0-Cava is not good. Relating Cava to affluence or aspiration is akin to saying that Target is similarly so because they clean up the homeless piss in the bathrooms a lot quicker than they do at Wal-Mart.
1-Colton Herta gets the opportunity with Cadillac because Mick Schumacher snubbed them, apparently in favor of a McLaren WEC drive for 2027 (!)
2-Merc Power Units have been troubled left and right all year, for both the factory team and Williams. But Andrea Stella said that Lando’s DNF was from a chassis issue at any rate.
3-Sure is a lotta hand-wringing over ChatGPT contributing to suicides lately:
Would there be breathless media coverage if OpenAI weren’t the most valuable privately held company in history? No.
4-And speaking of AI, I was corresponding with a friend on the ground in Silicon Valley yesterday. I told him that I was sad that OpenAI hadn’t announced they had achieved “AGI” on Labor Day. He alerted me to the BIGLY layoffs at Salesforce, which was a small consolation prize. And speaking of AGI, a song:
“Can you feel the AGI tonight?
It is where (and when) we are
It's enough … for this wide-eyed wanderer that we got this far
'Would there be breathless media coverage if OpenAI weren’t the most valuable privately held company in history? No.'
I don't recall Armalite or Colt being the most valuable privately held companies in history. Is that why we never see any coverage in the media of the AR-15?
-OpenAI is new, novel, and there are blood-sucking, rent-seeking lawyers eager to steal some of their filthy lucre.
-Never any coverage of the positive things OpenAI has wrought: abundance, munificence, your paycheck (in a roundabout fashion).
-Similarly, if I get in an uber tonight and the driver and I perish after a Hellcat involved in a high speed chase runs a red light and t-bones us … it’s just a local news story for 24 hours
-But … if the same thing happens while I’m in a Waymo, it’s NYT front page news.
I'm happy to see the stereotyped finance finance guy can still draw down and stereotype lawyers! I'm tech moron, so please type slowly when you answer this question: What "abundance" and "munificence" has OpenAI wrought?
He's trolling. Not even actually mentally handicapped people think OpenAI has had any measurable positive consequences for society.
Which is also why he is pretending to rediscover the "man bites dog" principle of news coverage in real time, and doing a fold/spindle/mutilate to make it apply to OpenAI.
Obviously Waymo deaths matter more to the media than Hellcat deaths, for the same reason we had TWO television shows about the dude who may or may not have pushed his wife down the stairs and ZERO television shows about the 39 people who were shot and killed in Chicago during August.
For some reason, this reminds me of a lament on the state of the culture from "National Review" from about 25 years ago that went, "It speaks volumes about today's society that the only military adventure show on TV today is about a Navy LAWYER."
I was just a finalist, though if I had gone to Michigan State instead of Michigan, I might have gotten a scholarship. At the time, MSU was trying to build up its academic reputation by offering something like 100 National Merit full rides. The nicest thing about being recruited by MSU was that my mom & dad, who lived in East Lansing while my dad attended vet school, were able to visit the campus together and relive some old memories.
Randy Mamola (famous 500cc GP racer) has said his best qualifying laps were when he *imagined* he was chasing Freddie Spencer (arguably the most talented bike racer of all time).
When Marc Marquez (ACTUALLY the best motorcycle racer of all time) needed to qualify well on a shit bike he always tried to shadow someone.
Mickey Mouse identity-kit circuits with constant radius turns versus the Mountain? It’s not just the number of corners, it’s the different lumps, bumps, manhole covers, white lines and adverse cambers in each one and that is assuming that you aren’t too distracted by the tree/wall/lamppost/gate that will kill you if you get it wrong. As Valentino Rossi said on being taken to the TT - “FACK!” For these reasons, we shall never know.
GP is about riding at the limit. Nobody at the TT is at the limit because you would die. So what do you equate to best? Bravest and most interesting? Or absolute fastest on a machine?
I wore my NRA hat once to a board meeting of a farmland preservation group. A fellow member asked if it stood for National Restaurant Association and I told him sure if it makes you feel better.
The cause was worthwhile but the other board members. Yeesh. We canceled a board meeting because it conflicted with Obama’s first inauguration and of course “everyone was interested in staying home and watch.”
Cava to the “email job” as sweetgreen is to the finance bro. Nothing special but they all seem to go there and rave about it. I know several on my team do, and I don’t understand it. It’s basically chipotle with rice bowls..
That does seem “upper middle class” to some in today’s America, even if it really only means middle class.
No need to drop $15 a day. I use Affirm and will pay it off in 4 easy installments! There is a Cava very close to my office but I prefer to eat food that doesn't look like it was already digested.
I have a cigar buddy who was in the produce / restaurant supply business. He sold it a few years ago and is now retired. For whatever reason, there are a number of restauranteurs or adjacent people I have come to know through that hobby. I have learned a lot about the industry from them, whether they operate mom and pop joints or have three Michelin stars.
Anyway, he has nicknames for all of the prevalent “Millennial Slop Bowl” joints:
-Streetgreen (since the workers at the location nearest the cigar store are always listening to rap music)
-Slopt (self explanatory; it also smells like a pet store for some reason)
i dont think i have any idea what any of those stores are actually called because i am from an insignificant canadian town and getting a chikfila was a big deal here apparently
They are all somewhat “upscale” Chipotle-esque restaurants that formerly had an aura around them as they were found in glamorous cities on the coasts, and they were (and are?) the lunch and sometimes dinner meal of choice for hard-working urbanites.
While I was picking up my dinner tonight, I saw two Zoomer analysts wearing fleece vests embroidered with the logo of my first employer, whose office is essentially across the street.
Hilariously a college buddy works for a VC firm that has participated in multiple funding rounds for Cava, including most recently their series F (8 overall rounds of financing according to tracxn.com)
The notion of a series F is insane to me as (without looking at cap tables) to me that many rounds of venture suggests massive dilution of the founders.
For a company other than medtech, biopharm just on the edge of FDA approval etc it does not make total sense to me, but what do I know
The reason that companies would stay private rather than go public is because they have sufficient / adequate access to capital, at potentially more favorable terms / valuation, with less onerous reporting tasks, and no danger from hostile takeovers or short sellers.
There is simply no need to be public, until there is.
Was walking by the paramount theater on the way from my office in Denver yesterday and saw that 10cc was there, which made me think of the load volume. And I’m Not in Love.
We had an excellent authentic(ish) Spanish Tapas restaurant in town, and it closed and rebranded itself a Greek/Mediterranean place and I can’t think of a worse trade since Hugh Grant cheated on Elizabeth Hurley with a black whore.
Spanish unfortunately isn’t “mainstream” food in the US, and you need regulars to stay open. A friend recently had to shut down his Spanish restaurant by our old place in CT, since you couldn’t build the deep crowd of regulars to make it really succeed. He said Americans default to Italian, Mexican, Asian, and now some Greek/Mediterranean as options when thinking of going out, so those are much easier to make successful if you’re half decent.
This place was around like 30 years and rebranded. Maybe sales were down, I dunno. I didn’t go a lot because tapas are kinda weird to eat as a couple, it’s better in a group, and you just don’t get a group of people to go out that often.
