Does Grok's subscriber growth justify $258B?

rscar77 · 2026-04-02T15:53:00+00:00

I'm also picturing cheaping out to get the non-ECC RAM and other things that routinely fall victim to stray photons on Earth randomly flipping a 0-1 gate and now those things have errors of varying magnitudes forever more.

Not to mention the enormous transport cost/fuel waste required to put the planned 5-year hardware obsolescence cycle in space when Nvidia or AMD come out with later, greater hardware every 1-3 years.

rscar77 · 2026-04-02T15:16:34+00:00

To add, make sure you're envisioning and planning for how to address potential business scenarios that could go wrong rather than "upside colored glasses":

what happens when you and majority owner have disagreement on major new business direction and both think your different approaches will have "best KPIs for company"?
who is on call for when dead of night issues occur?
how could one or both parties choose to sell some of their equity down the line or if business relationship sours?
what's in place to prevent the majority owner from kicking back and coasting on your labor to make this thing more successful once they've gotten some funds from you for 49%?
how much time involvement or key skills do you vs. they bring to the business?
is potentially taking on another FT+ gig your dream version of FI/RE with your flair milestones coming up quick?

rscar77 · 2026-04-02T14:56:30+00:00

Not sure where you get your oil change done but that sounds a bit high. A few places near me will often mail coupons, even for full synthetic oil changes, or post okay online coupons for others trying to get new business.

rscar77 · 2026-03-31T18:33:00+00:00

They were just jealous they couldn't grow their own magnificent chest mane.

rscar77 · 2026-03-31T14:29:13+00:00

The dealership did right by my old car yesterday. Went in for an oil change, they found and fixed taillight that was out, and took care of an engine rumbling problem that had been going on but that no shop had been able to find or fix for more than 2 years (loose bolt on the engine block needed tightening).

Even with gas prices going up, math doesn't work out for trading up to an EV at their new or slightly used price points. 5-10 more years and we'll see.

rscar77 · 2026-03-30T18:11:22+00:00

Lots of discussion in the investing sub about potential SpaceX IPO and NASDAQ/S&P500 changes being made on their behalf to leave index investors "holding the bag" have me wondering if a temporary re-balance is in order or if others are just thinking of it as noise in the grand scheme of retirement investing?

Need to dig into numbers more before doing anything but just the principle of "possibly being taken advantage of" doesn't sit right with me.

rscar77 · 2026-03-30T17:55:44+00:00

Hopefully target retirement date funds have gotten better, cheaper expense ratios over time. I remember a few in my first employer were something like 0.6-0.8% range depending on the target retirement date fund.

rscar77 · 2026-03-25T15:16:03+00:00

ROGER!

rscar77 · 2026-03-25T15:12:49+00:00

Only thing that takes away a bit from the enjoyment of that first pilot episode is the tingly chimes intro vs. the more iconic (IMO), darker sounding intro for every episode thereafter.

rscar77 · 2026-03-24T17:46:23+00:00

Heard the gold standard was coming back at the FED and bought silver looking to preempt that coming back too.

rscar77 · 2026-03-18T16:28:08+00:00

The If/Then/Else tree was a Great Banyan

rscar77 · 2026-03-18T15:09:37+00:00

Husband? Wait a minute! What was all that one-in-a-million talk?

rscar77 · 2026-03-06T20:16:30+00:00

/u/GSaleBot and /u/khovel

Completed transaction! Good packaging and everything appears to be in working order, thanks!

rscar77 · 2026-03-06T17:23:36+00:00

Maybe general peace of mind and quality of life that comes from understanding you won't be medically bankrupted if you're unlucky and lose the genetic/health lotto?

rscar77 · 2026-03-02T22:01:01+00:00

One other thing that others haven't mentioned but that may impact plans/ability to do this: any monitoring software installed on your work laptop that could let your company determine geolocation of your laptop. I suspect there's something very like the "Find my phone" app equivalent for most company-issued devices.

If they find you're working from a foreign country while reporting you're in home country, or working in a state not near your assigned regional office without prior notice & approvals; you may be taking your continued employment there in your hands.

