Man, I majored in *computer engineering* and it took me at least a dozen interviews to get an offer. Giving up after a couple applications is wild even outside of famously harsh job markets.

I don't know how you would measure it besides asking people, which is obviously a bit unreliable. However, I think it's clear Trump is underperforming for some reason that's hard to measure. Maybe it's bad charisma, maybe not!

To be fair, I think Trump has underperformed a generic Republican, and it seems likely his personality played a role there. Meanwhil, Biden ran against Trump, so one had to win.

I think it's less that people can't spot charisma and more that the impact is overstated, maybe swaying 1-2% of voters.

One movie that I liked is The Face of an Angel, which used it's ending to emphasize the uncertainty in criminal investigations, in a major contrast to detective stories that are unrealisticly certain.

I literally posted this while giving my son formula lol.

Right, evil people got rich doing STEM adjacent stuff, because doing STEM adjacent stuff can make you rich, and rich people are broadly evil.

Elfaba's arc is closer to where it needs to be, but I think showing that her reputation makes it hard to get any support, even among animals, more explicitly would help. I think if Glinda and Elfaba are trying to achieve the same goals in parallel, the first half of p2 feels more connected.

So in that vein, I think p2 needs to show this more. Show Glinda trying to convince the wizard and Morrible to shift policy on animals, and getting strung along and blown off. Eventually she realizes she needs to assert herself more. Make it more satisfying when she stands up to them at the end.

What part 2 needs to cover is Elfaba and Glinda going from respecting the other person's different approach to actually realizing the other has a point. Elfaba needs to realize being right isn't enough. Glinda needs to realize being popular isn't enough.

The fight between Glinda and Elfaba doesn't feel genuine. Their friendship has endured Glinda being the spokesperson for a government that's inciting murderous rage against Elfaba. It's not going to fall apart because they like the same boy. In general, part 2 feels disconnected.

Glinda and Elfaba have concluded they can work the conflict from both sides to try to end the oppression of the animals. Fierro has decided things do matter and can barely tolerate Oz life. Nessa's change throughout the entire musical is more plot than character.

I remember seeing a Cosmo cover in like 2009 that said "is your straight boyfriend gay enough" or something, and it's like, why do I understand what this means?

But basically any romantic advice that assumes strict gender roles is going to fail, because not all straight women (or whatever gender/orientation) want the same things.