Clubhouse Grille (*** NO LIV DISCUSSIONS ***) (*** NO POLITICS/RELIGION ***)

[mshills]

As for me, I’m continually impressed with the 20-somethings I encounter. Also with the cleverness, manners (most of the time), and sociability among both of my boys groups of teen friends. 
 

When I hear not tongue-in-cheek comments about young “workers”, my response is “you are selecting the wrong ones.”

 

(For the record, the humorous comments are fine, and funny, in the right context. Someone bitching about this in a professional setting? I have no problem pushing back.)

[mshills]

1 hour ago, mshills said:

Not sure why my content is hidden and needs to be approved. 👎🏼👎🏼👎🏼

OK, figured out the trigger. 🙄🙄🙄 Text re-pasted below. 

 

I don’t let myself get overly annoyed with golf any more. It’s hard, because I’m bordering on unhealthy level of competitiveness, the “beat the other guy” kind. 
 

It’s hard to be moderately pleased with 90, but perspective is needed.

First, I can see quite clearly that 80 is possible and attainable. 
 

Second, bigger picture. I’m grateful the HORN PLAYED BY THE GREAT MILES DAVIS didn’t sound for me in 2019. The fact that I’m able to play some resemblance of golf is frankly miraculous, and no way am I going to get tempted into being angry or ungrateful about that!

[bladehunter]

2 hours ago, bscinstnct said:

Tons of robotaxis all over SF?! I didn’t know that completely driverless cars were on the streets!

 

And @Soloman1 says Phoenix has lots of them too!

 

 

How long before they start stealing them 🤣.  I mean. Just for fun.  Car be yelling like C-3PO.  “ get out of me this instant “! 

[Soloman1]

1 hour ago, Petethreeput said:

In some respects I agree, but looking at what we have witnessed, and honestly we have witnessed the second largest change to the human condition since the industrial revolution (again, IMO) with the advent of the internet and everything being at our fingertips.  We don't have to be smart.  The college graduates of today are intellectually, i.e. book smarter than we were, but how much do we really need to have at the ready?  I don't know my kids phone numbers, but I can spell their names and then call them.  I don't have to know where Krzgyzstan is because google has a map for that, in fact, I don't even have to be able to spell it to find it because of autocorrect.  Throw this in with our newsfeeds are personalized to our search history and we can't help but be dumber.

 

of course, i agree that memorization of things easily looked up is a waste of our brains. einstein said the same thing 80(?) years ago.

 

those synapses are better used in reasoning and imagination.

 

can’t remember who said it, but we’re teaching young people things they don’t need for jobs that won’t exist. above secondary level, less and less use whatever they learned for their degree in their work.

[bscinstnct]

50 minutes ago, bladehunter said:

How long before they start stealing them 🤣.  I mean. Just for fun.  Car be yelling like C-3PO.  “ get out of me this instant “! 

Its crazy stuff.

 

Driving a car or truck is the way many millions of people make a living. Say 50-100k a year or even more. 
 

Makes you wonder if all those people can be replaced.

 

How many 10s or 100s of millions more jobs will be replaced in the coming decades

 

Not just blue collar. White collar too.

 

Gonna happen fast too

Edited Wednesday at 07:09 PM by bscinstnct

[Soloman1]

nothing puts a smile on the face of wall street and private equity more than putting people out of work.

[bscinstnct]

1 hour ago, Soloman1 said:

nothing puts a smile on the face of wall street and private equity more than putting people out of work.

 

Without wall st and private equity/credit

 

the US would be Brazil.
 

 

Exporting oil and vegetables with no high value added business industry whatsoever 

 

Instead of eclipsing every nation on the planet in a very short span of time

 

From the lightbulb to the auto to every tech innovation created, Wall Street has enabled expansion into leadership in the category. 
 

The real destruction of jobs and entire industries often comes from forces and entities that are ironically supposedly concerned with the welfare of workers. 
 

 

[bladehunter]

1 hour ago, bscinstnct said:

Its crazy stuff.

 

Driving a car or truck is the way many millions of people make a living. Say 50-100k a year or even more. 
 

