Saw this earlier on TFP regarding all the issues going on at the search engine:
As Mike Solana explains in a post for the technology blog Pirate Wires, Pichai’s anodyne comments are, in fact, a big deal given the recent blurring of work and activism in Silicon Valley:
While a relatively benign statement to the untrained eye, this was in fact a stunning departure for the House That Built Crazy, and so we arrive, some seven years after its clownish incarnation, at the conclusion of tech’s “bring your activism to work” arc, in which a silent majority of kind, hardworking idealists were bullied into submission by a minority of actual psychopaths clawing for workplace power behind a cloak of virtue.>
Exactly. And I have noticed he is trying very hard to be positive and to use his platform as a force. He realizes his blessings and is trying to walk the walk.
Agree on both Tom and Vinny. Vinny has passion but sometimes you want to say "calm down, I am on your side ". (I noticed you left out Adam - LOL. He so wants to be Tom and he doesn't hold a candle. I love it when he gets called out to "get to your point already.")
I haven't checked out The Unusual Suspect yet. Any good place to start?
I really like PBD. His background lends him an interesting perspective, and while it is obvious he rolls with the rich kids, there is an element of humbleness that you usually do not see with what is generally a very arrogant group of people and he is not afraid to call them out on it.
There was one episode not too long ago where he went on a rant and basically shamed the upper class - a good portion of his audience BTW - for being cowards when they have power the average person does not have, challenging them to stop hiding and whispering in their private VC dinners and to step up and be real leaders. "You know who you are." I wanted to stand up and clap.
I think about that book a lot these days. He was a very celebrated author, all his books were being made into movies. But not that one. (The post script was very critical of the whole climate science philosophy of 'settled science" and he liked it to the eugenics movement of the early 20th century, and his arguments were very compelling for those who have not read it.) And I agree with you - really good book ahead of its time.
State of Fear was his second to last book published (2004) while he was alive. The last one was Next (2006) and was about genetic testing and ownership - another controversial topic. He was diagnosed with lymphoma and died in 2008. Sometimes I wonder if he was getting too close to the truth. He was very popular because he was a great storyteller and as Burning Bright over at Badlands likes to say, we are in a war of stories. I will admit I lean more towards veing extremely skeptical side these days, but was it a coincidence thst one of the influential storytellers of the day happened to get lymphoma? 🤔
They are also a little uncomfortable with that truth. It is coming to terms with the issue that all along they have been patting themselves on the back for being good and moral. And now there is this slight realization coming to the surface of their conscience that perhaps that isn't quite the case..
I was just thinking about this. I remember thinking, "no bitch, you got asked because you are TALL." Talk about entitled...BTW, I am 5'6" and sometimes I have a problem getting stuff off the top shelf. When someone asks for help, just be gracious for five seconds of your life...
I work in the field and I was in a sales training yesterday and the reminders of changing your phone and laptop were made because you get the kids who forget. The new one was the reminder to charge your car. I was next to the field manager and I looked at him and said 'really?' He rolled his eyes and said "yes"
PBD had Peter Schiff on his podcast and gold was a topic discussed heavily. They went over a very similar graph. Very interesting.
I saw that video - around the time of the Super Bowl. I have to say, he actually looked pretty good. No major weight loss, etc. that you usually associate with end stage cancer. I remember watching Patrick Swayze in his last role when he was sick and he looked terrible. And he was 20 years younger than OJ.
I think there is more to this than meets the eye. The city is absolutely hemorrhaging revenue.
Payroll tax is determined by "butts in the seat". Although there are more people going back into the office to work, there is now the equivalent of more than 21 Salesforce towers of vacant office space.
If you are in CA, you are likely familiar with the shit show the insurance markets are. (BTW, this is spreading to other states.) A lot of carriers have exited writing new business and now are begin to exit (not renew) altogether. State Farm is the most recent example. The CA FAIR plan run by the state has been the stop gap for this - basically an insurer of last resort. A barebones policy that covers fire only. There was an article recently that emphasized that the plan has grown tremendously over the last couple of years but that liabilities are now trending around $300B but they only have $200B in the bank. An actual carrier with this kind of balance sheet would likely be put into receivership.
There is argument the companies are looking for bailouts (they have to pay into it under law), but I would add that while there is an element of truth to that, in part it is because the CA Department of Insurance did NOTHING over the last four years. (I don't think one new auto policy has been approved since CV and I think most of them still work from home. They have something like 1800 employees- WTF do you people DO?) I asked a friend of mine who works pretty high up for one of the publicly traded agencies about it. I said "do you get the feeling they are trying to crash the whole thing and then turn around and blame it on the convenient boogeyman?" Let's just say she didn't disagree.