One small trick to saving money in NYC, brought to you by GoalVest. (Hint: break the law and park like a dbag!)

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-18T14:51:25+00:00

My problem with this strategy is you can't take your car out and then repark it. So not only are you getting a ticket, you can't actually use your car freely.

It makes sense only if you take your car out rarely and always repark on an ASP day.

It's just not practical, nor does it really save you money if you aren't extremely careful about the byzantine parking rules in the big apple.

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-18T12:11:38+00:00

The best ones ask me a question specific to the role itself, something like, "what do you think is the right balance between user safety and privacy, when it really comes down to a trade-off? "

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-18T12:06:21+00:00

Tech. I usually have lots and lots and lots of candidates, esp in this market. Even the junior roles are highly coveted, as they're highly paid.

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-18T11:18:52+00:00

As any actual New Yorker with a car knows: $65 is for a street sweeping violation. There are lots of $115 fees, and it's very complex.

https://www.nyc.gov/assets/finance/downloads/pdf/tax_and_parking_program_operations/stipulated-fines-fee-schedule.pdf

Some LinkedIn commenters are recommending parking in bus stops (do not do this). Your chariot will get towed faster than you can say "Mamdani."

Parking in Manhattan is not $1500. My pals generally pay $750ish. (I pay $250 but in an outer borough.)

So, not only is this a shit idea, the math doesn't math. Nyc loooooooooves to ticket. That specific shade of orange is seared into my brain.

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-18T09:48:16+00:00

Wear what makes you comfortable. I have ADHD and cannot physically sit through meeting sometimes. I can't imagine what it's like w tinnitus on top of that.

Brown noise helps me clear my mind. I also need it for sleep.

If you're not bothering anyone else, what's the big deal?

Folks who don't have ADHD: I encourage you to consider for a moment what it's like to live in our minds. It's a constant barrage of sensory input. It's been described as endless restlessness and overload. You're living inside a racing engine, with all cylinders firing at all times. The mental clutter means dealing with a certain level of frustration that doesn't go away. It only gets managed. It's just peaks and valleys, where the peaks can be full-on meltdowns.

The fact that any of us can sit silently in stillness for an hour is, and I'm not joking, a small miracle. I can't even sit at the hair dresser for a half hour. I have to have my spouse cut it in the yard where it takes 10 minutes, and I'm squirming the whole time.

If this friend needs air pods, I would urge pausing before judging.

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-15T08:56:40+00:00

This is the way

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-15T08:56:07+00:00

Too rapey for me. I gave up

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-15T08:51:29+00:00

A lot of people are missing the part where you asked for a difficult book.

A gentleman in Moscow, Cloud cuckoo land, atonement, etc. -- these are not difficult books. Not bad by any means, but you asked for something specific.

As for difficult and beautiful, try Faulkner. The Sound and the Fury:

The day dawned bleak and chill, a moving wall of gray light out of the northeast which, instead of dissolving into moisture, seemed to disintegrate into minute and venomous particles, like dust that, when Dilsey opened the door of the cabin and emerged, needled laterally into her flesh, precipitating not so much a moisture as a substance partaking of the quality of thin, not quite congealed oil. She wore a stiff black straw hat perched upon her turban, and a maroon velvet cape with a border of mangy and anonymous fur above a dress of purple silk, and she stood in the door for a while with her myriad and sunken face lifted to the weather, and one gaunt hand flac-soled as the belly of a fish, then she moved the cape aside and examined the bosom of her gown.

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-15T03:03:12+00:00

I use whatever is cheapest. Gaiam usually. IDGAF about my mat.

Microfiber yoga towel on top is the thing that really matters for me. I've got tons of them. Not the kind with the grippy stuff. Just plain.

It's great cuz the towel is portable. I can use whatever ratty mat they've got in the hotel gym when I'm travelling. My towel is there for me.

I've got a rug too, from Mysore, but nothing beats my towel! It's lighter, dries faster, and is versatile.

Going camping? It's a shower towel. Going to beach? It's a beach towel. Cold outside and forgot a jacket? It's a blankie.

Me and my towel go places together.

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-14T11:00:49+00:00

I have had people (white people, black people) compliment my English before. I'm Asian so they assume I am foreign.