I’m horribly biased being Spanish, but we have no problem going for tapas as a couple its kind of fun to pick 3-5 things and share them…
That’s a longer run than I expected, likely some growth plan or the owner/chef changed so they wanted to do something new. Spanish places are tough anywhere in the US, even here in Miami we don’t have that many.
It just feels like to get enough variety to make it worth it you either spend a fortune or you need more people so you can try a small amount of a wide variety. We’ve done it both ways and prefer a larger group.
It’s like a medium fancy steak dinner here price wise and not a lot of food. Im a big fan but im with chris, much better with a group and a few bottles of wine.
The Spanish food adjacent place around the corner from where we lived in Chicago just celebrated their 40 anniversary. I thought it was “fine” which was pretty much my opinion of any Lettuce Entertain You owned restaurants.
Tapas is also expensive re: labor. Serving lots of small plates vs fewer larger plates. That works for high price multi-course chef's tastings, but not $14 papas bravas.
Us chicago people appreciate it. I was thinking about jordan and lewis. No one thinks jordan tarnished his legacy being a warrior. Lewis will not have the luxury. I do somewhat five hima break because he is old but he was always overrated
As Hermann said, "Fifty years from now there will be statues of me all over Germany." He might have been a little optimistic on the number of years, but with the way the progressives are going I doubt we will have long to wait.
The Autopian as a journalistic endeavor has really tried to avoid explicit political stances, which is much to its credit (and why I pay for the site). Hardigree is responsive to feedback and solicits it on a Discord for the site, which I also appreciate. There’s little to no preaching from the writers.
The seemingly unavoidable issue is the commenters that migrated from Jalopnik, or at least the loudest of them. I sympathize in every way with “Lockleaf”, and have made similar comments myself. I don’t know how this is a solvable problem for a site that claims to depend so heavily on memberships. Heavier moderation chases the diehards away, but they’re the paying members. It can’t be easy to resolve. I still wish them well, as the staff genuinely cares about cars in a way that’s refreshing compared to most auto sites.
I used to be a fairly active Forum Guy, but I’ve dialed back my internet commenting to basically just this blog because I came to the stunning realization one day I was spending a lot of time arguing with people I have zero respect for.
A few months ago, I was writing a reply in some auto racing thread on Twitter and realized I was responding to some anime furry dog avatar. That was it. Deleted the account. Deleted all other social media comment style accounts, threads, bsky, fb, etc. 30+ years of forum bullshit and I'm just done.
FB is literally only useful for groups now, basically a way to find out what’s going on in my town or with various interests. I almost never post anything anymore. I read Twitter a little bit but never tweet anything. Same with Reddit. Instagram I post pictures of food and occasionally my kids. That’s my whole social media experience these days.
Yes, but they're not organized, there are no saved searches, and many times people just list them in private groups (which tend to be filled with spam). I saw at least 2 porn spams within about a month of being in a few groups.
"I read the whole book, and will review it below. But first, let’s go racing"
fuck that im reading that part now
"She has to be just as forgettable as the sad women who read the books"
does this mean shes also fat or is the girl on the cover not the same one in the story
"The job is to masturbate minotaurs into 24-ounce bottles, so their semen can be used to make Viagra for human men"
VIAGRA IS MINOTAUR CUM is this reveal supposed to be on the level of "soylent green is people" or is this more of a fun fact
"One quarter of the book is dedicated to explicit descriptions of minotaur/human sex"
arent minotaurs supposed to have the bottom half be that of a horse or something? maybe the author wasnt skilled/brave/horny enough to write this book as such
"they have to deal with some interspecies bigotry"
based. im going to ask chatgpt for minotaur specific slurs
"if you’re a single man, reading it will convey valuable information from which you might possibly benefit"
i already knew they liked tall jacked dudes in important positions but how tf am i supposed to blast 24oz of rope at any one time
"There’s essentially no way to stop ChatGPT and other language models from encouraging suicide, encouraging murder, preying on the weakness of the mentally ill, and so on"
dumb people are getting oneshotted by pretend robobrains and im just hoping theres some way we can keep them out of it while still using it for the lame tasks it can do now
"You know “Meadow” is made for women because this is the list of what women want on a phone"
congrats you made a punkt phone but even less minimalist to the point its still basically a smartphone
"using the word “Nazi” to mean “something I dislike"
this is how we got ai translated hitler speeches and even more people not giving a shit about nazis. this is most amusing when people accuse others of being one and the target going "yeah and" and the accuser just sitting there doing nothing becuase calling someone a nazi is toothless
"arent minotaurs supposed to have the bottom half be that of a horse or something?"
You, sir, are thinking of centaurs. The mythical Minotaur, of which there was only one, was a man with the head of a bull, and the offspring of the wife of King Minos of Crete, sired by(you guessed it) a prize bull. Minotaur=beast of Minos.
Edit: since we've long since plunged past the brink of good taste here, a bull's testicles are in the spot you'd expect, but his cock is mounted a lot farther forward, nearly midway on the belly of the beast. Has this lady done enough research to have placed her imaginary manimal's Brobdingnagian pecker where his belly button ought to be?
It's great to see Perez and Bottas back on the grid, it ensures Cadillac will get good feedback on the new car, and they'll need it. Will Power got a ride with Andretti after breaking up with Penske on Monday. He's a better driver than most of the field regardless of his age.
I've been watching a lot of different racing lately and upon tuning in to the Darlington race was struck by how much contact there is at near 200 mph. Apparently spinning another guy out by ramming him is ok, just don't speed on pit road. I guess if the cars are robust enough and the roof flaps keep 'em sliding not flipping, then nobody gets hurt and it's all good fun.
AI chatbots are too dangerous to run wild and those two cases prove it. Like FSD cars, men in women's sports, and no-bail criminal reform, it is immediately a bad idea, but idiots have to try it to be sure.
I regret reading that book review because I can't unread the plot details. Well written garbage is still garbage.
I’m sure if (when) Blando loses the WDC, this race will be one of the (many)excuses the Sky commentating team give.
Sir Lewis just announced he changed his foundation’s name from Project 44 to Lewis Hamilton Ventures. Hopefully this is in advance of there being no car 44 on the grid next year.
Id say that is 90% of the rolex crowd. Ive got 20k to waste, i guess ill buy a watch. Since i am upper middle class white trash, i waste it on guns and motorcycles
This is the most interesting insight yet into how you view this stuff -- let's call it the Labubu Theory of Value. You only want a watch, or a car, or whatever, in proportion to how much the people around you want it.
This is how women choose men, but it's not how men should choose anything.
Any sane person would say, "What an outstanding choice, to buy the Patek that trades for under retail instead of the Patek that goes for a 5x multiple of retail." The irony here is Fancy Boy Wannabe Clymer is making a similar argument, griping that people pay the most money for the least interesting, and least complicated, Pateks, because they're simply buying the thing to show it off.
I understand that in a world where anyone can afford anything, which in the case of Gilded Age people buying $250k watches is essentially the case, there is no prestige assigned to the purchase. The prestige is in being *chosen*.
