. In reality, all but one of the participants were actors.
Each student viewed a card with a line on it, followed by another with three lines labeled A, B, and C. One of these lines was identical in length to that on the first card, and the other two lines were clearly longer or shorter. Each participant was then asked to say aloud which line matched the length of that on the first card.
In the control group, with no pressure to conform to actors, the error rate on the critical stimuli was less than 0.7%.
In the actor condition also, the majority of participants' responses remained correct (64.3%), but a sizable minority of responses conformed to the actors' (incorrect) answer (35.7%).
The responses revealed strong individual differences: 12% of participants followed the group in nearly all of the tests. 26% of the sample consistently defied majority opinion, with the rest conforming on some trials.
Overall, 74% of participants gave at least one incorrect answer out of the 12 critical trials.
Regarding the study results, Asch stated: "That intelligent, well-meaning young people are willing to call white black is a matter of concern."

Distortion of: perception, judgement, action

Participants who conformed to the majority on at least 50% of trials reported reacting with what Asch called a "distortion of perception". These participants, who made up a distinct minority (only 12 subjects), expressed the belief that the actors' answers were correct, and were unaware that the majority were giving incorrect answers.
Among the other participants who yielded, most expressed what Asch termed "distortion of judgment". These participants concluded after a number of trials that they must be wrongly interpreting the stimuli and that the majority must be right, leading them to answer with the majority. These individuals were characterized by low levels of confidence.
The final group of participants who yielded on at least some trials exhibited a "distortion of action". These subjects reported that they knew what the correct answer was, but conformed with the majority group simply because they didn't want to seem out of step by not going along with the rest.
All conforming respondents underestimated the frequency with which they conformed to the majority.

Presence of a true partner

Asch found that the presence of a "true partner" (a "real" participant or another actor told to give the correct response to each question) decreased conformity. In studies that had one actor give correct responses to the questions, only 5% of the participants continued to answer with the majority.

Degree of wrongness

The authors failed to find a point at which subject conformity to the majority was completely eliminated, even when the disparity between lines was increased to 7 inches.

Groupthink

A consequence of pluralistic ignorance is groupthink. This refers to a situation where small, cohesive groups of intelligent individuals are led to make unintelligent decisions.
The concept of groupthink posits that individuals correctly perceive the preferences of others, undergo some form of motivated reasoning, which distorts their true preferences, and then willingly choose to conform; hence, they generally feel positively about the resulting group decisions.
The success of groupthink also hinges on the long-term homogeneity of the group, which seeks to keep that same cohesiveness and therefore to avoid all potential conflict. However, while groupthink, to some extent, depends on the ability of individuals to perceive attitudes and desires of others, the Abilene paradox hinges on the inability to guage true wants and intentions of group members.

The Abilene Paradox: The Management of Agreement

Where a group of people collectively decide on a course of action that is counter to the preferences of most or all individuals in the group, while each individual believes it to be aligned with the preferences of most of the others.
A common phrase related to the Abilene paradox is a desire to not "rock the boat".
It involves a breakdown of group communication where each member mistakenly believes that their own preferences are counter to the group's, and therefore does not raise objections, or even states support for an outcome they do not want.
Like in groupthink, group members jointly decide on a course of action that they would not choose as individuals. However, while in groupthink, individuals undergo self-deception and distortion of their own views, in the Abilene Paradox, individuals are unable to perceive the views or preferences of others.
Being prosocial and generally caring about the implications of one's actions on others has been shown to increase the likelihood that an individual finds themselves in an Abilene Paradox, especially if they are not the first to have a say.
The theory is often used to help explain poor group decisions, especially notions of the superiority of "rule by committee". The Watergate scandal is often cited as a potential instance of the Abilene paradox in action. As well as the case of Challenger disaster, though in that case, researchers used both the concepts of groupthink and the Abilene paradox as possible explanations of the events.
The Abilene Paradox: The Management of Agreement

The Spiral of Silence

Also known as the theory of public opinion, the spiral of silence theory claims individuals will be more confident and outward with their opinion when they believe it is shared throughout a group. But if the individual notices that his opinion is unpopular with the group, they will be more inclined to remain silent.
A study conducted by the Pew Research Center discovered a “spiral of silence,” where users on social media are less likely to voice their true opinions if they perceive they don’t align with the majority.
When a group stands out by way of making the most noise or causing the most chaos, this can give the impression that the group is more influential than they actually are. The spiraling process is initiated by the most visible and expressed opinions being shared loudly and publicly, while the genuine and differing opinions of the group are not expressed.
Social Media and the ‘Spiral of Silence’ Pew Research Center

Recent Study Replicates Asch Experiment

Researchers at the University of Bern decided to revisit and expand upon Asch’s seminal work. They wanted to see if Asch’s findings could be upheld in a different cultural and temporal context. They also wanted to explore adding monetary incentives and how it affected more complex decision-making by asking political questions.
The first part of the study repeated Asch's line judgment task. They added a twist: one group got no rewards (non-incentivized) and another got money for correct answers (incentivized). In the second part, participants expressed agreement or disagreement with political statements, with confederates giving predetermined responses. The final part was an online questionnaire measuring Big 5 personality traits.
The findings were similar to Asch's original results. In the non-incentivized group, the error rate in the line judgment task was 33%, similar to Asch's findings. In the incentivized group, the error rate dropped to 25%, showing that financial rewards reduce but don't eliminate group pressure.
For political opinions, group pressure significantly influenced responses, with a 38% conformity rate. Among personality traits, only openness had a significant correlation with conformity. People who scored higher in openness conformed less. Other traits like intelligence, self-esteem, and need for social approval didn't significantly impact conformity.
“We thought Asch’s findings were overstated. We also believed that providing incentives for correct answers would wipe out the conformity effect. Both did not happen. The replication turned out to be very close to the original results and providing monetary incentives did not eliminate the effect of social pressure.”
Regarding what people should take away from the findings, the researchers remarked: “Here we like to cite Mark Twain, ‘Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.'”
Scientists revisit Solomon Asch's classic conformity experiments -- and are stunned by the results
The power of social influence: A replication and extension of the Asch Experiment (2023)

It used to be said that in New Zealand, when National and Labour agreed on something, that was the issue over. But as the hoopla over the residential zoning showed us, that’s no longer true. LabNats shook hands, but ACT decided they weren’t keen, and now the change has been passed but councils can just choose not to listen if they like.
How very nice for them.
But that’s okay. There’s other things occurring in New Zealand politics at the moment that our parties might be able to agree on. Like our constitution, for instance. ACT thinks we need one, and it should be contained in the Treaty of Waitangi, and the Maori Party somehow agree. And I think this radical, ideologically-driven shared interest is probably going to see it done, though not necessarily in the way either of them would like.
To start with, New Zealand HAS a constitution. We also have a constitition act, that lays out the mechanisms of how our government works, but our constitution is made up of a collection of key legal documents that basically hold this country together — in a procedural sense. And procedure is really what we’re all about.
However, we’re nearly unique in not having our constitution bound up in one neat document; only Britain shares our peculiarity. This can be confusing for people, especially when those people have become accustomed to quite an American way of thinking. You may notice that where our actual constitution is in line with the UK, Seymour’s attempt to rewrite the treaty into a founding document turned it into more of a declaration of rights like the US constitution than say, our close neighbour and constitutional sibling Australia.
There are some genuine weaknesses to this — most of our documents aren’t entrenched, there’s very little that binds our sovereign parliament, and it isn’t very intuitive to people. But it has advantages too — its uncodified, dispersed nature provides a unique kind of protection (see Winnie’s attempt to negate the effects of the Treaty where he’s had to amend like 40 bills. It’s very hard to fuck over our constitution without it being exceptionally obvious to some very straight-spined lawyers itching to take you to court and a public keen to vote you out of office). It has an element of flexibility that has given our judicial system power to reign our government in by unusual means, as well as support what is already otherwise quite an unusual way of doing law. Take for example our Bill of Rights Act, a constitutional document. Unlike nearly every other Bill of Rights, our BORA does not supersede law, but underwrites it. It is especially strong because wherever possible, the judiciary will interpret a piece of legislation to be in line with our Bill of Rights Act, pulling legislation that might otherwise trample on rights into a rights-orientated framework. I honestly think this may be one of the most effective pieces of rights legislation ever written in terms of actually safeguarding basic citizens freedoms from state abuse, all the while never trampling on the sovereign powers of Parliament. Having an unwritten constitution isn’t necessary for this arrangement, but it just works really well with it.
But it’s the weaknesses rather than the strengths that have been talked up of late, and they’re easy to attack. It’s come from many directions too — and I don’t just mean all of ATLAS’s publications and conversations strangely strongly pushed in opinion columns and on social media. Think about where you heard the idea.
But changes to our judiciary are also being attempted with the effect (if not the intention) of weakening our constitutional standing. The Waitangi Tribunal IS the constitutional mechanism of the Treaty of Waitangi; when we say Te Tiriti is a constitutional document, that’s not lip service, it’s a principle that has been given effect, that WE have given effect through a parliamentary act, and one of the main prongs of that is the Tribunal and the powers it has been granted to enforce and interpret the Treaty.
The Tribunal itself is a great hidden strength; we don’t have indigenous protections in our Bill of Rights Act because for a good 30 years at least, the Tribunal has been doing most of those functions. There is the work it is doing to take pressure off the legislature — something we need to discuss at some point: the workload of Parliament. The Treaty settlements have been signed and negotiated by a sovereign Parliament only with the help of the Tribunal, who basically did the legwork and research necessary to allow that to happen. And the relationship gains between Crown and Iwi that came from that until now had been frankly immeasurable. Thats a constitutional strength you can’t get from a piece of paper.
The idea that checks and balances are pieces of paper signed by our governor general is wrong. Our checks and balances are our courts, our media, our elections, our conventions and structures and groups and people. And it’s a misunderstanding to think that writing it down in one document makes it inherently better or stronger.
But it’s not wrong to want to do it, and we’re seeing two radical ideas of what different parts of society want that to look like. I think we’re one minor party or enthusiastic mainstream political editor away from a rising cross-bench movement to rewrite our constitution from the ground up.
The only consolation I have is if that happens, I’m pretty sure it’s really gonna backfire on ACT. I just hope it doesn’t backfire on everyone else too.

