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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • Verbage:

    Profit: An advantageous gain or return; benefit.

    I was using the more common definition of the word, not the annoying accountant one.

    Accountant profit: Financial gain from a transaction or from a period of investment or business activity, usually calculated as income in excess of costs or as the final value of an asset in excess of its initial value.

    Of course the laws will have to be written in such a way that removes the ability of leeches to make financial gains on the back of other people.



  • I got my license in the U.S. when I was 16. Then in my early 20’s I lived in England for few years. I was able to drive on my U.S. license for a year. During that year I had to go through the process to get an english license to drive in the country after that. I did the whole learners permit, driving lessons, etc that first year.

    Let’s just say it was much, much, harder to get a driving license in England. I had driven over 100K miles in the U.S and 10K miles in the U.K by the time I took the test and I still barely passed it.




  • Tech tends to goes through stages:

    A need or idea is created. Usually by a small independent entity.

    A proof of concept is developed and starts to gain ground.

    Investors pour money into the concept to an extreme degree. Tech grows in functionality, matures and develops into a useful tool.

    The the investors demand a return on the investment and the money dries up.

    Company either goes bankrupt or their product goes to shit.


  • I have a friend who grew up on the coast and her family always sailed for fun.

    When she got divorced she bought a sailboat and traveled for a bit in it. She then parked it at a marina and lived in it for so many years close to her kids and grandkids. She paid $100K for boat and her marina fees were $300/month. The boat was paid off with the divorce settlement.

    The cheapest 1 bedroom apartment to rent nearby was $3500/month for less square footage than her boat. The cheapest small house was around $1,000,000 or around $6000/ month at the time. The homes around the marina were all priced at several million dollars.










  • Large companies do not generally innovate. Their internal inertia prevents them from successfully creating new things. Also the larger a company gets, the more layers of brainless MBA parasites latch on to suck them dry.

    Large companies rely on purchasing innovation by buying up a never ending stream of smaller companies. They then take the ideas/products and launch them to a wider market.

    Steam has remained small by rejecting massive buyout offers. This has allowed them to remain innovative.


  • It started when the company I worked for had a policy against supplying dual sim phones. I have had my personal number for close to 20 years so I am not letting it up. So I carried two phones. At first I was annoyed but over time I got used to talking on one phone and using the other for notes and reference.

    Now that I am self employed having the two phones is a habit with how I work.


  • I hit the point in my professional life when I just stopped asking for time off.

    I started using phrases like “I will be out from July 15th to August 9.”, “I won’t be in that day.”, “Sorry that conflicts with my schedule.”.

    For a while I kept getting random calls for stuff while I was on vacation. That’s about the time I started carrying 2 phones. The work phone and laptop got left at home.


  • Commodity crops prices often trend the inverse of the economy. The reason is simple; It is highly dependent on the export market.

    When overall economy is strong, the dollar is strong versus other currencies. This makes importing easier and exporting harder. So prices for commodities in the U.S. fall.

    When the overall economy is weak the dollar falls in value. This makes importing harder but exporting much easier. Prices for commodities rise rapidly and farmers make more gross money.

    Even through they are making more gross income their cost skyrocket so their net returns are in general pretty average.

    Farmers tend to make the most money when the economy is in recovery mode and commodity prices are still higher but input costs fall.

    So here is the vicious cycle we have fallen into. Republicans get into power and crash the economy. When it crashes, farmers get high prices but low returns. Democrats come in, repair the economy but by the time elections come around, farmers have not made any money for a year or two. Rinse and repeat.

    Now the orange moron adds a bit of a twist to it. Trade war: This can fuck the farmer up really bad as buyers are willing to pay a modest premium to minimize the impact of an unreliable trading partner. It reduces both the volume moved and prices offered from other countries for years.