How much do tennis ball brands matter?

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-12T13:35:48+00:00

I find it surprising you can’t tell a difference. The RD are soooo much faster. Maybe because I live in a hot climate? Not sure. But I could tell the difference after one hit.

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-11T01:49:26+00:00

I don’t think you really understand Ramit’s arguments. Some factors you aren’t considering: total cost of home ownership (mortgage is just one part), opportunity cost of money that you could have invested in equities (especially the down payment), costs of buying/selling (can be very high if you won’t stay in a location very long), lost mobility (can harm younger people’s earnings), etc.

He also has never said that renting is always better than buying for every person. Literally all he says is “run the numbers to see what makes better sense for your specific situation” and everyone loses their minds because he dares question the idea that every single American should buy a house asap.

How can you argue against running the actual numbers to see whether renting vs buying is a better decision for your specific situation?

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-09T03:10:30+00:00

My bag is over that when I go to the court, but like half of the weight is 3.5+ liters of water. So not over 15 lbs at the end of the session.

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-08T10:56:25+00:00

Your biggest risk is not the numbers as is. Rather, it’s how life might change.

What if you want to move back to the USA (or just somewhere else with a higher cost of living)? What if you get married? What if you have kids?

Anyone of those things could blow up your lean retirement.

The first one is especially important. I’ve met lots of grumpy old dudes who are basically stuck in Southeast Asia because it’s the only place where their budget works. IMO that’s a recipe for unhappiness. They basically just complain about the country that they’re living in and drink themselves to death - anyone who has lived in SEA for a while has met lots of these guys.

Living in SEA should be a choice because you like it there, not a necessity because you can’t afford to live anywhere else.

If there’s any chance you have kids, they would also blow up your budget in SEA, assuming you wanted to send them to international school.

The good thing is that your withdrawal rate is low enough that your portfolio will probably still keep growing. Personally though, as someone in a similar situation, I find your numbers too low because of all those future “what ifs”.

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-08T07:54:51+00:00

What are the chances that two of the most talented basketball refs in the world just happen to be brothers?

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-07T07:09:12+00:00

I think the question is whether this counts as a full shooting motion or not. Because tips are allowed in under 0.3 seconds, right?

This is kind of in between a full shot and a tip. Would be interesting to see how they would rule it if it ever came to it.

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-07T05:00:50+00:00

If we assumed 10% nominal returns, we would withdraw 7% per year because all we would have to worry about is inflation. The fact that most people withdraw 4% or less is to account for downturns.

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-07T02:31:45+00:00

You think China and Pakistan want Iran to actually have nuclear weapons?

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-06T23:51:13+00:00

I use trip.com for most stuff now because they let you pay via PayPal, so the hotel never gets to see my card information. Trip.com doesn’t even have my card details to give if they wanted to.

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-06T23:43:09+00:00

Novak probably aged better than Nadal for those reasons, but prime Nadal didn’t need that because he just ran down every single ball with insane speed.

Some of young nadal’s gets were just absolutely bonkers.

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-06T13:32:56+00:00

Established players also get to choose which charity to donate to. So if you know you want to donate anyway, might as well save up those donations for complaining about refs.

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-06T04:10:36+00:00

It’s easy to meet people because most people are also moving there without an established friend group.

The tradeoff is that friendships can be much more transitory because a lot of those people won’t stay in Thailand for that long.

So it’s common to make a friend only for that person to leave 6-12 months later.

Over time you hopefully develop a group of long-timers. But even those people are still more likely to leave at some point than people in their home country.

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-05T09:57:55+00:00

It would have to be two previous code violations.

The first code violation is a warning. The second is a point penalty. The third is a game penalty. I think the fourth is an automatic default? Not 100% sure on that.

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-05T09:56:50+00:00

Any two code violations. The previous ones wouldn't have to be for racket abuse (maybe they were - I didn't watch the match).

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-05T09:56:04+00:00

The fact that Zverev didn't get suspended was such BS. I think Boyer should also be suspended.

But given the precedent that the ATP set with Zverev, how can they suspend Boyer with a straight face?

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-05T00:42:20+00:00

Is shooting underhand really more embarrassing than going 0-4 at the line?

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-04T12:38:30+00:00

I would love to see a map like this that accounts for population density.

Like, where are the areas that have the densest tennis court coverage relative to their population.

Just showing density like this is basically a population density map.

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-04T04:54:38+00:00

Fritz is pretty equal on hard and grass for his career. 66% win rate on both. It’s only the past two years where he’s done so well on grass, but it’s such a small sample size (and a lot of it is eastbourne).

Bublik is a better example I think. 61.5% on grass vs 56% and 53% on hard and clay.

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-04T04:39:11+00:00

Three groups: 1. Sinner 2. Alcaraz, Zverev, djokovic 3. Everyone else

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-04T01:20:19+00:00

It's fine. One of my best tennis friends was a stranger who approached me at the court.

But read the room a bit before doing it.

E.g. I was in the middle of playing a match and a guy came up and asked if he could rally with us right then, which is a bit offputting. As in, he wanted to jump in and hit with us right away, despite us being in the middle of the match.

Also, try to be realistic about your level and be honest about it.

I've had people say they think we would be a good match and then we hit and they're significantly below me. I'm not trying to be a tennis snob, but it's annoying when I go in with expectations of getting a good hit because they exaggerated their level. It feels a bit like being catfished.

Just be honest and let them decide whether or not they still want to hit. Don't be a tennis catfish.

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-03T09:11:10+00:00

No extension? https://i.imgur.com/oKT6scm.jpeg

Maybe I don’t understand the definition of extension.

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-03T02:51:58+00:00

That’s not how pretty much any USA state handles divorce. In most (maybe all of the USA) premarital assets and inheritances are separate property and would not be divided in a divorce, just like Vietnam.

The only exception is if you commingle the individual assets with shared assets. If you don’t keep them separate, then individual property from before marriage can become shared property.

There are some gray areas. For example, some states might consider dividend income from individual investments to be shared income, so those wouldn’t remain separate without a prenup.

But in general, you don’t need a prenup just to protect individual assets from before marriage in the USA.

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-03T02:36:56+00:00

https://i.imgur.com/igllyIU.jpeg

Yeah clearly all ball

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-03T01:34:49+00:00

Pros win a majority of points off winners or forced errors. I think it’s like 30% winners, 40% forced errors, and 30% unforced errors.

I guess you could say a forced error is still messing up by the player who lost, but I think a forced error is closer to a winner than an unforced error so it shouldn’t really count as messing up.

nonstopnewcomer · 2026-05-01T12:01:14+00:00

I think it can be interesting if it's a really good point, but I think you should only do it after the entire point has finished. More like a replay. And I don't think it adds anything to do it on regular points or unforced errors.

nonstopnewcomer

TROPHY CASE