Good day, Redditors.
I'm writing this post to share the leassons that me and my team has learned this year from spending almost $250k on facebook ads for our own e-commerce brand.
Let's get started.
I started advertising on Facebook in 2017, which is seven years ago. It feels like two years, really. Back in 2017, when the Facebook ads platform was quite new, it was hard not to get results. Businesses used stock images in their ads and made millions in sales.
Back then, if you started Facebook ads, it was like having the only restaurant in town, and just because you were the only one in town, it would always be full. This was Facebook ads back then.
Fast-forward to 2024, and it's like having 100 restaurants in a small town. Everyone is competing for the same customer. Advertising today is hard. Actually, you could say that in 2018, when there was more competition than in 2017, the same thing you could say about 2019 and 2020 (the release year of IOS 14). What's the point that I'm trying to make? Facebook ads in 2024 are easier than they will be in 2025 and 2026.
If you just look at all the legacy brands in the car industry, skin care industry, or any other industry, they still mostly use tv ads, billboard ads, and youtube ads; if they are advertising on Facebook, their ads suck. That being said, direct-to-consumer or any other small business owner still has time to get it. Yes, it's more challenging but will only become more complex.
That being said, let's jump to the lessons I have learned this year, and hopefully, you can take some nuggets away from this post.

1. THE CREATIVE

This year, we have tested more than 400 ad creatives for our brand, and we still haven't done enough testing. Content really is the king. Last year, I wrote about the need to test at least five creatives a week. That's long gone. The tiktokization is real in Facebook ads as well. The more you test, the faster you find winning ads that can scale.
This year's learning on creatives is that best-performing ads don't live as long as they used to. In 2023, we still had ads from 2022 that were the best-performing ads for some clients. This year, it's way different. The life of the best-performing ad has gone down. This means we must create more ad variations, especially when we find a winning ad angle.
I would suggest anyone spend at least 30 minutes on Instagram reels and look at the content that interests them. Then, look at your Facebook feed the next day; you will see tons of ads about the thing that you watched on the Instagram reel the previous day.
Creating just few ads a month is not enough. Back in 2017 you could run 2 ads for the whole year and just print money. It's 2024 and two ads should be launched every day.
So, how can you test hundreds of ads a month?
2) THE RESEARCH
Every small, medium, service-based, direct-to-consumer business owner, marketing director, and CMO has a major advantage over big legacy brands.
It is the ability to connect with your core customers on social media. The way to do that is by researching. Every business has a medium—and large-size competitor in its market. Go to their website, socials, and Google reviews and look for 1, 2, and 3-star reviews about their business.
This is where you can find a lot of golden nuggets on what customers don't like about their product, their customer service, their offer, their service, and so on.
Use that information and create ad content that shows that your product service does not have ".... these problems."
Let's just imagine that you are selling premium quality shoes, and one of your competitors is doing the same, but many of their 2-star reviews say that the competitors' shoes are causing blisters on your feet. You can use that information and your ads to say "that your shoes will protect the customer's feet from blisters."
If you have a better product, some of your competitors use that information and ad creatives around that. Before you do that, read every single 1, 2, and 3-star review and note down what the review was about.
You will be able to take away at least 10+ ad angle ideas from these reviews, and you can create hundreds of ads that you can test.
Back in 2018, ad testing was easy. You created ten ads, each of them with a different messege. 4 for the top of the funnel. Four for the middle of the funnel. 2 for the bottom of the funnel, and you could run it for the rest of the year.
Right now, you need to do a lot of research to truly understand your customers so you can create ads that speak to them. We ran through our competitors this year just by creating ads that spoke to our customers' desires and needs.
Every two weeks, we check our competitor's bad reviews to see if there is a new ad angle that we could test.
Have you seen legacy brand car ads? All of them are the same. Car driving down the hill, pulling up at their house, a guy or girl walking into the house. Every ad is the same, a lot of times when we see the ad we don't even know which car brand it is because it's all the same.
Same thing is happening right now with Facebook ads. All of the ads look the same, speak to the same people and this makes it harder to get results.
The leasson that we learning this year on research is that it needs to be done daily. There is so much information posted every day on our competiors, or the research studdies that has recently be done that we cannot afford to do marketing research once a year. It needs to be done daily at least for one hour. Those who will do it will get better results with their facebook ads.
3) TESTING
In the past two months I have seen far to many ad account audits and I can tell that 95% of the ad accounts don't know what ad testing even means.
I have seen campaigns named DYNAMIC CREATIVE TEST, but when I look at the ad set level, the dynamic creative is off. The ads inside the ad level are different, 3 different creatives, 2 different copies, the same headline. I ask what exactly are you testing and the answer is always " ads" But what exactly are you testing? " I don't know". That pretty much summs up a lot of advertisers today.
How do we do ad testing? We create one ad angle based on one desire. In this ad angle, we have three images with the same messege ( each image has a different background or any other changing variable), two ad copies, and two headlines. This is a dynamic creative ad.
Once we get results, we break it down by best performing ad creatve, ad copy and headline. Then we create improvement creative variations to the best creative, best ad copy and best headline under a new dynamic creative. Then we repeat the process again. And again, and again. Usually about 10 times. Sometimes even 20 times until we hit a really good performing ad angle.
Here are some an ad angles that always work - "US VS THEM" , "Founders Story", "2(3,4,5) Reasons Why X", "Features Benefits" "Negative Humor". All fo these marketing angles work. It's impossible for them not to work if you put in the effort and find the winning ad combination for these ad angles.
And you can find it by testing. In 2023, we tested one improvement and two new ad angles every week.
This year, we will test at least three improvements on the best-performing ad angles and 5 new ad angle tests every week.
This goes back to what I mentioned before: the more you test, the faster you find winners and the quicker you can scale your ads. We even use AI like Claude for ad copy, script writing, headline writing. We also use photoshop ai for more image creative creation. This helps us speed up the process. One creative person with understanding on how ads need to look like can put out the same amount of ads as four people working full time daily without Ai.
One direct-response copywriter with AI can write as many ad copies daily as four people would write in a week.
Even for some of our clients, we have competitors who literally test 100 ads every week, and it has been a challenge to keep up.
To sum up the lesson, last year, we thought that we tested enough this year, and today, we think that we don't test enough, so we're looking for ways to test 50 creatives a week.
4) SCALING THE WINNING TESTS.
Here are some quick tips on how to scale your winning video ads.
The first thing that we do is try to show the same video message, but in a different way. Then we filmed the exact same video but in a different environment. Then we also introduce different age groups; if your product appeals to 18-65, then you need to have people in your ads that are in those age groups. One ad can be a person who's 19, then another ad is 24, 30, 35, 40, 46, 50+, and so on. People resonate with people in their age group. It's hard for a 55-year-old to resonate with a 19-year-old who does not share the same problems.
If you find a winning ad don't sit on it, don't let it die out, scale the creative by creating more of it that would appeal do different audiences.
It's a common mistake to rely solely on increasing ad spend when a winning creative starts to lose its effectiveness. Instead, consider creating more variations of the ad, especially if the message is still generating results. Don't be afraid to create 50 or more variations of the winning ad. Remember, it's not easy to find a winning creative, so it's important to make the most of it when you do.
Sometimes, it takes us six weeks to find a winning ad messege when we test 50+ ads. Once we find it, we make sure that we squeeze out all the juice from that winning ad messege.
5) ADVERTORIALS, LANDING PAGES ETC.
I have mentioned this in other posts. This is this years biggest leasson. Test more landing pages, advertorials and listicles. We all know that the product page, website always needs to be improved and the more you improve the better conversion you can get.
But what a lot of people overlook is testing separate landing pages and advertorials.
Especially landing pages based on best performing ads. If you talk about a problem in the ad and then just randomly send people to your website you will get sales. But if you talk about the problem and send people to a landing page that goes deeper inside the problem that the customer might be facing and educates them that this one of the best and cost effective solutions out there your ads will get even more conversions.
I almost feel ashamed that last year, we did not do this on the scale that we do now.
We also launch a new landing page or advertorial test for our past week's best-performing ads every week. To continue to the marketing messege. This strategy has been so impactful that we will launch a new sales campaign just for landing pages alone.
6) CREATING SOCIAL CONTENT.
It's not enough to create ads. You also need to create content that you can publish on your feed to get organic engagement. Getting organic engagement boosts your ads. Also, the best organic posts can be used as ads to increase engagement.
How many content pieces do you need to post? Ideally? Ten reel videos a day. I do understand that this sounds wild, but here I am. We are not posting ten videos a day yet.
Suppose we go back to understand what Facebook and Instagram are trying to optimize for. They want the users to spend as much time as possible on their platform.
The only way a user can spend as much time as possible is to consume content. If you publish content that people like to watch, educational, humorous, and showcase content around your product or service, you will get a boost from Facebook and Instagram algorithms. Your ads will get lower CPM; lower CPM = lower CAC. Lower CAC = More profit or more money for advertising to scale your business.
We started posting one post daily and saw a decrease in CPM and CAC. Also, engagement on our social media increased. Once people see the ad, they can click on the Facebook or Instagram page, and there's actually some good content that people like to watch, which helps Facebook's algorithm.
7) ENGAGING AD CONTENT
The more engaging the ads are, the more meta algorithms will push them. By engaging ads, I mean they need to get reactions, comments, and shares.
Here's a simple yet effective strategy to boost ad engagement: Start by replying to comments, and then end your response with a question. This encourages the person to continue the conversation in the comments section, thereby increasing engagement.
It's a simple equation: the more comments you get on your ads, the lower your CPMs will be. Comments are a clear indicator of engagement, and higher engagement leads to lower costs.
I just checked the reports for our brands on our best-performing ads, and all of them had 100+ comments.
Imagine seeing an ad without any likes, comments, or shares. Now, imagine seeing an ad with hundreds of comments, shares, and hundreds of reactions.
Seeing an ad with so much engagement alone sparks interest to see it what the whole fuss is about.
You can also comment first under the ad using your personal profile.
One of our customer service teams' tasks is to reply to ad comments within 30 minutes of the posting the comment. Replying fast increases the chance for them to reply back, which boosts your ad.
8) SUMMARY
Compared to all the previous years, this year has been the hardest in advertising, especially after recent changes in meta-algorithms going heavily into ad content optimization.
This meant that we had to be more strategic about testing and more dialed into research than ever. If you had told me in 2018 that you need to test 50 ads a month and do at least 2 hours of research weekly, I would have told you to go F**** yourself. I have succeeded with my five ads per ad account, and I'm good.
Looking back, this humbles me and makes me think and ask the question - "what will be required to get success with Facebook ads in 2026?" This is only two years from now? One thing I know for sure is that it will be more challenging than it is now.
Even writing this right now fuels me with an urgency to build things bigger and faster. Cause in two years there is going to be 400 resturants packed in a small town battling for the same customer.
Thanks for reading. I hope that you enjoyed this post. See you in the next one.

