Saturday, February 27, 2021
Friday, February 26, 2021
Soon, all of this will be gone like tears in rain.
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Explain to me how this works again?
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Temporary toy.
Lockdowns eventually will be one of the greatest benefits to humanity. Just not in the way you think.
Working from home is not exactly a new or novel concept in The Valley. It's been a thing my whole working career. Back in the day - your company would have a T1 installed in your house depending on how important you were. Generally managers or engineers.
Working from home had actually become pretty ingrained.... I want to say about five years ago. Maybe a little longer. I thought it was really going to stick hard then. But IBM wanted to fire some of it's older workers and started taking away their work from home privileges. You know, in an effort to get people to quit on their own.
Then you could see the wave in The Valley. Everybody started bringing their people back in. And work from home waned a bit. So when the lockdowns happened I figured we would snap back to normal pretty quickly. Because you can't underestimate managements need to feel important.
A year into this, I'm starting to believe that a substantial change is underfoot. Companies that were resistant to the work from home situation are changing because they have had a full year to see if it works or not on a large scale. Not just select important people.
But this is not technically the reason humanity will benefit. The real benefit for EVERYONE is the reduction in traffic. Before the lockdowns people were spending two hours ~each way~ in traffic. Or MORE. Life in traffic had started to be a surreal situation. It really changed you. Working a full days then having to grind it out in traffic for a couple more hours. Imagine how much better your life is if you don't have to spend all that time just sitting in a car. And this benefits everyone from the white collar engineer to the restaurant worker who lives several cities over. In a way, you get a few hours of your life back every day. And this should not be underestimated.
And none of this would have happened without a forced lockdown sadly. Companies are going to trust some people and not others for working at home. But this made it so they had to take a chance on everyone. This is why I support the ~ability~ to lockdown, but not the lockdowns. I've sort of been going along with the rest because I've seen this cycle before.
Separately, I look at the world through the lens of - the population has doubled in my lifetime, and probably will double again by the time I die. Where are we going to stick all these people? My grandfather used to tell me that the whole Valley was cherry fields. That changed in one generation.
The same transformation that has happened with malls will now happen to corporate buildings. And we need it because we aren't making more land.
Sunday, February 21, 2021
No shame in this game.
Saturday, February 20, 2021
Friday, February 19, 2021
If a lie gets repeated often enough.
Thursday, February 18, 2021
They can't all be glamour shots.
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Sad for Texas.
Man, Texas is a mess. And I'm not gloating. No one deserves that. We only give Texas shit because they are the first to give everyone else shit. But I have never seen a disaster where so many pipes burst.
They are already saying this might be their most expensive disaster. And knowing how long it takes to get things right now - that all really sucks. Texas just spun the wheel of inflation.
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
Bouncing around the top.
It looks like a fairly recent developement. The first house I hit went for 18% over. The second house 11%, and the third house only 2%. But I've been reading about other places where the same thing is happening.
When word gets out, that is going to bring a lot of supply onto the market because everyone wants to get in on the gold rush. This will probably happen just as moratoriums are expiring. If they ever expire. I mean, I don't know how this economy works anymore.
Monday, February 15, 2021
Nothing truly matters.
Warm soapy bubbles are lulling everyone to sleep.
A guy I know just told me he sold his house for 140 grand over asking. He's moving to Paradise to snap up some of those burnt up lots. When I asked him if it felt like 2008 he just kind of gave me a blank stare. Because people always get 140 grand over asking. Said in the most sarcastic way.
I don't know when this market is going to correct, but I'm guessing it's going to be a surprise to literally everyone based on who I talk to.
I know another guy who is playing in Dogecoin. At least he was last week. I tried telling him here is nothing under this market but money printing. I also got the same blank stare.
So yeah... there is that.
Sunday, February 14, 2021
I told you Texas is just California with humidity.
Thursday, February 11, 2021
I'm sure it's different this time.
Sunday, February 07, 2021
Never speed through Fresno California.
I am pretty terrified of road trips right now because I have poor impulse control when it comes to speeding. When whole freeways of cars are doing 80 miles an hour - it doesn't take me too much to get twitchy. 10 over and you are doing 90mph.
On roads like 1-5, everybody is doing 90 - if you aren't junked up by trucks passing. So, 10 over is 100mph. And I've gotten that ticket.
Those of us who like to speed sort of group up. We aren't racing each other as much as we are racing "with" each other. Taking turns on who is the lead car. Which isn't me anymore. Everybody else is the lead car.
But on that way back from my day trip an Audi and a Taco truck (Toyota Tacoma) were grouped up. I was doing 95 and they were totally walking away from me. I completely lost them.
About ten minutes later Waze lit up alerting about police, so I really slowed my roll. Only to find out that they got Audi guy! I'm pretty sure he got the big ticket. Oooh that's a painful one.
Sadly, I only mostly kept it under 100. So....it's not like I really trust myself to go anywhere out of the Bay Area. No one sane does 100 in the cities.
But seriously. Never speed though Fresno. They are good at hiding. And you are going to have to hire a lawyer if you are doing over 100. Just sayin.