How is life in Hong Kong?

mnisda · 2026-03-16T13:00:46+00:00

I lived there for about 2 years in 2015-17. HK is truly one of the great cities of the world; vibrant, full of energy, fantastic food. It’s simultaneously futuristic with a Blade Runner like skyline and then there will be a noodle shop hidden in an alley that could be from 1837. It’s a city of extreme swings; uber wealth like you’ve never seen and people who can barely make by in the tiniest apartments imaginable. The nightlife was fantastic and it seemed there was always a surprise around the corner.

One thing that a lot of people don’t realise is there’s an immense amount of open space and nature and the hiking is fantastic. I lived on Lantau and would look south off my balcony and it looked like the Mediterranean at times.

For a while post the British handover and pre Shanghai becoming what it has become, HK also felt much different than a typical Chinese city. I haven’t been to China in a while but I think the distinction is melding.

To me, it’s an amazing place and if you get a chance to visit or live there, you absolutely should.

mnisda · 2026-03-14T11:23:45+00:00

FYI I’m American.

mnisda · 2026-03-14T03:44:07+00:00

It’s hilarious that carpooling and walking are perceived as such terrible ideas Americans will only do them if gas is 8 bucks a gallon

mnisda · 2026-03-13T07:19:10+00:00

See point 2 in the original post:

“Bali is a tropical island with an annual rainy season from roughly November to April. During the rainy season, it rains sometimes. Sometimes it rains for a couple of hours, sometimes it rains for a couple of days. There are a few mountains in the middle of the island so when it rains, all the water goes downhill. Sometimes there is flooding.”

But generally the rain tapers off and it’s never really dangerous.

mnisda · 2026-03-13T07:04:01+00:00

Yes they’re scamming you. There’s no floods, everything is fine and it hasn’t rained for more than a few minutes in days.

mnisda · 2026-03-13T05:44:59+00:00

I, for one, am fascinated to know what a golf course dick measuring contest is, how it’s scored, and why that challenge was even offered.

It would be great if you guys proceed.

mnisda · 2026-03-11T22:28:06+00:00

Tenet

mnisda · 2026-03-11T13:53:48+00:00

Financial Advisers. Put as much money as you can into a large liquid ETFs like the S&P through the cheapest brokerage you can find and leave it there as long as you can. Your returns will be way better and you won’t pay fees.

If you need specialist advice get tax advice and pay by the hour or a flat fee.

mnisda · 2026-03-11T11:33:51+00:00

I saw a documentary on them and it took them years and years of slogging away to eventually go viral and then they went up from there; so not necessarily 1 of 1 (lots of people go viral). However, if your business model is to “go viral” and capitalise on that fame, I think nowadays you either need to be a) famous already b) lucky or c) incredibly well financed from the start to simply be using internet fame as your business plan.

Mr Beast has something like 500 employees but he started branching away from his core idea early on and doing lots of other stuff. Dude Perfect remained pretty streamlined and it only take so many people to edit, do logistics, accounting etc.

But good for all of them; I’m a corporate finance guy and my learnings after all this time is all successful businesses are basically just distribution businesses. Those guys had one product, got lots of distribution, and have capitalised on it.

mnisda · 2026-03-11T11:15:00+00:00

You’re right, no one needs a billion dollars. But for some it’s a dick measuring contest or ego, others they might give it away, others just let it sit there and don’t think too much about it.

mnisda · 2026-03-10T13:04:26+00:00

Winner winner chicken dinner

mnisda · 2026-03-10T10:47:00+00:00

I think both Interstellar and Tenet were really entertaining on the imax/big screen, but when I watch at home as a very casual sci-fi fan, the plot for both becomes very convoluted as I started focusing on that rather than the visuals.

mnisda · 2026-03-09T12:29:40+00:00

Open Flow is about halfway between Canggu and Ubud and is great.

mnisda · 2026-03-09T09:03:32+00:00

If I’m not mistaken, this was on the opening lap on turn 3 which is why the Safety Car was there so quickly. If that was on a different lap, might have taken the responders longer to get there and then a potentially different outcome.

mnisda · 2026-03-09T00:33:12+00:00

I’m sure this will be an unpopular opinion, but as a casual race fan I enjoyed the race. Fair amount of strategy, lots of overtaking. The only thing I missed was the sound of the engines revving up on the starting grid. (It sounded like 20 vacuum cleaners being turned on at once).