If you only value things by what they sell for and/or market cap, you will end up living a life of permanent Labubu desire, always anxiously looking around you for guidance on what to buy or own.
What I left unsaid (and people seem to be missing) is that he bought it _because he liked the design_ and not for people to know what it is or because it holds value, or because "it's time for a Patek".
Your ‘troll radar’ is broken, because you have experienced a false positive AND a false negative in the matter of a few hours.
I was not trolling about AGI; I was trolling about the perceived value of the Patek with a little Yogi Berra-ism.
If one wanted to spend ballpark $60K on a nice Patek, I think a 5327G would be a better choice. My old boss who fantasizes about replacing his entire team of non-revenue generating leaches with A(G)I has one.
Another perpetual calendar option in that price range is this AP:
"This is how women choose men, but it's not how men should choose anything."
That's a really great sentence. I wonder how many "men" actually live by it.
We've only got a certain number of rides around the sun on this blue ball before we meet our maker, and I'd rather not waste any of them trying to impress anybody else with "things they think I should want".
If a thing is cool to ME when it's not cool to anybody else, then it will ALWAYS be cool, because I doubt my impression of what's cool is ever going to change (especially when the thing I think is cool is a thing nobody else values).
If I acquire a thing simply because my neighbor thinks it's cool, or somebody else thinks I should have it -- then I'm allowing somebody else to live their life through me... and expecting me to pay the freight for the right.
I like chronographs. QUARTZ chronographs -- the kind that keep perfect time, work for decades, and cost <$300. I've got 6, because that's what my $14 watch case will hold. I feel pretty darned cool having them.
I suppose it depends if I care enough about their opinion for it to matter. Not a lot of people make that cut. There are maybe 10 people I know (and I live with one of them) whose opinion matters to me.
There are a lot of great quartz watches out there, both vintage and new. One of the best watches I I own is a $330 street price Casio Oceanus titanium.
I was looking hard at Lunar Pilots, but I began to wonder if the reason I was so hot on them was because it's pretty much the ONLY quartz watch "approved" by watch aficionados. As I said, I want to buy things because I want them -- other people thinking I should want them actually gives me pause, and I push back against it.
I really do think the Lunar Pilots with the Precisionist movements are pretty cool, and bought during Black Friday or some such -- are actually not expensive
... but my wife gave me a Tissot Seastar she bought for me while we were on vacation in Jamaca. She overpaid, but not by a lot -- it was around $500. It goes with the gold-tone Seiko she bought me in 1992 when our marriage was very nearly over and when we had absolutely nothing. We made it, and we have a lot more -- but I still remember when I wear it.
I want those watches to be the nicest I'll ever have. They are exceedingly cool (and meaningful) to me, so I bought a Bulova Marine Star instead of the Lunar Pilot last Christmas.
I like the look of it better than the Lunar Pilot, nobody is impressed with it for being "smart", and I'm a sucker for multiple buttons, stems, and dials, and this baby's got them in spades. The orange face is quite a departure for me. I rather like it.
You are right. But just as with your Forum Guy comment above, I don't know why you bother arguing with this guy (nor why *he* bothers to comment here so much).
That article, while interesting, was about the price of the new rose gold version (of a completely different watch entirely) maybe not being worth it since you could get the non-rose gold on the used market for about 65% of the MSRP of the new one.
I posted it because Ben makes a more general argument (at least in my recollection, I read it a month ago upon initial publication) that Patek pricing has gotten too high.
Plus, Jack and I have a side discussion in which we clown on Ben Social Clymer, most recently for his ridiculous, Ralph-Lauren supplied outfit at the U.S. Open. So I knew it would arouse Jack’s ire.
Ben is the definition of a circus clown but I don't think he is completely off the mark here. Patek has a tiger by the tail. They can sell 10 steel watches for every one they are selling now, but they will become a steel watch company and they don't want that.
You and I have spoken elsewhere about how my AD will put me in line for a Nautilus if DG becomes a Grand Complication owner. Which is borderline hilarious. "You can get in line for a Boxster if you buy a 918." Actually, come to think of, that's how they did the 911R, which gained value with the ferocity of a 918 LOSING value!
The reason to “establish a relationship” with an AD is so that you can get the super special, super limited whatever that arrives after you’ve ascended the greasy pole and happen to have a spare $XXXK liquid at that precise moment to transact.
And if the AD closes or moves to new ownership, *poof!* There goes your relationship with that brand. Just go gray and enjoy the GC and Nautilus ASAP.
OR instead of being forced to bundle, she can get a GC and you can sidestep the Nautilus and get a Royal Oak!
That’s probably more common than you’d think for people with high end watches. They have money, someone says they need a nicer watch, and pick out what looks nice at the shop in whatever nice town they live. Kind of like jewelry they buy for their wives.
Its like this with everything. 10% enthusiasts. I was a watch enthusiast when i couldnt afford one, now that i can, dropping 10k on a timepiece seems ridiculous. Also because i tried wearing a $90 watch for a week and lasted a day.
Cameras, espresso machines, furniture, clothing, pens, etc.
If you go spend $10K on a watch and get what you probably want as a first “nice” watch - which is what most people want, a Rolex - you will at worst break even wearing it.
You don’t need to do any annual maintenance on a Rolex, even a Daytona. I had mine for 4.5 years and it needed nothing during that time.
The rate of return will comfortably exceed inflation, and there is some enjoyment value to having one on your wrist. Which is the primary reason people buy them.
Right now maybe. I doubt if i buy a rolex and stuff it in a closet for 30 years it will beat inflation. Besides, if i wanted a watch, which i dont, id buy what i like and not what i imagine to beat inflation. Ill just get a band and a couple ounces of gold. That will appreciate and i can still check the time on my phone
-With Herta as a test driver, Cadillac can truthfully say they have put an American into a modern F1 car. With a straight face. They might think the marketing is worth the loss of incalculably valuable seat time.
-Wintermute at least tried to keep innocents out of the line of fire. Of course, that was an actual AI, as opposed to a crazed pattern matching algo.
-'Convey valuable information?' Of what, how much of my preferred hallucinogen it will take to make a girl think I have horns?
-How can you NOT be 'more than your politics?' Evidently, be a commentator at Autopian.
My wrist watch cost $250. I have no idea what make/brand it is. It does one thing only, the thing such devices were originally designed to do. It runs on a battery which only rarely needs replacing.
As a Timex owner, I usually have this question in my head when I see a watch over 100 bucks. But we all understand perceived value and the racoon brain that wants shiny. And 250 bucks isn't a lot of money anymore in "these _________ times."
As a Casio, Timex, Citizen, Tag, Ebel, Movado, Bulova, Victorinox [Insert some other mid-tier under $2000 watch brand] - I think you hit the head on PERCEIVED VALUE (which is a combination of what's IMPORTANT to the buyer, in relation to what they are willing / can afford) plus shiny new thingy.
Where folks differ is in perceived value. What's affordable for you and makes reasonable sense for purchasing, may be vastly different than someone else.
