• 10 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2024

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  • Also a millennial here, on the older side of it. Got employed right after the .com crash.

    Save, just save. $50 a month of you can. More if possible. Best time to start was 10 years ago. 2nd best time is now.

    Don’t let yourself get stuck in the debt trap. There is no need to keep up with the Jones’s. Family and friends are by far so much better for your mental health than stuff.

    There is no reason to get your burrito a chauffeur. Take life by the reigns and walk up and get it yourself. Even better, skip the premium and make one.

    If you want to go to college, fantastic, do it. There are still plenty of schools without resort style athletics programs that are very affordable if you look. Community college the first two ear of matriculation is also an option. A lot of community colleges are now free.

    If you live in the US, this country has perverted our sense of belonging so that the hustlers can squeeze you for every last almighty dollar. Don’t give in. Don’t let them win. Save some money, work on saving yourself.



  • So I’ve had this thought for 20+ years but can’t seem to get it to work. Maybe someone smarter than me can make it work.

    The Curie point of Gadolinium is around room temperature. If you put a high powered magnet on one end and then generate some external heat and an include a spring (or crank arm) on the magnetic end, you could produce a piston, similar to a sterling engine.

    Now, if you add this cooling material as a heat sink, you could likely rapidly cool the gadolinium material back below the Curie point, making a more efficient engine, perhaps even producing something that could do a bit of work.

    I made some prototypes back in the day, but the ferromagnetic material would always eventually get locked with the magnets. My rudimentary engineering skills could never get the external heat source quite right. Perhaps someone with a bit more ingenuity will take this and run with it.

    Also, old broken microwaves are a great way to salvage some pretty strong magnets.

    And be careful when handling gadolinium, it’s known to cause kidney and nerve damage.


    • We are already seeing its impact in my industry. Much like the proliferation of the Internet in the late 90s, this is going to be a paradigm shift. There will be winners who keep up and losers who lag behind.
    • AI helps me get to the things I don’t ever have time for.
    • I’m a huge advocate of sustainability and the environment. I believe it is a core foundational tenet of mine. I do not believe the naysayers that say AI is going to be more destructive to the environment. Yes, in the short term. However, it has great potential to improve efficiency and reduce waste. – AI augmented cars will reduce stop and go traffic and accidents – AI augmented industry (AI + CNC) will maximize the use of manufactured/cut materials – AI augmented design will produce structures that meet tolerances with both material constraints and safety in mind – AI augmented maintenance means that “things” will tell us before they break down, reducing failures and replacements. – AI augmented reporting/spreadsheets will reduce double entry and the need for manual reconciliation – AI augmented chatbots will mean everyone has access to a personal assistant

    That said, I do have concerns about what I’m hearing about brain activity and use of AI. I can somewhat relate it to the same idea that back 30 years ago, everyone knew something like ten of their closest friends’ and relatives’ phone numbers. Now I’d be lucky to remember two. Cell phones reduced the need to keep those in my head. Likewise, leaning too heavily on AI is already starting to produce some homogeneity of thought across business, to the expense of creativity. I think there needs to be careful consideration put into what we should all be able to learn and recall without AI, before we turn AI into a crutch.












  • I’m much more a fan of the PBS/NPR underwriting model. Tell me who deliberately funds the show or video.

    When the advertisement is so divorced from the show, is not relevant to the conversation or is not relevant to me, then the andvertisers are wasting their money.

    If you show me the same ad over and over again, I am actually more likely to NOT buy that branded product or service because I’ve become so annoyed and numb from the ad taking what little time I have on this planet that I will actively boycott it.

    However, I do have a nice space mug from PBS, a plot of land on Mars, the moon and Scotland, and a t-shirt for the Truth podcast to prove that I will spend money when the advertising is relevant to the content I’m consuming. So if you want the ad to work, invest your dollars directly into the content and providers I care about.

    But for the love of everything, do not think for a moment that your contribution gives you license to control their messaging or content.