Random Musings

Random Musings

Just some random thoughts from the week that was. From a trip to Miami.

Miami, FL

Went to Miami on a business trip. I would put the percentage of people still wearing masks at 1%. It’s hard to continue wearing them when the country has said this pandemic is over so resolutely. PS it’s not. Week over week cases are up +58% in my state, Washington, at the time of writing.

Facts are Facts, except when they’re not

It is hard to see how things get better when people are plugged into right wing media. I enjoy chatting politics. It’s like a debate and I am always surprised when clearly well educated people have things wrong. Our discussion veered from Musk’s push to buy Twitter, free speech, to a discussion on the Afghanistan withdrawal in which I was told Biden made the call. No, TFG made the deal and set the date. Biden executed the policy.

A common behavior in discussions like this is when corrected people pivot to the next thing they can blame on the opposite side. In this case leaving several $B’s of equipment for the Taliban. While I assume quite true, the number quoted was about 1% of the annual defense budget so forgive my shrugs.

Women and My Daughter

A couple of podcasts had some good data on women and their progress this week. The McKinsey Podcast on Digital Transformation and Pivot from May 13th. Both mention the much higher rate of female academic achievement compared to young men in their own unique styles. I do agree with Scott’s points that young men are not in a good place as a cohort, but not his everything boils down to attracting mates and getting laid shtick.

My daughter who is 16 just passed her driving test. She wants a car, the quintessential American right of passage.

Tesla

I wrote briefly about Tesla here a few weeks back. Since then the stock is down about 30%. I have my fingers crossed this all derails the Twitter takeover which would not be good for democracy.

NFTs and Crypto

Despite working close to Web3 technologies I am not a proponent. Crypto is shadow finance 2.0. Blockchain useless for most everything except turbocharging a thriving ransomware industry. The underlying decentralization push a right wing fever dream. Given that it is interesting to watch crypto winter set in. It feels like we are on the roller coaster into the trough of disillusionment.