Robert

Businessman. Hotel bar philosopher. Chief Vibes Officer of the Republic.

[Robert @WordsAndMinds]

"Jobs that Americans won't do" now covers everything from cashier to surgeon.

[Mary Talley Bowden MD @MaryBowdenMD]

Over the past 10 years, the US has seen a steady rise in foreign medical students taking US student residency spots.

Every year, 1000+ US medical students fail to match, while 6000+ FMGs do match. About half of unmatched students find a spot, but they must still compete with FMGs for the leftover positions, leaving 500 - 600 US medical students with a worthless medical degree.

[Robert @WordsAndMinds]

Saw two older guys this week smoking a pipe, including an airline pilot in front of a hotel on a layover. Briar pipes. The tobacco smelled amazing. I love to see this. Sometimes you just have to have a vice and that's that. No apologies.

[Robert @WordsAndMinds]

@eCommKen I admit it can be fun occasionally

[Robert @WordsAndMinds]

I say this as someone who’s been involved in martial arts for 32 years — judo, boxing, karate, some wrestling and jiu-jitsu — this take is cringe fantasy. Avoid real fights at all costs. Do what you like. Some ppl just like lifting and don’t beed to larp as Batman

[Timmy @timmyhasagoatee]

Going to the gym without training a martial art is wasted muscle

So you’re grinding 5x a week, chasing the pump, eating chicken & rice…but if someone steps to you on the street you’re just a big strong target with zero skills

[Robert @WordsAndMinds]

@Blueelectron4 There are larpers on the other side too -- those who think 20 inch arms make them automatic killers -- but the point is not to assume anything about anyone.

[Robert @WordsAndMinds]

@Kyhuynhlam In general, you're right. Depends what you train at. Six months of shit-tier kickboxing, you're basically nothing. A year of decent boxing with sparring? Differnet story. And even a mediocre high school wrestler will destroy most.

[Robert @WordsAndMinds]

@CryptoWeizy I agree but one should never underestimate anyone else, including those who haven't trained. Some people are just big and/or crazy

[Robert @WordsAndMinds]

@JordanKwan2015 I don't know how these people live. Even living in a major metro area it's thankfully rare to have confrontations with basic awareness and avoidance

[Robert @WordsAndMinds]

@YeahLikeTheSoup Exactly. Knives, guns, box cutters...or the possibility that you overreact to some pissant and catch a bad charge

[Robert @WordsAndMinds]

@afdevine_ Yeah. Healthy and looks good among other things

[Robert @WordsAndMinds]

@yogurtpott It does but never underestimate someone

[Robert @WordsAndMinds]

@QuintusCurtius One perk of growing up in the 90s is having the memory of seeing all these classic summer blockbusters in the theaters. Vividly remember sitting next to my dad exactly 30 years ago

[BUZZ BUDDY @AV_says__]

@CrankyFed Dating apps have taught me that being able to ask a follow up question is apparently a highly specialized skill

[Robert @WordsAndMinds]

@QuintusCurtius And he won’t get bond (rightfully so) while waiting for either trial. Then there are the civil suits. The party’s over. Will be behind bars for years and years

[Robert @WordsAndMinds]

@QuintusCurtius My view is it degenerated into excessive force very quickly. And he's in county jail now for allegedly attacking his ex-fiancee and holding her in the house against her will. The state of Florida has had it with this guy...my prediction is minimum 10 years

[Robert @WordsAndMinds]

@DeanAbbott It is astounding. I see it all the time. I can’t explain it. We’re a hypersexualized culture on the surface but it’s all performance. It’s actually the most sterile time in history interpersonally.

[Robert @WordsAndMinds]

People—men and women—are absolute prudes nowadays in ways not seen since pre-1950s times. Was just talking with someone about this. They’ll celebrate pride month but refuse to flirt with anyone.

[Dean Abbott @DeanAbbott]

I'm not clear on what happened to so many Gen Z men that left them devoid of basic flirting skills.

Men speaking to women, being funny and just enjoying the cross sex vibe without some big agenda used to be more common, I think.

What happened to cause the loss of those skills?

[Robert @WordsAndMinds]

No one cares what they think though. This isn’t some super clever sick burn.

[Robert @WordsAndMinds]

@jaydub9191 Exactly. This is like some bedridden asthmatic dude critizing a heavyweight champion for having a sloppy jab.

[Robert @WordsAndMinds]

No one cares what they think though. This isn’t some super clever sick burn.

[Rita 🇵🇹🇻🇦 @southevropa]

Brazilians are the only ppl I know who call US citizens “United Statesians” instead of just calling them Americans.
I’m gonna start using that word on my best friends as rage bait

[Robert @WordsAndMinds]

The weird puritanism about drinking nowadays is partly function of the weird obsession with wanting to be young forever, and fetishizing youth.

[Stephen Stone - PhD Tricknologist @Stephen19718352]

People don’t realize how ubiquitous drinking used to be. Like most men used to drink every day. It was not uncommon for laborers to have a shot of whiskey to start the day. Taking a couple nips before a big meeting or speech was normal. Wine with dinner and an after dinner digestion drink was common.

There are certainly people who are just born addicts and would drink themselves to death under any circumstance, at any historical time, in any culture. But now that it’s been almost a decade since I last drank, and I’ve spent probably too much time studying both addiction and historical culture, I am fully convinced that our current culture is not only characterizing non-problematic drinking as “alcoholic,” but the culture itself is making people drink alcoholically.

Historically, outside of certain Protestant denominations that strongly discouraged, if not outright prohibited it, there wasn’t much fuss about drinking in general, but more obvious, frequent drunkenness.

Now, true drunkenness is permitted, but only in very specific contexts by specific age groups. The striking difference is that casual drinking (not to drunkenness) is also confined to very specific contexts. Lunch drinking, of even a beer or a glass of wine, is virtually non-existent in contemporary American culture. If your coworker at a major corporation ordered a beer at lunch, it would be shocking. The old shot of whiskey to start the day would immediately be interpreted as alcoholism.

There is something about the current culture around alcohol that I believe is literally driving people to a weird version of alcoholism. We are increasingly making it taboo and then compounding our interpretation of the behavior and I think people are subconsciously fulfilling the belief that’s been implanted. Even normal casual drinkers are seemingly constantly feeling the need to examine and prove that they are not alcoholics, where they never even would have considered it 60 years ago.

The new crew of health podcasters are making it even worse by making normal people feel like a single beer is going to “ruin their sleep” and destroy their health.

[Robert @WordsAndMinds]

@QuintusCurtius Reminds of the guy who redid our family kitchen in New York back when I was in high school. Tommy. Super gritty but lovable. Chain smoker. Korean War vet who literally told me how he blew some Korean officer's head off one time.