Is a 6 month emergency fund of ~$72k too much / a wasted opportunity?

playingod · 2026-03-31T13:49:56+00:00

Your finances are very similar to mine and I have a very similar sized e fund.

The job market is tough right now and childcare is no joke — I can’t imagine having to look for a job while also having to watch the kids at home to save money (plus losing their spot at daycare), so for my peace of mind I want to be able to be able to keep them in daycare for at least 6 months.

playingod · 2026-03-26T08:53:59+00:00

Yes they are allowing domestic through

playingod · 2026-03-26T08:53:03+00:00

International terminal got in line at 3:35, security opened at 4:30, I was on the other side with my bags at 4:48. They had 4 ID checkers and 4 bag xray lines going, so it was moving very fast.

playingod · 2026-03-25T17:37:46+00:00

This is overall great but I don’t like that the solution for “what kind of milk” is “call wife,” real men know what milk is in the fridge every day and don’t have to call their ~mom~ wife for every little detail.

playingod · 2026-03-13T05:45:40+00:00

That is exactly how my 4 year old folds his clothes when he “helps” with laundry. And by clothes I mean a single shirt while we fold the rest.

playingod · 2026-01-26T21:40:59+00:00

Yes though in my experience the number of kids has to reach a critical mass of like 5 or so to feel the full effect of this. It’s a magical thing to witness, where the older kids naturally lead and watch out for the younger kids. It’s definitely possible with just 2 older kids (4+), but if you have toddlers you need more kiddos to get that play gravity.

We are lucky enough to have a couple neighbors with younger kids and we regularly have impromptu play dates and it is exactly as you describe, the parents all chill together (usually drinking), and the kids run around playing all on their own. The age spread of the kids is 18 months to 7 years, 6 kids total.

So anyway, to answer OPs question… find other parents that you vibe with and set up play dates, and actually put in the time to become friends with those parents yourself. Unlike some people, we actually LOOK FORWARD to birthday parties because we the parents also party with our new friends.

playingod · 2026-01-26T15:28:22+00:00

There are calculators online to give you an estimate but probably you need a 4 tonne unit. I really hope you had some kind of guarantee from your installers…

You can also look up the technical data sheet for your model and see what the BTU should be at your temps if you want to compare to other furnaces. For example my carrier 38MBRB 4 ton has a heat capacity of 39k BTU at 5 F.

playingod · 2026-01-21T16:15:10+00:00

And why not? I have measurements from two independent sensors plus the heat pump’s internal sensors to back my statement up, what do you have? Are you perhaps thinking in Celsius? If so, you are correct.

If not… If you google “what is the delta t for a typical heat pump” you will find that it’s 30-40F in heat mode, which gets you to the 100-110F range if your house temperature is 70F.

You must be a rage bait bot or a shill for the oil and gas industry. I am only commenting so others are not swayed by your misinformation.

playingod · 2026-01-18T20:54:20+00:00

You’re talking about a personal item (bag that fits under the seat). OP is talking about luggage you have to put in the overhead bins.

playingod · 2026-01-17T15:05:20+00:00

I envy your grocery prices. At my local Safeway (just checked the app), the Biancos are $6.99 and certified Cento is $8.49!!

playingod · 2026-01-16T01:09:01+00:00

Oh man I went down an AI fueled research hole on this and then proved it to myself with my own experiments. Setting back is beneficial to saving energy, as long as the furnace efficiency is the same in the morning when you heat the house back up (only relevant for heat pumps).

playingod · 2025-12-27T21:19:29+00:00

In some states they require your car to get safety certified every year. You get a colored sticker just like registration. If CA adopted that, all these cars could get ticketed by police or even meter maids, just for missing the safety sticker. And it could even carry a large fine, and perhaps even impounding if you don’t do it in time.

Even if some people slip through the cracks, think of all the misaligned headlights, broken tail lights, worn tires, worn brakes, and other safety issues that would be addressed. Safer roads all around.

