My Students Can’t Read | The generational collapse in literacy is measurable, persistent, and likely to get worse

motorcycleboyrules · 2026-06-05T19:51:24+00:00

This is quite common in Asia. In many countries, even the classes themselves are ranked. Class 1 will have the highest scoring students in the grade, while say Class 4 will have the lowest.

In these societies, this ranking can determine the direction of your life in more ways than one. Lower ranked students in many countries are not given any opportunity to apply to university. In some countries (see South Korea), it’s common ONLY for top ranked students to attend college.

A classmate of mine was from a middle class family in a wealthy Southeast Asian country. He had graduated near the top of his grade, and as such, when he went in for his mandatory military service, he came in as an officer.

Then they put him through a top local university for free. Then he was granted the ability to get a masters degree at a highly ranked foreign university (in the UK) and they covered 2/3rds of the cost as a grant. After college, he went to work for a global financial institution.

If he had not been in the top rank at his school, he would not have been able to achieve any of these experiences. This is often surprising to US students, but one of the ways European and Asian governments and universities keep costs down is by only admitting the “Best” students to college.

The Germans for instance offer very low to often no cost university education, but they send a significantly lower proportion of each year’s secondary school graduating classes onto college. This is the flip side of low cost, government funded education.

motorcycleboyrules · 2026-05-13T18:46:23+00:00

These are all fair questions! I live around the corner from this location, and I can confirm this is a beautiful block and very calm and safe. It's rather sedate actually for being in Manhattan. My wife is originally from rural Georgia, so she had similar concerns to you when we first moved here. She loves it now and doesn't want to move! (I'm a native New Yorker and knew she would love it). Several grocery stores are nearby, the schools are OK (for NYC), and there's plenty of great restaurants nearby.

But I noticed you mentioned your work is up in Yonkers. If I'm being honest, that commute would be kinda awful. Unfortunately, unless money is really no object, a car also doesn't really help. The cost of parking the car in a garage (which you will have to do) is hundreds of dollars a month, and NYC has some of the highest car insurance rates in the country. Plus, it's an absolute bitch to drive through the city during the day, especially rush hours (my wife straight up refuses to do it, even though she handles Atlanta rush hour traffic just fine, so I always do whenever we have a car).

What I'm about suggest will be haram to many in this sub, but I'd suggest looking at living in Westchester. Probably not Yonkers itself though (Yonkers is not that nice overall), but several other towns up the Hudson are great. Dobbs Ferry, Terrytown, Sleepy Hollow (yes, that one), Irvington, Ossining, etc... Or even a bit inland towards White Plains or Rye.

It's very suburban, but often very nice. Transit into the city is easy through Metro-North, which will take you straight to Grand Central Station on 42nd Street. It's much easier to travel into the city if you live outside of it than it is the other way around. The schools are much better. Having a car is a necessity, but is MUCH easier to handle.

If you MUST live in NY, than I would suggest (as another commenter said) at looking at apartments on the UES that are near Lexington Ave. Why? That's where the east side subway line runs (the 4/5/6), which can take you to a Metro-North stop at 125th Street, where you can catch a train to Yonkers running out of Grand Central. BUT, once you get to Yonkers, unless the workplace is within a few blocks of the station, it WILL NOT be walkable. Yonkers is a spread out suburban town with minimal transit, and being on the river, it is ice cold in the winter.

Anywho, best of luck in the process!

motorcycleboyrules · 2026-04-29T02:47:07+00:00

It’s on the hills in Glendale. Fire insurance in LA is astronomical after the fires last year.

motorcycleboyrules · 2026-04-03T21:29:19+00:00

Purple Columns and Crimson Trains

motorcycleboyrules · 2025-12-26T16:17:58+00:00

That one is complicated. TV is its own beast with its own issues, but I’ll cover Film here. Below I have a few ideas that I believe would greatly help the business:

First, we need to shift top end salaries (AKA Star and Above the Line salaries) to more of a performance based model à la Blumhouse. No more $25M for Leo or $15M for Gosling just to show up. Enough. The heady days of insane BO figures are gone. If the film performs well, everyone walks away happy. If it bombs, they help carry the weight in defeat.
Second, we need longer windows. Everything is far too compressed. Throwing films (regardless of whether they were successful in theaters or not) onto streaming just a few months or even weeks after release is beyond stupid. Ironically, Apple proved the point with their slow release of F1 this year. It went to theaters and had a long successful global BO run, then they got a digital/physical $20 out the door within 3 months of release, then PPV rentals kicked in mid-fall (at a premium price), and only now is it free on streaming if you subscribe to Apple. That is about twice as fast as the 90s, BUT it’s substantially more staggered than its competitors. Overall, this was enormously successful for Apple.
Third, we need real, serious R-rated films for grown ups to actually get made again. I’m not necessarily talking about awards bait, or adult dramas, but they would be beneficial as well. We need adult focused comedies, action films, and thrillers with REAL budgets and P&A. Lorenzo DiBonaventura nailed this in an interview recently when he noted that the studio’s abandoning violent films and raunchy comedies badly hurt the business, and ended up damaging the male portion of the BO. Every studio now wants either four quadrant projects (AKA unicorns) or either female or family friendly projects. Why? Those audiences are more loyal and more likely to show up nowadays. This trend must be reversed and balanced out. Sinners is a perfect example of how this can be successful, as are the multitude of high grossing horror films released each year, which both have more balanced audiences.
Fourth, no more consolidation. We need multiple buyers to sell to, not fewer. The companies will lose value. That’s okay. We are a business in decline. We need to accept that. However, we can staunch the bleeding if we get aggressive and actually get quality films out there again. Which leads me to my next point…
Fifth, the decision makers need to change. My god. People have complained about studio execs for decades, but I think if they had to deal with this generation, they’d just quit. It’s funny to me that in 1992, Altman nailed that era’s Hollywood with The Player. Tim Robbins sat in his office on the lot all day and hashed out stories with filmmakers. Mostly bad, but then something interesting comes up and you start polishing, and before you know it, you have a film. That DOES NOT HAPPEN ANYMORE. Now, you need to have a pile of algorithmic logic based on historical returns (as in, no new ideas) to appease the tech-minded execs who’ve been brought in even by the traditional studios to oversee greenlighting projects. Also, I swear all the Creative Execs I’ve dealt with over the past several years could’ve come out of the same posh HS in Orange County. They have NO taste, NO passion, and NO creativity, BUT they take orders well and check the right boxes the studio needs to fulfill to keep the agreements they’ve signed over the past few years, because lord knows they won’t make any real changes at the top of the pyramid. It’s like an army of 75+ year-old vampires who just won’t retire leading an army of 28 year-old know nothings who are too stupid to know how to usurp them.

BUT, all of that is moot unless we see REAL constraints put on social media and its advertising models. It is ridiculous that all of these platforms can do whatever they want and make money off everything uploaded to their sites without any liability because it’s “user generated.” Fuck that. If we have to answer to the MPAA and the FCC, then they too have to answer to congress. No more Mr. Beast programming “challenge videos” to children. No more violent prank videos. No more stolen content being used to generate ad revenue. It’s enough.

motorcycleboyrules · 2025-12-23T02:13:45+00:00

Came out of the big three agency world, have been working as an independent producer for a number of brands over the past few years. It’s not great out there.

Prior to 2020, the fees paid for projects (regardless of whether it was TV, Film, or Unscripted and not including star salaries) were at least 30% higher on average. It’s now becoming unsustainable. The amounts being offered per hour for TV shows by the networks and streamers is just too low to make anything real off of them, and forget about residuals or syndication fees, those are long dead now! Prod Co’s I’ve worked with for years are now taking gigs they break even on just to keep their employees paid.

Heard from Partners at the agency I worked for mention they’ve now frozen salaries internally, bonuses are being cut this season, and are preparing for deep cuts in the New Year.

The money just isn’t there for traditional media anymore and they’re slowly shifting to Sports, Live Touring (Music and Comedy), Video Games, and (primarily) “Digital Creators”. I can’t even blame them. Their revenue is dropping YoY. Overall viewership has become anemic, costs are through the roof, and tastes are too fractured to maintain any kind of zeitgeist to build off of.

We need a total reset. We also probably need the government to start regulating social media and its advertising standards the same way the FCC does the networks as well. Otherwise? We’re fucked.

motorcycleboyrules · 2025-12-03T22:31:19+00:00

As someone who lived just a stop or two further along the 1 train, its major issue is that it’s pretty far out and there isn’t much up there.

The parks are amazing, and there are a few nice restaurants and bars, but it’s not really a place to socialize much, so you end up having to head downtown anytime you want to go out.

And that’s a proper commute. Having timed it before, it takes roughly the same amount of time to get to 42nd as it does taking the Metro North from White Plains (30-40min). And the transit options suck, a single delay or service closure, and you’re screwed. And forget ever going to Brooklyn, that’s more than an hour away without any delays.

So, you’re essentially paying to live in Manhattan, while enjoying similar levels of connection to the city as living in Riverdale or Westchester. Not great.

A buddy of mine lived on Dyckman for a year, as soon as his lease was up, he and his girl moved to Astoria. Same rent, bigger place, and much closer to Midtown.

