Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back

I really hope this isn't the first in a long line of "kids today!" posts.

Things are changing for Net-a-Porter.

Here is a likely better profile/interview of Thomas Sowell than what you read.

Notwithstanding the data provided here, I'd still like to play Monopoly with my kids, if only to enjoy the moment described by Louis CK in the embedded video. (Also, I've never heard of those other board games.)

I want to make these two recipes when I get back.

How far down is "paying associates more" on the list of things to do with extra money?

Responses:

1. Not sure I can endorse the heavy rosé emphasis, but there's plenty to like about a culinary trip to France.

2. Have you watched The League? It's one of my favorite shows, but 1) it's about fantasy football, 2) it's a touch vulgar, and 3) it's probably not for you. (That said, I got the same three shows.)

3. That's a great idea. I think smartphones can make us safer (even if they usually just make us dumber).

4. On the first post, the bit at the end (being constantly worried that something mysterious will come and take all my money) is something I occasionally freak out about. Having the emergency fund helps, but it's still a lingering feeling that's hard to turn completely off. The Cracked article (not to mention her sisters) reminds me of my siblings and mom and dad's family. I think we were evicted at least 4 times when I was a kid, and my dad definitely had issues paying the power bill, but likely because at least in part of my personality, I always looked at them and said (sometimes aloud, sometimes just to myself), "You're doing it wrong." I probably over-manage my budget because of this. On the second post, WE ARE NOT LIVING LIKE THAT. My student loan debt is firmly under control. We are not poor. We can have two cars (or live in a place where we can walk to eat dinner).

5. The stuff about domestication is the most interesting part to me. It randomly came up in the remake of Cosmos.

6. Not sure what to do with this information...

7. One of us! One of us!

8. I'm procrastinating from doing my DTEs by reading an article about procrastination. Part of the reason that I'm procrastinating is that I feel guilty and anxious about doing my time entries. I'm anxious because I didn't do a good job of recording them for the last week, and I feel guilty because that means my entries won't be as precise. But the other reason for both is that I took (in my view) way too long to do the work, sometimes procrastinating in the middle of the work, so my time entries are vague and also involve large, possibly indefensible chunks of time. I procrastinated on the initial work because it's hard to focus on it for long enough to get it done. Oh, what a mess...

R2R:

1. In a nutshell, it changes the rules of society from punishing objective offense, which requires people to have common ground with respect to the fundamental rules and norms of society and to try to have a dialogue about how we should communicate with each other, to punishing subjective offense, which allows people to make it up as they go and allows people to decline to learn from each other or work with each other. It's why these requests for "dialogue" are anything but.

2. Investors won't lend to students who they think will screw them on the payment. Obviously the future is hard to predict, but so it is with unsecured debt of all kinds (e.g. why not buy a whole bunch of flights on your credit card and, when they come to collect your property, you don't have any?). Also, that strategy is kinda like shooting yourself in the foot. If you truly want to pursue a life of no income, then good luck getting a loan at the outset, but presumably, you want to maximize your income, and you still get to keep the vast majority of what you earn. The vast majority of students just want to go to college and seek gainful employment so they can have families and enjoy their lives. All this said, I do agree that these loans would probably work best with in-state tuition payments, where the amounts are not going to be insane. I suspect this is how investors would prefer them (unless you promise to do something lucrative). Also, if the school itself invests, there is your incentive to reduce costs in order to maximize your return.

4. The 4% number is meant to suggest that it is not the case that Asia necessarily looks like Asian-Americans with respect to education. I suspect that, as the article suggests, highly educated Chinese people can (and often do) more easily immigrate to the United States for better opportunities, etc., and their kids have a similar level of educational attainment to their parents. If the vast majority (or even a simple majority) of Chinese students in China were smart enough to enroll at TJ and do well, then we would have scrapped our system for theirs years ago. Instead, I think there is selection bias that perhaps has created a (positive?) stereotype for all Asians in America. With, of course, the rest of the caveats in the article. I don't know what people will take away from the article, but the takeaway should be that Asian-Americans do well because of factors that are independent of their Asian heritage.

5. Have you been to Bodo's?

R2R2R:

2. I'm a little different from the described INTJ in that I don't just spew logic or information (I make specific arguments, though maybe it's because I've been to law school, my knowledge isn't narrow (I've always liked the expression "jack of all trades, master of none," except modified to be a master of one or two), I don't attack the person (I always attack the argument unless there is strong reason to believe it is pretextual, in which case I just disengage), and more generally, I'm a little more social then these descriptions suggest. For you, I think the differences are a little more pronounced

5. Unless the law changes, your best option will almost always be what your employer provides, if only because they provide it to you as an non-taxable benefit. I pay $0 in premiums per year, and any plan on an exchange or elsewhere will be significantly more than that, plus co-pays, co-insurance, etc.

R2R2R2R:

1. I suspect that any "mom" committee would be flawed from conception. I mean, the Cris Carter comments happened during the Rookie Symposium, which was created in part to help new NFL players adjust to being professional.

5. Law schools can and do have skin in the game, but it's important that such skin not create moral hazard for students. The primary losers in the student loan system as currently structured are students because they are stuck with the loans, but if law schools are involuntarily on the hook for the loans, then student might have more of a moral hazard to take out too much in loans and take non-profit jobs. If law schools didn't have a guaranteed source of income from federal loans, then their skin in the game would be their reputations and ability to attract quality students, knowing that said students would have to persuade lenders to lend them money to go to their school.

B