It's hard for me to wrap my head around folks who buy things simply because they are expensive. But I'm sure it's equally as hard for others to look at folks (like me) who have thousands of dollars wrapped up in watches (and not a single "investment" / high-end watch to show for it).
In my defense:
1. Watches are about the only form of acceptable male jewelry (at least at my age / generation),
2. I buy them for me, typically to mark a sentimental milestone (birth, promotion, anniversary, big trip, etc.),
3. I buy what I like, which is a combination of looks & an appreciation for build quality (this includes $30 Casios),
and lastly 4. I allot what I find reasonable to this frivolous endeavor (I struggle to call buying things and looking at them a hobby), which for me is high 3 figures / low 4 figures. If my income was much more or much less than what it is today; my threshold would be different.
I’ll never criticize someone for carrying an extra mag, but I’ll sure as fuck criticize someone for suggesting that wearing or not wearing a watch was what allowed/prevented them from doing so. Nonsense.
That’s how I feel about my Eco Drive which wasn’t much more than your watch. It’s nice to think “I bought this thing, it’s optimized now, I don’t have to think about this category again for 10+ years.”
“ Half of the watch-collecting hobby’s rocket trajectory has been due to the fact that every kid in the ghetto has an Apple Watch now.”
I saw an interesting tweet or tik tok or whatever where an interviewer went around and asked a bunch of “kids in the ghetto” what time it is, and every single one said “I ain’t know man my watch ain’t charged.” The hypothesis was that these are either A) all stolen so they don’t HAVE chargers or B) “those people” just don’t maintain stuff.
I’m happy to believe either because since about 2020 I’ve turned into an unrepentant racist. Take that Autopian wimps.
Easy credit turned Being Busy into the 21st Century's Mercedes, because what good is having an S-Class if every hood-rat weed dealer can have one, too?
There's a big difference between 85 and 99. The U.S. military won't accept anyone who tests out below the equivalent of 83 because they can't be trained.
i recall reading that the cutoff for mental retardation was changed from 75 to 85 becuase about half of the demographic would then qualify for social assistance and that was too expensive
Also, I don’t read Autopian but I recently found out against my will that Motor Trend wrapped up a long term test on a Model Y and they absolutely slammed it.
Now I have no great love for Teslas/EVs, but I have to think that their criticism (which I did not read, it’s fucking Motor Trend) has more to do with the fact that the author is an (I’m not making this up) ironic-mustache-having vegan bicycle enthusiast. I’m sure he LOVES Elon. Fag.
It’s been a long time since I’ve read anything in Motor Trend but when I did read MT it seemed like they never met a car they didn’t like so I can’t wrap my head around them slamming anything, especially an environmentally friendly electric car.
The liberal Jesus of 2021 (Mr. Musk) is now the antichrist. One must hate his vehicles and pine for BYDs to be welcome into the club.
It kinda' makes me want to buy one, just to tweak my leftie friends' noses, and I think BEVs are the greatest grift in the history of the industrial age.
Kinda'. Not enough to, you know, actually be seen in one.
The "low-tech parenting" thing reminds me of how the aristocracy has spent the last half-century encouraging the dissolution of poor and middle-class families, only to zealously defend that same intact home when it applies to them.
I thought Max might have been able to put a move on Oscar at the final restart (giving the tire offset). I think he would have if there were something meaningful to play for (for him).
0-Cava is not good. Relating Cava to affluence or aspiration is akin to saying that Target is similarly so because they clean up the homeless piss in the bathrooms a lot quicker than they do at Wal-Mart.
1-Colton Herta gets the opportunity with Cadillac because Mick Schumacher snubbed them, apparently in favor of a McLaren WEC drive for 2027 (!)
2-Merc Power Units have been troubled left and right all year, for both the factory team and Williams. But Andrea Stella said that Lando’s DNF was from a chassis issue at any rate.
3-Sure is a lotta hand-wringing over ChatGPT contributing to suicides lately:
-The Prime Mover (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/opinion/chat-gpt-mental-health-suicide.html)
-The Connecticut Crazy (https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chatgpt-ai-stein-erik-soelberg-murder-suicide-6b67dbfb?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=ASWzDAiMfj_6KAH-gm1bOTAILpalZk5v-7Zcy_Rw5dMWryy6Uh32QsogJ3h6UGfqBEA%3D&gaa_ts=68b8b804&gaa_sig=ZpmJFYW67sZkbh8ZysRuCKRSKe7CtOAiCUN_edZkXd0MqxPWSzd9TfmEbg16LXCo1FpayiQCMnL32rZ4161gIw%3D%3D)
-And then the teenager Jack mentioned
Would there be breathless media coverage if OpenAI weren’t the most valuable privately held company in history? No.
4-And speaking of AI, I was corresponding with a friend on the ground in Silicon Valley yesterday. I told him that I was sad that OpenAI hadn’t announced they had achieved “AGI” on Labor Day. He alerted me to the BIGLY layoffs at Salesforce, which was a small consolation prize. And speaking of AGI, a song:
“Can you feel the AGI tonight?
It is where (and when) we are
It's enough … for this wide-eyed wanderer that we got this far
And can you feel the love tonight
How it's laid (your paycheck) to rest?
It's enough to make Kings and Vagabonds
Believe the very best”
Didn’t have to change much!
'Would there be breathless media coverage if OpenAI weren’t the most valuable privately held company in history? No.'
I don't recall Armalite or Colt being the most valuable privately held companies in history. Is that why we never see any coverage in the media of the AR-15?
-OpenAI is new, novel, and there are blood-sucking, rent-seeking lawyers eager to steal some of their filthy lucre.
-Never any coverage of the positive things OpenAI has wrought: abundance, munificence, your paycheck (in a roundabout fashion).
-Similarly, if I get in an uber tonight and the driver and I perish after a Hellcat involved in a high speed chase runs a red light and t-bones us … it’s just a local news story for 24 hours
-But … if the same thing happens while I’m in a Waymo, it’s NYT front page news.
I'm happy to see the stereotyped finance finance guy can still draw down and stereotype lawyers! I'm tech moron, so please type slowly when you answer this question: What "abundance" and "munificence" has OpenAI wrought?
He's trolling. Not even actually mentally handicapped people think OpenAI has had any measurable positive consequences for society.
Which is also why he is pretending to rediscover the "man bites dog" principle of news coverage in real time, and doing a fold/spindle/mutilate to make it apply to OpenAI.
Obviously Waymo deaths matter more to the media than Hellcat deaths, for the same reason we had TWO television shows about the dude who may or may not have pushed his wife down the stairs and ZERO television shows about the 39 people who were shot and killed in Chicago during August.
For some reason, this reminds me of a lament on the state of the culture from "National Review" from about 25 years ago that went, "It speaks volumes about today's society that the only military adventure show on TV today is about a Navy LAWYER."
Jag came out in 1993
I am not trolling.
You are engaging in ironic performance art by bad-mouthing your paycheck at every turn!
I'd rather work in *real* computing than *imaginary* computing, for sure.
What abundance has it produced? Besides an abundance of text
I convinced a coworker that the AR in AR15 meant "accurized rifle".