Makes you wonder if all those people can be replaced.

 

How many 10s or 100s of millions more jobs will be replaced in the coming decades

 

Not just blue collar. White collar too.

 

Gonna happen fast too

Oh yea. We’re steadily saying “ ready fire aim “ at our own feet.  Makes no sense to me.  

[bscinstnct]

2 minutes ago, bladehunter said:

Oh yea. We’re steadily saying “ ready fire aim “ at our own feet.  Makes no sense to me.  

 

Just Need new frontiers to conquer!

 

bladehunter…you be headin on a space ship and leading farming okra on Mars yo!

 

 

 

[bladehunter]

2 minutes ago, bscinstnct said:

 

Without wall st and private equity/credit

 

the US would be Brazil.
 

 

Exporting oil and vegetables with no high value added business industry whatsoever 

 

Instead of eclipsing every nation on the planet in a very short span of time

 

From the lightbulb to the auto to every tech innovation created, Wall Street has enabled expansion into leadership in the category. 
 

The real destruction of jobs and entire industries often comes from forces and entities that are ironically supposedly concerned with the welfare of workers. 
 

 

I don’t know man. Brazil with law and order ,  doesn’t sound so bad. 
 

 

the problem with private equity and credit. Is that it’s a snake eating its own tail. The only way  it survives is to kill its own.  Demand in turn. The only way anyone survives is to get in the race to be eaten last.  
 

and parts of me is good with that. Parts of me wonders if the equity exists if we stop participating?  I don’t think it does.  That makes it fake.  To a degree. Hard to wrap the mind around the whole deal.  At any rate. They’re definitely across the line of pro vs con.  Crossed that line around 2001

[Jim53]

8 hours ago, bladehunter said:

Yep.  Trying to work out that issue myself.  Getting somewhat better. Long way to go. I think it was 2010 when I took my last week off. No lie.  Was trying to pinpoint it last night.  Not sure.  
 

got two calls yesterday.  One. Long time golf mentor of mine.  ( yes. That one .  One or two here  will know. But I don’t want to say it before the family wants it online ) Second. A long time customers wife.  Makes you just stop and go “ why “?  Why slave away ?  Has to be a path with more positivity that makes enough $ to live , and yet.  Each option has a trade.  I think the truth is. I made the best trade I could.  I’m home. Present. And plugged in. And my son has the tools and opportunity to do anything  he wants to do.  I don’t think I’ll regret a second of it in favor of working off somewhere for more $. But I do wonder about after he’s out of the house ?  What then ?  More work is all I see. Maybe that’s the answer ? My legacy is probably in the ground and in my son.  I don’t regret working for either.  Just wish there were 34 hours in the day , and I had double pay to build more with.  🤣.  Ramble ramble ramble.  

I often wonder if I had not spent 25 yrs in the commercial fishing Business and bought 5 boats of varying sizes and instead put that time into something that actually made money where would I be now?.

I made a lot money but did not keep much of it, I imagine a lot like farming where the expense to plant and all the equipment needed that at the end of the year the return is actually quite small ( I am guessing here). 

I quite the fishing Business when I was busted for not paying proper taxes and upon hiring a Lawyer / accountant found out what I was really putting in my pocket for working basically 24 / 7 sometimes for days in a row.

It was eye opening, I loved almost every minute of it and loved the boats and the sea, but when my daughter came along I realized we liked eating regularly a lot more.

Now I am thinking of retirement or maybe cutting way back and doing consulting work instead of the full time thing, but again we have been spoiled with basic financial freedom but not enough to walk away and maintain the levels. Its vexing..

[Soloman1]

2 hours ago, bscinstnct said:

 

Without wall st and private equity/credit

 

the US would be Brazil.
 

 

Exporting oil and vegetables with no high value added business industry whatsoever 

 

Instead of eclipsing every nation on the planet in a very short span of time

 

From the lightbulb to the auto to every tech innovation created, Wall Street has enabled expansion into leadership in the category. 
 

The real destruction of jobs and entire industries often comes from forces and entities that are ironically supposedly concerned with the welfare of workers. 
 