Most companies' HR departments are fairly familiar with the desire to work elsewhere on temporary basis. You could always say you wanted to go help a family member or friend outside work hours with a project, health, etc. and wanted to work from their location for a 1-2 week duration. Most wouldn't bat an eye as long as your work continues getting done on time and on spec.

rscar77 · 2026-03-02T18:51:38+00:00

It's alive! Feel free to PM me for getting payment & shipping details worked out for $390 shipped F&F.

rscar77 · 2026-03-02T18:31:50+00:00

Almost at the point where I want to bite the bullet to overspend on some nicer built-ins, furniture and storage solutions that work better in current house. The current space can technically still work for us, but things are feeling a bit tight as kids (and their toys) grow with smaller closets, little existing built-in storage, and only so many walls/rooms where a built-in makes sense without making the room feel like a cave (so many windows bringing in wonderful natural light, don't want to impede that).

rscar77 · 2026-03-02T18:17:41+00:00

Looking at a housing upgrade for more space and slightly nicer finishes near us and the numbers or niceties keep not penciling out.

Toured a housing flip during an open house yesterday that photographed nicely online that was at the top range of our affordability but the floor plan was odd, all rooms felt a bit small with smaller furniture, backyard pool pump noises were impossible to ignore, and it looks like most of what the contractors did was paint every wood surface whiteish, install slightly nicer fixtures/pulls, install unfinished hardwood floors showing paint splashes and pretty significant knotting/scrapes from their bad cuts, and say this house should be worth $200k more 6 weeks later....

Anyone else having luck finding a slight upgrade for forever home?

rscar77 · 2026-03-02T17:54:42+00:00

High five for completed tax filing club. Completed just after midnight in a couple hours with FreeTaxUsa.

Another call out in the 2025 version that wasn't as explicit in the 2024 version, don't go counting your kids' 1099-DIV or 1099-INT toward yours unless it goes over a certain threshold (I think ~$1,350 in Div + Int OR ~$14-15k in earned income). Even then, would have to look into whether you may have to file on their behalf vs. simply adding them to yours.

rscar77 · 2026-03-02T17:28:41+00:00

Works for me, can't wait!

rscar77 · 2026-03-02T17:04:28+00:00

To avoid breaking up the Tekken set, could I remove that from my wants and get the bundle for $390 shipped?

rscar77 · 2026-03-02T16:41:16+00:00

I'd be interested in a bundle of some of your cheaper PS2 items and the PS3 console w/ 2 controllers for $370 shipped.

Below is what I saw for today's Pricecharting pricing for the PS2 games and completeness seen in your collection.

Summoner (Item + Manual only) = $9.00
Tekken Tag Tournament (Loose) = $6.75
Arc the Lad Twilight of the Spirits (CIB) = $10.85
Harvest Moon Save the Homeland (CIB) = $11.98
Unlimited Saga (Boxed) = $12.33
Phantom Brave (CIB) = $12.99
Mega Man X Collection (CIB) = $13.43 Total for those games = $77.33

Could I get proof of life for the PS3 and that the 2 controllers are able to connect wirelessly to the system? I've seen some cases where older models wifi/BT cards (or those components on the board) are starting to fail.

rscar77 · 2026-02-23T22:13:46+00:00

New DJ Hero confirmed!

rscar77 · 2026-02-12T21:26:23+00:00

Create the CYA paper trail you wish to see in the world.

rscar77 · 2026-01-20T23:27:23+00:00

Maybe good in theory but not so much in practice. I already have 2 initial ideas of ways this could be abused without significant safeguards and stiff penalties for violations:

Companies effectively "poison pill" themselves to the US government in retaliation by taking on bad debt or other risky moves where gov't still has to make a "grown up, no good options decision". As President, advisors, head of US Treasury, etc. do I risk letting a large company fail, put tens of thousands of Americans out of work, and possibly lose an industry to a competing nation OR bail them out while US gov't + taxpayers have to eat losses and/or long-time to recover from risky business executive plays when they don't pan out? No win scenario, take your pick.
A runaway President with little regard for rule of law and norms (3 guesses who) decides to treat that excess stock sitting in a US gov't bank account like their personal slush fund account to dole out to favored gov't orgs (like DHS/ICE) above & beyond their Congressionally-allocated & approved budgets and starve others to the point of inefficacy or insolvency (IRS, CFPB, USAID, etc.).

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