I convinced same coworker that Xerox was the Greek god of reproduction.
outstanding
You sir or ma’am, are a jerk. A genius, but a jerk nonetheless.
I am not as smart as you, but I have a friend that convinced a coworker that people got mystic powers when they graduated high school.
Edit, just show them the Forgotten Weapons video on the AR-17
I'm only kind of smart. More smartass, sometimes.
Kinda smart: I got a National Merit Scholarship.
Smartass/dumbass: I blew it off to race motorcycles. My parents were not amused....
I was that kid, Morgan!
I was just a finalist, though if I had gone to Michigan State instead of Michigan, I might have gotten a scholarship. At the time, MSU was trying to build up its academic reputation by offering something like 100 National Merit full rides. The nicest thing about being recruited by MSU was that my mom & dad, who lived in East Lansing while my dad attended vet school, were able to visit the campus together and relive some old memories.
Is it just me or does Norris do better when he is running behind someone than when he is out in front?
I think he was catching Piastri when his whatever blew.
Randy Mamola (famous 500cc GP racer) has said his best qualifying laps were when he *imagined* he was chasing Freddie Spencer (arguably the most talented bike racer of all time).
When Marc Marquez (ACTUALLY the best motorcycle racer of all time) needed to qualify well on a shit bike he always tried to shadow someone.
I have a question about this (Marc Marquez best motorcyclist all time.)
It seems like a different sort of race but how would Marquez fare in the Isle of Man TT, were he to compete?
(I feel like whoever is best at the IoM TT might be best given the higher top speeds and massive number of turns to memorize.)
Mickey Mouse identity-kit circuits with constant radius turns versus the Mountain? It’s not just the number of corners, it’s the different lumps, bumps, manhole covers, white lines and adverse cambers in each one and that is assuming that you aren’t too distracted by the tree/wall/lamppost/gate that will kill you if you get it wrong. As Valentino Rossi said on being taken to the TT - “FACK!” For these reasons, we shall never know.
Well, he's certifiable. I think if he could be convinced to have a proper go he'd be great.
GP is about riding at the limit. Nobody at the TT is at the limit because you would die. So what do you equate to best? Bravest and most interesting? Or absolute fastest on a machine?
Norris had held off piastri twice this year and secured mclaren 2nd holding off ferrari last year. He’s good in first
In a similar vein, wasn't "Caveat Emptor" the name of the first Roman used-car lot?
I wore my NRA hat once to a board meeting of a farmland preservation group. A fellow member asked if it stood for National Restaurant Association and I told him sure if it makes you feel better.
The cause was worthwhile but the other board members. Yeesh. We canceled a board meeting because it conflicted with Obama’s first inauguration and of course “everyone was interested in staying home and watch.”
From the chair in the corner of the hotel room, no doubt!
You don't see AR-15 coverage anymore because it's only trans youth shooting up schools with them.
Amen
Can we please go back to calling them trannies?
https://clickoneshirt.com/product/trans-women-are-just-retarded-fags-text-shirt/
My bad. I should have done so from the outset
Cava to the “email job” as sweetgreen is to the finance bro. Nothing special but they all seem to go there and rave about it. I know several on my team do, and I don’t understand it. It’s basically chipotle with rice bowls..
That does seem “upper middle class” to some in today’s America, even if it really only means middle class.
If you can drop $15 on lunch a day, you are umc
Can drop $15 versus dropping $15 are very different things…
Lots of CC and other debt in today’s America.
You are probably correct. I skipped lunch three years in a row so i could buy a <s>house</s> motorcycle
You, sir, should be put up for a future time orientation commendation. Well done. (Seriously).
I already have a house! And a motorcycle. I did it to lose weight
No need to drop $15 a day. I use Affirm and will pay it off in 4 easy installments! There is a Cava very close to my office but I prefer to eat food that doesn't look like it was already digested.
Sir, I just ate Streetgreen for dinner.
is that slag for grass or something
I have a cigar buddy who was in the produce / restaurant supply business. He sold it a few years ago and is now retired. For whatever reason, there are a number of restauranteurs or adjacent people I have come to know through that hobby. I have learned a lot about the industry from them, whether they operate mom and pop joints or have three Michelin stars.
Anyway, he has nicknames for all of the prevalent “Millennial Slop Bowl” joints:
-Streetgreen (since the workers at the location nearest the cigar store are always listening to rap music)
-Slopt (self explanatory; it also smells like a pet store for some reason)
-Caca (Cava is basically shit)
i see
i dont think i have any idea what any of those stores are actually called because i am from an insignificant canadian town and getting a chikfila was a big deal here apparently
They are all somewhat “upscale” Chipotle-esque restaurants that formerly had an aura around them as they were found in glamorous cities on the coasts, and they were (and are?) the lunch and sometimes dinner meal of choice for hard-working urbanites.
While I was picking up my dinner tonight, I saw two Zoomer analysts wearing fleece vests embroidered with the logo of my first employer, whose office is essentially across the street.
I have eaten at none of them.
We have enough clients in that industry to convince me to never be in that industry. Rough margins and a high failure rate.
The three Michelin star remark is a reference to Mike Muser of Grace and latterly Ever (and After).
Some of the guys in Chicago knew Charlie Trotter prior to his passing, as well.
It’s fascinating the way they think about a restaurant like that as a business. Despite the prices, margins are THIN, even at the very top.
“(Cava is basically shit)”
Hilariously a college buddy works for a VC firm that has participated in multiple funding rounds for Cava, including most recently their series F (8 overall rounds of financing according to tracxn.com)
The notion of a series F is insane to me as (without looking at cap tables) to me that many rounds of venture suggests massive dilution of the founders.
For a company other than medtech, biopharm just on the edge of FDA approval etc it does not make total sense to me, but what do I know
Cava is public now, obviously.
Anthropic recently closed a Series F.
The reason that companies would stay private rather than go public is because they have sufficient / adequate access to capital, at potentially more favorable terms / valuation, with less onerous reporting tasks, and no danger from hostile takeovers or short sellers.
There is simply no need to be public, until there is.
24 ounces is almost 700 cc's. That's going to require protective eyewear.
All the consequences of said volume are covered, in exhaustive detail, between the covers of "Morning Glory Milking Farm".
dear god, its a good thing lunch was more than 2 hours ago, otherwise there might have been 700 cc's puked all over the screen.
Was walking by the paramount theater on the way from my office in Denver yesterday and saw that 10cc was there, which made me think of the load volume. And I’m Not in Love.
Not as well known but my favorite 10cc song ( Dreadlock Holiday) and an outstanding live version.
https://youtu.be/fI2FC36lXXQ?si=iXE7E8yejzeHSAZb
That’s one of their best.
Im going to start using displacement on sundays. I displaced 3 liters of miller light
Where did you get a liter of Miller Lite. Domestic beer doesn't come in those foreign units. Murica!
Couldn’t you have quoted a little more for us under “fair use?” Asking for a friend.
It would be UNFAIR use to make you all read it!
(It's free on Kindle Unlimited)
“It's free on Kindle Unlimited.”
