I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.

I have always said if I could pick my stats I’d like to be as dumb as a box of rocks with charisma through the roof. It’s like a god damn super power.

It’s like our lives are written like a book about Russian history where every chapter ends with “… and then it got worse”.

That’s what I’m saying. Since I apparently shouldn’t have been paying those taxes who do I contact to get it all back?

Right, but two things to keep in mind.

If the same amount of money was poured into public transit we could probably get that travel time down.

Is commute time the only thing that matters and should it be given priority?

For example, if someone told you that taking their helicopter was a three times shorter commute than taking their car to work what would you think of that? I know you indicated that your car cost very little to buy and operate, but their are a number of costs with that car that are being externalized. The roads that it drives on, the pollution it produces, the space/parking it takes up when it’s not being driven, etc.

If public transit were almost as good (doesn’t have to beat it) as individuals driving, how much more space would we have for additional housing, public spaces, or other amenities?

If you take all of this those externalized factors into account and decide that commute time still trumps the other advantages then that’s where you are at and I understand. I don’t agree, but I do understand.

I personally LOVE driving, but hate commuting. Fun car on twisty back roads? Yes please. Sitting in traffic or even moving along at a decent pace on the highway but need to be hyper aware of everyone around me? Much less enjoyable. I personally would have no issue with a longer commute on public transit if I could read a book or play games while I did it.

The thing is, how much do we collectively spend on cars, infrastructure, and roads only for most cars to sit doing nothing 90% of the time? I don’t have specific numbers but it seems to me like if all of that money was spent on public transit then it would still be cheaper to have a tram coming by every five to ten minutes even in suburban areas with low passenger volume.

I don’t think it’s ever going to happen though given the lack of public desire and vested interests at play though.

Bless your heart

That’s great, but if they want to make that the goal then they should structure it in a way that is more conducive to that goal. When failure without dire consequences isn’t an option, then they have fucked up.

That’s always been my issue. I worked full time and went to school full time when I was in college and still had to take out some loans. I did have some scholarship money that covered about half of it, but they only covered four years. My degree path didn’t have any free electives meaning in every assignment, test, and class I only had a single shot. Failing would likely mean having to retake a class and push graduating out to a year which would have doubled the amount of debt I came out with. All just to get a piece of paper that would allow me to do the job that I knew I would be good at and enjoy.

The entire course of my life was at the mercy of some bad teachers and worse bureaucracy. I get that my profession shouldn’t just hire people without any kind of training and hope for the best, and there were things I learned that had value, but the stakes and imbalance of power is so high I can’t really be mad at some one “cheating” when they themselves are getting royally fucked.

I don’t know bub, from an outside perspective you seem to be the mule digging 🤷‍♂️

That would be news to me.

People seem to take an all or nothing approach to how they view topics or judge people, especially when they are very far removed from it. I think my take is a bit more nuanced and has some value for that reason, since I am able to be critical of some of the things they do while enjoying others.

Linus bothers me quite a bit and I’m fairly critical of him, but I don’t know if I would go as far as saying he is a sociopath. We would probably even be friends, but I would call him on his bull shit. This is my own observations but he strikes me as having pretty strong ADHD combined with getting lucky and big a bit faster than he could adjust to.

His company has a much lower turnover rate than the industry standard and it doesn’t seem like anyone that has been on screen couldn’t do well elsewhere. That implies to me that the working environment is at least pretty good. He also seems to want to do right by his employees and knows that he is the face of the company and ultimately their paycheck. That combined with an ego that is a little too big, and maybe some issues with reading the room associated with being on the spectrum (again supposition), makes some of his reactions to public push back understandable even if it’s not OK.

Also it depends on what you consider an IT guy. He doesn’t have experience coding or doing any low level stuff, he just really enjoys building computers and tech in general which can explain a lot of his poor or dumb decisions. What he appears to actually be very good at with tech is his knowledge of supply chains, interactions between companies, and knowing what consumers are likely to actually want.

The best I have managed to do is not buying some hand tools from a company based there. I’m sure they are really missing that $100, lol.

I’m right there with you. I’m not super well off, but I have my emergency funds plus some extra and across a couple of close friends of mine I have given away $3k-$4k this last year because of life fucking them over with no expectation that I will ever see that money. The instant I made that decision in my mind the money was theirs to do with whatever they wanted to.

I have never understood people who expect to be thanked or paid back when being “generous” or charitable, especially with those close to them. It almost entirely defeats the purpose in my mind. I generally find being thanked kinda uncomfortable and the only thing I care about is knowing that they received it.

On the subject of buying an expensive car. If I ever did come into a lot of money, I probably would treat myself, but not to some shiny thing. Oh no. I would take the equivalent amount of money and use it to turn something like a station wagon or utility van into an absolute monster. That sounds way more fun.

A year ahead of schedule 😮‍💨

He also killed Hitler to be fair /s

Considering all of the other agencies that have had funding and staff cut, how equipped is customs right now?

Wasn’t there an executive order issued today that seemed to imply that wouldn’t matter?

It can be both.

Uhh yeah? The title did say he was in private equity.