Who else did layoffs in LA?
137 karma · joined March 10, 2010
That said, it's still a reasonable strategy for the US to protect its domestic car industry from Chinese competition specifically due to open and hidden government subsidies that the Chinese government provides with the goal of owning this market segment (similar to solar panels and others).
This doesn't seem unreasonable if you consider the strategic dimension of outsourcing a key industry to an authoritarian adversary. As an aside, the EU is looking into this as well [1].
[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-launches-anti-subsid...
Can you elaborate on how you see this being actionable? Perhaps an increased cadence of screenings?
I bike to work everyday on my electric bike and run most errands by bike (doctor, haircut, groceries). While I do have a car, I only use it for trips outside of town on the weekends (plus monthly Costco runs).
For instance, a home battery might have to be more durable (so withstand more charging cycles) but on the flip side can be heavier.
That said there might be synergies by repurposing worn out EV batteries as home or grid storage batteries.
Newsletter that I didn't subscribe to? One strike, you're out (unsubscribe and occasionally report as spam).
Updates from sites I care about (e.g. bank, HOA, etc) that come more than once a year? Create an email filter (gmail -> filter messages like this), skip inbox, never mark as important, apply label XYZ.
These simple hygiene measures don't take more than a few minutes each week and save tons of time and focus.
This is presented as a fact/certainty, however, I'd like to caution that it is still unclear whether multiple reinfections will add up to lasting damage (unlike the common cold), see e.g. [1].
That said, I agree with you that it'll be hard to eradicate this virus given how quickly it mutates (I'm just not as certain of the consequences).
My take is as follows (YMMV):
- We'll live and work in CA until scrappy financial independence is possible in Germany (ballpark ~3-3.5M net worth).
- Once we could comfortably retire in Germany, we'll decide whether to move back there or keep working just to stay in CA (due to cost of living FIRE in CA seems out of reach)
- In some sense starting out in CA maintains more optionality (it'll be easier to move from CA to Germany than vice versa)
Advantages of CA:
- The weather
- Monthly savings (pay - expenses; much higher than Germany if you avoid lifestyle creep)
- Career opportunities (lots of interesting work)
- Outdoors (subjective)
- Food
- If your kids grow up in LA or SF, I'd say there's a pretty good chance they'll stick around close by when they grow up
- Vibe ~ more optimism about the future and the role technology can play
- The earlier you move and buy a house, the earlier you can lock in your real estate taxes (Proposition 14 [2] renders CA hostile to those that 'come later'). Admittedly, it's already pretty late in the game.
Disadvantages of CA:
- Housing prices are 1M+ (although the market seems to be changing now that interest rates are going up [1])
- Homelessness
- Getting into good public schools needs a lot of planning (including buying in pricey neighborhoods)
- Related: kids in elite schools / social circles seem to be under a lot of pressure to perform from day 1 (IMHO a consequence of the winner takes all economy)
- Life is work centric
- Earthquakes
- Air quality (traffic and wildfires)
Advantages of Germany:
- Great public schools & ~free childcare
- Pretty safe environment (although debatable in some cities like Berlin)
- Generally stable, good job security etc
- Once you build real relationships with people, you may find friends for life
- Clean air and water in most places
Disadvantages of Germany:
- House prices per median income are pretty high. It's particularly crazy expensive in cities if you want a single family home due to super low interest rates (SFH can cost 1M+ despite median salaries being much lower than CA)
- Might be less "accepting" of foreigners (I live in CA and never feel bad about speaking with an accent as most people I work with do as well)
- Germans start work and school at ridiculously early hours (I still recall walking to school in the dark every day in winter)
- Rapidly aging population (although some is offset by immigration)
[1] https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2022/06/1st-look-at-local...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_California_Proposition_13
* Spending time with family
* Coffee
* Biking to work with my ebike on a protected bike lane along a river at 30mi/h
* Sunday volleyball on the beach
* Bouldering
* Technical reading (eg ML books)
* Playing pubg with friends every Friday
* Seeing passive income arrive in my account
I'm thinking 3M in invested assets should do. If properly diversified (real estate + stock) that should be sufficient to generate about 90k/year of passive income.
