On the other hand, the high prices of fields (as well as machinery, fertilizers, feed, animals, buildings, etc.) are quite a natural development as society transitions to the mature stage of capitalism in the agricultural sector as well. Large farms, as I understand it, are still doing quite well, while problems are piling up for small farms. Establishing a new farm from scratch requires such massive investments that an average person couldn’t secure those loans even if they pledged their entire family’s assets. The same applies to almost everything else: capital is held by large companies, and they are able to push market prices so high that smaller competitors can’t keep up. It is, of course, quite logical: especially in primary production, a large company can achieve better productivity than many small ones. Socially, this is certainly unfortunate, especially since Finland and its culture have largely been built on the countryside and small farms. Now they are dying off, but the consumer is supposed to benefit from this development.
This is how it often feels… and sometimes it actually goes like this…
https://x.com/PeterMallouk/status/2008902442411229278
Regards, the Helsinki ‘bro stock’ victims association
The issues you mentioned are likely quite deliberate.
The impossibility of canceling a reservation makes some people who are hesitant about going actually show up at the theater; otherwise, their conscience pricks them regarding the reservation they made. Keeping people standing in the theater lobby and in queues before the screening, on the other hand, serves as marketing to others; the interest of passersby is piqued when the place is full of people. Additionally, concession sales likely increase as people smell the popcorn and look at the candy shelves before the show.
Canada.
A Chinese company copies the battery and sells billions of units at a fifth of the price 
When this happens often, it sounds like very selfish behavior. Some might think that this kind of repeated cancellation of reservations is precisely what isn’t polite.
Just to be safe, one could even reserve all the seats in the theater, so you can then calmly think about which seat would be nice. I’m sure the others will have time to get their seats once I have politely canceled my reservations.
Years ago, I was an event coordinator for an association. It was quite something when out of over two hundred members, 20 had signed up for a trip on a Saturday morning (a minibus had been booked), but a day or two before departure, half the group cancelled. This happened because the down payment for the trip was only 10 euros, and the rest of the cost was covered by the association’s existing funds. We had to change the policy so that the entire trip had to be paid for, whether you showed up or not.
The same phenomenon applies to children’s hobbies; when a completely free football school or floorball session is organized, the numbers fluctuate so much that the coach might have 20 children one day and 4 the next. This doesn’t happen on the same scale with paid hobbies.
I feel that, in general, people’s ability to commit and dedicate themselves to certain things—even things that are very important to them—is, on average, in quite a poor state.
Sign-ups are left until the very last minute, and if possible, they are canceled just before the zero hour. Hobbies are started but not continued. If it’s possible to participate only occasionally, that’s exactly what people do. If someone meets a charming potential partner at a Christmas party, the previous spouse is ditched for the new one. Clothes and other lifestyle goods are bought here and there, only to be forgotten in closets. The car is new, but shouldn’t it be traded in already?
And why the hell have I filled my stock portfolio with these kinds of crap stocks? They haven’t moved an inch in either direction for weeks. Now the portfolio is being sold off, and the investment strategy is being changed for the third time this year.
Of course, it’s worth identifying and accepting wrong choices in both investing and life. But I argue that if you don’t commit and dedicate yourself to the things that are important in your life (in line with your values), life easily ends up feeling a bit hollow.
Heiskanen’s Procrastination Diaries, Part 2313:
Over the past year, I’ve had to come up with several different ways to try and trick my simple mind and my innate laziness. It occurred to me on my day off: does anyone else do the same, and do you have any good techniques or tips of your own?
My problem is that I have to focus and think a lot at work. I don’t make any major decisions, but during the workday, there are a countless number of small details that I have to ponder, improve, and rethink. It’s constant nitpicking and optimization.
In my free time, I then find it hard to focus on any similar meticulous tinkering. Unfortunately, I really enjoy meticulous tinkering, and I’m always coming up with massive hobby projects for myself. If I want to make progress on them, I have to somehow trick myself into focusing. I’ve found three ways to do this.
- I blast really energetic music in my ears, really loud. This isn’t always very pleasant, but when you’ve got some high-tempo stuff blasting against your eardrums, after a while, I start to imagine that I actually have the energy and stamina to keep going.
- I create metrics for myself to track my progress. Before I start working, I might spend minutes just staring at a progress chart and thinking that I’ve already come this far, and after today, I’ll be even further. Visualizing even small progress is surprisingly motivating when the workload and the thought of starting feel overwhelming.
- At one point, I used a mental distraction where I told myself it’s perfectly fine to just sit here with my tools and do nothing for as long as I want. Pretty quickly, I’d get bored of just sitting idle and start working simply to alleviate the boredom. Unfortunately, once my energy levels hit a certain low, I realized I was quite happy doing absolutely nothing, so I abandoned this technique.
What tricks do the rest of you use?
That’s a great point. The human ability and the circumstances to perform as one desires have always been tested, and even though these circumstances have improved over the centuries, it feels like it is only getting worse in modern times.
Throughout these same centuries, literature and later cinema have told stories of protagonists who have something they want and something they need. In the end, they either get it or they don’t, and perhaps they learn (or in practice, the viewer is presented with the idea) that the key lies in understanding cause-and-effect, desire, and the things that truly matter.
Yet, this simple dynamic is often “all Greek” when watching a Netflix series, and if someone breaks it down, it leads to a feeling of awkwardness or frustration. I don’t really have the energy for this right now, I don’t need to hear this.
This is why the most important function of insurance company ads, growth companies, and advertising in general is to say: Just be and enjoy. Everything is fine. You are safe.
