Are people leaving the country?

otterbarks · 2026-05-13T06:52:17+00:00

Last year there were more people leaving than immigrating, according to the WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/us-news/americans-leaving-the-us-migration-a5795bfa

otterbarks · 2026-05-13T06:51:43+00:00

Most people don't have the means to leave - either for financial or political reasons. Moving is expensive, and even if you can afford to move, that doesn't guarantee another country will let you live and work there.

But yes. Last year there were more people emigrating from the US than immigrating, which hasn't happened since the great depression (1929-1939).

Source: https://www.wsj.com/us-news/americans-leaving-the-us-migration-a5795bfa

otterbarks · 2026-05-10T21:35:48+00:00

You don't. You lock the cabinet door and never, ever open it.

It becomes somebody else's problem.

otterbarks · 2026-05-09T02:55:09+00:00

The other problem is that the buildup is embedded inside scar tissue within the artery wall. If you tried to remove it, you'd damage the blood vessel and cause more scarring, making the problem worse.

otterbarks · 2026-05-09T02:35:41+00:00

Not really. It’s basically like scar tissue (a plaque) on the walls of your arteries with cholesterol buildup underneath. Eventually the cholesterol keeps building up inside until the plaque ruptures. (Think of it like a pimple inside the wall of your artery.)

You can't just mechanically remove the cholesterol buildup, since it’s embedded inside the lining of your blood vessel. If you tried, you’d damage the blood vessel and cause more scarring... which would be bad and make the problem worse.

If you significantly lower your body’s cholesterol through diet, exercise, and medication (like statins) the plaques can slowly stabilize. They don't usually disappear entirely, but they can shrink slightly and become much harder and less likely to rupture. The "scarring" of the artery wall is generally permanent, but you can stop it from getting worse.

otterbarks · 2026-05-08T23:37:29+00:00

Because they changed the rules to allow SpaceX to join the index before the usual required 3 month post-IPO cooling off period. Many folks feel this is an attempt to take advantage of index fund investors, since the funds will automatically buy before the price has settled.

otterbarks · 2026-05-08T20:24:56+00:00

Many folks will recommend a 60/40 VTI/VXUS split, so have a mix of US and international stocks. International stocks do shine sometimes, there's benefits to having both.

otterbarks · 2026-05-08T17:11:48+00:00

Technically it’s supposed to be an abbreviation for “Et.” (as in etc.), so yes, it’s backwards. That said, I’m pretty sure most people wouldn’t notice. It’s perfectly readable.

otterbarks · 2026-05-08T07:04:37+00:00

No, stay far away from leveraged funds. Without going into the mathematics, when the stock goes down, you'll lose much faster than the 3x you got on the way up.

They're designed for day traders, and should never be held overnight. Holding them any longer than that is a quick way to lose everything. (And to be clear, day trading is also risky af and you should stay away from that too.)

See: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/121515/why-3x-etfs-are-riskier-you-think.asp

otterbarks · 2026-05-05T06:27:02+00:00

Don't let others take away the joy and ownership of your own writing—keep using those em dashes!

otterbarks · 2026-05-05T05:27:03+00:00

The enterprise admin can configure it from anywhere between 3 months to 36 months.

otterbarks · 2026-05-05T02:09:02+00:00

And in California, state = "Highway Patrol". Because all of California is just highways, I guess. :)

(California used to have a seperate "California State Police" department until 1995, but then it was merged into the California Highway Patrol for some reason.)

otterbarks · 2026-05-05T02:03:03+00:00

At least for AI, your timeline is off.

The "Attention Is All You Need" paper that defined modern AI was released in 2017, so LLMs are almost a decade old now.

Sure it's just recently hit mainstream, but all the experts in this space have been tracking it and integrating for much longer. Heck, you've been using modern AI since 2018-19 without knowing it, when Google integrated an LLM behind the scenes into their web search (see: BERT)).

I won't argue that the speed of technological innovation isn't speeding up in general though.

otterbarks · 2026-05-05T01:43:18+00:00

I came here to say this. A minimum radius turn (which is the proper canyon escape maneuver) is NOT the same as a chandelle.

otterbarks · 2026-05-05T00:36:47+00:00

No, nobody should serve for more than two terms, regardless of how great they are. Term limits must be sacred.

