Nope. If they are given about 3 hours to cook, I find they are softened enough (use higher heat if the duration will be shorter). That's not to say you can't pre-fry them or something if you want to!
I should have mentioned that I usually make my chili vegetarian. In the rare occasions where I do add meat, I will pre-cook that, but it's mostly because of paranoia and because I don't own a cooking thermometer.
Usually red kidney beans (canned), and/or dried lentils in a bag. No prep necessary (besides cutting up veggies) as long as you know there will be enough time for the dried lentils or other ingredients to soften in the slow cooker. I like to leave it on low heat all day or all night to be sure. You could boil/pre-cook them if you needed it to be ready in only a few hours, though.
I'm a big fan of slow-cooker chili. It's easy to make different variations by throwing in whatever leftover ingredients you have, and stuff that would otherwise be going bad soon. Like the last bit of pasta sauce, random veggies. Always have some beans or lentils on hand to fill it out. It's easy to make lunches for a week in one go.
Stir fry. Similar to above. Use the last of the broccoli, onion, carrots, even peanut or almond crumbs that would otherwise go to waste.
Feta. Sure, pizza tends to be already covered in cheese, but this is different cheese, and that is a good thing. I think it goes well with some of my other faves, such as green olives, pineapple, banana peppers.
Salami. It's like pepperoni, but different.
Alfredo sauce instead of tomato sauce, together with a few toppings like chicken and red onion, is heavenly, and doesn't seem to cause heartburn.
Then we all get laughed at to our faces.
Maybe I'm missing something, but that link seems to indicate it's down, -2.26% YTD.
My short answer to why it's not down more is simply not enough time has passed for it to impact earnings reports. If all the tariff threats are implemented and stick around, it could be a red summer. And don't forget that most Canadians are boycotting anything made in the US. We just don't know how much of an impact that will have yet.
Sure, as long as the CEO of Lemmy doesn't see it.
Geezer
Since you're not sure what you want to do, I say don't pursue a specific career, but pursue a field that interests you. You might not have the luxury of finding a job opening for exactly what you want, even if you did have something specific in mind, but by having relevant skills you can get closer and eventually find something that works for you.
I went to school for a certain field, found a job that was in no way related, and eventually got a position there that did use my education (I was chosen because of it). 10 years later, found a new company in "my field" that uses both my education and the skills from the previous job that I thought would never be useful elsewhere. The more things you can put on your resume, the better, especially in a world where AI will be screening thousands of applications for the most keywords.