While they are nothing special and aren't expensive (~$30), their shape keeps noise levels from airflow low while biking. I've owned them for about 3 years now and they are still going strong.
That said, here are some things I value:
- Spotify. At ~$10/month, a great deal that makes listening and discovering music really easy. Have a shared account with my wife.
- Gaming. While gaming hardware isn't cheap these days (~$2k for a decent build) games have incredible value. Playing competitive online games once a week with friends kept me sane through the pandemic. Incredibly immersive experience.
- Guitar and Rocksmith. At ~$300, let's you hook up an electric guitar to your computer and learn how to play the guitar in a fun way. Really elevating experience.
- Electric Bike. These aren't cheap either ($2k+), but this purchase made commuting by bike exclusively (pre-pandemic) practical (cutting down my commute from ~55min by regular bike to about ~35min).
- Climbing gym membership. About $70/month. Such a fun way to stay in shape and socialize while doing so.
- Wired headphones that work well while biking. Let me keep in touch with aging parents on daily basis. Never need to worry about charging.
- Relatedly, Pixel 4a. Comparatively cheap ($400) phone with a headphone jack. Camera is great. It's very light which makes reading before sleep pleasant.
- Books. Unbelievable value. Authors' life's insights distilled into something you can buy for ~$10. The hard part is finding good ones, but lots of good recommendations on HN.
- Good food.
Other things that I don't have yet, but am considering:
- Mail forwarding service (~$30/month). We've been moving around a bit since the pandemic started. These services let you maintain a permanent address, scan or forward mail if needed. Still deciding which one to get since it's not an easily reversible decision.
- Fiber. Not offered yet where we live, but would get it in a heartbeat.
This may sound cliche, but luckily some of the greatest things in life are free (spending time with family and friends, playing volleyball on the beach, going for hikes in nature and all the great content online such as on HN).
For what it's worth, the placebo study relevant to this discussion does not seem to be on the list of disputed studies from what I can tell [1]. That said, I'd be curious to know if that one also failed to replicate, please share if you have knowledge of this.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Ariely#Accusations_of_data...
I remember reading about this in Dan Ariely's book "Predictably Irrational".
Here's summary of the relevant chapter on Wikipedia [1]: "While the effect of placebo has been knowingly and unknowingly practiced for millennia, the interesting observation Ariely and his collaborators made was that prices of the prescribed medicine can be used as a placebo as well"
The underlying paper [2] spells this out as well: "We demonstrate that marketing actions such as pricing can alter the actual efficacy of products to which they are applied. [...]"
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictably_Irrational#The_Pow...
[2] https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=707541
In a nutshell the author argues that the goal of reading is to increase one's understanding. For this the writer needs to have a better understanding than the reader. The reader must be able to overcome that inequality in understanding to some degree.
A critical first step is deciding whether the book deserves a detailed reading in the first place. Clearly, this is critical for time efficiency.
Once deemed worthwhile, you can move on to a thorough analytical reading where I think note taking trumps speed. The process of actively reading the book will help digest the author's main points and help you remember them.
Finally, if you're trying to grow your expertise in a particular area, consider reading and contrasting multiple books on the subject (comparative reading).
[1] https://lifeclub.org/books/how-to-read-a-book-mortimer-j-adl...
On the bright side, two of the leading companies in the mRNA vaccine space are based in Germany (BioNTech and CureVac), so there is still some ability to innovate.
One thing to point out about VW is that their CEO, Herbert Diess, seems to get it. To name two anecdotal pieces of evidence, Elon had asked him to become CEO of Tesla back in 2015 [1] and he had conversations with Chinese battery supplier CATL about car batteries as far back as ten years ago [2].
[1] https://electrek.co/2021/04/13/ceo-elon-musk-reportedly-hire...
[2] https://www.teslarati.com/volkswagen-herbert-diess-ev-cell-p...