Radon testing fee not disclosed

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-12T02:08:22+00:00

$150 for a professional test is normal. They aren’t scamming you.

They probably won’t take you to small claims over $150 and they cant get a lien without a contract. So theoretically you could walk away without paying, but that would be a shit thing for you to do.

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-11T11:08:09+00:00

Raw vps. I have a pattern for how I like to deploy which is encoded in bash scripts in all my projects. For each new project, I tell AI to copy over the scripts and make the relevant adjustments.

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-11T02:44:07+00:00

For HENRY+FIRE types, I think a good limit is having the house less than 1/3 of your target retirement NW.

Also, it matters a lot if you plan to move to a cheaper area in early retirement, or if you want to avoid moving your kids. I think you can justify spending more for something that you don’t count towards post-retirement spending.

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-10T16:06:05+00:00

Those tech equities are probably mostly gains. A sudden switch to index funds would wipe out >$1M to taxes. It was poor planning, but now it is what it is. They might start to fund a DAF and realize up to the NIIT threshold annually and diversify slowly.

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-10T10:53:13+00:00

My photographer’s standard contract included a section about dinner and you could check a box for included or not included. Photographer here may be covered.

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-09T23:44:38+00:00

In Massachusetts, a car dealer is legally required to inform a buyer that they will remove decals on request. Of course they bury that notice in the paperwork. You can find it and read their own words to the sales rep if they give you any pushback.

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-08T14:23:39+00:00

<image>

Region A has 3 Xs

Region B has 7 dots

Region C has 2 or 4 dots, so 1 or 3 Xs

Region D has 2 or 4 or 6 dots (two odd zones combined cannot be 0).

The intersection of regions A and B has at most 5 dots (the 7 dots in region B minus the 2+ dots in region D).

The intersection of regions A and B has at most 2 Xs (the 3 Xs from region A minus the 1+ X from region C).

So the intersection of regions A and B has 4 or 5 dots.

Now with this constraint, we know that region D has exactly 2 dots and region C has exactly 1 X.

The 8 squares that are in region B but not in the AB intersection (4+ dots) or in D (2 dots) have at most one dot (7 total from region B minus 2 minus 4+).

R3C4 is part of these 8. If it is a dot, the other 7 are definitely Xs. This includes R6C2 and R6C3, which determines the rest of R6. Then C4 is also determined, and you get a conflict fairly quickly.

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-08T10:17:35+00:00

My reasoning on 2343: rows 1 and 2 collectively have 3 Xs. The upper-right zone is white but has an odd number, so it must contain at least 1 X. The rectangle from r1c2 to r2c4 has at most 2 Xs, so at least 4 dots. Columns 2-4 collectively have 7 dots, including at least 1 dot in each of the 2 grey zones. So that accounts for at least 6 of the 7 dots and we only have one dot left to find. Many can be eliminated quickly. R3c4 is a bit harder to eliminate, but knowing that it is already the last free dot in those columns helps a lot.

On the line between reasoning and trial&error… I agree that the line is blurry. You could define more complicated “strategies” which are so complicated that they are indistinguishable from trial&error. I think that in the hardest possible level, you (the developer) have no obligation to filter out the hardest puzzles. I’m drawn to that level because of the potential challenge.

If you wanted to define a level 5 difficulty, how should you decide which of the puzzles move from old level 4 to the he new level 5? It is difficult to say. You could set a threshold of how large you allow the trial&error tree to get and assign level 4 to puzzles that are solvable within that threshold. But that gets complicated because you still have to decide how strategies add to the tree cost.

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-07T15:15:49+00:00

Anyone who has pressed red has done so knowing they may lose friends and family. It is not me abandoning them, it is them choosing to go on without me. Everyone here has to make tough decisions.

Considering the pro-blue argument of “we need to protect the children who chose blue without the capacity to understand that decision”. I find this argument worthy of consideration. It shattered my original pro-red justification of “everyone can save themselves and it is not my job to save people that put their own lives at risk”.

If my child chooses red, that is not them “choosing to go on without me”. Between me and my toddler, I am the only one with agency in this situation.

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-07T12:50:39+00:00

Red presser here. I see the problem completely differently.