Good day, Redditors.
I'm writing this post to share the leassons that me and my team has learned this year from spending almost $250k on facebook ads for our own e-commerce brand.
Let's get started.
I started advertising on Facebook in 2017, which is seven years ago. It feels like two years, really. Back in 2017, when the Facebook ads platform was quite new, it was hard not to get results. Businesses used stock images in their ads and made millions in sales.
Back then, if you started Facebook ads, it was like having the only restaurant in town, and just because you were the only one in town, it would always be full. This was Facebook ads back then.
Fast-forward to 2024, and it's like having 100 restaurants in a small town. Everyone is competing for the same customer. Advertising today is hard. Actually, you could say that in 2018, when there was more competition than in 2017, the same thing you could say about 2019 and 2020 (the release year of IOS 14). What's the point that I'm trying to make? Facebook ads in 2024 are easier than they will be in 2025 and 2026.
If you just look at all the legacy brands in the car industry, skin care industry, or any other industry, they still mostly use tv ads, billboard ads, and youtube ads; if they are advertising on Facebook, their ads suck. That being said, direct-to-consumer or any other small business owner still has time to get it. Yes, it's more challenging but will only become more complex.
That being said, let's jump to the lessons I have learned this year, and hopefully, you can take some nuggets away from this post.
THE CREATIVE
This year, we have tested more than 400 ad creatives for our brand, and we still haven't done enough testing. Content really is the king. Last year, I wrote about the need to test at least five creatives a week. That's long gone. The tiktokization is real in Facebook ads as well. The more you test, the faster you find winning ads that can scale.
This year's learning on creatives is that best-performing ads don't live as long as they used to. In 2023, we still had ads from 2022 that were the best-performing ads for some clients. This year, it's way different. The life of the best-performing ad has gone down. This means we must create more ad variations, especially when we find a winning ad angle.
I would suggest anyone spend at least 30 minutes on Instagram reels and look at the content that interests them. Then, look at your Facebook feed the next day; you will see tons of ads about the thing that you watched on the Instagram reel the previous day.
Creating just few ads a month is not enough. Back in 2017 you could run 2 ads for the whole year and just print money. It's 2024 and two ads should be launched every day.
So, how can you test hundreds of ads a month?
2) THE RESEARCH
Every small, medium, service-based, direct-to-consumer business owner, marketing director, and CMO has a major advantage over big legacy brands.
It is the ability to connect with your core customers on social media. The way to do that is by researching. Every business has a medium—and large-size competitor in its market. Go to their website, socials, and Google reviews and look for 1, 2, and 3-star reviews about their business.
This is where you can find a lot of golden nuggets on what customers don't like about their product, their customer service, their offer, their service, and so on.
Use that information and create ad content that shows that your product service does not have ".... these problems."
Let's just imagine that you are selling premium quality shoes, and one of your competitors is doing the same, but many of their 2-star reviews say that the competitors' shoes are causing blisters on your feet. You can use that information and your ads to say "that your shoes will protect the customer's feet from blisters."
If you have a better product, some of your competitors use that information and ad creatives around that. Before you do that, read every single 1, 2, and 3-star review and note down what the review was about.
You will be able to take away at least 10+ ad angle ideas from these reviews, and you can create hundreds of ads that you can test.
Back in 2018, ad testing was easy. You created ten ads, each of them with a different messege. 4 for the top of the funnel. Four for the middle of the funnel. 2 for the bottom of the funnel, and you could run it for the rest of the year.
Right now, you need to do a lot of research to truly understand your customers so you can create ads that speak to them. We ran through our competitors this year just by creating ads that spoke to our customers' desires and needs.
Every two weeks, we check our competitor's bad reviews to see if there is a new ad angle that we could test.
Have you seen legacy brand car ads? All of them are the same. Car driving down the hill, pulling up at their house, a guy or girl walking into the house. Every ad is the same, a lot of times when we see the ad we don't even know which car brand it is because it's all the same.
Same thing is happening right now with Facebook ads. All of the ads look the same, speak to the same people and this makes it harder to get results.
The leasson that we learning this year on research is that it needs to be done daily. There is so much information posted every day on our competiors, or the research studdies that has recently be done that we cannot afford to do marketing research once a year. It needs to be done daily at least for one hour. Those who will do it will get better results with their facebook ads.
3) TESTING
In the past two months I have seen far to many ad account audits and I can tell that 95% of the ad accounts don't know what ad testing even means.
I have seen campaigns named DYNAMIC CREATIVE TEST, but when I look at the ad set level, the dynamic creative is off. The ads inside the ad level are different, 3 different creatives, 2 different copies, the same headline. I ask what exactly are you testing and the answer is always " ads" But what exactly are you testing? " I don't know". That pretty much summs up a lot of advertisers today.
How do we do ad testing? We create one ad angle based on one desire. In this ad angle, we have three images with the same messege ( each image has a different background or any other changing variable), two ad copies, and two headlines. This is a dynamic creative ad.
Once we get results, we break them down by best-performing ad creative, ad copy, and headline. Then, we create improved creative variations to the best creative, best ad copy, and best headline under a new dynamic creative. Then, we repeat the process again. And again, and again. Usually, about 10 times. Sometimes even 20 times until we hit a really good performing ad angle.
Here are some an ad angles that always work - "US VS THEM" , "Founders Story", "2(3,4,5) Reasons Why X", "Features Benefits" "Negative Humor". All fo these marketing angles work. It's impossible for them not to work if you put in the effort and find the winning ad combination for these ad angles.
And you can find it by testing. In 2023, we tested one improvement and two new ad angles every week.
This year, we will test at least three improvements on the best-performing ad angles and 5 new ad angle tests every week.
This goes back to what I mentioned before: the more you test, the faster you find winners and the quicker you can scale your ads. We even use AI like Claude for ad copy, script writing, headline writing. We also use photoshop ai for more image creative creation. This helps us speed up the process. One creative person with understanding on how ads need to look like can put out the same amount of ads as four people working full time daily without Ai.
One direct-response copywriter with AI can write as many ad copies daily as four people would write in a week.
Even for some of our clients, we have competitors who literally test 100 ads every week, and it has been a challenge to keep up.
To sum up the lesson, last year, we thought that we tested enough this year, and today, we think that we don't test enough, so we're looking for ways to test 50 creatives a week.
4) SCALING THE WINNING TESTS.
Here are some quick tips on how to scale your winning video ads.
The first thing that we do is try to show the same video message but in a different way. Then we filmed the exact same video but in a different environment. Then we also introduce different age groups; if your product appeals to 18-65, then you need to have people in your ads that are in those age groups. One ad can be a person who's 19, then another ad is 24, 30, 35, 40, 46, 50+, and so on. People resonate with people in their age group. It's hard for a 55-year-old to resonate with a 19-year-old who does not share the same problems.
If you find a winning ad don't sit on it, don't let it die out, scale the creative by creating more of it that would appeal do different audiences.
It's a common mistake to rely solely on increasing ad spend when a winning creative starts to lose its effectiveness. Instead, consider creating more variations of the ad, especially if the message is still generating results. Don't be afraid to create 50 or more variations of the winning ad. Remember, it's not easy to find a winning creative, so it's important to make the most of it when you do.
Sometimes, it takes us six weeks to find a winning ad messege when we test 50+ ads. Once we find it, we make sure that we squeeze out all the juice from that winning ad messege.
5) ADVERTORIALS, LANDING PAGES ETC.
I have mentioned this in other posts. This is this years biggest leasson. Test more landing pages, advertorials and listicles. We all know that the product page, website always needs to be improved and the more you improve the better conversion you can get.
But what a lot of people overlook is testing separate landing pages and advertorials.
Especially landing pages based on best performing ads. If you talk about a problem in the ad and then just randomly send people to your website you will get sales. But if you talk about the problem and send people to a landing page that goes deeper inside the problem that the customer might be facing and educates them that this one of the best and cost effective solutions out there your ads will get even more conversions.
I almost feel ashamed that last year, we did not do this on the scale that we do now.
We also launch a new landing page or advertorial test for our past week's best-performing ads. To continue to the marketing messege. This strategy has been so impactful that we will launch a new sales campaign just for landing pages alone.
6) CREATING SOCIAL CONTENT.
It's not enough to create ads. You also need to create content that you can publish on your feed to get organic engagement. Getting organic engagement boosts your ads. Also, the best organic posts can be used as ads to increase engagement.
How many content pieces do you need to post? Ideally? Ten reel videos a day. I do understand that this sounds wild, but here I am. We are not posting ten videos a day yet.
Suppose we go back to understand what Facebook and Instagram are trying to optimize for. They want the users to spend as much time as possible on their platform.
The only way a user can spend as much time as possible is to consume content. If you publish content that people like to watch, educational, humorous, and showcase content around your product or service, you will get a boost from Facebook and Instagram algorithms. Your ads will get lower CPM; lower CPM = lower CAC. Lower CAC = More profit or more money for advertising to scale your business.
We started posting one post daily and saw a decrease in CPM and CAC. Also, engagement on our social media increased. Once people see the ad, they can click on the Facebook or Instagram page, and there's actually some good content that people like to watch, which helps Facebook's algorithm.
7) ENGAGING AD CONTENT
When we create ads we also think about what would be the engagement be like. All of of best performing ads for our brand and our clients are really engaging.
The more engaging the ads are, the more meta algorithms will push them. By engaging ads, I mean they need to get reactions, comments, and shares.
Here's a simple yet effective strategy to boost ad engagement: Start by replying to comments, and then end your response with a question. This encourages the person to continue the conversation in the comments section, increasing engagement.
It's a simple equation: the more comments you get on your ads, the lower your CPMs will be. Comments are a clear indicator of engagement, and higher engagement leads to lower costs.
I just checked the reports for our brands on our best-performing ads, and all of them had 100+ comments. Imagine seeing an ad without any likes, comments, or shares. Now, imagine seeing an ad with hundreds of comments, shares, and hundreds of reactions.
Seeing an ad with so much engagement alone sparks interest in seeing the whole fuss. You can also comment first under the ad using your profile.
One of our customer service teams' tasks is to reply to ad comments within 30 minutes of posting the comment. Replying fast increases the chance for them to reply back, which boosts your ad.
8) SUMMARY
Compared to all the previous years, this year has been the hardest in advertising, especially after recent changes in meta-algorithms going heavily into ad content optimization.
This meant that we had to be more strategic about testing and more dialed into research than ever. If you had told me in 2018 that you need to test 50 ads a month and do at least 2 hours of research weekly, I would have told you to go F**** yourself. I have succeeded with my five ads per ad account, and I'm good.
Looking back, this humbles me and makes me think and ask the question - "what will be required to get success with Facebook ads in 2026?" This is only two years from now? One thing I know for sure is that it will be more challenging than it is now.
Even writing this right now fuels me with an urgency to build things bigger and faster. Cause in two years there is going to be 400 resturants packed in a small town battling for the same customer.
Thanks for reading. I hope that you enjoyed this post. See you in the next one.