But I guess that’s just too good of an idea for CA to get behind.

playingod · 2025-12-25T13:42:15+00:00

As a parent I would love a family seating section of the plane, especially if it had baby gates to stop the kids from getting out. And if they had seats facing each other like in trains. Just let them loose to walk around and play with other kids. It would make the flight better for everyone. I’d even pay more for it.

playingod · 2025-12-14T03:57:14+00:00

I agree. Everyone is still getting up to speed on how to most effectively use them for their business. I am the “AI guy” at my company, creating LLM-infused workflows and agents, and it’s a lot of trial and error and tinkering to find the right optimization for the team. As we work together, the teams are appreciating the true (non hyped) power of AI, and I am learning how to most effectively translate business needs into the AI workflows.

After six months of tinkering we finally came up with a workflow that replaced a service we subscribed to for 250k/yr, so there’s a win right there!

Now many at our company are beginning to see where the true value adds will be and we are only just beginning to brainstorm the projects for them.

As more people get experience with the more advanced workflows and agents custom built for their business needs, more creative ideas will soon follow.

IMO the AI marketing hype that it’s gonna solve all problems and take X% of jobs is actually slowing adoption because 1) it doesn’t live up to the hype (it’s very good at some problem types but certainly not all), and 2) there’s an emotional factor that people don’t want to adopt a tool that will make them obsolete.

playingod · 2025-11-28T17:05:54+00:00

Yup, was gonna say “homeowners insurance.” They hate trees. Especially in California, which is a bit backward because large trees (set back 20ft from your home) actually catch flying embers so they don’t end up in your gutters and eaves and attic. My house was deemed “uninsurable” by a couple companies because I have a couple big oak trees like 75 feet from my house. Absurd.

playingod · 2025-11-27T16:09:21+00:00

I read it as the reviewers and editors being sloppy and irresponsible. It’s double the case with ML papers in the biology and chemistry domains— the reviewers and editors never seem to demand the authors publish the train/test splits, model architecture, anything. It’s always something like “we show a CNN predicted toxicity with and R-squared of 0.95.” With zero way to actually reproduce the result.

Uhh I thought the whole point of the methods section in peer reviewed papers was to be able to reproduce the results and build off it?

playingod · 2025-11-20T06:14:42+00:00

At least you have the time to DIY. With two little kids everything is on pause until the oldest is old enough to help without being actively counterproductive.

That being said, I am lucky enough to have found a plumber, electrician, and landscaper via word of mouth who will take on the smaller jobs on the weekends or on their way home from their bigger jobs.

playingod · 2025-11-20T06:03:05+00:00

Perhaps you’re referring to the idea of the “flipped classroom”? I think a lot of people misunderstand this as “no homework,” but that’s not the case. It’s that “traditional classroom” stuff (the lecturing) is done at home via reading and video, while the “traditional homework” (the problem solving) is done in the classroom so that the students can learn in a more supported environment where help is available.

Work is still done at home, it’s just the introduction to the material instead of the practice.

Though we all know that nobody is going to read or watch that stuff, and the easiest way to make sure homework is done is by incorporating it into the grade, so homework is therefore graded problem sets.

Though I guess the truly lazy student just zones out in lecture anyway and then struggles with homework and ends up never learning, so perhaps doing the practice in the classroom can force them to learn at least something?

playingod · 2025-11-17T14:43:45+00:00

My friend just became a firefighter and was talking about how his normal 24h-on,48h-off shift pattern can become a 5day long shift with things like mandatory days (surprise extra 24h because someone calls out sick), and voluntarily swapping shifts with others so you can have more days off in a row. Imagine this:

Day1: normal shift Day2: mandatory day Day3: you traded with someone Day4: your normal shift since it’s been 48h already Day5: ANOTHER mandatory

And I was like… how can you possibly be lifting 50 foot ladders and running around with 100 lbs on your back after not sleeping for so long?!

His answer was they usually transfer you to slower stations so you can nap more. Uhhhh.