Be back later!
Thats what she said after the first 350ml of minotaur milk
There are limits to “[did this] so that you wouldn’t have to!” Many thanks!
But my God, man, don’t do THAT again!!!
Sounds like that would have someone doing the Wall St. Shuffle.
thats a pint and a half
forget painting her face with that much volume youre redecorating the walls ceiling and refinishing the hardwood floor
That’s quite a pearl necklace!
sir that is a water(?)boarding attempt
Lol
The whole damn oyster farm.
Perverts! All of you!
The term "cum dumpster" comes to mind...
Sure, but it squeaks in under those Reagan Era bike tariffs.
You, sir, win the internet today. everyone can log off now.
I'm going to play the Powerball while my luck holds!
Isnt it 710. Based on 13 being 355 like the coke cans tell me
It’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it -apparently!
WTF is Cava, and is there any legitimate reason I should care?
1) Mediterranean chipotle
2) they have Maine root soda fountains, which is very good soda
Huh? how does Med food and Maine root soda mix??
Swpl
We had an excellent authentic(ish) Spanish Tapas restaurant in town, and it closed and rebranded itself a Greek/Mediterranean place and I can’t think of a worse trade since Hugh Grant cheated on Elizabeth Hurley with a black whore.
Spanish unfortunately isn’t “mainstream” food in the US, and you need regulars to stay open. A friend recently had to shut down his Spanish restaurant by our old place in CT, since you couldn’t build the deep crowd of regulars to make it really succeed. He said Americans default to Italian, Mexican, Asian, and now some Greek/Mediterranean as options when thinking of going out, so those are much easier to make successful if you’re half decent.
This place was around like 30 years and rebranded. Maybe sales were down, I dunno. I didn’t go a lot because tapas are kinda weird to eat as a couple, it’s better in a group, and you just don’t get a group of people to go out that often.
I’m horribly biased being Spanish, but we have no problem going for tapas as a couple its kind of fun to pick 3-5 things and share them…
That’s a longer run than I expected, likely some growth plan or the owner/chef changed so they wanted to do something new. Spanish places are tough anywhere in the US, even here in Miami we don’t have that many.
It just feels like to get enough variety to make it worth it you either spend a fortune or you need more people so you can try a small amount of a wide variety. We’ve done it both ways and prefer a larger group.
It’s like a medium fancy steak dinner here price wise and not a lot of food. Im a big fan but im with chris, much better with a group and a few bottles of wine.
The Spanish food adjacent place around the corner from where we lived in Chicago just celebrated their 40 anniversary. I thought it was “fine” which was pretty much my opinion of any Lettuce Entertain You owned restaurants.
https://www.cafebabareeba.com
Tapas is also expensive re: labor. Serving lots of small plates vs fewer larger plates. That works for high price multi-course chef's tastings, but not $14 papas bravas.
There is a nice one in Naperville. Havent been in s couple years cause all my friends are lame
Cafe Babareba or whatever in the city is quality too.
One day i will spend a weekend in the city with the wife again
Vikings trading for Herschel Walker ranks up there.
Or draft pick swap to get Sam Bowie ahead of Michael Jordan.
Us chicago people appreciate it. I was thinking about jordan and lewis. No one thinks jordan tarnished his legacy being a warrior. Lewis will not have the luxury. I do somewhat five hima break because he is old but he was always overrated
Wizard* i need to sleep
Wasn't the whore in question not really a woman?
What in the HELL was he thinking??!! 😂😂
Someone somewhere is sick of her shit. A dick was an odd choice. Maybe heshe likes fancy Dallas restaurants.
"Behind every beautiful woman is some dude who's tired of banging here"
Ive been sick of banging crazy chicks. I have never been so sick of it i wanted to bang a man instead
As Hermann said, "Fifty years from now there will be statues of me all over Germany." He might have been a little optimistic on the number of years, but with the way the progressives are going I doubt we will have long to wait.
theyve destroyed or melted down the old ones and replaced them with nothing of importance
it would be an improvement
The Autopian as a journalistic endeavor has really tried to avoid explicit political stances, which is much to its credit (and why I pay for the site). Hardigree is responsive to feedback and solicits it on a Discord for the site, which I also appreciate. There’s little to no preaching from the writers.
The seemingly unavoidable issue is the commenters that migrated from Jalopnik, or at least the loudest of them. I sympathize in every way with “Lockleaf”, and have made similar comments myself. I don’t know how this is a solvable problem for a site that claims to depend so heavily on memberships. Heavier moderation chases the diehards away, but they’re the paying members. It can’t be easy to resolve. I still wish them well, as the staff genuinely cares about cars in a way that’s refreshing compared to most auto sites.
I used to be a fairly active Forum Guy, but I’ve dialed back my internet commenting to basically just this blog because I came to the stunning realization one day I was spending a lot of time arguing with people I have zero respect for.
I do that here!
Exactly…hey!
A few months ago, I was writing a reply in some auto racing thread on Twitter and realized I was responding to some anime furry dog avatar. That was it. Deleted the account. Deleted all other social media comment style accounts, threads, bsky, fb, etc. 30+ years of forum bullshit and I'm just done.
FB is literally only useful for groups now, basically a way to find out what’s going on in my town or with various interests. I almost never post anything anymore. I read Twitter a little bit but never tweet anything. Same with Reddit. Instagram I post pictures of food and occasionally my kids. That’s my whole social media experience these days.
I have never had a Facebook account but I’m considering getting one because all the used cars that used to be on Craigslist are now on FB.
Yes, but they're not organized, there are no saved searches, and many times people just list them in private groups (which tend to be filled with spam). I saw at least 2 porn spams within about a month of being in a few groups.
some of the fb groups are great
i forgot which one i was in but rick evernham popped in once
that was cool
Is this what they call "rock bottom?"
"I read the whole book, and will review it below. But first, let’s go racing"
fuck that im reading that part now
"She has to be just as forgettable as the sad women who read the books"
does this mean shes also fat or is the girl on the cover not the same one in the story
"The job is to masturbate minotaurs into 24-ounce bottles, so their semen can be used to make Viagra for human men"
VIAGRA IS MINOTAUR CUM is this reveal supposed to be on the level of "soylent green is people" or is this more of a fun fact
"One quarter of the book is dedicated to explicit descriptions of minotaur/human sex"
arent minotaurs supposed to have the bottom half be that of a horse or something? maybe the author wasnt skilled/brave/horny enough to write this book as such
"they have to deal with some interspecies bigotry"
based. im going to ask chatgpt for minotaur specific slurs
"if you’re a single man, reading it will convey valuable information from which you might possibly benefit"
i already knew they liked tall jacked dudes in important positions but how tf am i supposed to blast 24oz of rope at any one time
"There’s essentially no way to stop ChatGPT and other language models from encouraging suicide, encouraging murder, preying on the weakness of the mentally ill, and so on"
dumb people are getting oneshotted by pretend robobrains and im just hoping theres some way we can keep them out of it while still using it for the lame tasks it can do now
"You know “Meadow” is made for women because this is the list of what women want on a phone"
congrats you made a punkt phone but even less minimalist to the point its still basically a smartphone
"using the word “Nazi” to mean “something I dislike"
this is how we got ai translated hitler speeches and even more people not giving a shit about nazis. this is most amusing when people accuse others of being one and the target going "yeah and" and the accuser just sitting there doing nothing becuase calling someone a nazi is toothless
"arent minotaurs supposed to have the bottom half be that of a horse or something?"
