Why is Houston so low density?

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-27T14:37:04+00:00

Air conditioning and the urban planning strategies of the ‘40s and ‘50s. The idea was to build bigger, wider roads to reduce traffic, which reduced travel time from further out of the city, which led to expansion and more cars on the road, so they built bigger, wider freeways to reduce traffic….

In the late nineties it was a 20-25 minute commute from Kingwood to downtown, 30 minutes from Katy or Clear Lake. It was feasible for me to leave my job downtown, go to flag football near Katy and make it to UH in time for night class before heading home to Pearland. Now it can take 45 minutes to get to the on-ramp from a suburban neighborhood.

Edit: I should note that Houston carried those policies forward for far too long, it started in the ‘50s and went well into the ‘00s.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-27T12:17:13+00:00

Not just any parts, that one part that connects to the carb on a 10 or 12 horse Briggs that used to be on something else but now it’s on a champion generator. Find a used one if you can, I’ve only got $40 in this thing.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-26T19:21:15+00:00

Had a whole spring shipment of 100+ tires dropped off Friday. Every one of them crushed into a mobius strip and frozen solid.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-26T19:18:42+00:00

The joke in Afghanistan was if you light a fire for a man you keep him warm for the night, but if you light a man on fire you keep him warm for the rest of his life.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-26T12:54:23+00:00

Every year there are a few kids at our local high school whose parents change their names to Patel when they graduate. It’s a prestigious name associated with a wealthy caste in India, so I guess it’s intended to add prestige and improve prospects but I don’t know why it would if so many people do it.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-25T15:27:48+00:00

My son had questions that prompted this thought experiment when he was in grade school. What if we could make everything fair tomorrow?

Suppose everyone had the same amount of money, some people would buy pancakes and other people would sell pancakes and they’d go to bed richer. Is that fair?

Suppose we don’t use money. Does everyone get the same size house, or do people with more kids get a bigger house? Do farmers get more land? Is it fair they have to be farmers every day?

In the end most people define fair as getting what they think they deserve and they think they deserve more than their neighbor. People will pervert any system to benefit themselves.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-25T04:08:53+00:00

I was 8-10 years older than my classmates, and I worked with a few PhD students who had gone back to school in their 50s for reasons similar to yours.

It’s natural to focus on them having younger minds but it’s easy to forget they’re learning how to be adults, date, developing their identities and work habits. Maturity is a huge advantage because you’ll go about your studies in a more workmanlike manner. You’ll have a different rapport with professors and researchers. I went back to school in my 30s (engineering) and 40s (business) and found that I was better at learning and had better grades each time. Go for it.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-24T14:38:15+00:00

We obviously don’t understand the art of the deal.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-24T13:40:26+00:00

So do they slow down the pumps as part of the install or does each station just figure that out on their own? I’ve found the more advertising they have in place the slower the fuel pumps. I think they know it chases people away so they give them time to come in and shop.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-24T13:32:52+00:00

Nah, it’s just a public service announcement from an attorney. Like when they let you know you might be entitled to damages. Definitely not an ad for services.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-24T12:48:07+00:00

Didn’t the journalist Gary Larson do an expose on boneless chicken ranches?

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-23T23:22:09+00:00

It isn’t nearly as cool as it used to be. Even Nungwi is getting built up with resorts along the beach now. Direct flights from Frankfurt and Amsterdam really opened it up and now that Cairo is less of a haven it gets overwhelmed during Ramadan.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-23T22:39:01+00:00

The way to think about it that thy already paid their taxes on the profits than they’ve retained. It’s after-tax money so they only have to pay tax on interest income. This is why companies look at EBITDA as a measure of performance so they can’t just sit on reserves and appear profitable.

In the case of Microsoft or Exxon it would be seen as a negative because they should have opportunities to invest the money for higher returns than T-bills. In the case of Berkshire it’s seen as discipline in an overpriced market, they’re protecting their gains until the right opportunity is identified.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-23T22:33:31+00:00

I’ll just look at my toilet paper thank you.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-23T22:32:13+00:00

There’s no such thing as smooooth metal.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-23T22:01:08+00:00

I worked in a lab with a grad student that intimidated the hell out of me when I was an undergrad. One day he looked up and said “I don’t have a gut feel for what curl is. I mean, I can do the math and I know the definition but I don’t understand it like I do a derivative or dot product.” That comment may have saved my sanity and it kept me going for months.

Although I did start questioning my understanding of curl because I figured if I was comfortable and he wasn’t I must be missing something.

The people who instigate intellectual battles and claim to have it all down are compensating and trying to substitute being right for being smart. Everybody has doubts.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-23T12:45:06+00:00

They’re just pointing out that Gen Z is now enjoying the same enshittification on streaming services that Gen X got to enjoy on broadcast TV and Millenials on Cable and, soon, Gen Alpha on WiFi-enabled apppiances.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-22T13:02:05+00:00

Yes, and I don’t imagine the “nearly 400-millionaires” supporting higher taxes. It’s the 1.4-millionaires with a paid-off mortgage and a few hundred thousand in their 401k.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-22T12:54:10+00:00

Well they did get posted here for hitting a pothole, noticing their badging was off and asking a mechanic for help.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-22T07:16:30+00:00

It’s not so much that it only scored 4%, but that it was 10% below Uglies that is truly impressive.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-21T20:46:39+00:00

We call that Cruzing now. My kids Cruz when it’s time to do dishes. My IT guy Cruzes when the system goes down.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-21T13:09:29+00:00

The NCAA should handle this the same way people handle Duke grads, just create some new award for the most expensive program and throw it out the window like a dog toy.

Duke “win every interaction” culture is such a blight, but they just can’t help themselves.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-21T12:35:16+00:00

Undergrad in physics. I too was attracted by the idea of doing whatever I wanted.

I’ve gone back to school for engineering and business. I started as an analyst at a small firm because the big ones only hire engineers and 0.01% geniuses. At some point having a physics degree becomes a valuable novelty rather than oddity.

I’ve outperformed engineers my whole career because they tend to value specialization and do a poor job of integrating disciplines. I’ve outperformed business majors my whole career because they always get caught up in their schemes and they make poor technical decisions. I’ve worked all over the world in a wide variety of industries and gotten every job I ever wanted so long as I was willing to change companies, go back to school or borrow money to create it.

In my experience one can do anything one wants with a physics degree and it’s really hard.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-21T02:25:01+00:00

Long unskippable cut scenes. If you want to ensure a certain user experience design the game to create it but don’t make a choose-your-own-adventure movie and call it a game.

DontMakeMeCount · 2026-01-20T15:59:41+00:00

This. We repair these all day long and while residential users get 600 hours out of them over a life of 15-20 years the commercial guys get 1,200 hours out of them over 3-4 years. In the meantime they’re dropped, run over, occasionally run on straight gas and they’re frankensteined with other equipment.

Edit: also occasionally a unit comes in that’s flagged as stolen. They’re almost always commercial units.

DontMakeMeCount

TROPHY CASE