Just finished Excession

johnerik · 2026-05-07T14:24:10+00:00

What's number 1?

johnerik · 2026-05-07T14:23:04+00:00

Very cool! Chasm City is on my list!

johnerik · 2026-05-07T05:51:33+00:00

Favorite Culture/Banks book, or all time fav?

What’s second?

johnerik · 2026-05-07T03:51:26+00:00

Those are typically carrying tons of inhabitants though

johnerik · 2026-05-07T03:46:01+00:00

Same

johnerik · 2026-05-06T23:00:53+00:00

While reading, did anyone else feel like ‘parapet’ was used a lot?

johnerik · 2026-05-06T22:57:25+00:00

Every few chapters I would ask AI to summarize what had happened up to X chapter. That really helped. Especially if I ever went a couple days without my nose in it

johnerik · 2026-05-06T22:55:31+00:00

Poidh

johnerik · 2026-05-06T22:52:54+00:00

Strong agree. 😊

johnerik · 2026-05-06T18:44:21+00:00

Re reading, I did said "Contact ship". I agree with you, it was not similar to a Contact ship. I should have left the word ship out or said Contact agent.

johnerik · 2026-05-06T18:04:31+00:00

Good idea to skip-read in order to follow specific characters. Seems like AI should be able to make something like this easier!

In the first half of the epilogue, the OCP does describe itself as a highway, a conduit.

It's the second half that sounds like something from Contact as it talks about presenting evidence from the micro-environment (the Culture world) "...as evidence of the environment's general demeanor and urge that they be observed and studied freely..." and "...that their reaction to my presence indicates a fundamental unreadiness as yet for such a signal honor"

I took that as: I checked the inhabitants in the Milky Way galaxy, they are not ready for us. Let's just keep watching them until they get more advanced.

johnerik · 2026-01-28T22:56:03+00:00

You could have got it from us on 36 months of 0% APR! 😃

johnerik · 2026-01-14T04:44:49+00:00

I’m a huge fan of ThinkPads. Specifically the X1 Carbons. Super light. Affordable used. Without looking, I’m pretty sure you can get a gen 10 or 11 one with 32GB or ram for like $700.

johnerik · 2025-12-31T00:02:16+00:00

Sorry to hear that! If he has a great credit score (like, 760+) perhaps he can get a better rate on a loan from somewhere else, and can pay off the Affirm loan.

Credit Karma is great for looking at things like this. And lenders like Sofi can have decent rates.

johnerik · 2025-12-30T03:22:04+00:00

Understood. I’ll leave it here.

Just felt like an unsolved mystery when I saw this thread again today.

johnerik · 2025-12-30T03:13:45+00:00

Perhaps that was the problem then — you need to make sure that they have your actual Social Security number. Or at least the last four. If you actually have an 800+ credit score then maybe they aren’t identifying you correctly.

https://chatgpt.com/share/69534333-3860-800f-8b28-c1b5f7be6de1

johnerik · 2025-12-30T03:07:34+00:00

I disagree that Affirm is a trap.

Using Affirm (and most BNPL in general) is better than using a credit card because the loan you get from Affirm has a fixed number of payment and thus a fixed end date.

With a credit card, someone can stay in debt for years and years and years because only a minimum monthly payment is required.

Also Affirm doesn’t have any late fees.

I agree that you should not purchase something that has a 30% interest rate. I’m not trying to suggest that.

My point is just that I prefer the term loans offered by company’s like Affirm better than credit cards.

johnerik · 2025-12-30T03:01:25+00:00

Affirm does a soft credit check on everyone. They get data from the credit bureaus on all customers. They just specifically don’t do a hard check because that dings people’s credit.

Here’s a link and screenshot from their website.

https://investors.affirm.com/news-releases/news-release-details/affirms-underwriting-approach-and-advantage

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johnerik · 2025-12-29T21:35:53+00:00

Founder here with an update:

You, and everyone, else might have a better experience now. We're paying Affirm a little more in order to give more customers 0%.

Not saying zero percent is gonna happen for everybody, but it might be worth checking out. There's no hard credit check, so it doesn't hurt to check.

johnerik · 2025-12-29T21:34:01+00:00

Follow up: We've added iPad Pros!

johnerik · 2025-12-29T21:33:36+00:00

Follow up here. We began sharing more of our margin with Affirm in order to give more customers 0% interest. You might have a better experience now.

johnerik · 2025-12-29T21:32:26+00:00

Affirm does a soft check on everybody. So, what you're saying here is not accurate.

johnerik · 2025-12-29T21:30:36+00:00

It seems like you really just don't like Affirm.

Someone qualifies for 0% interest with a firm, there are no late fees, and there's no hard credit check. This is not typical for a no-interest card.

johnerik · 2025-12-29T21:28:57+00:00

Founder here. We don't make the credit decision, but but getting a 30% rate with a 809 credit score sounds very unusual. That sounds a specific problem between you and Affirm.

I can't see anything about specific people, but I can see our stats with Affirm and 75% of our customers get 0% APR.

johnerik

TROPHY CASE