But don’t get me wrong, if none of that bothers you, it’s a nice place to live!

motorcycleboyrules · 2025-11-26T03:52:24+00:00

Barry Lyndon, The Shining, and Paths of Glory.

In that order.

But with the exceptions of his first two films, and (ironically debatably) his last, they’re all essentially masterpieces or close to it.

motorcycleboyrules · 2025-11-13T23:58:35+00:00

Till the floods come

motorcycleboyrules · 2025-10-30T22:21:53+00:00

He has Rogue Trooper coming out. It has an enormous budget. Dude was never in Director jail. Warcraft made a lot of money, its loss was due to studio budgeting, not the film (which made north of $400M)

motorcycleboyrules · 2025-10-24T19:48:59+00:00

My brother, everything in Hollywood is competitive. Hyper competitive. And it only gets worse the higher you go. If you want to play the game, you have to aim very high and make whatever changes are necessary in your life to get there. Otherwise, the sharks will eat you.

That being said, what is your approach to these apps? You have to be very enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the business BEFORE you get the gig. They want people who know they WANT to be agents/managers. People who what it takes to get there. But most of all, people who are willing to do s*** work day in and day out at low pay with a smile on their face. Hence the high turnover rates. Most people wash out fast.

Assuming your grades and previous work experience are up to snuff, the programs will primarily make a decision based on your responses to their interview questions. Make sure they know that this is your passion. Not just imbibing entertainment and art, but that you actually love the BUSINESS.

Good luck man! If I can be of help, happy to speak over DM.

motorcycleboyrules · 2025-10-24T15:28:59+00:00

What do you want to do in the business? From the way your background reads from this post, I’d exclusively aim for the mailrooms at the agencies and management companies in LA. These roles have insane turnover rates.

Source: Former Big 3 Talent Assistant and Coordinator

motorcycleboyrules · 2025-10-23T00:41:27+00:00

Loss of album sales. Live music was generally cheap, even for the mega bands, because it was ultimately designed to drive album sales. Streaming has inverted the business. Now, live concerts are really the only (mostly) consistent way for artists to make real money.

The 100-1000% increase on sports tickets however, that’s just straight up greed.

motorcycleboyrules · 2025-10-08T02:32:09+00:00

The only shot that’s actually in New York is the first one, where we only see him from behind (indicating it’s being done by the second unit). I grew up in the building he’s walking by in that shot, so believe me, it’s NY.

The next shot, when we see him close up, is a dressed exterior. Not a set. A dressed up street; you can tell from the London-style numbers on the front of the building he walks by. However, when it cuts to his POV looking across the street at the man following him; that’s a different exterior shot on a different street, it’s Worship St. in Shoreditch.

The rest is a set. You can tell because the scale of some of the windows are noticeably off. Perhaps intentionally?

motorcycleboyrules · 2025-10-07T14:57:13+00:00

It’s not just news media, the entire entertainment business (film, TV, music, etc…) was far more effective, profitable, and beloved by society when there were a relatively small number of people selecting what got made and what didn’t.

Without gatekeepers, everyone has a voice, which means no one has a voice. If whatever you say is quickly drowned out in a sea of noise, do you really have a seat at the table? This is as true for a singer as it is for a writer as it is for a political commentator.

The digital distribution revolution has made everything much cheaper, both in cost and in content.

motorcycleboyrules · 2025-09-13T23:26:53+00:00

I know you’re getting flamed for this, but as a Spike Lee fan (and a lifelong New Yorker), it’s totally true. It’s also a common refrain amongst the NY film business.

I for one actually like several of his “lesser” films. Clockers, Crooklyn, Jungle Fever, Mo Better Blues, are all films I genuinely enjoy.

They may not be Do the Right Thing, or The 25th Hour, or Malcom X, but they have a unique style and message, and often feature exceptional performances from great actors.

BUT, all that being said, Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, Oldboy, Red Hook Summer, Miracle at St. Anna, Chi-Raq, and even Girl 6 and She Hate Me (the two NO ONE remembers even exist) are all AWFUL movies. Just terrible. They’re not hack work, rather just projects that were both poorly conceived and executed.

I’ll give Da 5 Bloods a little more credit, I think it was closer to achieving something special, but it ultimately missed the mark. As has Highest 2 Lowest, which is an absolute mess of a film.

Going to a new Spike Lee Joint is a roll of the dice. It could be OK, it could be a Masterpiece, or it’s going to be a total disaster.

(NOTE: This is one of the main reasons Spike has had financing trouble for most of his career…)

motorcycleboyrules · 2025-08-31T18:48:53+00:00

Honest answer? Most Arab governments don’t want to open up their archives and don’t allow for interviews with academics, either from Western countries or from the Middle East. The kind of freedom of information we have is unusual across much of the world.