You, sir, are thinking of centaurs. The mythical Minotaur, of which there was only one, was a man with the head of a bull, and the offspring of the wife of King Minos of Crete, sired by(you guessed it) a prize bull. Minotaur=beast of Minos.
thanks for the clarification bro
i was trying to figure out what the point of the minotaur was in this story but being more human like makes sense
Glad to be of assistance!
I was confused about minotaurs vs. centaurs in the previous post on this book, I am ashamed to say.
For the purposes of women's 'erotica' these days, think of a two legged bull who can speak and has hands, but the same 'equipment' as said bull.
I'd rather not think of that, John.
Edit: since we've long since plunged past the brink of good taste here, a bull's testicles are in the spot you'd expect, but his cock is mounted a lot farther forward, nearly midway on the belly of the beast. Has this lady done enough research to have placed her imaginary manimal's Brobdingnagian pecker where his belly button ought to be?
Didn't think so.
The stuff this place teaches me, id rather not know
That’s a lot of choad!
Id recommend not image searching bulls penis unless youre fond of black men in a particular way.
Lilliputian would be a better description. A very functional looking ugly red tube with less girth than a human penis.
If minotaurs have hands, then why does the heroine's job description exist?
govt jobs program
Haha
It's great to see Perez and Bottas back on the grid, it ensures Cadillac will get good feedback on the new car, and they'll need it. Will Power got a ride with Andretti after breaking up with Penske on Monday. He's a better driver than most of the field regardless of his age.
I've been watching a lot of different racing lately and upon tuning in to the Darlington race was struck by how much contact there is at near 200 mph. Apparently spinning another guy out by ramming him is ok, just don't speed on pit road. I guess if the cars are robust enough and the roof flaps keep 'em sliding not flipping, then nobody gets hurt and it's all good fun.
AI chatbots are too dangerous to run wild and those two cases prove it. Like FSD cars, men in women's sports, and no-bail criminal reform, it is immediately a bad idea, but idiots have to try it to be sure.
I regret reading that book review because I can't unread the plot details. Well written garbage is still garbage.
https://youtu.be/WQVY0RbDbGw?si=RNBo3t2u27_ra3mf
"I regret reading that book review because I can't unread the plot details."
100%. It's enough to make me rethink the choices that got me to this point.
"we are too busy planning our precious metals depository heist."
Ahem, we only *work* in metals. We're salesmen.
Capiche?
What do you care about what I read or what I do?
I see you from time to time in the store... what store?
MasterbatingMinotaurs & Engles
is that like marks and spencers for beastfolk
I’m sure if (when) Blando loses the WDC, this race will be one of the (many)excuses the Sky commentating team give.
Sir Lewis just announced he changed his foundation’s name from Project 44 to Lewis Hamilton Ventures. Hopefully this is in advance of there being no car 44 on the grid next year.
Lando got lucky a few weeks ago. It ran out on sunday.
Way off topic, but I felt it belonged somewhere here. I was hosting a party over the weekend and ran into the husband of a friend of mine.
Me: "Is that a 5172?"
Him: "You probably know better than me. [Wife] said I needed a nicer watch to wear to things like this. I like it though."
That, my fellow ACF-ers, is the flex that the braggadocio we see among some of the commentariat here can only aspire to.
i wish i could be that nonchalant about a patek
quite a flex indeed
Completely genuine disinterest, too.
I'm old enough to know I can't do that as much as I wish I could.
Id say that is 90% of the rolex crowd. Ive got 20k to waste, i guess ill buy a watch. Since i am upper middle class white trash, i waste it on guns and motorcycles
Or 200k or whatever. Sub porsche for rolex
"waste" is an odd way of spelling "invest"
You will almost always be behind after carrying costs. When a rolex or a Porsche gives me a dividend, i will invest in them.
I didn't mean "invest" in the Sherman sense of the word, but rather spending money on something that brings you joy.
Easy to get - trades for ~60% of retail (!)
When even Bought-and-Paid-For Ben is criticizing Patek pricing…
https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/the-patek-philippe-5370r-split-seconds-chronograph-and-a-look-back-at-the-last-ten-years-of-high-end
'Easy to get - trades for ~60% of retail (!)'
This is the most interesting insight yet into how you view this stuff -- let's call it the Labubu Theory of Value. You only want a watch, or a car, or whatever, in proportion to how much the people around you want it.
This is how women choose men, but it's not how men should choose anything.
Any sane person would say, "What an outstanding choice, to buy the Patek that trades for under retail instead of the Patek that goes for a 5x multiple of retail." The irony here is Fancy Boy Wannabe Clymer is making a similar argument, griping that people pay the most money for the least interesting, and least complicated, Pateks, because they're simply buying the thing to show it off.
I understand that in a world where anyone can afford anything, which in the case of Gilded Age people buying $250k watches is essentially the case, there is no prestige assigned to the purchase. The prestige is in being *chosen*.
If you only value things by what they sell for and/or market cap, you will end up living a life of permanent Labubu desire, always anxiously looking around you for guidance on what to buy or own.
THANK YOU.
What I left unsaid (and people seem to be missing) is that he bought it _because he liked the design_ and not for people to know what it is or because it holds value, or because "it's time for a Patek".
“I liked it” is a great reasom to buy something. And “i dodmt like it”
Is a great reasom not to
Your ‘troll radar’ is broken, because you have experienced a false positive AND a false negative in the matter of a few hours.
I was not trolling about AGI; I was trolling about the perceived value of the Patek with a little Yogi Berra-ism.
If one wanted to spend ballpark $60K on a nice Patek, I think a 5327G would be a better choice. My old boss who fantasizes about replacing his entire team of non-revenue generating leaches with A(G)I has one.
Another perpetual calendar option in that price range is this AP:
https://www.chrono24.com/audemarspiguet/audemars-piguet-code-1159-perpetual-calendar--id40832390.htm?noDesc=true&utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=us-c24om-ba-aqs_organicshopping&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=19576298556&gbraid=0AAAAADtV097Ke36davjo-OV5xVmltKXFO&gclid=Cj0KCQjwzt_FBhCEARIsAJGFWVlis94AzBrQlIcXB-BWFjJnnJWQeue3PJDpXowQsneIwgKgUk6fLcMaAv74EALw_wcB
The Code 11.59 is the ugliest watch ever made. I'd rather wear an Invicta.
5327G is really nice. Micro-rotor and erry-thang.
You need to try the Code 11:59 on to appreciate its understated merits.
Beautiful dial, beautiful case, beautiful movement. And it’s under-appreciated by the market.
Listen, we all have our aesthetic blind spots. I think the MR-G-B2000 is a LOVELY watch. Most people think it's an awful titanium blob.
