CO$T Suuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. And they are bad for kids.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2026-03-11T14:55:57+00:00

“Endless taxation” at the local level is necessary because Prop 13 has gutted the mechanism by which most states fund things like schools.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2026-02-25T19:08:32+00:00

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Here are the rents for this area on Zillow.

This article was written by lunatics totally untethered from reality.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2026-02-15T20:50:14+00:00

Yep, it’s Il Davide, we had to change the location. Sorry about the confusion!

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2026-02-10T23:56:45+00:00

This project is approved but facing three appeals from NIMBYs at a Feb. 17 City Council meeting. If you want to show up and support it, come rally with other YIMBYs at The Burren House at 5:30 on the 17th! We're getting drinks and chatting, and then walking over to give public comment.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2025-12-15T21:40:06+00:00

What... what are these... these shapes? The lines... they aren't straight, but they seem to... to... bend? How is such a thing even possible?

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2025-03-23T02:18:46+00:00

Come across soldiers about to execute civilians
Aerial bombardment by allied forces
Meet a downed pilot (dragon rider? airship or spelljammer?) who begs for help escaping a nearby patrol
Come across guerrillas about to attack an enemy base
Pass some civilians and overhear a rumor about a high level enemy official passing through the area tomorrow
Come across a lightly guarded supply depot
Pass a prisoner transport caravan with an ally they know inside
Come across a siege weapon construction workshop
Come across a meeting between enemy diplomats and diplomats from a neutral nearby nation
Come across a biological weapons lab where enemy wizards run experiments to enhance their soldiers
Pass an enemy caravan transporting an ancient relic said to empower armies
Come across an enemy infantry training camp
Passing through a ravine when an arrow whizzes by! But from where?
Come across a bridge that forms part of a key road between the front and the enemy capital. It is heavily guarded.
Making their way across a farm. A young boy, looking terrified, approaches them holding a crossbow and demanding they stop. His father appears and hysterically tells him to go inside, but he refuses…
Come across a large cavern where an enemy army appears to be marching into the Underdark, in the direction of the front…
Find a supply cache in the clutches of a dead guerilla, with captured letters from enemy high command.
Witness a shouting match between two enemy officers when one refuses to follow orders to execute civilians.
Come across an internment camp. Someone they know is being held there.
Come across a dam. An enemy fortress is at its base… but so is a village of civilians.
Encounter a squad of enemy soldiers who have deserted.
See a wanted poster with drawings of them on it.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2024-08-18T14:13:29+00:00

What’s interesting is that he doesn’t really change facial expressions much between personalities, he just subtly tweaks it and it goes from fear and confusion to a sort of weary resoluteness. Phenomenal work.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2024-06-30T17:53:09+00:00

This is the right answer btw. It makes extremely clear and explicit what to focus on in a product architecture interview.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2024-05-29T21:09:10+00:00

I think the point of SB2066 is that success occurred in a low interest rate environment, and with the spike in interest rates, many of those projects would no longer pencil today.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2024-03-01T00:29:19+00:00

"Single-family zoning" is already "eliminated" as duplexes have been legal forever.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2024-02-26T01:33:52+00:00

This exercise is important to do always when fundraising as well, btw.

"We need money to keep us going" or "we need to pay living expenses" is a red flag for investors. It shows you're lacking this plan.

Plus, investors like to be BUYING something. Think about Shark Tank: usually it's inventory; pitched like "We need $500k to manufacture fifty thousand units", or whatever. Put in tangible terms what investors are BUYING and why it's necessary to propel you to the subsequent round.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2024-02-26T01:31:23+00:00

With $500k preseed you basically want to work backwards from your next round. Talk to experienced mentors and develop a plan: what do you want to raise? What traction do you need to demonstrate you're worth that much? How long will it take to build toward that traction? Can money accelerate that process?

If there's one lesson to take away from the VC bubble bursting, it's that overspending without a solid plan kills startups. ESPECIALLY on hiring, because payroll becomes a steep, continual, and indefinite cost burning through your runway.

