No doubt there's great programmers with philosophy backgrounds, just like I've worked with many from chemistry, physics and music. The conversation here though, is a bunch of pompous arguing over minutiae and correctness, trying to win using the densest phrasing and allusion to deep knowledge of esoteric readings and history, i.e. much like my one university philosophy class. Meanwhile people from all backgrounds are busy getting shit done and actually winning.
Russ: "Anyway, next thing you know, we IPO, stock triples in a day and AOL gobbles us up. All of a sudden, I'm 22 years young and I'm worth 1.2 billion. Now a couple decades later, I'm worth 1.4. You do the math."
Richard: "Okay. Well, that's a gain of $200 million over 20 years. Um, 16.66 repeating. That's less than 1% return. Inflation is, like, 1.7. I think CDs are 2%. So that's less than a CD."
>> 150M at 5B revenue is not great: that's 3% margin!
and yet everybody - including Microsoft - is in a big rush to sell us AI services, which could look an awful lot like a historical utility business. 3% will be a dream return in that scenario!
We have a larger family and Costco combined with access to a decent grocery store that's within walking distance is great: get deals on larger quantity staples and milk, eggs and bread several times a week.
Walmart does this too, and it's one of the worst experiences/value-propositions I've ever experienced. It might be better in the US but in Canada it's expensive, poor quality and painful: pick three.
What about the price-quality aspect? Costco blows Amazon away here IME. Plus there's the fact that someone can become an employee of Costco out of high school and spend their entire career there, with decent wages and benefits. That's not happening at an Amazon Prime fulfillment warehouse.
I'm not typically a fan of government intervention in markets but Canada's marketing boards do stop this sort of concentration, so while we have higher average prices we do not get massive swings in prices, nor the physical conditions that come directly out of production consolidation that lead to events (or justifications) like avian flu at the same scale.
I think it's fine if a person (1) recognizes and appreciates the situation, and (2) can make it work without starving to death. There are a million examples of luxury in the first world and we're ignorant of most of them.
Post covid many bike companies were in big financial trouble so new bikes cost less than used, but that's mostly resolved or the companies are just plain failing, so definitely look for a newish (aka few years old) used bike and you'll get a lot more for your money. Manufacturers are all pushing ebikes (with electric motorcycle specs) these days and now 32" wheels (don't get me started - and I'm 6'5") so depending on your planned riding and budget 29" HT or full-suspension mountain bike (off-road, trails, casual), or hybrid style / gravel (light off-road, commuting, touring). Focus on a known brand, quality basics (in the order of (frame, fork, wheels, drivetrain, brakes) and figure it out from there. Avoid cheap versions of ebikes, full suspension or carbon; there's typically good reasons for the price and usually you can't fix or upgrade them - although the Walmart Ozark Trail is a decent attempt (but still has major short-comings; you're better with something like a Polygon HT).
commented directly above this before seeing it. I've always been bike-crazy but over the past ~year ridden A LOT including my first solo international bikepacking trip. My plan is to do something new in the fall but first enjoy a (too short) Canadian summer and riding NFLD => Maine in Sept.
I quit last August for similar reasons, and lest everyone here think it's all amazing ICs vs. clueless managers, I was at the director level of a midsize company caught between the developers I deeply cared for and agentic madness pushed from the executives and my boss the CTO. I'm likely older than many here, but still too poor / young to retire and maybe it was a mistake, but I kind of feel like I didn't have a choice. I've made big contrarian (stupid?) moves before and they've worked out, so we'll see what's next. Over the past 11 months I've explored and worked with AI my way, and ridden a lot of bicycle.
most people are paid as full time salary employees, aka 35-40 hours/week. You may feel that you personally do way more work than everyone else (80%+ plus of people do) but you don't get to define what "the actual amount of work you are paid for" is. There's usually lots of opportunities to find time to learn or go on tangents in non-terrible jobs, but unless your boss is quiet quitting as well, they - and your coworkers - will know, and this will screw you far more in the future than just quiting and getting a new job.