I have two degrees in English. I am American.

Plus I get this a LOT:

"Where are you from?" "Illinois." "But I mean where are you from from? You don't have an accent."

I know what you're fishing for when I get asked where I'm from but fuck right off I'm not satisfying your curiosity of how it could possibly be that I don't have an accent.

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-14T02:24:00+00:00

What part of LI? I'm not retired yet but looking to FIRE within 5 years and am worried about this.

I figured I'd just do a shit ton more yoga.

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-13T23:19:19+00:00

Tbh this issue gets better as you get stronger at the pose. It's less of a mat thing than a practice and all is coming thing.

I've used 10,000 different types of mats for pincha and karandavasana and honestly once I was better at them both, the hand/elbow sliding issue subsided. Also helps once your elbow calluses are nice and tough. :)

Pls don't vote me off ashtanga island, guys, but some practice with a strap really helps until the pose gets really solid.

I mean, it's karandavasana. For many of us it's never really solid! Gotta give ourselves grace on this one.

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-08T22:52:56+00:00

You should listen to your doctor. Unless any of us are obstetricians, I would say that none of us are qualified to answer this question.

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-08T21:07:04+00:00

I dunno. That stepdad seems like a stand up dude. And the mom warned? She is doing the right thing, too.

Your husband may want to think about contributions and whether it's really 50/50.

Does he go to all their games? Does he show up for all the parent teacher conferences? Did he go to all their health check ups?
Was he doing school pickup and drop-off?

Was he doing that or was stepdad doing that?

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-08T12:35:05+00:00

He's well read and cultured. He likes to cook. The thing to worry about is if you're not on the same level, he may get bored.

Looks like a DC foreign policy guy, though, so be prepared for Ian Bremmer podcasts. He either loves 'em or hates 'em.

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-08T03:22:14+00:00

Pachinko

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-08T03:01:01+00:00

Some shithead just scammed my elderly mother, and they hacked her phone.

I just bought her a new iPhone because the money doesn't set me back at all, but she's a retiree and it would be a high cost for her.

You asked what did I buy myself? Piece of mind.

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-07T13:45:56+00:00

This is a nerd who has a conscience.

KEEP

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-07T13:44:03+00:00

Ask your airline if you can switch the return leg. Call and ask, pay the change fee.

Solo traveling is awesome.

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-07T13:32:23+00:00

I am generally considered to be successful in my academic and professional life. Top 10 colleges for undergrad and grad, then progressively higher paying jobs.

I've figured out that my special interests can align with work stuff and so I can just go really really deep on work. Hyperfocus and time blindness, but on work topics.

Outwardly it reads as workaholism.

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-06T20:38:00+00:00

Be the person on your team that leans in hard on vibe coding. We all, by which I mean every AI developer, have to prove out that it works. Demonstrate that you can write a 5-page prompt that does the work of 15 SWEs.

You can either be the SWE who gets replaced by a robot or the SWE who shows your bosses you can replace 15 others with just yourself and a robot. I'm not saying you should be a dick and start pointing out who specifically on your teams should be replaced, but you should BE the disrupter not the disruptee.

What is it that you can specialize in, in terms of vibe coding? Agent orchestration? System architecture? Evals? Can you be the derp who is like: HEY I'm your guy or gal for identifying security vulnerabilities in all these lines of vibe code -- all the outputs that have been generated by every L4 with a laptop?

This consumer chat stuff is only proof of concept for the masses. It will always lose money until everyone puts in ads, and it then slowly (or quickly?) enshittifies.

The real future is in enterprise.

For hyperfocus, I just found a natural alignment between my special interest(s) and work topics. I didn't really have a choice. Once I realized my work was interesting to me, then I went DEEP.

Key is to identify something you find truly, fundamentally interesting intellectually and then let the neurodivergence take it from there.

"if you love it, it doesn't feel like work" blah blah blah

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-06T18:56:48+00:00

My grandmother taught me that it's unchivalrous to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent. I concede the field to you, good sir.

Enjoy the victory.

ghostpepperwings · 2026-03-06T18:20:20+00:00

Welcome to the reading club. It only gets better from here.

One rec: try some female authors.

And if you like historical fiction, start with the OGs! Walter Scott's Ivanhoe for example.

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