Several years ago, I learned about the existence of mini-washing machines. I thought they were super cool. I had spent several years volunteering with refugees, and one issue with the apartments they lived in was the lack of washer and drier hookups. To avoid the cost and hassle of going to a laundromat, many would […]
Category: Culture
The Quest for a Robust Philosophy of Investing
I’ve recently been writing a post on how the physical structure of a house can positively or negatively affect the overall cost of the house. In the process, I started wondering what exactly the mechanism of growth is for real estate, and off the top of my head, it occurred to me that an increasing […]
Money and Judgement!
What does it mean to be “good” with money? Does it mean spending very little of it, spending a small portion of it relative to one’s income, spending it judiciously, or does it consist of some other quality? Conversely, what does it mean to be “bad” with money? Does it mean spending a lot of […]
Similarities Between Investing and Driving in Traffic
Saturday I got a late start driving to the mountains for some ruin hunting. I almost chose not to go, but decided that a little traffic with hiking was better than no traffic with no hiking, so I took off on I70. And traffic there was! I prefer to get started early to avoid the […]
Meta-Politics
As far as politics go, I would describe myself as economically conservative and socially moderate. But what about my meta-politics? See, here’s the thing: forming an opinion about specific leaders is trivially easy. You barely even have to think about it. But forming a coherent philosophy of the nature of power is hard. It takes […]
Corporations Are Not Your Friends
Once every great now and then, I try to do a deep search for my name on Google to see what sort of personal information about me is available on the internet. I did this a month ago and was shocked to immediately see my LinkedIn profile in the top 3 results. This was especially […]
Follow Up to Why I Don’t Own Cryptocurrency
In a few short days after my last post on why I don’t own cryptocurrency, many cryptocurrencies took a nosedive. It would be tempting to flout this as proof of the validity of my opinion on the matter, but this isn’t actually fair – there could just as easily have been a surge in prices […]
Why I Don’t Own Cryptocurrency (and other thoughts on asset classes)
Okay, I’m trolling here a bit. At the same time that I don’t own any cryptocurrencies and I don’t plan to buy any, either, I’m also not a crypto-hater, I just think there is a broader understanding of asset classes that is useful to understand when looking at this. It’s also funny how predictably libertarian […]
The Polished Product
I believe our culture has a strong bias against improvisation, and I have mixed feelings about this. With a few carpentry skills, the majority of furnishings in our lives could be created instead of purchased, but it takes advanced skills to stain, polish, or upholster furniture, and the average person does not possess these skills. […]
Collections and Hoarding
Despite being fascinated by history, I don’t have a particularly strong desire to own it. I can appreciate the process of finding old things for a collection, and I can appreciate seeing the things themselves, but the acquisition always makes me a little uncomfortable. How badly do I want a basement full of old stuff? […]