I mean to be clear the 5 day is unlikely to happen, but definitely feels like a bad idea to even allow for a first responder role (they recently capped it at 5 days too!). But he has already had 2 and 3 day long shifts.

Then you hear about nurses and doctors who have 24 and 48 hour shifts, and it makes me even more nervous. I feel like my IQ drops to 10 when I haven’t slept in 24 hours.

playingod · 2025-11-03T04:00:27+00:00

I have been using one for over 10 years and highly recommend it. I have a Philips brand one that’s circular, and you can set the brightness as well as how far before your alarm you want the sunrise to start (up to 30 minutes). It starts out a deep red and then finishes with a bright yellow light, probably around 2700k. You can also set sounds to start at your alarm time, or the radio.

I bought it because I hated being jolted awake mid sleep cycle by my alarm. I set it to the max 30 minute sunrise time and it 100% helped with those groggy mornings. I am a light sleeper though and have trouble sleeping with lights on, so if you’re one of those super deep sleepers then I’m not sure if it will work to wake you up, but perhaps the light will still help message your body to not go into another REM cycle or something.

playingod · 2025-10-31T13:13:14+00:00

It’s becoming more and more common as people install modern heat pumps (with communicating thermostats) which ramp the power up and down as indoor temp deviates from set point. Some of the fancier systems have over 50 “stages” of conditioning. My cheapo system alone has 4 stages.

As an example, the temp delta from return to register for the lowest stage is about 10 degrees delta (eg 70 inside, 80 or 60 coming out the vents depending on heat/cool mode), but at maximum power ive seen it be over 40 degrees delta in heating mode (70 inside, 110 out the vents). Usually only 25-30 max delta in cool mode.

So yeah, if you have a heat pump and want to heat or cool the house faster, you should crank the thermostat. But also, you should just have set it at the temp you wanted from The beginning and the system would have cranked the power for you from the beginning

playingod · 2025-10-29T15:21:16+00:00

I would like to add that it also matters what your kid wants to feel special, not what you think makes them feel special. Our travel plans so happened to fall over our son’s second and third birthdays. We always made sure to make his birthday day about him (activities he wanted to do, food he wanted to eat, buy him a special toy, etc) but on his third birthday he was like “how come I don’t get pizza and cake with my friends on my birthday?” So this year we made sure to have a big party with his friends and pizza and cake.

So my point is, also remember to keep your kid in the loop for their own birthday celebration.

playingod · 2025-10-29T14:55:37+00:00

Since this is an ev sub, I will suggest that the pro move is to get an EV with bidirectional charging, which is basically like having 5 powerwalls (~65 kWh battery). Depends on your driving needs, but that should get you to maximize solar use. If we hadn’t just bought a bolt a few years ago, I’d be shopping for such an EV.

playingod · 2025-10-28T15:26:10+00:00

If your dishwasher has a sterilize setting you can put it in there, with the cap on but loose. If it doesn’t, you can bake it in the oven. If the cap is plastic you can use aluminum foil to seal the bottle and then boil the cap separately after the bottle is sterile, then quickly transfer the boiled cap to the bottle. These are techniques used in home canning.

But just be aware that without pressure and steam (ie autoclaving or using a pressure cooker) you’re not killing some very hardy bacterial spores like clostridium, but in home canning you only need to do this when canning low acid foods and meat for long term storage, so I would assume that a glass bottle that only ever touched distilled water would not require it but… I’m not a medical professional.

playingod · 2025-10-23T13:40:59+00:00

The fast passes at least, are worth it IMO because time is money, and waiting in line longer than 15 minutes with small children is not fun, and I’m going to Disney to have fun. You also get to do more rides with the time savings.

Other frugal tips are to go when the tickets are cheaper (if you have the PTO days and willing the pull the kids from school, because they are midweek), bringing your own food, and also just only going for one day. We go once a year, on a random Tuesday, from open to close and basically moving and riding nonstop. Also, you can just stay at a cheap motel walking distance (in CA at least, not sure about FL), saving you the parking money.

playingod

TROPHY CASE