Good day, Redditors.
I'm writing this post to share the leassons that me and my team has learned this year from spending almost $250k on facebook ads for our own e-commerce brand.
Let's get started.
I started advertising on Facebook in 2017, which is seven years ago. It feels like two years, really. Back in 2017, when the Facebook ads platform was quite new, it was hard not to get results. Businesses used stock images in their ads and made millions in sales.
Back then, if you started Facebook ads, it was like having the only restaurant in town, and just because you were the only one in town, it would always be full. This was Facebook ads back then.
Fast-forward to 2024, and it's like having 100 restaurants in a small town. Everyone is competing for the same customer. Advertising today is hard. Actually, you could say that in 2018, when there was more competition than in 2017, the same thing you could say about 2019 and 2020 (the release year of IOS 14). What's the point that I'm trying to make? Facebook ads in 2024 are easier than they will be in 2025 and 2026.
If you just look at all the legacy brands in the car industry, skin care industry, or any other industry, they still mostly use tv ads, billboard ads, and youtube ads; if they are advertising on Facebook, their ads suck. That being said, direct-to-consumer or any other small business owner still has time to get it. Yes, it's more challenging but will only become more complex.
That being said, let's jump to the lessons I have learned this year, and hopefully, you can take some nuggets away from this post.
THE CREATIVE
This year, we have tested more than 400 ad creatives for our brand, and we still haven't done enough testing. Content really is the king. Last year, I wrote about the need to test at least five creatives a week. That's long gone. The tiktokization is real in Facebook ads as well. The more you test, the faster you find winning ads that can scale.
This year's learning on creatives is that best-performing ads don't live as long as they used to. In 2023, we still had ads from 2022 that were the best-performing ads for some clients. This year, it's way different. The life of the best-performing ad has gone down. This means we must create more ad variations, especially when we find a winning ad angle.
I would suggest anyone spend at least 30 minutes on Instagram reels and look at the content that interests them. Then, look at your Facebook feed the next day; you will see tons of ads about the thing that you watched on the Instagram reel the previous day.
Creating just few ads a month is not enough. Back in 2017 you could run 2 ads for the whole year and just print money. It's 2024 and two ads should be launched every day.
So, how can you test hundreds of ads a month?
2) THE RESEARCH
Every small, medium, service-based, direct-to-consumer business owner, marketing director, and CMO has a major advantage over big legacy brands.
It is the ability to connect with your core customers on social media. The way to do that is by researching. Every business has a medium—and large-size competitor in its market. Go to their website, socials, and Google reviews and look for 1, 2, and 3-star reviews about their business.
This is where you can find a lot of golden nuggets on what customers don't like about their product, their customer service, their offer, their service, and so on.
Use that information and create ad content that shows that your product service does not have ".... these problems."
Let's just imagine that you are selling premium quality shoes, and one of your competitors is doing the same, but many of their 2-star reviews say that the competitors' shoes are causing blisters on your feet. You can use that information and your ads to say "that your shoes will protect the customer's feet from blisters."
If you have a better product, some of your competitors use that information and ad creatives around that. Before you do that, read every single 1, 2, and 3-star review and note down what the review was about.
You will be able to take away at least 10+ ad angle ideas from these reviews, and you can create hundreds of ads that you can test.
Back in 2018, ad testing was easy. You created ten ads, each of them with a different messege. 4 for the top of the funnel. Four for the middle of the funnel. 2 for the bottom of the funnel, and you could run it for the rest of the year.
Right now, you need to do a lot of research to truly understand your customers so you can create ads that speak to them. We ran through our competitors this year just by creating ads that spoke to our customers' desires and needs.
Every two weeks, we check our competitor's bad reviews to see if there is a new ad angle that we could test.
Have you seen legacy brand car ads? All of them are the same. Car driving down the hill, pulling up at their house, a guy or girl walking into the house. Every ad is the same, a lot of times when we see the ad we don't even know which car brand it is because it's all the same.
Same thing is happening right now with Facebook ads. All of the ads look the same, speak to the same people and this makes it harder to get results.
The leasson that we learning this year on research is that it needs to be done daily. There is so much information posted every day on our competiors, or the research studdies that has recently be done that we cannot afford to do marketing research once a year. It needs to be done daily at least for one hour. Those who will do it will get better results with their facebook ads.
3) TESTING
In the past two months I have seen far to many ad account audits and I can tell that 95% of the ad accounts don't know what ad testing even means.
I have seen campaigns named DYNAMIC CREATIVE TEST, but when I look at the ad set level, the dynamic creative is off. The ads inside the ad level are different, 3 different creatives, 2 different copies, the same headline. I ask what exactly are you testing and the answer is always " ads" But what exactly are you testing? " I don't know". That pretty much summs up a lot of advertisers today.
How do we do ad testing? We create one ad angle based on one desire. In this ad angle, we have three images with the same messege ( each image has a different background or any other changing variable), two ad copies, and two headlines. This is a dynamic creative ad.
Once we get results, we break them down by best-performing ad creative, ad copy, and headline. Then, we create improved creative variations to the best creative, best ad copy, and best headline under a new dynamic creative. Then, we repeat the process again. And again, and again. Usually, about 10 times. Sometimes even 20 times until we hit a really good performing ad angle.
Here are some an ad angles that always work - "US VS THEM" , "Founders Story", "2(3,4,5) Reasons Why X", "Features Benefits" "Negative Humor". All fo these marketing angles work. It's impossible for them not to work if you put in the effort and find the winning ad combination for these ad angles.
And you can find it by testing. In 2023, we tested one improvement and two new ad angles every week.
This year, we will test at least three improvements on the best-performing ad angles and 5 new ad angle tests every week.
This goes back to what I mentioned before: the more you test, the faster you find winners and the quicker you can scale your ads. We even use AI like Claude for ad copy, script writing, headline writing. We also use photoshop ai for more image creative creation. This helps us speed up the process. One creative person with understanding on how ads need to look like can put out the same amount of ads as four people working full time daily without Ai.
One direct-response copywriter with AI can write as many ad copies daily as four people would write in a week.
Even for some of our clients, we have competitors who literally test 100 ads every week, and it has been a challenge to keep up.
To sum up the lesson, last year, we thought that we tested enough this year, and today, we think that we don't test enough, so we're looking for ways to test 50 creatives a week.
4) SCALING THE WINNING TESTS.
Here are some quick tips on how to scale your winning video ads.
The first thing that we do is try to show the same video message but in a different way. Then we filmed the exact same video but in a different environment. Then we also introduce different age groups; if your product appeals to 18-65, then you need to have people in your ads that are in those age groups. One ad can be a person who's 19, then another ad is 24, 30, 35, 40, 46, 50+, and so on. People resonate with people in their age group. It's hard for a 55-year-old to resonate with a 19-year-old who does not share the same problems.
If you find a winning ad don't sit on it, don't let it die out, scale the creative by creating more of it that would appeal do different audiences.
It's a common mistake to rely solely on increasing ad spend when a winning creative starts to lose its effectiveness. Instead, consider creating more variations of the ad, especially if the message is still generating results. Don't be afraid to create 50 or more variations of the winning ad. Remember, it's not easy to find a winning creative, so it's important to make the most of it when you do.
Sometimes, it takes us six weeks to find a winning ad messege when we test 50+ ads. Once we find it, we make sure that we squeeze out all the juice from that winning ad messege.
5) ADVERTORIALS, LANDING PAGES ETC.
I have mentioned this in other posts. This is this years biggest leasson. Test more landing pages, advertorials and listicles. We all know that the product page, website always needs to be improved and the more you improve the better conversion you can get.
But what a lot of people overlook is testing separate landing pages and advertorials.
Especially landing pages based on best performing ads. If you talk about a problem in the ad and then just randomly send people to your website you will get sales. But if you talk about the problem and send people to a landing page that goes deeper inside the problem that the customer might be facing and educates them that this one of the best and cost effective solutions out there your ads will get even more conversions.
I almost feel ashamed that last year, we did not do this on the scale that we do now.
We also launch a new landing page or advertorial test for our past week's best-performing ads. To continue to the marketing messege. This strategy has been so impactful that we will launch a new sales campaign just for landing pages alone.
6) CREATING SOCIAL CONTENT.
It's not enough to create ads. You also need to create content that you can publish on your feed to get organic engagement. Getting organic engagement boosts your ads. Also, the best organic posts can be used as ads to increase engagement.
How many content pieces do you need to post? Ideally? Ten reel videos a day. I do understand that this sounds wild, but here I am. We are not posting ten videos a day yet.
Suppose we go back to understand what Facebook and Instagram are trying to optimize for. They want the users to spend as much time as possible on their platform.
The only way a user can spend as much time as possible is to consume content. If you publish content that people like to watch, educational, humorous, and showcase content around your product or service, you will get a boost from Facebook and Instagram algorithms. Your ads will get lower CPM; lower CPM = lower CAC. Lower CAC = More profit or more money for advertising to scale your business.
We started posting one post daily and saw a decrease in CPM and CAC. Also, engagement on our social media increased. Once people see the ad, they can click on the Facebook or Instagram page, and there's actually some good content that people like to watch, which helps Facebook's algorithm.
7) ENGAGING AD CONTENT
When we create ads we also think about what would be the engagement be like. All of of best performing ads for our brand and our clients are really engaging.
The more engaging the ads are, the more meta algorithms will push them. By engaging ads, I mean they need to get reactions, comments, and shares.
Here's a simple yet effective strategy to boost ad engagement: Start by replying to comments, and then end your response with a question. This encourages the person to continue the conversation in the comments section, increasing engagement.
It's a simple equation: the more comments you get on your ads, the lower your CPMs will be. Comments are a clear indicator of engagement, and higher engagement leads to lower costs.
I just checked the reports for our brands on our best-performing ads, and all of them had 100+ comments. Imagine seeing an ad without any likes, comments, or shares. Now, imagine seeing an ad with hundreds of comments, shares, and hundreds of reactions.
Seeing an ad with so much engagement alone sparks interest in seeing the whole fuss. You can also comment first under the ad using your profile.
One of our customer service teams' tasks is to reply to ad comments within 30 minutes of posting the comment. Replying fast increases the chance for them to reply back, which boosts your ad.
8) SUMMARY
Compared to all the previous years, this year has been the hardest in advertising, especially after recent changes in meta-algorithms going heavily into ad content optimization.
This meant that we had to be more strategic about testing and more dialed into research than ever. If you had told me in 2018 that you need to test 50 ads a month and do at least 2 hours of research weekly, I would have told you to go F**** yourself. I have succeeded with my five ads per ad account, and I'm good.
Looking back, this humbles me and makes me think and ask the question - "what will be required to get success with Facebook ads in 2026?" This is only two years from now? One thing I know for sure is that it will be more challenging than it is now.
Even writing this right now fuels me with an urgency to build things bigger and faster. Cause in two years there is going to be 400 resturants packed in a small town battling for the same customer.
Thanks for reading. I hope that you enjoyed this post. See you in the next one.

