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smm2000

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“Fortunately criticizing Putin isn't grounds for being assassinated, as can be seen by the literal millions of people in Russia who haven't been murdered yet. It's easy: be nobody and have a discussion about your political beliefs in the kitchen with only close relatives.”

All well known recent deplatforming cases were done on a flimsy grounds for off-platform activities. They are very hard to defend.

Giving cash back creates wrong incentives and you sign up different audience than if you offer airline miles. Airline miles are in demand for people who travel often (affluent) in comparison to people who wants to get $150 after signing up for cc (poor).

That said there are offers to get cash for signing up. Some time ago First Republic Bank was giving $300 for cc sign up for Google employees (aka rich people).

Employers definitely need to know where you live to pay myriad of payroll taxes. if you lie, you commit tax fraud. It’s true virtually anywhere in the world - including all countries in Europe, not just US thing. You can often skirt law if you are small enough though - nobody cares about random web designer on upwork.

Many foreigners treat PhD and especially Masters program as a way to get visa and access to USA - doing actual research is secondary goal. $30k/year is poverty wage in US but solid pay for somebody from eastern europe, India or China. Programs will be in jeopardy because they won’t be able to do visa/salary arbitrage which could positive thing and lead to more Americans in those programs.

And average Google engineer work 15x harder than average WalMart employee in US and 200x harder than laborer in India.

5 acres in area where minimum lot is 5 acres is much cheaper than in area where minimum is 5k sq ft. In most areas you can’t subdivide lot - that’s the reason houses in Atherton on huge lots are so cheap (relatively).

There is argument that it's easier to build car now than in 60ies because car parts manufacturing was decentralized in 90ies. In 60ies vertically integrated car companies dominated market and you could not buy car parts at any price if those companies did not want to sell them to you. Now most parts are produced by third parties (that often used to be part of fully integrated car company like Delphi Technologies) and you can build modern car like legos, outsource pretty much everything and only do final assembly. Still not easy (30k+ parts in every car) but doable.

It can be zero sum game short term (<1 months) but medium term (6 months) it's definitely not zero sum game. Pool of applicants that can be firemen includes all able-bodied males (and potentially female) 18-50 which is 10 million pool in California alone. Good pay will attract out of state candidates too. I would expect training to take less than 6 months or so. Considering fires happen every year, California can have as many firemen as it wants (and willing to pay for) by the time next summer fire season starts.

We Sold Pando 7 years ago

Pando failed as publication with last article from June and before that for a year or so all articles were written by Sarah so no money for journalists. It's not so much selling publication as selling web site with residual google traffic.

I am sad - I was subscriber at one time and attended a few events. Lots of good content a few years ago. Good journalism is expensive and Sarah failed to make finances at Pando viable. Now competition for subscriber dollars is intense with theinformation, business insider, digiday, etc and ad dollar will never support niche publication with no unique audience like Pando.

WeWTF 7 years ago

Cost of coffee in cup of latte is less than 25cents and Starbucks sells latte for $4.5. I am sure Starbucks has small price advantage compared to local coffee shop but this advantage is minuscule for widely traded commodities like coffee, milk and paper cups. I doubt that's their main competitor advantage.

Personally for me ability to order Starbucks coffee online and have it ready when I get to the store is a game changer + consistent user experience. Local coffee shops are always hit/miss.

Author lost me on doorman. Doormen absolutely bring value and saying that doormen is bullshit job is the same as saying that waitress is a bullshit job - in the end customer is fully capable of bringing the food from the counter to his table on his own.

Doormen Can accept packages when you are not in your apt (leaving outside is not an option in NY)

  Can accept laundry delivery

  Provide security by screening people out at the entrance

  Virtually eliminate burglaries/theft

  Can provide key to housecleaner/installer/plumber/etc

  Keep parking spot in front of building available for short time use by residents (often semi-illegally)

  Can help brining up heavy suitcases/bags to the apartment
Doormen absolutely provide value and apts in buildings with doormen sells for more than equivalent apartments with only intercall.

Rankings do not fairly represent quality of students when compared internationally. Very very few people will go to UB if he/she was accepted to Harvard/MIT so very few top students in US ends up in UB. University of Country (ranked the same as UB internationally but the best in that country) gets almost all smart students from that country.

Quality of education itself is mostly irrelevant - difference is small and it's good enough pretty much everywhere now.

Throughput, expectation of service and number of tables/waiter are very different for coffeeshop/casual diner and place that sells $60 steak. In casual restaurant you can expect one waiter per 8 tables compared to 4 tables/waiter in fine dining place. People easily take 2x time to eat the same amount of food in fine dining place compared to something cheaper. In fine dining place waiters are better trained/educated (ever tried to ask for wine recommendation at Denny's?) and dress nicer.

Higher tips per person are totally expected in fine dining place purely from economic perspective.

There are two things that I use to make economy flight bearable

- Stand for 30 min, then sit for 30 min or so. You will be surprised by how much better you feel by the end of the flight. I just grab Kindle and read it standing in the isle on domestic or walk to the back of the plane on widebody international flights (usually there is space there).

- Use inflatable pillow like this one https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06WVR48SW. You will get much better sleep with it