Tag: skill-estate
-
Good diagnosis, bad fix
Seen at Reddit: = = = = = START QUOTE: I’m tired of boomers telling Gen Z and millennials to “suck it up” when we say that a salary of $60k or less shouldn’t trap us in a mediocre lifestyle, sharing apartments, skipping dining out, avoiding social outings, or never taking vacations. No, these things…
-
Self-solving globalism
Randomly reading some of the old magazines at American Radio Library reminded me of a change I’d forgotten. It’s relevant to the recent decline of big centralized entertainment and “journalism”, quickly replaced by more individual and local talent carried on Youtube or Tiktok. A country music mag from 1966 had monthly columns on the music…
-
Protecting against invasion
In these Paris street pictures from 1962, one thing stands out. ALL the cars and trucks are French. No exceptions. I don’t see any Fiats or VWs or American cars. Most are Renaults, with a mix of Peugeot and Citroen and Simca. Other Euro countries were more cosmopolitan at the time, even Germany and Italy…
-
We’re supposed to waste our emotions
As usual we have dozens of overdoses every day, some fatal. There are two responses. Dark humor and caring. Dark humor is winning, as more and more people realize that caring is a fraud. Media and rulers want us to CARE about everything so they can feed our caring with solutions that make things worse.…
-
Bankruptcy is the solution.
Denyse comments on the latest evidence that “science” has totally abandoned science for politics. SciAm outright endorsed Harris instead of Trump, AFTER FIRMLY SUPPORTING WHAT TRUMP ACTUALLY DID IN 2020. This is the exact opposite of the “independent” activists, who worked hard to oppose WHAT TRUMP ACTUALLY DID, and now are universally working FOR Trump.…
-
Better prescription
Ramesh Thakur at Brownstone correctly diagnoses the current Machiavellian monstrosity in US/UK/EU. His proposed solution is wrong. = = = = = START DIAGNOSIS: A perfect storm of crises has been building. It comes from still bubbling rage with governments for their single-minded obsession with Covid and the lasting damage caused by lockdowns, masks, and…
-
Ditch Witch is still there
Noticed on this morning’s walk that the TDS fiber workers are using a Ditch Witch excavator. Ditch Witch used to be in Perry, a town of 10k near Enid. Are they still there? YES. The company became a branch of Toro in 2019 but still manufactures in Perry, with 1600 employees. Good sign. In former…
-
WRONG, asshole.
Stupid headline in Compact: Tariffs aren’t a manufacturing cure-all Yes they are, asshole. The most effective tariff is a .45 tariff. Instant death for the entire executive board and all shareholders, direct or indirect, of any corporation that imports one molecule of manufactured products, or employs or offshores one picosecond of labor from overseas. The…
-
Lesson in skill-estate
I must admit one item from the Olympics is worth thinking about. Most competitors are expensively equipped and sponsored, with highly specialized custom-made gloves and clothes and helmets. They perform all the expensively trained moves. The shooting contestant from Turkey showed up in T-shirt and jeans, no ear protectors or goggles, looking like he just…
-
Before globalism
Vintage.es has pix of Rome in 1955. Everything in the scenes is absolutely unquestionably Italy. Can’t be anywhere else. The buildings and people are instantly recognizable and the cars are ALL Fiats. No Kraut invaders or Yank occupiers. My attention was initially grabbed by the 3rd pic with a Topolino panel truck, and the 6th…
-
It’s all in the TEST DRIVE.
Listening as usual to the auto dealer training films at night. They always emphasize the crucial importance of the TEST DRIVE. Persuasion and advertising might bring the prospect into the office, but only the TEST DRIVE can sell him the car. Duane Jones made the same point for soap and food products. SAMPLE the product…
-
Skill pension
Amortizing pays. Storage pays. Never toss a possibly useful product! Now that I’m older and less energetic and less capable of complex programming, I can still USE the thousands of graphics items and Python tools I made during my peak period from 1995 to 2015. It’s a skill pension.
-
Reprint on Soviet skill-estate
Linked in previous item, worth reprinting. = = = = = START 2014 PARTIAL REPRINT: What’s the moral of the story? Self-sufficiency. (1) When kids are educated through HANDS and MUSCLE MEMORY, they gain a deep and unremovable knowledge. Soviet math and science education did this. American math and science education relied on rote memory,…
-
Metaupflation
Bloomberg does a good job with brief Features describing an interesting trend in business. Here they discuss upflation, which is a new name for a VERY OLD tradition. Packaged grocery items, in the ad or on the package, suggest new ways to use the biscuit mix or soup or tomatoes or scouring powder. These suggestions…
-
Extending again
In previous item: Every real experience has non-verbal cultural factors that can’t be acquired through books or Google. This meshes with my assertion that secrecy is the default. Secrecy in this form is not enforced by government rules and censors; it arises from the natural barrier around the culture and experience of a group. The…
Polistra's Mill 