IV. The Banality of Pseudo-Self-Awareness: Theatrics of Politics and Everyday Existence
...
Hero Worship and Narcissistic Idealization
On the fringes of the radical movement, many tortured spirits actively sought a martyrdom made doubly attractive by the glamour of modern publicity. The left, with its vision of social upheaval, has always attracted more than its share of lunatics, but the media have conferred a curious sort of legitimacy on antisocial acts merely by reporting them. The streaker at a football game becomes for a moment the center of all eyes. The criminal who murders or kidnaps a celebrity takes on the glamour of his victim. The Manson gang with their murder of Sharon Tate and her friends, the Symbionese Liberation Army with its abduction of Patty Hearst, share with the presidential assassins and would-be assassins of recent years a similar psychology. Such people display, in exaggerated form, the prevailing obsession with celebrity and a determination to achieve it even at the cost of rational self-interest and personal safety. The narcissist divides society into two groups: the rich, great, and famous on the one hand and the common herd on the other. Narcissistic patients, according to Kernberg, “are afraid of not belonging to the company of the great, rich, and powerful, and of belonging instead to the ‘mediocre,’ by which they mean worthless and despicable rather than ‘average’ in the ordinary sense of the term.” They worship heroes only to turn against them when their heroes disappoint them. “Unconsciously fixated on an idealized self-object for which they continue to year, … such persons are forever searching for external omnipotent powers from whose support and approval they attempt to derive strength.” Thus the presidential assassin establishes with his victim a deadly intimacy, follows his movements, attaches himself to his rising star. The machinery of mass promotion, encourages this identification by simultaneously exalting and humanizing the Olympians, endowing them with the same appetites and eccentricities that we recognize in our neighbors. Through his desperate act, the assassin or would-be assassin joins their exalted company. Assassination itself becomes a form of spectacle, and the inner lives of assassins - Oswald’s difficulties with Marina, the state of Bremer’s soul as recorded in his diary - provide the same popular entertainment as the private lives of their victims or near-victims.
Narcissistic patients, according to Kernberg, “often admire some hero or outstanding individual” and experience themselves as part of that outstanding person.” They see the admired individual as “merely an extension of themselves.” If the person rejects them, “they experience immediate hatred and fear, and react by devaluing the former idol.” Just as heroism differs in subtle ways from celebrity, so hero worship, which esteems the hero’s actions and hopes to emulate them or at least to prove worthy of his example, must be distinguished from narcissistic idealization. The narcissist admires and identifies himself with “winners” out of his fear of being labeled a loser. He seeks to warm himself in their reflected glow; but his feelings contain a strong admixture of envy, and his admiration often turns to hatred if the object of his attachment does something to remind him of his own insignificance. The narcissistic lacks the confidence in his own abilities that would encourage him to model himself on another person’s exalted example. Thus the narcissistic fascination with celebrity, so rampant in our society, coincides historically with what Jules Henry calls “the erosion of the capacity for emulation, loss of the ability to model one’s self consciously after another person” One of the high school students interviewed by Henry said flatly, “I think a person shouldn’t mold himself after someone else.”

• To pick a person after whom to model one’s self [Henry writes] is an aggressive act of will, and Bill is much too anxious and passive to do it… When cynicism, resignation, and passivity and resignation sap the will necessary to the emulative decision. But positively, in order for a morally sound emulative choice to be made there must be present some faith in one’s self, a certain amount of naive optimism and a certain quantity of will.

When the superego consists not so much of conscious ego ideals but of unconscious, archaic fantasies about parents of superhuman size, emulation becomes almost entirely unconscious and expresses not the search for models but the emptiness of self-images. The protagonist of Heller’s Something Happened, who completely lacks “naive optimism” and a sense of self, experiences an “almost enslaving instinct to be like just about everyone I find myself with. It happens not only in matters of speech, but with physical actions as well…. It operates unconsciously, … with a determination of its own, in spite of my vigilance and aversion, and usually I do not realize I have slipped into someone else’s personality until I am already there.”
The narcissist cannot identify with someone else without seeing the other as an extension of himself, without obliterating the other’s identity. Incapable of identification, in the first instance with parents and other authority figures, he is therefore incapable of hero worship or of the suspension of disbelief that makes it possible to enter imaginatively into the lives of others while acknowledging their independent existence. A narcissistic society worships celebrity rather than fame and substitutes spectacle for the older forms of theater, which encourages identification and emulation precisely because they carefully preserved a certain distance between the audience and the actors, the hero worshipper and the hero.
VII. The Socialization of Reproduction and the Collapse of Authority
…
The Cult of Authenticity
Since critique of permissiveness seldom challenged psychiatric orthodoxy, it soon hardened into a new dogma of its own - the dogma of authenticity. Earlier experts had advised the parent to follow one or another set of prescriptions; now the experts told him to trust his own feelings. Whatever he did was right as long as he did it spontaneously. “Children are not easily fooled about true feelings,” warned Dr. Bruch. “Parent effectiveness training,” warned Dr. Bruch. “Parent effectiveness training,” the latest vogue in child-rearing, has popularized the cult of authenticity that began to emerge in the fifties. Like other forms of psychic self-help, parent effectiveness training teaches the need to “get in touch with your feelings” and to base everyday intercourse on the communication of these feelings to others. If parents can understand their own needs and wishes and convey them to their children, encouraging children to reciprocate in the same fashion, they can eliminate many sources of friction and conflict. Objective statements should be excluded from discourse with the child, according to this reasoning , in the first place because no one can argue rationally about beliefs and in the second place because statements about reality convey ethical judgements and therefore arouse strong emotions. “When a child says, ‘I never have good luck,’ no argument or explanation will change this belief.” “When a child tells of an event, it is sometimes helpful to respond, not to the event itself, but to the feelings around it.” Since “all feelings are legitimate,” their expression should be greeted neither with praise nor with blame. If a child does something to annoy the parent, the parent should express his annoyance instead of condemning the child or the action. If the child expresses emotions that seem incommensurate with the occasion, the parent, instead of pointing out this discrepancy - instead of making an objective statement about reality and the emotions appropriate to it - should indicate to the child that he understands the child’s feelings and acknowledges his right to express them. “It is more important for a child to know what he feels than why he feels it.” The child needs to learn “that his own anger is not catastrophic, that is can be discharged without destroying anyone.”
The cult of authenticity reflects the collapse of parental guidance and provides it with a moral justification. It confirms, and clothes in the jargon of emotional liberation, the parent’s helplessness to instruct the child in the ways of the world or to transmit ethical precepts. By glorifying this impotence as a higher form of awareness, it legitimizes the proletarianization of parenthood - the appropriation of childrearing techniques by the “helping professions.” As John R. Seeley noted in 1959, the transfer of parental knowledge to other agencies parallels the expropriation of the worker’s technical knowledge by modern management - “the taking over from the worker of the sad necessity of providing himself with the means of production.” By “helpfully” relieving the worker from “such onerous responsibilities” as the provision of his own and his children’s needs, society has freed him, as Seeley wrote, “to become a soldier in the army of production and a cipher in the process of decision.”
The revolt against behavioral and progressive dogmas, which exaggerated the parent’s power to deform the child, has encouraged society to hold the parent “only marginally accountable,” as Mark Gerzon has recently observed, “for his child’s growth…. Obstetricians take charge at birth, pediatricians are responsible for a child’s ailments and cures; the teacher for his intelligence;…. the supermarket and good industry for his food; television for his myths.” Ironically, the devaluation of parenthood coincides with a belated movement to return to the family functions it has surrendered to the apparatus of organized therapy and tuition. Rising rates of crime, juvenile delinquency, suicide, and mental breakdown have finally convinced many experts, even many welfare workers, that welfare agencies furnish a poor substitute for the family. Dissatisfaction with the results of socialized welfare and the growing expense of maintaining it now prompt efforts to shift health and welfare functions back to the home.
…