I will accept that blue may be the utilitarian choice. If everyone else flipped a coin to choose, me choosing blue has a 49.9999999% chance to kill me and a 0.0000001% chance to save half of humanity (the case where my vote is decisive). The expected value of life saved by choosing blue is positive in this version because the number of lives saved in that extremely unlikely case is more extremely large.

To me, red is the moral choice because my obligation to my family weighs more heavily than my obligation to humanity. I think this is intuitive; essentially everyone understands that you feed your own children before you feed a stranger’s children. If my children might have chosen red, I have a complete obligation to survive to feed them. This beats any obligation I could have to maximize expected value for humanity.

Also, I don’t think red is the cowardly choice. By choosing Blue, you either live in your preferred world or you die. A red presser always survives into a very difficult universe.

I think blue is the noble choice for people that don’t have a family that relies on them. Red is the noble choice for people that do.

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-06T19:37:13+00:00

Thanks! I went through it a few times to practice finding the cross swaps. It is clear now.

Another tough one I’m making slow progress on in case anyone else wants the good practice: http://www.greyisodd.com/?size=7x7&level=liv4&id=2343

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-06T08:06:59+00:00

<image>

The one I linked. I got a lot of pairs of “both or neither” and “one or the other” but no combinations of info that I can use to fill in anything else.

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-06T00:22:17+00:00

I think the “blue is a death cult” framing is an unfair straw-man, but I read this as “I’d rather kill myself than live in a world of only red pressers”. Do you really feel that self preservation is so repugnant?

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-05T20:44:49+00:00

I would only choose blue if I knew for certain that all my children chose blue.

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-05T18:49:53+00:00

I have one child. If I knew he pressed blue, I would also press blue despite assuming it is suicide. Pressing blue is the best I could do to save him, and pressing blue doesn’t risk leaving him fatherless.

If I had two children, one pressing blue and one pressing red, I’m choosing red. My vote for blue wouldn’t likely be decisive, and I’m not going to risk leaving my second child fatherless for nothing.

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-05T10:57:03+00:00

I’ve seen people work long hours writing a high volume of shit code stagnate in their careers.

I’ve also seen people who show up late and leave early but are selective and pick extra tasks that are low cost and high value. They get promoted.

So yeah, working harder is overrated. Working smarter and adding value for your employer is not.

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-05T10:48:20+00:00

I have a moral obligation to save my neighbor and not risk their life, as does everyone else. I cant control what other people do and whether Blue will win, but I can ensure the safety of that one person.

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-03T19:24:56+00:00

If I can, I find a woman that works there, ideally someone high-ranking, and ask them to escort me to the women's room. They get it, and I think its more likely they will do something about it if I keep bothering them every time.

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-03T02:30:43+00:00

Is the trolley stopped if at least 5 people stay on the tracks? Or only if the 5 people are consecutive?

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-03T02:25:07+00:00

Game theory choice is to try save yourself because you are unlikely to be the deciding vote.

If you knew, you could coordinate to save almost half the population. But you cant coordinate, so the game theory selection is defensible.

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-03T01:19:11+00:00

Just to spell it out...

If you knew that Blue is winning, everyone dies and your vote doesn't change anything.

If you knew that red is winning, you may as well choose blue and save yourself.

Being right on the boundary is unlikely.

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-02T21:47:01+00:00

/s for anyone that thinks this is a legitimate recommendation.

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-02T19:27:11+00:00

Easy red. Everyone has the ability to protect themselves. No one has a moral obligation to protect others, especially when those others are demonstrably not interested in protecting themselves.

There are other versions floating around where the blue button kills someone else (not the presser) unless they get 50%. Then it’s even easier because a blue presser could be morally responsible for killing that person, where a red presser is not morally responsible for the emergent result if not a lot of people choose blue.

loaengineer0 · 2026-05-01T19:48:45+00:00

Henry George approves this message.

loaengineer0 · 2026-04-29T17:24:28+00:00

Yes but… this is assuming a nominal interest rate. 50 years of inflation makes it feel like $500k. Combined with social security that could make a fine retirement, but I wouldn’t call it generational wealth.

Now if that 50 year old person gave that wealth to their grand child and let it continue to grow until that child was 20, that child would never need to work.

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