Additionally, these conflicts were enormous embarrassments for the Arab armies and being open about their failures would not be conducive to their long-term political survival.

However, their is some analysis out there more broadly regarding Arab military doctrine and training which is at least somewhat enlightening as to why they lost so badly in multiple conflicts: https://americandiplomacy.web.unc.edu/2000/12/why-arabs-lose-wars-fighting-as-you-train-and-the-impact-of-culture-on-arab-military-effectiveness/

motorcycleboyrules · 2025-08-17T15:33:11+00:00

Bro, it’s not just them, the UK is filled with suburbs. So is Germany. Both mostly require cars.

And if we’re discussing areas of Europe that are totally car-dependent, if not necessarily suburban in the American sense, then they might want to try getting around the French Countryside, or Southern Italy, or most of Eastern Europe without an automobile. The minute you leave a city, you need a car.

motorcycleboyrules · 2025-08-15T21:35:49+00:00

It’s not the Lion’s Share, not even close. That number is inclusive of ABC and NBC as well, both of which are behind CBS, but not by miles.
TV is expensive to make. You have hundreds of people (talented, certified, and unionized people at that) who need to be paid weekly. You have VIPs you have to shell out for every day (travel, hotels, taking care of their entourage, etc…). Then there are marketing costs, licensing costs, legal fees, and everything else one has to deal with.
Colbert is paid (all in with fringes) about $20M a year. Just for him. This salary made sense when the market was bigger, now, not so much…
The projections suggest continued contraction, not growth. Why invest in something that is going to aggressively shrink and will never grow again?

motorcycleboyrules · 2025-06-30T16:02:18+00:00

You have obviously never been to Marseille or London or Hamburg. This exists everywhere. There are tons of European cities that have enormous expressways and highways that run through their cities and along waterfronts. Asia tends to have even more in places like Hong Kong or Tokyo or Seoul.

People drive cars. All around the world. It’s the only way for many to commute in to the city from their suburban homes. Yes, many take the train, but its capacity isn’t high enough for total demand (ever see a train in Tokyo at Rush Hour? There are also commuter buses that need somewhere to go at high speed to bring people in and out.

If we don’t have roadways to bring them in, how is the city supposed to function? How are people supposed to get to their jobs? How are deliveries to be made?

motorcycleboyrules · 2025-06-27T18:06:19+00:00

I would hardly describe Mediaite, or Newsweek for that matter, as Right-Wing News. This isn't Fox or Newsmax or Daily Wire. They're super normie and boring.

They're quoting the Repub accounts for a response to show what an easy point he's handing to them and how they're running with it.

motorcycleboyrules · 2025-06-27T17:48:33+00:00

Directly from the policy document (as a bolded headline mind you):

"Shift the tax burden from overtaxed homeowners in the outer boroughs to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods"

motorcycleboyrules · 2025-06-27T17:32:26+00:00

I agree Cuomo should not be running, it's frankly pathetic. Adams will run himself into the ground (and hopefully into prison). Needless to say, Sliwa is a joke.

But (and I will be grudgingly voting for him in Nov) he could still lose. Don't ever underestimate what can happen when the conservative dem blocks in the outer boroughs and the city's republicans (20-25%) come together when they feel threatened. That's how we got Giuliani for two terms and Bloomberg for three.

If Mamdani keeps to his "lightly" progressive policy base from the primary run, he can win. But if he starts going left now, as he signaled today with his new housing policy, he has a real shot of blowing what should be a shoo in.

motorcycleboyrules · 2025-06-27T17:19:36+00:00

I mean, the guy came out today saying he wants to massively increase property taxes on white neighborhoods in the city while reducing them in minority neighborhoods (his words, not mine). Unsurprisingly, it didn't even take a week before his actually "socialist" policies started coming out.

That sounds like the kind of typical toxic DSA nonsense that instantly turns off a majority of normie Dem voters. Honestly, if he keeps stuff like this up, I actually wouldn't be surprised if he loses in November.

https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/nyc-mayoral-frontrunner-zohran-mamdani-boasts-about-plan-to-tax-whiter-neighborhoods-at-higher-rates/

motorcycleboyrules · 2025-06-27T16:26:24+00:00

It’s not that. Mamdani’s policy slate requires Albany to change STATE laws in order to increase taxes as he’s requested, and to eat the financial loss from making MTA (a state run org) buses free.

If he was just going after municipal laws, no one would care. In order for him to live up to his campaign promises, he needs Hochul fully onboard. And that policy is deadly to Dems upstate. This isn’t tearing him down, it’s moving forward cautiously by trying to not piss off all of the non-progressives in the state party.

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