Good day, Redditors.
I'm writing this post to share the leassons that me and my team has learned this year from spending almost $250k on facebook ads for our own e-commerce brand.
Let's get started.
I started advertising on Facebook in 2017, which is seven years ago. It feels like two years, really. Back in 2017, when the Facebook ads platform was quite new, it was hard not to get results. Businesses used stock images in their ads and made millions in sales.
Back then, if you started Facebook ads, it was like having the only restaurant in town, and just because you were the only one in town, it would always be full. This was Facebook ads back then.
Fast-forward to 2024, and it's like having 100 restaurants in a small town. Everyone is competing for the same customer. Advertising today is hard. Actually, you could say that in 2018, when there was more competition than in 2017, the same thing you could say about 2019 and 2020 (the release year of IOS 14). What's the point that I'm trying to make? Facebook ads in 2024 are easier than they will be in 2025 and 2026.
If you just look at all the legacy brands in the car industry, skin care industry, or any other industry, they still mostly use tv ads, billboard ads, and youtube ads; if they are advertising on Facebook, their ads suck. That being said, direct-to-consumer or any other small business owner still has time to get it. Yes, it's more challenging but will only become more complex.
That being said, let's jump to the lessons I have learned this year, and hopefully, you can take some nuggets away from this post.
THE CREATIVE
This year, we have tested more than 400 ad creatives for our brand, and we still haven't done enough testing. Content really is the king. Last year, I wrote about the need to test at least five creatives a week. That's long gone. The tiktokization is real in Facebook ads as well. The more you test, the faster you find winning ads that can scale.
This year's learning on creatives is that best-performing ads don't live as long as they used to. In 2023, we still had ads from 2022 that were the best-performing ads for some clients. This year, it's way different. The life of the best-performing ad has gone down. This means we must create more ad variations, especially when we find a winning ad angle.
I would suggest anyone spend at least 30 minutes on Instagram reels and look at the content that interests them. Then, look at your Facebook feed the next day; you will see tons of ads about the thing that you watched on the Instagram reel the previous day.
Creating just few ads a month is not enough. Back in 2017 you could run 2 ads for the whole year and just print money. It's 2024 and two ads should be launched every day.
So, how can you test hundreds of ads a month?
2) THE RESEARCH
Every small, medium, service-based, direct-to-consumer business owner, marketing director, and CMO has a major advantage over big legacy brands.
It is the ability to connect with your core customers on social media. The way to do that is by researching. Every business has a medium—and large-size competitor in its market. Go to their website, socials, and Google reviews and look for 1, 2, and 3-star reviews about their business.
This is where you can find a lot of golden nuggets on what customers don't like about their product, their customer service, their offer, their service, and so on.
Use that information and create ad content that shows that your product service does not have ".... these problems."
Let's just imagine that you are selling premium quality shoes, and one of your competitors is doing the same, but many of their 2-star reviews say that the competitors' shoes are causing blisters on your feet. You can use that information and your ads to say "that your shoes will protect the customer's feet from blisters."
If you have a better product, some of your competitors use that information and ad creatives around that. Before you do that, read every single 1, 2, and 3-star review and note down what the review was about.
You will be able to take away at least 10+ ad angle ideas from these reviews, and you can create hundreds of ads that you can test.
Back in 2018, ad testing was easy. You created ten ads, each of them with a different messege. 4 for the top of the funnel. Four for the middle of the funnel. 2 for the bottom of the funnel, and you could run it for the rest of the year.
Right now, you need to do a lot of research to truly understand your customers so you can create ads that speak to them. We ran through our competitors this year just by creating ads that spoke to our customers' desires and needs.
Every two weeks, we check our competitor's bad reviews to see if there is a new ad angle that we could test.
Have you seen legacy brand car ads? All of them are the same. Car driving down the hill, pulling up at their house, a guy or girl walking into the house. Every ad is the same, a lot of times when we see the ad we don't even know which car brand it is because it's all the same.
Same thing is happening right now with Facebook ads. All of the ads look the same, speak to the same people and this makes it harder to get results.
The leasson that we learning this year on research is that it needs to be done daily. There is so much information posted every day on our competiors, or the research studdies that has recently be done that we cannot afford to do marketing research once a year. It needs to be done daily at least for one hour. Those who will do it will get better results with their facebook ads.
3) TESTING
In the past two months I have seen far to many ad account audits and I can tell that 95% of the ad accounts don't know what ad testing even means.
I have seen campaigns named DYNAMIC CREATIVE TEST, but when I look at the ad set level, the dynamic creative is off. The ads inside the ad level are different, 3 different creatives, 2 different copies, the same headline. I ask what exactly are you testing and the answer is always " ads" But what exactly are you testing? " I don't know". That pretty much summs up a lot of advertisers today.
How do we do ad testing? We create one ad angle based on one desire. In this ad angle, we have three images with the same messege ( each image has a different background or any other changing variable), two ad copies, and two headlines. This is a dynamic creative ad.
Once we get results, we break them down by best-performing ad creative, ad copy, and headline. Then, we create improved creative variations to the best creative, best ad copy, and best headline under a new dynamic creative. Then, we repeat the process again. And again, and again. Usually, about 10 times. Sometimes even 20 times until we hit a really good performing ad angle.
Here are some an ad angles that always work - "US VS THEM" , "Founders Story", "2(3,4,5) Reasons Why X", "Features Benefits" "Negative Humor". All fo these marketing angles work. It's impossible for them not to work if you put in the effort and find the winning ad combination for these ad angles.
And you can find it by testing. In 2023, we tested one improvement and two new ad angles every week.
This year, we will test at least three improvements on the best-performing ad angles and 5 new ad angle tests every week.
This goes back to what I mentioned before: the more you test, the faster you find winners and the quicker you can scale your ads. We even use AI like Claude for ad copy, script writing, headline writing. We also use photoshop ai for more image creative creation. This helps us speed up the process. One creative person with understanding on how ads need to look like can put out the same amount of ads as four people working full time daily without Ai.
One direct-response copywriter with AI can write as many ad copies daily as four people would write in a week.
Even for some of our clients, we have competitors who literally test 100 ads every week, and it has been a challenge to keep up.
To sum up the lesson, last year, we thought that we tested enough this year, and today, we think that we don't test enough, so we're looking for ways to test 50 creatives a week.
4) SCALING THE WINNING TESTS.
Here are some quick tips on how to scale your winning video ads.
The first thing that we do is try to show the same video message but in a different way. Then we filmed the exact same video but in a different environment. Then we also introduce different age groups; if your product appeals to 18-65, then you need to have people in your ads that are in those age groups. One ad can be a person who's 19, then another ad is 24, 30, 35, 40, 46, 50+, and so on. People resonate with people in their age group. It's hard for a 55-year-old to resonate with a 19-year-old who does not share the same problems.
If you find a winning ad don't sit on it, don't let it die out, scale the creative by creating more of it that would appeal do different audiences.
It's a common mistake to rely solely on increasing ad spend when a winning creative starts to lose its effectiveness. Instead, consider creating more variations of the ad, especially if the message is still generating results. Don't be afraid to create 50 or more variations of the winning ad. Remember, it's not easy to find a winning creative, so it's important to make the most of it when you do.
Sometimes, it takes us six weeks to find a winning ad messege when we test 50+ ads. Once we find it, we make sure that we squeeze out all the juice from that winning ad messege.
5) ADVERTORIALS, LANDING PAGES ETC.
I have mentioned this in other posts. This is this years biggest leasson. Test more landing pages, advertorials and listicles. We all know that the product page, website always needs to be improved and the more you improve the better conversion you can get.
But what a lot of people overlook is testing separate landing pages and advertorials.
Especially landing pages based on best performing ads. If you talk about a problem in the ad and then just randomly send people to your website you will get sales. But if you talk about the problem and send people to a landing page that goes deeper inside the problem that the customer might be facing and educates them that this one of the best and cost effective solutions out there your ads will get even more conversions.
I almost feel ashamed that last year, we did not do this on the scale that we do now.
We also launch a new landing page or advertorial test for our past week's best-performing ads. To continue to the marketing messege. This strategy has been so impactful that we will launch a new sales campaign just for landing pages alone.
6) CREATING SOCIAL CONTENT.
It's not enough to create ads. You also need to create content that you can publish on your feed to get organic engagement. Getting organic engagement boosts your ads. Also, the best organic posts can be used as ads to increase engagement.How many content pieces do you need to post? Ideally? Ten reel videos a day. I do understand that this sounds wild, but here I am. We are not posting ten videos a day yet. Suppose we go back to understand what Facebook and Instagram are trying to optimize for. They want the users to spend as much time as possible on their platform. The only way a user can spend as much time as possible is to consume content. If you publish content that people like to watch, educational, humorous, and showcase content around your product or service, you will get a boost from Facebook and Instagram algorithms. Your ads will get lower CPM; lower CPM = lower CAC. Lower CAC = More profit or more money for advertising to scale your business.We started posting one post daily and saw a decrease in CPM and CAC. Also, engagement on our social media increased. Once people see the ad, they can click on the Facebook or Instagram page, and there's actually some good content that people like to watch, which helps Facebook's algorithm.
7) ENGAGING AD CONTENT
When we create ads we also think about what would be the engagement be like. All of of best performing ads for our brand and our clients are really engaging.
The more engaging the ads are, the more meta algorithms will push them. By engaging ads, I mean they need to get reactions, comments, and shares.
Here's a simple yet effective strategy to boost ad engagement: Start by replying to comments, and then end your response with a question. This encourages the person to continue the conversation in the comments section, increasing engagement.
It's a simple equation: the more comments you get on your ads, the lower your CPMs will be. Comments are a clear indicator of engagement, and higher engagement leads to lower costs.
I just checked the reports for our brands on our best-performing ads, and all of them had 100+ comments. Imagine seeing an ad without any likes, comments, or shares. Now, imagine seeing an ad with hundreds of comments, shares, and hundreds of reactions.
Seeing an ad with so much engagement alone sparks interest in seeing the whole fuss. You can also comment first under the ad using your profile.
One of our customer service teams' tasks is to reply to ad comments within 30 minutes of posting the comment. Replying fast increases the chance for them to reply back, which boosts your ad.
8) SUMMARY
Compared to all the previous years, this year has been the hardest in advertising, especially after recent changes in meta-algorithms going heavily into ad content optimization. This meant that we had to be more strategic about testing and more dialed into research than ever. If you had told me in 2018 that you need to test 50 ads a month and do at least 2 hours of research weekly, I would have told you to go F**** yourself. I have succeeded with my five ads per ad account, and I'm good. Looking back, this humbles me and makes me think and ask the question - "what will be required to get success with Facebook ads in 2026?" This is only two years from now? One thing I know for sure is that it will be more challenging than it is now.
Even writing this right now fuels me with an urgency to build things bigger and faster. Cause in two years there is going to be 400 resturants packed in a small town battling for the same customer.
Thanks for reading. I hope that you enjoyed this post. See you in the next one.

DAY: MAY 30 2024
5-30-2024

WHAT ARE NOOTROPICS AND DO THEY REALLY BOOST YOUR BRAIN?

Humans have long been searching for a “magic elixir” to make us smarter, and improve our focus and memory. This includes traditional Chinese medicine used thousands of years ago to improve cognitive function. Now we have nootropics, also known as smart drugs, brain boosters or cognitive enhancers. You can buy these gummies, chewing gum, pills and skin patches online, or from supermarkets, pharmacies or petrol stations. You don’t need a prescription or to consult a health professional. But do nootropics actually boost your brain? Here’s what the science says. What
5-30-2024

STUDY REVEALS IMPORTANT HEALTH MARKERS

BIPS has made significant progress in identifying health markers that are crucial for a long and healthy life. Led by Prof. Dr. Krasimira Aleksandrova and in close collaboration with the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke (DIfE), the research provides valuable insights for healthy aging. In the study published in the journal Age and Ageing, Aleksandrova and her team analyzed specific combinations of molecular markers reflecting various biological processes as possible indicators of healthy aging. The focus was particularly
5-30-2024

STUDY SHOWS AI HEALTH COACH LOWERS BLOOD PRESSURE AND BOOSTS ENGAGEMENT IN PATIENTS WITH HYPERTENSION

Architecture of data transmission. Participant data were collected from Bluetooth-enabled blood pressure (BP) monitors, wearable devices, and a mobile app–based questionnaire. Data were uploaded through the respective application programming interfaces (APIs) to our app server, where the individualized analysis was carried out before delivering recommendations to participants. A new study in JMIR Cardio shows that a fully digital, artificial intelligence (AI)–driven lifestyle coaching program can effectively reduce blood pressure (BP) in adults with hypertension. This AI-based program leverages data from wearable activity trackers and
5-30-2024

SNAPPING PHOTOS OF OUR FOOD COULD BE GOOD FOR US, STUDY SUGGESTS

New Curtin University research reveals taking pictures of food isn’t just content for our social media feeds, but could be the key to improving people’s diets. The feeding study saw researchers measure the weight of meals, which were then provided to participants over a day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. “Accuracy of energy and nutrient intake estimation versus observed intake using four technology-assisted dietary assessment methods: a randomized crossover feeding study” was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Participants compared different technology-assisted methods to recall what they had
5-30-2024

PARENTS ARE INCREASINGLY SAYING THEIR CHILD IS ‘DYSREGULATED.’ WHAT DOES THAT ACTUALLY MEAN?

