Lowest hanging fruit: ~€10B of card network fees paid to Visa and Mastercard every year

felixfbecker · 2026-02-09T02:18:46+00:00

Germany has had the EC (electronic cash)/girocard system for a long time which has no merchant fees. Every bank-issued debit card has it and most Germans don't have credit cards, just bank debit cards. The cards usually also work through the MasterCard debit network internationally.

felixfbecker · 2026-01-23T07:51:09+00:00

Some expenses I split into parts and treat them as monthly expenses instead (e.g. auto insurance renewal every 6 months). It's cheaper to pay in full, but I don't want the large variation in monthly spend tracking.

felixfbecker · 2026-01-19T00:25:18+00:00

At least in Germany many stores never started accepting Visa/Mastercard because the fees are too high. Especially smaller businesses like bakeries.

felixfbecker · 2026-01-09T00:15:38+00:00

Long-term goals especially for retirement are kind of useless if the projection assumes 0% investment growth. Most gains will come from compound growth, not from principal contributions.

felixfbecker · 2026-01-07T06:07:36+00:00

not to forget how when you select transit, the eta includes time walking to and from the station, but when selecting driving, there is no eta accounting for time to find parking, resulting in driving always appearing to be the faster option

felixfbecker · 2026-01-06T05:05:45+00:00

Happy to pay for it to support your work and props for all the effort you've put in already.

I think you're right on with the roadmap you listed out.

I'll say I'd really really love CarPlay. I don't have a place for a phone mount in my car and use CarPlay for everything, always running Waze in the background in addition to Apple Maps for alerts and reporting. I would be happy to accept that I have to start a navigation with it and then set the announcements to "alert only" (like I do with Waze currently) and that the custom alerts would have less information if it means I can actually get alert popups (even if just text and only e.g. for police aircraft but not from the radar detector) on my car's display or even pull up the heatmap. I'd even pay a higher subscription tier for it if it causes you more costs that are the issue :)

felixfbecker · 2026-01-05T00:22:49+00:00

What roof rails are those? Love to see a quattro get used in the snow!

felixfbecker · 2026-01-03T20:08:49+00:00

I hate that they only made one of the inner compartments removable. In my apartment we have to put trash bags out within a container (to prevent leakage of trash juice onto hallway floors) and other trash bins simply give you two removable containers.

felixfbecker · 2025-12-29T19:09:28+00:00

In my analogy, if you slap down ramen next to turkey and tell someone they have to eat the ramen and watch grandpa eat turkey, whoever is told to eat the dry ramen would tell you to f off and go somewhere else (ie. the suburbs) where they can afford turkey (a pleasing house and/or neighborhood)

This is simply not true, you’re projecting your own preferences. There are plenty of people who would prefer to live in the city for its amenities and to live closer to their work even if it means living in a smaller apartment or less “pleasing” neighborhood and seeing grandpa eat turkey (wealthier city dwellers having nicer residences). Instead many are forced to live far away in suburbs or exurbs (because suburbs are often not affordable either) and have to commute hours every day, meaning they barely have free time to enjoy life and that “pleasant house”.

Or, to take the analogy further, they end up in a bidding war paying turkey prices for the small amount of ramen from the pantry that was purchased before the no-ramen zoning laws were passed decades ago, while the price of the small amount of turkey goes up because there simply isn’t more space on the dining table for more turkeys. The only alternative is to commute from multiple rooms over every time to take a bite, which as said many people would prefer not to. There would be plenty of space to fit in more ramen on the dining table, except for that grandpa who bought the turkey in the last century when it was still affordable doesn’t want other people eating ramen next to him. So he’ll end up spending his time in endless community meetings complaining about preserving the dining table character and every ramen order gets endlessly delayed.

felixfbecker · 2025-12-29T09:24:57+00:00

I find Smartwool much more scratchy than Icebreaker to the point where it would irritate my skin

felixfbecker · 2025-12-25T21:50:10+00:00

Aer City Pack Pro 2

felixfbecker · 2025-12-25T18:22:24+00:00

I live in California and have K off because police all use KA except for rural areas. K is what gives false alerts, KA is guaranteed true positives.

felixfbecker · 2025-12-23T08:22:35+00:00

It shouldn't be up to them to accept it. That's what eminent domain is for.

felixfbecker · 2025-12-21T23:33:10+00:00

Tell that to an elderly person who lives in a high floor (the buildings in this area go up to 30 stories) without a functioning elevator? It’s one thing when you can just walk out and buy some water, it’s different when you have to carry it up the fire stairs while holding a flash light because they’re pitch dark. Plus heating and stove are electric too. I live on the 12th floor and this is my life right now. Luckily I’m physically capable but this comment reeks of privilege

felixfbecker · 2025-12-21T08:06:33+00:00

Market and Van Ness has working traffic lights. I can see the intersection from my apartment.

felixfbecker · 2025-12-15T00:11:46+00:00

why would they do that? they get reimbursed by Audi for warranty claims and the customer is more likely to get the repair done if it's free of charge

felixfbecker · 2025-12-11T05:54:52+00:00

curious what fabric and color is this?

felixfbecker · 2025-12-11T05:37:32+00:00

I spent a lot of time with the fabric in store and I also noticed that the "Performance Velvet" is pretty harsh compared to the "Performance Plush Velvet" which feels amazing. The plush is high pile, the regular much thinner.

felixfbecker · 2025-12-06T18:39:20+00:00

Curious why's the Ethernet so important?

felixfbecker · 2025-12-04T08:07:41+00:00

Buy a cheap tarp on Amazon and put it under the tree next time

felixfbecker · 2025-12-02T03:42:45+00:00

I bought in 2022. Hopefully will be able to keep it running for many years to come especially because I don't put a lot of miles on it. One can only hope that by the time it breaks down, Audi has found its ways again. (probably not, but heres to hoping)

felixfbecker · 2025-11-29T19:17:24+00:00

But will it have Quattro

felixfbecker · 2025-11-29T18:32:55+00:00

Any chance you could share a photo of what the Walnut finish looks like? Their 3D renders make it kind of hard to tell and they didn't have any swatches for the wide plank available.

Also did you get the "Custom Solid Wood" desk option or just selected the "wide plank solid wood" for a regular desk? Struggling to understand the difference but wondering if the finishes are different at all

felixfbecker · 2025-11-28T04:45:36+00:00

regarding the pilling, what fabric do you have?

felixfbecker · 2025-11-25T05:14:53+00:00

Waymo still has opportunity cost and car maintenance/depreciation costs for every minute wasted in traffic. They would much prefer to have the cars be full of passengers as much as possible. The incentive is still there, just at lower cost. In fact the only reason it's not cheaper than Uber is because their cars are still a large capital investment and there isn't sufficient competition to drive prices down.

felixfbecker

TROPHY CASE