Notes

This but with Grok 😂

America is amazing and more people should stay off social media if they can get one-shotted this quickly.

Blessed are the ministers that are unknown and poorly paid, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.

Academics are too often cowards. One of the reasons I like Tyler Cowen is that he’s willing to ask simple questions that ask thinkers to call balls and strikes.

On the recent episode with Liaquat Ahamed, he simply asks who were the good guys and bad guys, and Liaquat refuses to answer.

To me, it’s an excellent intelligence question. You can know all the facts, but can you synthesize the information enough to say, “This guy is the hero.”

Where are the boys?

I'm concerned about the Cub/Boy Scouts. To be clear, this is a vibes, little-evidence concern for the moment. There's a growing trend that I do not like, and it's the absence of boys from the program.

This weekend my son participated in a cub scout camping weekend. We had a great time, but something was very noticeably lacking. It was the absence of boys. The leadership of the weekend activities was entirely girls. I'm not here to disparage the young women volunteering and leading. The fact that girls are a part of the scouting program has come and gone, and that's not changing in the near future nor my specific concern.

My concern is the fact that a group entirely once made of boys has suddenly appeared to have lost its boys. I had hoped to see older boys setting an example for the younger boys and to hopefully provide inspiration for continuing in the program. At this age, younger boys need to see older boys leading and setting an example.

This may be a simple fluke and one that will manifest differently in the future, but if this trend continues, I'm concerned for the health of the scouting program and its future.

Go camping. Get up with the sun. Cook good food for your children. Make memories.

Never deprive a man of lifting heavy things for you.

This is absolutely true. I work remotely on a remote-only team. We all wish it was easier to see one another. The tradeoffs are tough because there’s a lot to like about remote work. It rewards the right kind of individual, but it’s not for most people and is not Lindy.

May you live in interesting times.

I had a scout quit tonight after only one meeting. It’s a bummer to see. I asked the parents what happened, and they simply said that their son thought it would be more survivalist activities. 😬

I get it. There’s a lot of classroom work. Honestly, this is largely a case of misaligned expectations. The question I’m curious about is where does he go for that experience?

I’m curious about how much YouTube shows like the outdoor boys distort expectations on these decisions.

I had a terrible time getting help from Tesla over the last 24 hrs to fix a flat tire.

For the non-Tesla owners, there’s no spare tire. Get a flat and you’re calling for help. We have a screw in ours that we picked up at the farm. We use the app to message the road hazard team to get a tow. A lady messaged through the app and told us no need to bring it in; we can send a remote service.

I happily scheduled and set the appointment for today from 7–11 a.m. Time comes and goes with no one coming by. We message through the app and are told they will reach out to the team to get a new estimate. No one replies back.

At 4 p.m., I call and I’m told there’s no Ranger service in my area and no one is coming to help. There’s no explanation as to what changed or why there’s confusion. I escalate, and there’s nothing to be done. A new tow is scheduled, and now it’s some time before we can get it looked at.

Tesla is great at so many things, but this was clearly hard for them. Tesla needs to find a way to do better.

The roadside service team and local service team have been great, but the group managing mobile tire repair is sorely dropping the ball.

Rotten luck.

When I was a kid, we would usually go to the Tennessee State Fair each year. It was a lot of fun: tickets, rides, games, and carnival attractions.

Something that stood out was the number of eclectic tents selling different wares. My favorite was the incense tent. There were all these incense vessels shaped like dragons, snakes, and other mythical creatures. It stunk to high heaven with dozens of competing scents being burned all at the same time. You don’t see that kind of thing much anymore.

I saw this the other day on a work call. A colleague threw together a bunch of slides and hadn’t checked them and got wrecked by the customer in real time. Just brutal to watch.

Be careful hanging out with old men. Eventually, they start telling you about all the people they know who died.

It’s clear to me that the biggest bottleneck to productivity gains from AI is no longer about intelligence but about coordination limits. Great progress is occurring with agent harnesses like Muse, Dots, Grok Bot, etc. Gains will flow more quickly when this coordination challenge is more completely solved.

This is absolutely true for me and my family.

I want my son to do something physical, spiritual, musical, sacrificial, and educational every week. I plan to write a longer essay on the topic.

I have a requirement that he do some activity across each of these dimensions weekly if possible.

I don’t care too much what he picks, but he can’t be a do-nothing couch potato.

Currently, he practices jiu-jitsu. He is active in Cub Scouts. He serves at church, and he’s taking guitar lessons.

Kids need to be well-rounded as much as we can encourage them. If left to their own whims, they will sit around on screens all day. It’s my responsibility to make sure that doesn’t happen.

How my son imagines himself most days.

It’s important to say the hard things out loud.

It can hurt to say the truth out loud, but it’s worth it in the end.