I didn't stay in my lane. https://t.co/WpOfUL1yFu

— Alex Tabarrok (@ATabarrok) April 18, 2023

I never stay in my lane; my lane is the entire universe.

Weak people are confined to lanes.

I can do none of these things and don’t care to learn them.

This is why I pay people. My partner is also far better at this stuff than I am and if she wants to do them, she’s welcome to do so. I will be the muscle if required. I have tried several of these things and it inevitably ends with me destroying something expensive (not out of rage, but out of pure incompetence) and then it costing 10 times as much money and 20 times as much time than if I’d just let a professional have at it from the start.

Just not worth it. The reason I have money is to avoid doing shit I’m bad at.

The show Beef is good because it explores the forbidden joys of a vendetta for bringing meaning to life. It’s also funny.

That vendettas don’t turn out well isn’t the point. We all know that. But they sure are motivating even if counterproductive.

speaking of “millennials are actually doing great and everything is fine” discourse https://t.co/SI2VP63v8m

— Faine Greenwood (@faineg) April 18, 2023

I’m glad Faine has noticed that nonsense as well. It’s pervasive now because as Millennials are beginning to accrue some political power, it’s important to gaslight them into believing everything is fine so they don’t attempt to make any changes that would inconvenience Boomers.

I saw some videos of Americans saying they were amazed when they were hiking in Germany or the UK and their friends casually suggested cutting through a field, and they were like "but the owners will shoot us?" and their friends were like "that's insane why would they shoot us?" https://t.co/kYeDjSAalK

— Andrea Matranga 🇺🇦🌻 (@andreamatranga) April 18, 2023

This is why I never turn around in people’s driveways, especially in rural areas, and never go onto private property anywhere in the US if I can possibly avoid it. Here, people will just fucking shoot you.

Millennials Are Doing Just Fine.

This is bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit peddled to shore up the status quo. This like Quantian’s clown crap and uses many of the same lies and obfuscations.

It requires believing that the household income tells you much that is useful, that the inflation numbers are a relevant measure for most people of items and purchasing habits that matter, that TVs getting cheaper helps afford crazy high housing prices, that debt loads don’t really matter, and that apparently made-up numbers he found on the back of a bathroom stall are real.

Anyone who believes this is a massive dumbass. A friend of a friend bought a nice house working part-time as a contract electrician in the mid-1990s in Charlotte, NC. Try that today. Ain’t happening.

Based on the letter requests i'm receiving, Florida is about to experience a massive faculty brain drain the likes of which I'm not sure we've ever seen before

— Jason Rasgon (@vectorgen) April 15, 2023

All the smart people are leaving Florida because it is the smart thing to do. If you don’t, unless you’re a full-on MAGA clown, you’ll probably regret it. This will be true for all red states.

“America is too big for rail” and yet we literally had it. Almost everything we advocate for is a restoration. pic.twitter.com/zSLxKPaUE1

— Hayden Clarkin (@the_transit_guy) April 16, 2023

The same for many things. “Public transit will never work in the US!” We already had it — it was taken away.

“Small regional airports will never work!” Already had those too, and airline consolidation and high profits prioritized over all else killed those too.

“Free college will never work!” Already had that too, when we were collectively much poorer.

So many things that people claim are impossible we once had in living memory and yet people often cannot even accurately recall their own lives and experiences. Both aspects of this greatly puzzle me and I need to think more about them.

I bought a 2022 MacBook Pro (without the fucking notch) and it’s an amazing machine. I used it fairly heavily for nearly three full days and it still had more than 60% of battery left. Try that with any other laptop. My also-expensive work laptop is lucky if it gets four full hours before crapping out, and it weighs 40% more than my MacBook.

The MB is also faster than any other computer I’ve ever used. In fact, it’s not even close. It makes my 2020 iMac feel putt-putt. And it’s dead silent and cool too. The engineering that went into this machine and its chip is unfathomable.

People say that Apple is more expensive — and that is true. But this laptop does things you cannot buy anywhere else, for any price.

What's the minimum you would need to get paid to poop in your pants, on stage, in front of an audience of acquaintances? They all know you're getting paid for it, and the amount.

— Aella (@Aella_Girl) April 14, 2023

I know nothing of embarrassment, so the key question is, how expensive are the pants?

You think I was exaggerating about the red states going to hell?

We are two of the smart and productive people fleeing — the vanguard of what will be a vast exodus of anyone with two brain cells to rub together. We’re among the first but the trickle will become a flood.

It’ll be a multi-hued Great Migration this time, until most red states resemble rural Alabama in most places. It’s going to get very ugly. But I sure won’t be here to see it.

Ron DeSantis quietly signs Florida’s 6-week abortion ban into law

Good thing we’ll be out of this state in a matter of days.

Favorite 90s song(s).

There were a lot of good songs from that era, but if I had to choose one it’d be Stereolab’s “Lo Boob Oscillator,” which was released in 1993. That song was what got me interested in learning French, along with Rimbaud. I wanted to know what Lætitia Sadier was singing without having it translated.

This is another favorite of mine from Stereolab; a video I’ve never seen before.

I don’t even like the Bowie song really, but this is a wonderful performance. What a voice on her.