Welcome aboard the roller coaster of parenthood, where emotions run wild, tantrums reign supreme and love flows deep. As children reach toddlerhood and beyond, parents adapt to manage their child’s big emotions and meltdowns. Parenting terminology has adapted too, with more parents describing their child as “dysregulated.” But what does this actually mean? More than an emotion Emotional dysregulation refers to challenges a child faces in recognizing and expressing emotions, and managing emotional reactions in social settings. This may involve either suppressing emotions or displaying exaggerated and intense emotional responses
5-30-2024

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SHYNESS AND SOCIAL ANXIETY?

The terms “shyness” and “social anxiety” are often used interchangeably because they both involve feeling uncomfortable in social situations. However, feeling shy, or having a shy personality, is not the same as experiencing social anxiety (short for “social anxiety disorder”). Here are some of the similarities and differences, and what the distinction means. How are they similar? It can be normal to feel nervous or even stressed in new social situations or when interacting with new people. And everyone differs in how comfortable they feel when interacting
5-30-2024

EYE EXERCISES TO IMPROVE SIGHT—IS THERE ANY SCIENCE BEHIND THEM? AN OPHTHALMOLOGIST IS SKEPTICAL

You may have seen advertisements claiming to eliminate the need for eyeglasses through vision therapy or vision training—basically, eye exercises. These exercises include putting pressure on or palming the eye; eye movement exercises; or straining to read by using the wrong prescription glasses to “train” the eyes. As a professor of ophthalmology—and as an eye doctor who has seen thousands of patients—I can tell you that no study to date shows strong evidence that these exercises eliminate the need for glasses or offer any long-term significant benefits. The science simply
5-30-2024

HOW COMMUNITY STRESS AFFECTS BLACK AMERICANS’ MENTAL HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

Residential segregation is an example of the long history of structural racism in the United States. Black Americans are more likely to live in low-quality neighborhoods, which contributes to disparities in health outcomes. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign looks at how community stress affects the mental and emotional health of Black men and women in the U.S. “Community stress refers to the effects of living in disadvantaged areas. This includes objective aspects, such as buildings in disrepair and lower median income. There is also a subjective
5-30-2024

GENE VARIANTS FORETELL THE BIOLOGY OF FUTURE BREAST CANCERS, STUDY FINDS

A Stanford Medicine study of thousands of breast cancers has found that the gene sequences we inherit at conception are powerful predictors of the breast cancer type we might develop decades later and how deadly it might be. The study challenges the dogma that most cancers arise as the result of random mutations that accumulate during our lifetimes. Instead, it points to the active involvement of gene sequences we inherit from our parents—what’s known as your germline genome—in determining whether cells bearing potential cancer-causing mutations are recognized and eliminated by
5-30-2024

PTSD, ANXIETY IS RISING AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS

America’s college students seem to be more stressed than ever, with a new report finding a sharp rise in cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and acute stress disorder (ASD) on campuses across the country. In a “national sample of U.S. college students, we found a notable increase in the prevalence of PTSD and ASD,”
5-30-2024

NIGHT OWL BEHAVIOR COULD HURT MENTAL HEALTH, SLEEP STUDY FINDS

Night owls, brace yourselves. A new study by Stanford Medicine researchers has found that following your natural inclination to stay awake until the early morning hours is a bad choice for your mental health. In a survey of nearly 75,000 adults, researchers compared the participants’ preferred sleep timing, known as chronotype, with their actual sleep behavior. They determined that regardless of one’s preferred bedtime, everyone benefits from turning in early. Morning larks and night owls alike tended to have higher rates of mental and behavioral disorders if they stayed up
5-30-2024

STUDY CONFIRMS EFFECTIVENESS OF ‘WATCH-AND-WAIT’ APPROACH TO PROSTATE CANCER

For a large percentage of men with prostate cancer, the tumor may be so slow-growing that doctors advise a “watch-and-wait” approach instead of active treatment. Now, a study of almost 2,200 patients followed for up to a decade finds that for most, that decision may be a wise one. “In this study, 10 years after diagnosis, 49% of men remained free of progression or treatment, less than 2% developed metastatic disease and less than 1% died of their disease,” reported a team led by Lisa Newcomb, a cancer prevention researcher
5-30-2024

RESEARCHERS HARNESS THE POWER OF AI TO MATCH PATIENTS WITH THE MOST EFFECTIVE ANTIDEPRESSANT FOR THEIR UNIQUE NEEDS

Researchers at George Mason University’s College of Public Health have leveraged the power of artificial intelligence (AI) analytical models to match a patient’s medical history to the most effective antidepressant, allowing patients to find symptom relief sooner. The free website, MeAgainMeds.com, provides evidence-based recommendations, allowing clinicians and patients to find the optimal antidepressant the first time. “Many people with depression must try multiple antidepressants before finding the right one that alleviates their symptoms. Our website reduces the number of medications that patients are asked to try. The system recommends to
5-30-2024

NEW CANCER-RELATED FATIGUE TREATMENT GUIDELINES URGE EXERCISE, TALK THERAPY, MINDFULNESS, TAI CHI

The clinical practice guidelines, which came about after an extensive review of 113 published clinical trials by a panel of experts, conclude that doctors should recommend exercise, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), mindfulness-based programs, Tai chi, qigong, and American ginseng to reduce fatigue severity during cancer treatment. After completion of cancer treatment, the guidelines also suggest that exercise, CBT, and mindfulness-based
5-30-2024

STUDY FINDS THAT BETTER SLEEP IS ASSOCIATED WITH LOWER LONELINESS

A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2024 annual meeting found that better sleep health was associated with lower levels of loneliness, and this association was stronger among younger adults. Results indicate that better sleep health was associated with significantly lower total loneliness, emotional loneliness and social loneliness. While better sleep health was associated with lower total and emotional loneliness across ages, this association was stronger for younger adults. However, age did not moderate the association between sleep health and social loneliness. “Loneliness is an urgent public health
5-30-2024

SOCIAL MEDIA USE AND SLEEP DURATION CONNECTED TO BRAIN ACTIVITY IN TEENS

A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2024 annual meeting found a distinct relationship between sleep duration, social media usage, and brain activation across brain regions that are key for executive control and reward processing. Results show a correlation between shorter sleep duration and greater social media usage in teens. The analysis points to involvement of areas within the frontolimbic brain regions, such as the inferior and middle frontal gyri, in these relationships. The inferior frontal gyrus, key in inhibitory control, may play
5-30-2024

HOW DOES THE WORD ‘NOT’ AFFECT WHAT WE UNDERSTAND? SCIENTISTS FIND NEGATION MITIGATES OUR INTERPRETATION OF PHRASES

When we’re told “This coffee is hot” upon being served a familiar caffeinated beverage at our local diner or cafe, the message is clear. But what about when we’re told “This coffee is not hot”? Does that mean we think it’s cold? Or room temperature? Or just warm? A team of scientists has now identified how our brains work to process phrases that include negation (i.e., “not”), revealing that it mitigates rather than inverts meaning—in other words, in our minds, negation merely reduces the temperature of our coffee and does
5-30-2024

IS GUT HEALTH LINKED TO MENTAL HEALTH? WE KNOW THEY’RE CONNECTED BUT HOW REMAINS A MYSTERY, RESEARCHER SAYS

Rebecca Carrier, associate chair of research in the Department of Chemical Engineering, researches retinal and gut epithelial repair in the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex on Jan. 24, 2023. It was an act of desperation: A woman with irritable bowel syndrome was looking for relief from her symptoms. She decided to try an at-home fecal microbiota, aka a “poop transplant.” Used to treat C. diff bacterial infections, this treatment can help introduce “good microbiomes” to the gut to ease gastrointestinal symptoms. But the woman told Netflix
5-30-2024

STUDY LINKS SLEEP APNEA TREATMENT AND HAPPIER, HEALTHIER RELATIONSHIPS

when individuals with obstructive sleep apnea use their positive airway pressure machine more regularly, it benefits their relationship with their partner. Results show that greater adherence to PAP therapy was associated with higher levels of relationship satisfaction and lower levels of relationship conflict. Higher sleep efficiency among patients also was associated with higher levels of relationship satisfaction as reported by both the patient and their partner. “Recognizing that sleep and sleep disorders have an impact on
5-30-2024

CDC REPORTS THIRD DAIRY WORKER INFECTED WITH BIRD FLU, RISK TO PUBLIC REMAINS LOW

Amid an ongoing outbreak of bird flu in dairy cows, there’s been a third case of H5N1 avian flu confirmed in a dairy worker, U.S. health officials reported Thursday. The previous two human cases—the first in Texas, the second in Michigan, where this latest case also occurred—involved only a brief discomfort of the eyes, linked to conjunctivitis (“pink eye”). However, this third case is the first to present with more typical respiratory symptoms, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted in a health update. “The patient reported upper
5-30-2024

RECOMMENDATIONS ISSUED FOR PALLIATIVE RADIATION THERAPY FOR SYMPTOMATIC BONE METASTASES

In a clinical practice guideline issued by the American Society for Radiation Oncology and published in Practical Radiation Oncology, evidence-based recommendations are presented for the use of palliative external beam radiation therapy (RT) for symptomatic bone metastases. Sarah Alcorn, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and colleagues developed evidence-based recommendations for palliative external beam RT in symptomatic bone metastases. Five key questions regarding palliative RT were addressed. The authors noted that RT is recommended for managing pain from bone metastases and spine metastases with or without
5-30-2024

CAUSE OF COMMON TYPE OF HEART FAILURE MAY BE DIFFERENT FOR WOMEN AND MEN

Graphical abstract. Credit: Cardiovascular Research (2024). DOI: 10.1093/cvcvae070 A new study from the UC Davis School of Medicine found striking differences at the cellular level between male and female mice with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). The findings could determine how HFpEF is treated in women compared to men. With HFpEF, the heart muscle contracts normally but the heart is unable to fully relax and refill properly between beats. This condition is known as diastolic dysfunction. It can occur if the heart is too stiff or if the