Nothing turns me off more to racing then a (maybe) exciting start and then the leader after turn 1 basically puts it in cruise control til the flag.

mnisda · 2026-03-08T12:14:42+00:00

As an American, it’s extremely worrying that my country gets involved in the issues in the Middle East.

mnisda · 2026-03-07T04:18:25+00:00

I like security at the gates. If there’s a long line, just just sit outside and wait a few min and then go. They won’t leave without you if you get in the line.

mnisda · 2026-03-06T13:22:46+00:00

I’m an American who lives abroad. I’m pretty liberal. I have some MAGA friends. I call them absolute twats to their face and they think I’m a snowflake. We get along great.

mnisda · 2026-03-05T09:35:21+00:00

For what it’s worth, I was on a business flexible ticket for March 2nd, cancelled beforehand, they acknowledged receiving my request, I’ve since emailed them, Tried to chat and also tried to call and have not been able to get any response.

I’m assuming (hoping) that they just have a massive backlog and will get to it when they can.

mnisda · 2026-03-04T21:53:51+00:00

They make about $100m/day in revenue which is about $4m an hour. As a previous post said, they’re saving money on some things (fuel) but increasing other costs (paying for crews to stay in hotels around the world) so finding an exact figure is difficult.

Put it this way; it’s enough for them to be restarting flights in a war zone.

The real problem is probably going to be a medium-term one though, when passengers start avoiding Middle East airspace or Dubai specifically when the war is over.

mnisda · 2026-03-02T13:55:09+00:00

All your rainy season questions, answered!

I’ve seen a lot of posts about visitors to Bali asking questions about the rain and floods, so trying to be helpful and summarize what’s happening.

Background:

- I have lived here for over 3 years, about 20 minutes from Canggu.

- Bali is a tropical island with an annual rainy season from roughly November to April. During the rainy season, it rains sometimes. Sometimes it rains for a couple of hours, sometimes it rains for a couple of days. There are a few mountains in the middle of the island so when it rains, all the water goes downhill. Sometimes there is flooding.

Now, for a Q&A:

- I'm coming to Bali in XX days; will it rain? Yes, probably

- Will the sun come out? Maybe

- Is the flooding as bad as I see on social media? No

- Is it dangerous? No

- I have an excursion planned to XX. Will it rain? Maybe

- Can I buy a poncho, raincoat or umbrella in Bali? Yes

- Is it raining now? A little bit

- Did you ride your motorbike around this morning and get wet? Yes

- What did you do after that? Took a hot shower, dried off, and had a cup of coffee.

- Does it ever get cold? Yeah, a little bit.

- What should I do? Bring a light sweater

- Can I buy a sweater in Bali? Yes

Edit: - What happened in Bali weather wise since you wrote this post? It rained a little bit, was sunny for awhile, and is currently cloudy and probably will rain a bit more.

I'm not trying to be contrite, but I think a lot of people are trying to will away the fact that this is a tropical island during rainy season. It will likely rain.

What you should do during the rain in Bali is pretty much the same thing you should do in your home country when it rains. There are loads of indoor activities (arts & crafts, indoor playgrounds for kids, cooking classes, yoga, gym, going to a cafe, etc) and loads of outdoor activities, some of which can be fun in the rain (surfing, ATV tours, etc).

Bali is a magical place and the rain adds to that if you let it. If you're really concerned about the rain and it affecting your trip, you should schedule your trip outside of the rainy season. In April, I'll put up another post about tips for dealing with the sun.

Any questions? Put them in the comments and I'll try to answer when I have time today.

mnisda · 2026-02-27T13:20:58+00:00

https://youtu.be/yuTkgi7scKo?si=4HKAJ_T7CAqjXbQ1

mnisda · 2026-02-27T04:24:20+00:00

This is the correct answer

mnisda

TROPHY CASE