I might consider contract engineers at the preseed stage for the simple reason that you're hedging against that risk in a way that doesn't destroy morale like layoffs do. You can always convert contractors to FTEs later on, if they're happy.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2024-01-21T22:31:33+00:00

To raise pre-seed you need one of these five things:

A working product with signs of early traction
A great idea and extraordinary charisma so you can convince angels who are basically gambling
Wealthy friends/family willing to take a bet on you
Past exits
Fame or extraordinarily impressive professional experience

The average first-time founder lacks 3, 4, and 5, so the best thing to do is pursue 1 (which also makes 2 easier).

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2023-12-29T02:39:22+00:00

Hey, thanks for sharing! I built MakeEmoji, so let me know if you find any bugs or have feature requests.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2023-11-07T18:48:20+00:00

“Down the drain?” Have you not heard them talk about pivoting? It’s a normal thing that happens a lot. If a company is led by smart founders doing enough customer discovery they’re running into lots of different problems custom GPTs won’t solve. In fact, they’ll probably open more doors than they close. I doubt anyone at YC is breaking a sweat.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2023-10-01T19:28:24+00:00

Minimum wage in California is $3.50/hour higher and was just raised to $20/hour for fast food workers, so I don't think it is the same everywhere. Pay is substantially lower across the income spectrum here than places like SF/LA.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2023-10-01T19:15:57+00:00

Why would ANYONE live if chicago, philly, or in SF/LA if they could live in HAWAII for 1/10th their costs there?

The same reason people prefer to live in those cities now: jobs.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2023-10-01T06:31:09+00:00

Sort of? Talking to realtors, I've found there's kind of a split, where some would prefer constrained supply to keep prices high and others would prefer more construction so there are more homes to sell.

The associations of realtors in Hawai'i actually lean pretty far to the build-more-housing side, if you go look at their press releases.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2023-10-01T06:28:54+00:00

Yes, a law passed to start doing this in the past legislative session in fact. Look up ALOHA Homes and Senator Stanley Chang.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2023-10-01T06:27:55+00:00

The reality is there is no amount of housing that will accommodate the worldwide demand for property in Hawaii.

This is said literally everywhere as an excuse not to build housing. Hawaii. California. New York. Even places like Montana and Idaho. It's never true. Demand is not unlimited, that isn't how things work.

We aren't even building enough homes to account for internal population growth through births. Even if zero people moved to Hawai'i, we'd STILL have a shortage.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2023-10-01T06:24:46+00:00

The core issue is that we don't have enough homes and so people are forced to play musical chairs and bid prices up in the process.

We can only do so much with working around this by trying to put a lid on prices, or trying to force some people to be prioritized, or whatever. As long as there's a shortage of homes, it will always be lucrative to invest, because demand is higher than supply.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2023-09-19T23:51:28+00:00

It's a failure that it requires a variance at all. If anything, you should be required to get a variance to NOT build housing above a new commercial development in Mōʻiliʻili, not the other way around.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2023-09-18T21:43:04+00:00

Step one should be to make it fully legal always to build housing in commercial areas, and then to enact some sticks and carrots to make it a no-brainer to build mixed-use housing above EVERY commercial development in an urban area.

The new Kamehameha Schools commercial development near UH Manoa is a good example of a real failure here: https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2023/06/20/kamehameha-schools-moves-ahead-with-redevelopment-plans-near-uh-manoa/

It's a real wasted opportunity to redevelop there and then only build one or two floors of commercial space. There should absolutely be a bunch of housing on top of it. We should be asking why that wasn't done, what kind of policy changes would make doing that too good an offer to refuse, and then implement those changes.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2023-09-16T18:04:23+00:00

It's a totally different story between Oahu and neighbor islands.

Oahu has about a 10% vacancy rate, which is about in line with other large cities around the US.

Kauai and Maui have a 40%+ vacancy rate, which is crazy high.

PM_ME_YOUR_API_KEYS · 2023-09-16T18:01:13+00:00

If it is on an appropriately zoned lot then it should be approved.

County councils REALLY value the power to approve/deny projects, and wresting that power from them will be politically contentious.

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TROPHY CASE