5-30-2024

CANCER CAN BE CAUSED BY REVERSIBLE MOLECULAR CHANGES, STUDY SHOWS

Though 1 in 2 people will develop some form of cancer in their lifetime, there’s still much we don’t know about this disease. But thanks to continued research efforts, we keep learning more about the biology of cancer. One of these recent discoveries could even transform our understanding of how cancers develop. But before we talk about the new discovery, let’s first discuss the classical theory that attempts to explain why normal cells become cancer cells. This theory posits that DNA mutations are the primary cause of cancers. It’s well
5-30-2024

HOW THE IMMUNE SYSTEM DESTROYS THE CEREBELLUM

Neurologist Professor Dr Kurt-Wolfram Sühs has discovered a new form of severe cerebellitis caused by autoantibodies. Cerebellar ataxia is a neurological disorder of the cerebellum. This important area at the back of the brain acts as a conductor, so to speak, coordinating our movements and keeping us in balance. This ability is impaired in cerebellar ataxia. Affected people can have difficulties walking, speaking and grasping or even with controlled eye movements. In some cases, the damage begins gradually and develops over a period of years.
5-30-2024

PEOPLE WHO ARE EASILY ABSORBED IN AN ACTIVITY MAY HAVE BETTER MENTAL AND CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH

Have you ever lost all sense of space and time when redecorating a room? How about being so focused while playing an instrument that the worries that weighed you down a minute ago just evaporated? Then you’ve probably experienced “flow.” Flow is a term used in psychology to describe a state of heightened concentration, in which you are completely absorbed in an activity. It exists somewhere between boredom and stress—usually experienced during activities which are somewhat challenging but still meet our skill levels. When we experience flow, we tend to
5-30-2024

SCIENTISTS FIND ‘GOLDILOCKS’ BINDING STRENGTH DETERMINES ANTI-CANCER T-CELL EFFICACY AND FATE

Immunotherapy, treatments that reinvigorate immune cells’ anti-cancer activity or reprogram T cells to target cancer, has shown promise in treating leukemias but has not yet been realized in solid tumors. One reason for the stymied success is the conversion of potential cancer-killing T cells into an inactive “exhausted” state near the tumor. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists found that how tight a parental T cell grabs a cancer
5-30-2024

IN THE BRAIN AT REST, STUDY INDICATES NEURONS REHEARSE FUTURE EXPERIENCE

Some dreams may, in fact, predict the future: New research has found that during sleep, some neurons not only replay the recent past but also anticipate future experience. The discovery is one in a series of insights afforded by a study on sleep and learning published in Nature by a team of researchers from Rice University and the University of Michigan. The research offers an unprecedented view of how individual neurons in the hippocampus of rats
5-30-2024

• 5-30-2024STUDY FINDS EVEN LOW LEAD LEVELS IN US WATER ARE LINKED TO LEAD POISONING AMONG SUSCEPTIBLE PEOPLE
• 5-30-2024STUDY PROMOTES DIGITAL HELP FOR ADULTS WITH ADHD
• 5-30-2024IN THE BRAIN AT REST, STUDY INDICATES NEURONS REHEARSE FUTURE EXPERIENCE
• 5-30-2024AI AND MATH CAN HELP PREPARE FOR NEW INFECTIONS IN CHANGING CLIMATE, NEW THESIS SHOWS
• 5-30-2024GUILLAIN-BARRE SYNDROME ‘MORE COMMON THAN EXPECTED’ WITH RSV VACCINE IN OLDER PEOPLE, CDC REITERATES
• 5-30-2024REWRITABLE, RECYCLABLE ‘SMART SKIN’ MONITORS BIOLOGICAL SIGNALS ON DEMAND
• 5-30-2024UNDERSTANDING PROTEIN MUTATIONS THAT AFFECT GENE EXPRESSION TO PROMOTE CANCER PROGRESSION
• 5-30-2024STUDY REVEALS THAT GASTRIC CANCER SURGERY MAY REDUCE HEART DISEASE RISK
• 5-30-2024STUDY SHOWS EFFECTIVENESS OF UPDATED COVID-19 VACCINES WANES MODERATELY OVER TIME, IS LOWER AGAINST CURRENT VARIANTS
• 5-30-2024SCIENTISTS FIND ‘GOLDILOCKS’ BINDING STRENGTH DETERMINES ANTI-CANCER T-CELL EFFICACY AND FATE
• 5-30-2024STUDY FINDS SUICIDE RATES AMONG CANCER PATIENTS ARE FALLING
• 5-30-2024EXISTING DRUG SHOWS PROMISE AS TREATMENT FOR RARE GENETIC DISORDER
• 5-30-2024STUDY SUGGESTS ASTROCYTES INDUCE SEX-SPECIFIC EFFECTS ON MEMORY
• 5-30-2024STUDY OF 16 COUNTRIES SHOWS HIGHER TAXES WOULD HELP YOUNG SMOKERS QUIT OR CUT DOWN
• 5-30-2024RURAL FAMILIES AND CLINICS FEEL MEDICAID CUTS
• 5-30-2024CANCER CAN BE CAUSED BY REVERSIBLE MOLECULAR CHANGES, STUDY SHOWS
• 5-30-2024NOVEL VACCINE CONCEPT GENERATES IMMUNE RESPONSES THAT COULD PRODUCE MULTIPLE TYPES OF HIV NEUTRALIZING ANTIBODIES
• 5-30-2024ANOTHER MICHIGAN DAIRY WORKER HAS BIRD FLU, THE THIRD US CASE THIS YEAR
• 5-30-2024COULD ULTRA-PROCESSED FOODS BE ASSOCIATED WITH YOUR INSOMNIA?
• 5-30-2024RESEARCHERS DEVELOP EASY-TO-USE SCREENING TOOL TO HELP IMPROVE FAMILY ACCESS TO FEDERAL NUTRITION PROGRAMS
• 5-30-2024‘STICKY AND STRAIN-GRADIENT ARTIFICIAL EPINEURIUM’ CAN HEAL SEVERED NERVES IN ONLY ONE MINUTE, STUDY CLAIMS
• 5-30-2024STUDY SUGGESTS IT’S A SAFE AND EFFECTIVE GENDER-AFFIRMING HORMONE THERAPY FOR TRANS MEN
• 5-30-2024STUDY EXAMINES PRESCRIBING PATTERNS OF DRUG ASSOCIATED WITH COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT
• 5-30-2024RESEARCHERS FIND KNOWLEDGE A FACTOR IN CLOSING BLACK-WHITE COVID-19 VACCINATION GAP
• 5-30-2024MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS IS ON THE RISE IN AUSTRALIA, BUT IT’S NOT ALL BAD NEWS
• 5-30-2024DRUGS CAN REDUCE RECURRENCE AFTER BOWEL CANCER SURGERY, NEW THESIS SUGGESTS
• 5-30-2024DEVELOPING HEALTHIER AND MORE CLIMATE-FRIENDLY PROTECTIVE FOOTWEAR
• 5-30-2024RESEARCHER FINDS INCREASED DEMENTIA RISK IN OLDER ADULTS WITH A CRIMINAL BACKGROUND
• 5-30-2024EXAMINATIONS OF MAJOR SALIVARY GLANDS AND HEART REVEAL PATHOPHYSIOLOGICAL PROGRESSION OF PARKINSON’S
• 5-30-2024RESEARCHERS IDENTIFY FACTORS THAT HEIGHTEN RISK FOR CATHETER-ASSOCIATED URINARY TRACT INFECTIONS AND SEPSIS
• 5-30-2024TELEHEALTH STUDY MAY HELP IMPROVE ACCESS TO AUTISM ASSESSMENTS
• 5-30-2024ACCESS TO TARGETED LUNG CANCER DRUG IS COST-PROHIBITIVE GLOBALLY
• 5-30-2024NEW AVENUES TO DEVELOPING PERSONALIZED TREATMENTS FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA
• 5-30-2024CALL FOR JOURNALS TO BAN RESEARCH BY THE FIRMS, THEIR SUBSIDIARIES
• 5-30-2024TINY WORM HELPS UNCOVER LONG-LASTING PRENATAL EFFECTS FROM AMPHETAMINES
• 5-30-2024NEW MEASURE OF VALUE CAN HELP ACCOUNTABLE CARE ORGANIZATIONS DELIVER BETTER HEALTH OUTCOMES FOR LESS MONEY
• 5-30-2024HOW THE IMMUNE SYSTEM DESTROYS THE CEREBELLUM
• 5-30-2024SYSTEMATIC SURVEY REVEALS UNANNOTATED HUMAN GENE THAT’S OVEREXPRESSED IN PITUITARY TUMORS
• 5-30-2024NEW ELECTROSTATIC SAMPLER BOOSTS INDOOR VIRUS DETECTION SPEED
• 5-30-2024MICROFLUIDIC ORGAN CHIP MODELS HUMAN CERVIX TO FILL KEY WOMEN’S HEALTH GAP
• 5-30-2024CAUSE OF COMMON TYPE OF HEART FAILURE MAY BE DIFFERENT FOR WOMEN AND MEN
• 5-30-2024TO AVOID INFECTION SPREAD, HOW LONG A QUARANTINE IS SUFFICIENT? IT DEPENDS
• 5-30-2024HYPERTENSION, ALBUMINURIA RISKS ARE NO WORSE FOR KIDNEY DONORS THAN FOR NON-DONORS: STUDY
• 5-30-2024CDC REPORTS THIRD DAIRY WORKER INFECTED WITH BIRD FLU, RISK TO PUBLIC REMAINS LOW
• 5-30-2024BIMEKIZUMAB YIELDS MEANINGFUL RESPONSE IN HIDRADENITIS SUPPURATIVA
• 5-30-2024STUDY REVEALS IMPACT OF ICU DEMAND ON COVID-19 PATIENT MORTALITY IN COLORADO
• 5-30-2024SCIENTISTS DEVELOPING AT-HOME SWAB TESTS FOR ENDOMETRIAL, OVARIAN CANCER
• 5-30-2024RESEARCHERS CREATE COMPREHENSIVE TRANSCRIPTIONAL ATLAS OF HUMAN ADENOMYOSIS
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• 5-30-2024NEW STUDY REVEALS KEY PROTEIN THAT COULD HELP PREVENT EXCESSIVE BONE LOSS IN OSTEOPOROSIS
• 5-30-2024AT-SCHOOL VACCINATION BOOSTS HPV VACCINATION COVERAGE
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