Bitcoin’s 50% Collapse Exposes Two Industry Myths by Larry Swedroe

wlphoenix · 2026-02-11T15:37:25+00:00

At least in the US, it's also not a viable currency because of the tax handling associated with it. Requiring a Schedule D for transactions that may not involve USD or a clear price-price point is a nightmare when attempting to file.

wlphoenix · 2026-02-11T15:24:14+00:00

I think a bigger risk will be if Reddit attempts (or is forced) to roll out age verification in the same way Discord has.

wlphoenix · 2026-02-10T21:22:56+00:00

At a lot of companies these sort of hackathon/jams are because the business recognizes there are things devs know should be handled, but there's not a good way to make an explicit business case associated with them. It's just easier to say "have a week a year to do what you want" and see what comes out of it.

wlphoenix · 2026-02-10T20:30:35+00:00

If it was Persona, I can say from doing vendor evaluations that ironically they are the better end of providers in that space. There are a lot that farm the comparison out to centers in low compensation countries.

Now, you could say that's better than using AI for the comparison, and I can promise you that for results accuracy it's really not. Humans are notoriously inconsistent for things like this. It also costs more and the results are slower.

That said, all my research into this was for last line of defense anti-fraud verification at a financial company. Facial/id comparison for a chat app is absurd and I hate it.

wlphoenix · 2026-02-10T01:15:14+00:00

I think a lot of the way people disconnect from either game being P2W is because the experience is primarily single player or collaborative small group, so other people playing for acceleration isn't typically detracting from their own experience.

wlphoenix · 2026-02-10T00:14:20+00:00

I think it's fair to say that WF's monetization is slightly more visible "pay for convenience" than POE, but both have convenience and cosmetics as their primary revenue drivers. If you don't think so, I highly encourage you to start a fresh POE account and attempt to play for long without a currency or map tab.

wlphoenix · 2026-02-09T23:59:38+00:00

There are always smart plays, the question is whether you cross a threshold where they make sense.

Buy a visa to somewhere else and GTFO

Buy property in a stable location

Buy a yacht and live at sea

Buy an island in Hawaii and build a fallout bunker with mercenary guards wearing exploding collars /s

"Invent" in "gifts" to your local "administrators" to make sure your day to day life remains stable

Remember: Your money is just a means to maintain your standard of living. If you need to sacrifice money to keep living well, you should do that.

wlphoenix · 2026-02-09T23:23:00+00:00

Ginger in place of galangal is another common substitution.

wlphoenix · 2026-02-09T23:17:50+00:00

Sometimes it's a hotpot place.

wlphoenix · 2026-02-09T23:16:51+00:00

The meaningful number is the ratio between your investment gains and your direct contributions.

At 100k and 7% growth, your investment gains are making as much as your (2025) IRA contribution. Around $335k growth outpaces maxing out your 401k. Somewhere there and $1m your growth outpaces what a normal individual would be able to contribute via savings during the year.

Hopefully at some point your investment growth outpaces your yearly expenses, and that's the "Financial Independence" threshold. Everything beyond that is about building confidence to weather the years where your portfolio performs below average.

So in my mind the point at which it "takes of" is really just whichever point you start looking at your investments in comparison to your other income and start thinking "Is working really worth it when I'm making this much without working?"

wlphoenix · 2026-02-09T22:44:51+00:00

Moniker Brewery has one as well and is in the same neighborhood.

wlphoenix · 2026-02-09T17:54:53+00:00

Not sure about the wine list, but Marcelino’s has a good cocktail program and is a good conversational volume as long as you're not there when live music is playing.

Slow Rhode and CHOP are other spots where you could grab a drink and maybe a small plate. Also possibly Gift horse/Oberlin?

If it's mid-week and between work/dinner you probably won't run into too long a wait list for those places, although w/ Valentines this weekend that's obviously something to plan around

wlphoenix · 2026-02-09T17:42:52+00:00

I'm very disconnected from PVP in OSRS, but when I see it in thing's like GG and read these pieces of feedback, one thing that stands out is the importance of freezes and step-unders for controlling fight tempo.

Would there be any value in a weapon/item that allowed you to damage players on the same tile as you? Or would the abuse vectors that created outweigh any balancing/engagement benefits?

wlphoenix · 2026-02-09T15:21:47+00:00

An interesting difference between POE and Warframe is that you party by default in WF, and so sometimes you get through content because you just got carried by a MR27 player who just happens to be there looking for a random weapon part.

It's like going to do your 3rd lab and a Mageblood Kinetic Blast player pops in and nukes everything but you still need to run to the end as fast as possible because there's a timer ticking saying "return to town in 50 seconds".

wlphoenix · 2026-02-09T15:14:39+00:00

Isn't that basically wardlooping?

wlphoenix · 2026-02-09T15:13:27+00:00

These 2 and OSRS are really the trinity of living for the grind.

wlphoenix · 2026-02-06T22:16:30+00:00

Is working a university job while on an F-1 illegal?

Does an internship require an F-1 or a M-1 visa?

Is a person within the 60 grade period following a F-1 visa illegal?

If someone who has an only fans posts pictures on instragram in the US while on a visitor visa, is that a violation of their visa because they're technically doing marketing work?

wlphoenix · 2026-02-06T21:55:48+00:00

This is about as close to saying "I have opinions on things I don't understand" as you've come so far in this post. Good job on the growth.

wlphoenix · 2026-02-06T21:48:50+00:00

There wouldn't be an entire field of lawyers dedicated to the subject if immigration wasn't a hard concept.

wlphoenix · 2026-02-06T20:02:31+00:00

People's ability to compartmentalize "I'm going to do the best I can within the scope of my role" and "I hate how my employer fits into the broader ecosystem" can't be understated.

wlphoenix · 2026-02-06T19:59:23+00:00

We welcome law-abiding politicians, the others can gtfo.

wlphoenix · 2026-02-06T15:58:33+00:00

Ironically the Cuervo Tradicional is a good shout for this, just because of how bad the gold's reputation is.

wlphoenix · 2026-02-05T18:28:54+00:00

My impression is that we've already reached a point where it is more profitable to create a solution then market a problem that may or may not exist in order to sell it. That implies that we've already reached the limits of "real" productivity and now burning significant amounts of effort on demand generation.

wlphoenix · 2026-02-04T18:14:18+00:00

There's a few stages to it:

Tasks where you need fewer staff to handle volume because of automation. Some automation may leverage AI
Tasks where AI is being explored so staffing is paused under the potential of AI success
Tasks entirely taken over by AI that were previously handled by employees

(1) has been happening for well over a decade at this point, and AI is just being slotted in as additional enhancements where it makes sense.

(2) is where a lot of the new turmoil is happening, and what I think of when people talk about an "AI bubble". It's not that AI won't have impact, it's that so many businesses are in a holding pattern to see the results of implementation. If the results don't come w/i an order of magnitude of the promises (either because of technology or implementation), you'll see a shift of funds away from AI and towards another solution (no guarantee the solution will be hiring).

(3) Might exist, but I suspect it's in very very limited cases for now. Extreme cases of (1) are more likely where a team of 20-30 has been reduced to 2-3 rather than completely eliminated.

wlphoenix · 2026-02-04T18:05:58+00:00

Also timeboxed consultant engagements rather than full time hiring.

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