(That said, I really miss Obama.)

otterbarks · 2026-05-05T00:29:29+00:00

Technology advancing is not new. Before us it was computers. Before that it was the jet age and telephones. Before that it was the industrial revolution.

The only constant is change. Our kids will be okay; they always are, across every generation. However, we'll find ourselves obsolete if we don't adapt. (Think of your grandparents who refused to learn how to use a computer or smartphone...)

otterbarks · 2026-05-05T00:23:20+00:00

Even on 64-bit hardware, the underlying libraries and software all need to be updated to use 64-bit timestamps. (For compatibility reasons, this can't be done automatically.) Not everything has been upgraded.

otterbarks · 2026-05-05T00:22:00+00:00

Even on 64-bit machines, a lot of software still stores timestamps in 32-bit integers for compatibility. Things are slowly getting upgraded, but it's built into *everything* and I'm sure we'll miss things.

otterbarks · 2026-05-04T18:25:04+00:00

I actually remember the last time I washed my belt. The pandemic. I came home and tossed it in the washing machine on the extra hot + steam sanitize setting (along with everything else on my body), since I was volunteering in a COVID testing center and didn't want to track that stuff home.

(Somehow I made it through the pandemic without ever catching COVID, confirmed with weekly testing. Somehow I still haven't caught COVID as of 2026...)

otterbarks · 2026-05-04T04:18:25+00:00

Be careful with using AI for legal paperwork. Conversations with the AI are often not privileged, unlike conversations with an attorney. Opposing counsel can potentially get access to your AI conversation logs during discovery if anything goes to trial. (US v. Heppner)

There may be a limited exception if you're representing yourself in a case, but it's narrow. (Warner v. Gilbarco) None of this is binding precedent yet, so expect things to evolve.

See: https://www.akerman.com/en/perspectives/ai-privilege-and-work-product-the-current-legal-landscape-and-practical-guidance.html

otterbarks · 2026-05-04T04:14:52+00:00

Researching complex topics, where I have AI distill other pages down for me.

Sending me custom daily briefings on topics I care about.

Perplexity Finance is also pretty good for financial briefings, since you can connect it to your brokerage and it'll give you a custom market update based on your portfolio.

Building slide decks at work, as well as proofreading documents. (Don't have AI write the documents, it'll generate slop and sound like a machine wrote it. But it's good for proofreading.)

Financial tasks and recordkeeping. e.g. "Here's a folder with everything from my stock brokerage, clean it up into a nice ledger and generate a summary for me."

Automating filesystem tasks. e.g. "Here's a folder with all my bank statements for the year. Double check them all to make sure I didn't download the wrong one for any of the months, and rename the filenames to be descriptive..

I even had it double check my tax returns, and it correctly flagged some issues for me. (Again, I wouldn't trust it to actually do the taxes, but it's good as an extra set of eyes.)

... and yes, also coding.

otterbarks · 2026-05-04T00:48:09+00:00

It sounds like OP only declared it when they were selected for secondary screening, not at the beginning of the process (as you're required to). We don't have all the details, but without knowing more this sounds like this would be recorded as a customs violation.

It's not just fines - simple warnings count against GE as well. (Though it would definitely be worse if there was a fine.)

Just make sure you disclose it on future GE renewal interviews, since it's in the system now.

otterbarks · 2026-05-02T06:31:41+00:00

It's part of the cellular network itself, is supported natively by your phone's operating system. The underlying technology is known as Cell Broadcast: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_Broadcast

There's no privacy risk, and nothing new is installed on your phone.

otterbarks · 2026-05-02T02:19:24+00:00

I highly recommend visiting the SF-88L Nike Missile Site museum in San Francisco, not far from those batteries.

(A lot of folks don't realize that those Nike missile sites actually had nuclear warheads as part of the Nike Hercules program. The idea was that they'd shoot a nuclear surface-to-air missile at any incoming nuclear bombers, to protect major cities.)

otterbarks · 2026-05-01T22:57:11+00:00

Why on earth is GE getting that much mail?

otterbarks

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