 

 

yes, true for the wall street of old. but it isn’t our daddy’s wall street anymore. and private credit of old is not the same as private equity today.

 

if you look at quality of life based on equal weighting of each of these:

 

political and economic stability

legal system and civil rights

health services

safety

climate

costs and income

 

where does the u.s. rank in the world today?

 

Spoiler

36th.

 

between hungary and bulgaria

 

 

 

 

 

[bscinstnct]

17 minutes ago, Soloman1 said:

 

yes, true for the wall street of old. but it isn’t our daddy’s wall street anymore. and private credit of old is not the same as private equity today.

 

if you look at quality of life based on equal weighting of each of these:

 

political and economic stability

legal system and civil rights

health services

safety

climate

costs and income

 

where does the u.s. rank in the world today?

 

  Hide contents

36th.

 

between hungary and bulgaria

 

 

 

 

 

 

ya but

 

 

 

 

🤣 🍻 

Edited Wednesday at 11:23 PM by bscinstnct

[Soloman1]

Just now, bscinstnct said:

 

ya but

 

 

 

you win.

[BIG STU]

8 hours ago, Duct Tape said:

Quoting this twice (🤓 never done that before) because of such a good point. 
 

I think I may have posted this earlier so will keep short. Was around or below scratch. Wanted to enter some low level national amateur tournaments (using some connections, my game by itself wasn’t quite there yet for the big invites). Like a bonehead I met with a Denver big name pro, who video’d me and tried to change several things, starting with laying off, posture, takeaway, position at impact, finish.  Nothing big, right?  Complete disaster. My handicap swooned. My confidence even worse. Every time on the range and even the course I focused on my stupid shadow. Where was my club at the top?  Forgetting parallax is a b*tch. Tough to hit a ball when not looking at it. And so goes ball striking, so goes your short game. 
 

Around this time I was rear ended, fortunately in our old Suburban, and herniated a cervical disc. Lost feeling in left thumb. And then quit golf for ten years (was also busy raising four kids and starting our district lacrosse club). 
 

With recent comeback, notwithstanding shoulder surgery, my friends tell me, just come out and have fun. I’m sure several here will understand it’s hard for a type A, very competitive person to shoot 85 or worse when 70 or better used to be a good score, and still enjoy it.  I’m working on that. 
 

Moral of this not so “short” story?  At some point your swing is your swing. Minor changes are ok, but incrementally. 
 

Oh how well I understand it trust me. What I am going to tell here you will certainly understand on the medical front being an MD.

At 62 yoa I retired. Now my golf was going great playing like 3 to 5 times a week and working part time. I was still playing our White Tees (mid) at 6167 at sea level. Basically I was shooting anywhere from 75 to 80 which was not bad for an older guy. Back in the day when playing comps I would say I was scratch or maybe plus. I ended up in an accident when a ladder collapsed on the job. Ended up breaking both sides of the L-2 and collapsing the disc. I also fractured my left scapula. In addition I also had a concussion had a knot on the left side of my head as big as a baseball. Needless to say it was a long road. I lost a lot of distance and ended up on the Super Senior tees with a medical waiver. I lost like 30 to 40 yards distance overall. I now play at 5129 at sea level. I hover to like a 12 to 15 handicap now. I have permeant nerve damage in my back along with some kind of dissociative eye thing going they think is due to the concussion. I have good and bad days. I used to be a stellar chipper ad putter but now I am streaky as heck and frankly suck. At times mentally I have trouble dealing with it. Then I realize that I am lucky to even be able to play at all. Yeah I have things going both physical and mental

Edited Thursday at 12:25 AM by BIG STU

[BIG STU]

7 hours ago, aenemated said:

 

I've seen and written enough garbage software over my ~25 year career to tell you - ain't no effin way I'm trusting software to drive me around. 

Me either. I can remember working at an International Truck Dealership when they first started putting computers on mid and big trucks. International had their diagnostic program called EZ-Tech. I had absolutely no computer skills or knowledge. I had to go to school on the general systems on the engines and the computer use itself. Up to then I had never ran a computer in any shape or form. You had to constantly train on the systems too. I also had to go to a school for Eaton on the brakes when they went to the ABS systems. 

