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Biggest material regret of my last 5 years was getting rid of my 99 Limited. I worried about some of the pillar rust compromising safety with my kid in the car, but you couldn't beat the 3.4, rear locker, etc. Take my vote to not sell yours.

Truly a modern heresy. I'd add the culture of parenting "technique" micro-analysis as another toxic drain on the potential of childrearing. Way too much thought given to dubious "science" of parenting decisions that cause parents too focus too heavily on things that ultimately don't matter.

Related modern heresies: https://www.secretorum.life/p/20-modern-heresies?s=w

The burden of proof of negligence is problematic. Until we surrender additional privacy to a "more objective" monitoring system, it's too easy to murder someone with your vehicle and claim innocence.

When I'm riding my bicycle in a perfectly legal way on a roadway, and a driver gets irritated and tries to clip me, it's very difficult for me to prove that they acted in malice. If they clip me and I die hitting a guardrail, it's incredibly easy for them to claim it was an accident.

But that's an edge case and this type of culpability problem is common across many facets of humanity. The bigger issue may be that driving isn't treated with the seriousness it should warrant. In conditions where "sudden glare" is possible, one should drive their 4000lb vehicle at a speed that allows them to mitigate all but the most rare (freak) accident, like a 200lb alligator popping out of a manhole cover right in front of them. The human failure rate is real, but there's more we can do with process + tech + practice to mitigate it even smaller.

This level of care as a driver is directly counter to what the automobile industry wants as the image of their product: an easy, convenient and essential tool to be used every day.

Could you explain your comment about the $100 note?

A quick peek at the Fed suggests there are more $100 bills in circulation than $1s: https://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/coin_currcircv...

This is how government hiring works. The job buckets are incredibly unspecific.

Related: Open jobs at the CIA with the title "analyst".

Could you speak to the practical values of a stabilized reference encyclopedia?

If the study of history is a long-term, iterative process, where is this stability important (beyond the filtering of short-term noise, vandalism, political influence, etc)?

Some of the most fun I've had outdoors with friends is when they want to try biking (or bikepacking) with me. You're right that people generally have no understanding of what they're capable of (and that no herculean effort is required).

I suspect that some of this is a result of humans being increasingly unable to estimate true distances. In my city, it can take 45 minutes to drive 3 miles, so most non-bikers understand 3 miles to be an insurmountable distance.

Wow, down the rabbithole I go. Thanks for sharing (especially that second link). Always good to get a dose of awe first thing on a Friday.

Of course they are.

If you're looking to read more into the basics of this disaster, I was impressed by the clarity of these Washington Post graphics: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/09/12/deadly-libya...

I suspect there's an aspect of precedent/case law here. Minibar charges hold up in court differently than parking (service) charges, perhaps?

Agreed. It's a phenomenal incentive to help pressure adherence to law. Now if we could just get this applied to issues of political insider trading and conflicts of interest!

I also wonder how much of this "all or nothing" (aka quitting and traveling untethered vs holding down a job) mentality is a result of Gen Z not yet finding the ability/value in work-life balance.

"For me, there were a lot of late nights tapping away at a keyboard" says the main character. Not blaming him for feeling the way he feels...but dwelling in a job with undefined hours and no boundaries explains why his solution is to quit and run away to a new destination.

> who knows what the fallout will be

Excellent point. It's easy (in the US, at least) to take the widespread availability of pharmacies in grocery stores, street corners, etc for granted. It's not difficult to see Amazon squeezing the industry enough to make a pharmacy in a grocery store unsustainable.

Thanks, that thread is an excellent discussion of the differences. I had never considered the exhaust contamination of the propeller feed air in a pusher design.

"Contrary to popular belief, burnout isn’t caused by a lack of work-life balance. It’s driven more by the lack of ability to do meaningful work."

Couldn't agree more. I wish I was more like my peers who don't seem to get as fully invested in their work (emotionally, mentally, etc)...but if I'm dedicating 40 hours a week to something, it's hard to continue if the work isn't aligned with what I define as meaningful.

Like the author, I've beat myself up over the idea that my remote job offers good enough W/L balance...but that doesn't fix the core problem that the vast majority of those 40 hours are spent frittering away at the structure of the corporation (and its motivations).

Side note: this publication, The New Atlantis, has been a very satisfying subscription. It's not too technical to casually read and consistently mixes together an interesting collection of essays, opinions, reviews, etc. I've passed every copy I receive to friends and then regret not having them around six months later when the ideas I read are still lodged in my brain.

Thinking about twitter as an e(x) is quite helpful in weaning myself off the hellhole of a website.

> significant power over the system they operated

that's such a great observation. Nowadays, when emailing support for a company like Ryobi or Breville, the human's response (through a Salesforce queue, no doubt) is always so helpless. They literally have no ability (nor knowledge?) to deviate from the corporate prescribed path and actually solve the problem.

Same goes for a large car dealer's service dept. There's just no incentive to take the most direct route to solve the problem, even if it ends up costing the dealership thousands more in the process.

On the flip side, it's really satisfying engaging with the remaining few businesses and small makers who have the power to offer excellent, direct support.

Agreed. People forget that until the late-90s, many were still buying theft protection devices they installed every time they exited the vehicle.

I got my CPL the same year my first kid was born. The procedure/checklist culture transferred really well between baby tasking and training.

Where do the people who staff those establishments live? How do they get to their jobs, and at what cost?

Agreed. Sometimes I feel that most traffic laws only exist to serve as stand-in probable cause for forces' own agendas.

Air quality issues are two-fold: the (legal) mandated limits and the popular concerns. The latter are often the blocker on small/regional burn seasons. It's late winter/early spring, land manager is ready to go, and the nearby town doesn't love the smoke.

At least they're putting forward some sort of "policy".

Gannett's use is more troublesome in terms of impact: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gannett-tiptoes-generative-ai...

Even Margaret Bourke-White's content isn't worth much. Her vintage silver gelatin prints, sure, but none of her LOC-housed imagery, and certainly none of her work available through Getty.

If the Point of Capitalism is to Escape Capitalism, Then What's the Point of Capitalism?

https://eand.co/if-the-point-of-capitalism-is-to-escape-capi...

And it's been the threat for 20 years.

Wayback Machine (May 23, 2003): https://web.archive.org/web/20030523125359/http://paypalsuck...

Amen. It's disappointing to think that the general consensus on tech/automation is that it's only there to drive an economy rather than what it could do for the baseline of "being human".

+1. Those girls don't need to deal with old Uncle Al failing to manage the basic day to day logistics of their school.

Might as well dedicate your waning days to living out a Robinhood fantasy stealing for the poor until you're killed by the landed gentry.