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Cake day: July 9th, 2023

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  • On the other hand, other fabrials, such as Soulcasters, the Sibling, and Oathgates, are still visible in Shadesmar despite having a Physical presence

    It’s also possible that their functionality requires them existing with a foot in both worlds, so to speak. They’re not dead spren nor typical living spren. They’re willfully imprisoned in some special way. Like, the Oathgate spren are the Oathgates, and seem like they’re more responsive, but we know it’s the same process as the Soulcasters and they’re basically inert. Sanderson has said they’re something like Shardblades, but he doesn’t say they’re just like Shardblades. They do act differently and affect things differently. Presumably they just work differently.


  • For point 2: I always got the impression that they did blip out when summoned. There’s hundreds of them out there, but they’ve had thousands of years. And while we view it as imprisoned, they say they’re keeping them safe (and from hurting themselves possibly I think, but I may be misremembering that bit). So they’re stopping them from wandering around by keeping them locked up, but it’s not trying to keep them all there forever. They just feel honor bound to take care of them. That’s their ultimate goal, not to round them up.

    On top of that, I’m not sure, like Syl when she’s just being her little blue self hanging out with Kaladin is also in Shadesmar at the same time. I don’t think it’s like with lower spren where we’re getting a peek at them on the other side. I think they’re all the way over. Otherwise, in Oathbringer we probably would have seen Timbre, Ivory, and maybe Wyndle and Glys just hanging out on the cognitive side around Theylan City when Kaladin and the gang showed up. But it hasn’t been verified, so who knows? Sanderson is pretty good at coming up with good reasons for stuff in retrospect.



  • I mean, he’s aware of his popularity and privilege. He’s made a few comments clarifying that it wasn’t to “stick it to Amazon.” He does have a problem with Amazon’s business model when it comes to authors as well as the traditional publishing industry’s barriers to new authors and he understands that these are people’s only real option. He used that clout he has in the industry and his fiscal security to try help open up other avenues for publishing. And yeah, the guy is rich, but not publishing house rich. Printing thousands of books, then distributing them likely takes more liquid cash than he has available. He had a good idea of what it would cost and that’s what was asked for on Kickstarter. If he hadn’t made that, all the people would have kept their money. If more money was needed, he is rich and could probably cover it. I don’t see any risk here that anyone shouldered except for him risking his goodwill with fans.

    I try to be skeptical of people. Particularly successful people who have made a lot of money. But from everything I’ve seen, the man lives his values and seems to be a pretty good guy. For his Kickstarter books, when he was talking to Audible about the audiobook versions, they offered him a very good deal. Then he pushed them to tell what a typical author would get. When he heard how bad a deal that was, he refused.

    The man really cares about books and their place in this world. He has been successful and made a lot of money and social power in the industry from decades of writing. Now he’s using that to try and make the industry a better place for all writers while also still getting his books to his fans.

    And my understanding is that his employees at Dragonsteel have profit sharing as part of their working there, on top of their paychecks. So any money he makes is also distributed throughout the staff. He also seems pretty liberal for a member of the LDS church and has spoken about his views evolving over the years as he’s realized the reality around him. He seems like a pretty genuinely good guy doing his best to change the industry for the good of all writers.


  • Did you have your location services turned on around other people who likely did google that kind of thing? Or connect to the wifi in that house that almost certainly put in a search or 2 for that game? Or people who were there that Google knows you interact with? Did they Google it? Or was it just a very popular thing that was huge in the zeitgeist that day for everyone? We are tracked in so many ways that don’t require them having to store and analyze literally every conversation that everyone has (Both sides of the convo as well!)


  • I would argue that it’s more just a, for once, positive side affect of the bloated prices we experience in everything. When you get a buy one get one free deal with glasses, you can shop around and see that they aren’t charging double for the single pair. It’s on par with what you pay for a single pair elsewhere. It just means that creating a pair of glasses isn’t as expensive as they want you to think.

    T-mobile isn’t paying full price per Netflix subscription they give along with a cell phone bill. They may even be making money. Netflix subscriptions overall are down. Netflix has been desperate to get more people signed up. It wouldn’t surprise me if this is considered a promotion for Netflix. They pay Netflix to lump it in with cell phone plans to get people who previously didn’t have their own Netflix account to now be signed up. Once that free year or whatever ends, a percentage of those people will certainly pay for it. That biggest hurdle of signing them up for their own account is done.