LOL the biggest SNAFU involved the 7.3 Diesel engines. At first they were manual pump manual injectors. International sold a bunch of them to Ford for the F-350 pickup trucks. Great engines until they went to electronics. International had their own control systems and ECM. They sold millions of the engines to Ford who put their own electronics on the basic engines. Ford evidently did not have any training on the systems at all. People used to show up all the time at International with those engines wanting us to work on them. They could not understand why we were an IHC dealer and after the engine was International why we could not work on them. In the IHC world they were known as a 444E and I think Ford called them still a 7.3 or Power stroke. Another basic engine International screwed up was the little DT-466. That engine existed for years in everything from bulldozers to school busses. IMHO one of the most dependable engines ever made. Then they went electronic and it was known as the 466E. In the past anyone could work on those engines from a farmer to a local shop. In the years I turned wrenches I went to school and certified on Cummins and Detroit engines. Never did on Caterpillar. I also certified as far up as V Mac 3 on Mack engines. I think now Mack is up to V-Mac 8 or 10. Glad I am out of it now for sure

[BIG STU]

6 hours ago, mshills said:

OK, figured out the trigger. 🙄🙄🙄 Text re-pasted below. 

 

 

I don’t let myself get overly annoyed with golf any more. It’s hard, because I’m bordering on unhealthy level of competitiveness, the “beat the other guy” kind. 
 

It’s hard to be moderately pleased with 90, but perspective is needed.

First, I can see quite clearly that 80 is possible and attainable. 
 

Second, bigger picture. I’m grateful the HORN PLAYED BY THE GREAT MILES DAVIS didn’t sound for me in 2019. The fact that I’m able to play some resemblance of golf is frankly miraculous, and no way am I going to get tempted into being angry or ungrateful about that!

Yep the first 5 letters of that musical instrument is the name of a certain fellow. One night about a year ago @miamistomp and I were discussing Triumph motorcycles and I used a street slang term for a Triumph Motorcycle which is the same as that musical instrument and the first 5 letters it got red lighted as I call it later it got approved no harm no foul. Found out from someone knowledgeable on this type of stuff that the software flags stuff like that

[RoverTiger]

My car had a gushing coolant leak when I pulled into the driveway after work and now the power is out.

 

What an evening. 😂

[aenemated]

1 hour ago, Soloman1 said:

but it isn’t our daddy’s wall street anymore. and private credit of old is not the same as private equity today.

 

Facts. 

 

Used to be; re-investment into expanding. Remember how much ish Bezos was getting when he was running Amazon at massive losses in the 00s? I do. "Hey man, you make a lot of money selling books and CDs and other junk; what's all this AWS and fulfillment you're spending literally everything and more on?" 

 

Forget how much people enjoy ordering something on the internets and finding it at their door the next morning ... unless you worked in IT in the pre-AWS days; yall just have absolutely no idea what that really meant to how the internet functions. 

 

 

[bscinstnct]

41 minutes ago, aenemated said:

 

Facts. 

 

Used to be; re-investment into expanding. Remember how much ish Bezos was getting when he was running Amazon at massive losses in the 00s? I do. "Hey man, you make a lot of money selling books and CDs and other junk; what's all this AWS and fulfillment you're spending literally everything and more on?" 

 

Forget how much people enjoy ordering something on the internets and finding it at their door the next morning ... unless you worked in IT in the pre-AWS days; yall just have absolutely no idea what that really meant to how the internet functions. 

 

 

 

Wall Street facilitated Amazon raising $600MM right before the 2000 bubble burst. They were running massive losses, without that money, they would have gone the way of Pets.com 🤣

 

As far as AWS, obviously you’re the tech guy but it’s not a secret that they had to build far more robust infrastructures than existed to facilitate their retail business and have effectively grown AWS into by far their most profitable business 

 

But Amazon has tapped the debt markets via Wall Street for many 10s of billions over the years

 

What about your company? I imagine you’ve done multiple rounds of funding and everyone is pumped about a possibility of good old Wall Street  taking yall public ya?

