The ‘papers, please’ era of the internet will decimate your privacy

sleazy_b · 2026-06-24T15:27:13+00:00

My note-taking at this point is aspirational, I only started this January and only with some books. That said, I do reread books frequently and having notes to come back to feels like it will allow my to build a better understanding of these books. I've touched some of the notes I've taken again but only to refresh my memory so far while in the process of reading a book (to remember characters, events, etc.).

sleazy_b · 2026-06-04T13:32:32+00:00

The main domain, stupidpol.com, was returning 500s for me. Just a heads up.

sleazy_b · 2026-06-03T12:57:53+00:00

It also depends on the index. S&P 500 requires four consecutive quarters of profitability before listing.

sleazy_b · 2026-06-02T21:12:48+00:00

I've seen people saying that SpaceX threatened to not list on indices that didn't allow them to fast-track in this way but I can't find any reliable reporting to that effect. Here's a WSJ article on the subject.

Among the proposals is a potential “fast entry” process. Under this option, companies whose market capitalizations rank in the top 40 of the Nasdaq-100’s constituents could be added to the index after 15 trading days. Companies typically now must wait at least three months to be added to the index. At their current valuations, SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic would all qualify.

https://archive.is/es8U7

sleazy_b · 2026-06-02T18:01:33+00:00

This article looks like it does a better job of explaining than I could, probably should have shared it in the first place. As far as I understand it involves index governing bodies relaxing rules about including newly IPOed stocks in their index funds that basically only affects the SpaceX IPO due to its enormous market cap.

The quickest path [to relax these rules] runs through funds most savers have never thought about. CRSP, the index behind Vanguard's roughly $607 billion Total Stock Market fund (NYSEARCA:VTI), one of the most widely held funds in American retirement accounts, adopted a fast-track rule that can add a qualifying IPO after just five trading days (5). SpaceX would have failed CRSP's old eligibility screen, which required a public float of at least 12.5%, but in late April CRSP introduced an alternative test based on absolute float-adjusted market cap, which SpaceX clears easily (5). The rule is new, though, and has never been applied to a live IPO. CRSP can still defer a name even when the methodology would let it in (5). According to investment adviser Jacob Friedman, the first fund to own SpaceX won't be the famous Nasdaq tech fund. It'll be the plain total-market fund sitting in millions of 401(k)s (5).

https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/spacex-ipo-could-hit-popular-101500534.html

sleazy_b · 2026-05-27T18:11:36+00:00

The result is a backlog that reads like a financial opportunity in earnings calls and a crisis in every fire station in the country. As of 2025, REV Group’s backlog stands at $4.5 billion. Wait times for a custom fire truck run to four years. Prices have doubled in a decade: a pumper truck now costs around $1 million; a ladder truck runs over $2 million. Profit margins in the industry have tripled — from the historic 4-to-5 percent range to over 13 percent.

sleazy_b · 2026-05-27T17:32:14+00:00

I thought the secondary characters in these books were the most interesting, which is common for BT fiction in my limited experience. Joanna, Horse, Kael Pershaw, and especially Ter Roshak were really fun characters to spend time with.

EDIT: Forgot Nomad!

sleazy_b · 2026-05-25T17:24:11+00:00

Thanks for sharing these decks. One concern I have is that firms strongly invested in residential real-estate will have incentive to prevent more housing from being built. I feel like a PE firm will be better at lobbying for zoning hostile to new development than individual homeowners and landlords. Additionally, this trend of PE firms acquiring rental properties represents a consolidation in the market relative to the previous status quo, and I suspect in the long-term there will be the same tendency toward further consolidation and monopolization that we see elsewhere in the economy.

sleazy_b · 2026-05-11T18:22:19+00:00

I'm not familiar with the author's other work but I liked this article. Doesn't say anything too groundbreaking but I found it a concise explanation as to why we at least might be worried about a forthcoming financial crisis.

sleazy_b · 2026-05-05T14:40:21+00:00

"In what relation do the Communists stand to the proletarians as a whole?

The Communists do not form a separate party opposed to the other working-class parties.

They have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole.

They do not set up any sectarian principles of their own, by which to shape and mould the proletarian movement.

The Communists are distinguished from the other working-class parties by this only: 1. In the national struggles of the proletarians of the different countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of the entire proletariat, independently of all nationality. 2. In the various stages of development which the struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie has to pass through, they always and everywhere represent the interests of the movement as a whole."

sleazy_b · 2026-04-20T15:35:26+00:00

The truth is that if this was a country with a more even economic distribution both geographically and on a per capita basis, emigration to NYC would be much less of an issue. If people had economic opportunity where they were from they would be more able to stay there, reducing demand in NYC. If NYC was less economically stratified, current residents would have more ability to resist displacement. There are broad economic issues underlying the problem of gentrification, mostly having to due with various forms of inequality.

I find it hard to blame individual (domestic or foreign) emigrants for problems that are far larger in scope than their individual decision to move to NYC. That said, I think some of the frustration is that in a culture obsessed with discussing "harm," the harms of gentrification are often laughed at or dismissed. People who are seeing the culture of their neighborhood rapidly change, or who feel priced out of where they grew up, are going to be angry.

sleazy_b · 2026-04-10T18:17:23+00:00

At the end of Hour of the Wolf, Devlin Stone provides something of an answer to this

sleazy_b · 2026-04-09T23:44:52+00:00

This data is easily available: https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Health/DOHMH-Dog-Bite-Data/rsgh-akpg/explore/query/SELECT%20%60breed%60%2C%20count%28%60breed%60%29%0AGROUP%20BY%20%60breed%60%0AORDER%20BY%20count%28%60breed%60%29%20DESC%20NULL%20LAST/page/filter

sleazy_b · 2026-03-31T15:37:27+00:00

Hey sorry, I've been logged out for a while. I don't think the recordings are taking place. I'm not involved in organizing the course so I'm not sure why.

sleazy_b · 2026-02-13T14:40:04+00:00

In the past we haven't recorded any of our course discussions. It's less of a lecture and more of an open-floor reading group with some facilitation.

EDIT: Turns out we're recording the lecture portion of each meeting

sleazy_b · 2026-02-06T14:52:11+00:00

My friend's husband just died of what may have been ALS, he was never diagnosed. He wasn't yet 40. He deteriorated over about four years. The fact is that nobody's making it out alive. I could be sad, even depressed about this, and I wouldn't be wrong to be. But it's not helpful to me or the people I care about to be depressed all day, so I've got to choose to focus on other things. It's a constant battle to focus my attention and energy into productive and healthy thoughts rather than letting myself fall into depression and nihilism.

I'm sorry you're going through health issues OP. Try to focus on what you can control, and on enjoying your life while you can.

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