I have to challenge that a bit by saying that it is probably quite a normal part of human life. Therefore, being aware of the important things you mentioned makes life rich, more than their absence makes it poor or hollow. On an investment forum, this is certainly a fertile aspect of wealth to reflect on for a Friday.
So there’s no discussion, eh? 
For me, nothing works except denying myself everything fun. If I go from the morning without scrolling through my phone, opening YouTube or the Inderes forum, and generally avoid doing anything that provides easy dopamine, then strangely enough, making progress on a project starts to feel more appealing to my brain than staring at a blank wall. Some days this self-restraint works, and other days it doesn’t.
Me, knowing nothing about anything, cooking food in the oven and heating up the electric sauna yesterday:
My mother asked me to write here whether it’s smart to listen to music really loud? An acquaintance of an acquaintance has had constant tinnitus for years as a result of listening to music at high volumes, and it didn’t sound pleasant at all.
Starting has been the hardest part for me. That is why I have set out my hobby equipment or similar in advance and started very lightly. Then enthusiasm has taken over, or sometimes fatigue or the Inderes forum or something similar has won out.
In honor of Friday, a joke that is almost as long as Karibu’s walls of text. Everyone who reads to the end gets to drink beer tonight 
Paavo had suffered from headaches for over twenty years.
Finally, he went to see a specialist. After a long examination, the doctor stated:
“Paavo, the good news is: I can cure your headaches. The bad news… you have to be castrated.
You have a rare condition: your testicles are pressing against your spine and causing the pain. Removing them is the only way to get rid of the pain.”
Paavo was shocked. But after decades of chronic pain, he reluctantly agreed to the operation…
When he left the hospital, he felt strange and a bit… incomplete — but for the first time in decades, he didn’t have a headache.
Walking down the street, he decided this was a turning point. A new beginning.
First, he decided to get some new, proper clothes.
He passed a very high-quality gentlemen’s clothier and thought: Why not?
After going inside, he said to the salesman, “I’d like a new suit.”
the elderly tailor looked him up and down and stated, “You’re a size 44 long.”
Paavo laughed. “Right! How did you know?”
“I’ve been in the business for 60 years,” the tailor replied.
Paavo tried on the suit—it fit perfectly.
“How about a shirt?” the tailor asked, his inquisitive gaze once again fixed on Paavo.
“34 sleeve, 16½ neck.”
“Amazing!” Paavo said. “Completely correct.”
“60 years,” the tailor contented himself with saying again.
Feeling great, Paavo walked around the shop in his new clothes. The tailor interrupted:
“Perhaps the gentleman would also like some new underwear at the same time?”
“Sure,” Paavo said.
The tailor glanced at him again and stated, “size 36.”
Paavo laughed out loud. “Hah, wrong! I’ve worn size 34 my entire adult life.”
The tailor shook his head.
“No, you can’t wear size 34. Size 34 would press your testicles against your spine…”
“…giving you a terrible headache.”
Have a liberating Friday
Current reading/listening tip:
“A bright and optimistic novel that offers enjoyably stunning visions for both Finnish and European readers.”
No, it certainly isn’t. A few years ago, I got tinnitus as a “bonus” with an ear infection. It lasted for about a month. It rang in the morning when I woke up, and in the evening when I went to bed. The sound could hardly be masked by anything.
The only moment of relief was in a van at work; for some reason, it masked the sound almost completely. That was one of the few, though. I also liked being outside near traffic.
There were videos on YouTube for tinnitus relief. These videos typically featured the sound of rippling water. I will never forget how one video featured a worn-out old shower in some crummy apartment building bathroom—the most dismal video you could imagine—showing slowly running water for hours. There was a single short comment on the video: “has my life come to this”.
The sound itself wasn’t the worst part, though I can easily think of hundreds of people I know who would have torn their heads off if faced with such an ailment. When you are calm and logical, you can adapt to anything. If you can block out the ticking of a wall clock, you can block out tinnitus too. In that sense, the worst thing isn’t the current sound itself, but the fear of it changing or getting worse.
I probably won’t ever dare to go to a swimming pool again. I didn’t get the ear infection that caused the tinnitus from there, but I remember how in childhood it was the place where you were most likely to get an ear infection. I’m not afraid of listening to music. In general, tinnitus caused by loud noise is somehow different; it comes on gradually, leaves gradually, and never reaches the volumes that I suffered from and which started instantly.
I vividly remember when a PE teacher from my vocational school days wanted to show the students an example of how even innocent, cheap earbuds can be a danger to hearing. He told one student to turn on the music at the volume they usually listen at.
When the PE teacher brought a decibel meter about 10 centimeters away from one of the buds, the reading exceeded 100 dB. The student themselves didn’t think they were listening loudly, so either the damage—meaning hearing loss—had already occurred, or it was just ignorance and/or indifference to the fact that they could enjoy it with less.
The same test was repeated for another student, who also exceeded 100 decibels. When you blast music exceeding that noise level into your ears with just small earbuds, I can only imagine how much damage over-ear headphones do if you don’t set boundaries yourself.
I’ve been left with fluctuating tinnitus from an adult ear infection 1.5 years ago. It’s mild and manageable, but vague; I’m largely used to it now, and it doesn’t bother me much. I hear it when I focus and decide to hear it, then at some point it’s forgotten again and disappears into the background noise of everyday life.
Today marks five years of investing, I think I’ll brew some coffee 
The donut manufacturer’s factory looked quiet to a passerby.
Looks exactly like the kind of place where groundbreaking battery technology is manufactured this half-year! 