 

*understand if you can’t comment on that btw ; ) I just figured there’s always 2 desirable exits for a tech platform…acquisition or IPO 😊

Edited Thursday at 01:23 AM by bscinstnct

[mshills]

3 minutes ago, bscinstnct said:

As far as AWS, obviously you’re the tech guy but it’s not a secret that they had to build far more robust infrastructures than existed to facilitate their retail business and have effectively grown AWS into by far their most profitable business.

In one of my prior places we all got this wrong. 
 

Well, not exactly. 
 

We were amazed that year after year after year, AWS was not coming close to even covering (our estimate of Amazon’s) cost of capital….forget about being profitable!

 

It was obvious they were making a bet so large they were effectively certain it was a sure thing. We knew it too. But…our investor profile would not allow us the time (and capital) to build a real IT infrastructure (cloud and data center) business that would scale. What we had was a hobby. 
 

So, we sold it! 

[Soloman1]

i love the “cloud” buzzword.

 

just storing it on someone else’s computer.

 

in 1994, was given a tour by a vp of a big panasonic factory in yokohama designing and making cell phones, monitors, tv’s, ultrasound equipment, etc.

 

being me, i asked a lot of simple questions. i asked an engineer about data backup for designs. he proudly opened his drawer and showed me a cd-r.

 

i took it, took out a lighter and held it under the cd-r.

 

he and the vp were all “no, no, no!”.

 

they already had a dedicated connection to other factories on the other side of japan, so why not exchange backup data nightly?

 

ah yes, 30 years ago we were all learning.

 

 

[aenemated]

19 minutes ago, bscinstnct said:

 

Wall Street facilitated Amazon raising $600MM right before the 2000 bubble burst. They were running massive losses, without that money, they would have gone the way of Pets.com 🤣

 

As far as AWS, obviously you’re the tech guy but it’s not a secret that they had to build far more robust infrastructures than existed to facilitate their retail business and have effectively grown AWS into by far their most profitable business 

 

But Amazon has tapped the debt markets via Wall Street for many 10s of billions over the years

 

What about your company? I imagine you’ve done multiple rounds of funding and everyone is pumped about a possibility of good old Wall Street  taking yall public ya?

 

*understand if you can’t comment on that btw ; ) I just figured there’s always 2 desirable exits for a tech platform…acquisition or IPO 😊

 

To the first - yeah, of course. And they continued to run losses for years. I been active in investing for a long time - please don't talk to me about all the $AAPL I sold in 2002 when I was broke AF after the dotcom bust and NO ONE wanted to hire us nerds. Internet's a fad! 😂😭

 

Second ... nah, the impetus wasn't on them to build such a thing. It may have very well been an organic growth thing (I've worked at plenty of places where something dumb we did internally became something much bigger externally ... oh, I got stories going back decades. Apple's using crap I contributed to Swift a decade ago) but the fact is the investment in that changed everything for everyone.

 

On the last ... I'm the guy that pulls up to play a punk rock gig at a crappy dive bar in a Porsche. 😂 Of course I want things to go such a way so I can just go away and stop caring about anything but my next tee time and me and Mrs. ae's next dinner reservation 😂 I'm perfectly capable of criticizing while participating! 

[mshills]

4 minutes ago, Soloman1 said:

i love the “cloud” buzzword.

 

just storing it on someone else’s computer.

Bit more to it than that, but completely get your point. 
 

The buzzword now is AI. Yes, at last, a putter face “designed with AI!” Sweet! I will definitely make more 12-footers!

 

😂 and 🙄 at once!

[aenemated]

9 minutes ago, Soloman1 said:

i love the “cloud” buzzword.

 

just storing it on someone else’s computer.

 

in 1994, was given a tour by a vp of a big panasonic factory in yokohama designing and making cell phones, monitors, tv’s, ultrasound equipment, etc.

 

being me, i asked a lot of simple questions. i asked an engineer about data backup for designs. he proudly opened his drawer and showed me a cd-r.

 

i took it, took out a lighter and held it under the cd-r.

 

he and the vp were all “no, no, no!”.

 

they already had a dedicated connection to other factories on the other side of japan, so why not exchange backup data nightly?

 

ah yes, 30 years ago we were all learning.

 

 

 

Damn shame BitTorrent just got lost in ... erm ... yeah. 

[Duct Tape]

2 hours ago, BIG STU said:

Yep the first 5 letters of that musical instrument is the name of a certain fellow. One night about a year ago @miamistomp and I were discussing Triumph motorcycles and I used a street slang term for a Triumph Motorcycle which is the same as that musical instrument and the first 5 letters it got red lighted as I call it later it got approved no harm no foul. Found out from someone knowledgeable on this type of stuff that the software flags stuff like that

I used an expression for when the card of one suit in bridge takes another, and was blocked and quarantined. Never even occurred to me. Seems more than a little silly actually. 
 

Edited Thursday at 03:07 AM by Duct Tape

[bladehunter]

4 hours ago, Jim53 said:

I often wonder if I had not spent 25 yrs in the commercial fishing Business and bought 5 boats of varying sizes and instead put that time into something that actually made money where would I be now?.

I made a lot money but did not keep much of it, I imagine a lot like farming where the expense to plant and all the equipment needed that at the end of the year the return is actually quite small ( I am guessing here). 

I quite the fishing Business when I was busted for not paying proper taxes and upon hiring a Lawyer / accountant found out what I was really putting in my pocket for working basically 24 / 7 sometimes for days in a row.

It was eye opening, I loved almost every minute of it and loved the boats and the sea, but when my daughter came along I realized we liked eating regularly a lot more.

Now I am thinking of retirement or maybe cutting way back and doing consulting work instead of the full time thing, but again we have been spoiled with basic financial freedom but not enough to walk away and maintain the levels. Its vexing..

Yep. I suppose me taking over the farming side of things is in a sense a two reasoned happening.  1.  I’m going to have to do or pay for land maintenance anyway. Might as well get the property tax discount and as well as the usda ag use insurance etc. turning a liability into a wash , I guess. And employing my son , or him employing himself.  Giving him a taste of cause and effect , planning and execution.  Etc. Beats a fast food job , or sweeping my shop . 2.  I’ve semi inherited most of the equipment.  So it’s not as costly as a dry startup would be.  
At any rate , Cars are still the bread winner. 
 

 

on the subject of making money.  This day and time , I’m not so sure that anyone is making it outside of the tech folks.  And land investors.     Was just listening to a podcast where a 27 year old guy had a $4mil a year business clearing land.  Employed 12 guys. And he was making 10-12 .% profit …  But nothing left to expand with.  It seems he had $2mil roughly in accounts receivable uncollected , and half that was from contractors he still worked for. So slow pay was a huge issue. He’s burned out.  Not paying himself half the time And thinking of shutting it down and doing something else.  And everyone lost their mind and told him he’d better hire an AR clerk who has teeth , andget his money , and prompt payment going forward.  Maybe a rate raise to pare down the workload and keep the same bottom line.  
 

I understand this situation perfectly.  Basic freedom is attainable.  But without selling  completely out , I don’t see ever walking away and retiring.  Because there’s zero .zero percent chance I ever move into a small place.  What I have always wanted to transition into is building my own spec cars for sale.  But I tell you. It takes deep pockets to start that and keep it going through the sale process.  And all I’d really be doing is cutting out the customer hand holding. My least favorite part.  

Edited Thursday at 02:38 AM by bladehunter

[Duct Tape]

Hey @bscinstnct BSC!

 

I’d risk NYC traffic any day to see this. 
 

 

[Duct Tape]

Although Neil still did it best. 
 

Goosebumps!

 

 

[aenemated]

Never cared for Neil Young; despite it seemingly being in my wheelhouse of what one might presume. Don't like his writing, voice or melodies. Mainly his melodies. Doesn't sit right. 

 

Only nice thing I can say about DMB is they brought some approach of fusion to the masses. And Carter Beauford is an amazing player.