I can imagine it wears well. But I'd rather have a Lange or one of the elegance collection Grand Seikos.
The gshock is the ugliest watch ever made. Makes up for it by being useful
“User was banned for this post “
Sir, there are MANY different G-Shock designs, each ugly in its own way.
"This is how women choose men, but it's not how men should choose anything."
That's a really great sentence. I wonder how many "men" actually live by it.
We've only got a certain number of rides around the sun on this blue ball before we meet our maker, and I'd rather not waste any of them trying to impress anybody else with "things they think I should want".
If a thing is cool to ME when it's not cool to anybody else, then it will ALWAYS be cool, because I doubt my impression of what's cool is ever going to change (especially when the thing I think is cool is a thing nobody else values).
If I acquire a thing simply because my neighbor thinks it's cool, or somebody else thinks I should have it -- then I'm allowing somebody else to live their life through me... and expecting me to pay the freight for the right.
I like chronographs. QUARTZ chronographs -- the kind that keep perfect time, work for decades, and cost <$300. I've got 6, because that's what my $14 watch case will hold. I feel pretty darned cool having them.
If someone else finds it cool, it’s a bonus but not a deciding factor to me
I suppose it depends if I care enough about their opinion for it to matter. Not a lot of people make that cut. There are maybe 10 people I know (and I live with one of them) whose opinion matters to me.
There are a lot of great quartz watches out there, both vintage and new. One of the best watches I I own is a $330 street price Casio Oceanus titanium.
Bulova Lunar Pilot?
No.
I was looking hard at Lunar Pilots, but I began to wonder if the reason I was so hot on them was because it's pretty much the ONLY quartz watch "approved" by watch aficionados. As I said, I want to buy things because I want them -- other people thinking I should want them actually gives me pause, and I push back against it.
I really do think the Lunar Pilots with the Precisionist movements are pretty cool, and bought during Black Friday or some such -- are actually not expensive
... but my wife gave me a Tissot Seastar she bought for me while we were on vacation in Jamaca. She overpaid, but not by a lot -- it was around $500. It goes with the gold-tone Seiko she bought me in 1992 when our marriage was very nearly over and when we had absolutely nothing. We made it, and we have a lot more -- but I still remember when I wear it.
I want those watches to be the nicest I'll ever have. They are exceedingly cool (and meaningful) to me, so I bought a Bulova Marine Star instead of the Lunar Pilot last Christmas.
I like the look of it better than the Lunar Pilot, nobody is impressed with it for being "smart", and I'm a sucker for multiple buttons, stems, and dials, and this baby's got them in spades. The orange face is quite a departure for me. I rather like it.
I never connected it properly before, prestige in being chosen. That certainly explains ferrari
You are right. But just as with your Forum Guy comment above, I don't know why you bother arguing with this guy (nor why *he* bothers to comment here so much).
Two reasons:
0. he is a paid subscriber and I engage tirelessly with all my paid subscribers.
1. by talking to him online, I keep him off the streets, where he would be in danger of being raped by any man five foot eight or above.
same reason im here so it checks out
That article, while interesting, was about the price of the new rose gold version (of a completely different watch entirely) maybe not being worth it since you could get the non-rose gold on the used market for about 65% of the MSRP of the new one.
I posted it because Ben makes a more general argument (at least in my recollection, I read it a month ago upon initial publication) that Patek pricing has gotten too high.
Plus, Jack and I have a side discussion in which we clown on Ben Social Clymer, most recently for his ridiculous, Ralph-Lauren supplied outfit at the U.S. Open. So I knew it would arouse Jack’s ire.
Ben is the definition of a circus clown but I don't think he is completely off the mark here. Patek has a tiger by the tail. They can sell 10 steel watches for every one they are selling now, but they will become a steel watch company and they don't want that.
You and I have spoken elsewhere about how my AD will put me in line for a Nautilus if DG becomes a Grand Complication owner. Which is borderline hilarious. "You can get in line for a Boxster if you buy a 918." Actually, come to think of, that's how they did the 911R, which gained value with the ferocity of a 918 LOSING value!
I KNEW the discussion was about 911s.
The comments in the Hodinkee article go DIRECTLY to PORSH CUCK TOWN. They don't even pass the watch market.
Reading what these dorks have to say about PORSH makes me feel mortified that I ever had three of them at the same time. The PORSH, not the dorks.
I don’t think he’s off the mark, either.
The reason to “establish a relationship” with an AD is so that you can get the super special, super limited whatever that arrives after you’ve ascended the greasy pole and happen to have a spare $XXXK liquid at that precise moment to transact.
And if the AD closes or moves to new ownership, *poof!* There goes your relationship with that brand. Just go gray and enjoy the GC and Nautilus ASAP.
OR instead of being forced to bundle, she can get a GC and you can sidestep the Nautilus and get a Royal Oak!
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-07-17/tiffany-s-blue-dial-nautilus-watch-release-frayed-its-patek-relationship
Or buy a casio that keeps better time. It wont impress women but niether will a fancy watch
All of this is gay
Now more than ever, Ben has become a caricature of an old-money rich person. Of course, he is not, and just looks like a fool.
Pure wannabe status. He looks like the Reddit caricature of a cuck to boot.
His beard is too short and he’s nowhere near fat enough.
Correct.
He wears a lot of Ralph Lauren, which is the perfect brand for an arriviste!
That’s probably more common than you’d think for people with high end watches. They have money, someone says they need a nicer watch, and pick out what looks nice at the shop in whatever nice town they live. Kind of like jewelry they buy for their wives.
It's probably more the rule than an outlier in high-end automobiles, too. That's why Ferrari and Lambo lost their clutch pedals over a decade ago.
Its like this with everything. 10% enthusiasts. I was a watch enthusiast when i couldnt afford one, now that i can, dropping 10k on a timepiece seems ridiculous. Also because i tried wearing a $90 watch for a week and lasted a day.
Cameras, espresso machines, furniture, clothing, pens, etc.
If you go spend $10K on a watch and get what you probably want as a first “nice” watch - which is what most people want, a Rolex - you will at worst break even wearing it.
All a waste of money. Maybe a furniture exception.
Am i breaking even after i do the annual maintenance and run my rate of return spread sheet?
You don’t need to do any annual maintenance on a Rolex, even a Daytona. I had mine for 4.5 years and it needed nothing during that time.
The rate of return will comfortably exceed inflation, and there is some enjoyment value to having one on your wrist. Which is the primary reason people buy them.
Right now maybe. I doubt if i buy a rolex and stuff it in a closet for 30 years it will beat inflation. Besides, if i wanted a watch, which i dont, id buy what i like and not what i imagine to beat inflation. Ill just get a band and a couple ounces of gold. That will appreciate and i can still check the time on my phone
-With Herta as a test driver, Cadillac can truthfully say they have put an American into a modern F1 car. With a straight face. They might think the marketing is worth the loss of incalculably valuable seat time.
-Wintermute at least tried to keep innocents out of the line of fire. Of course, that was an actual AI, as opposed to a crazed pattern matching algo.
-'Convey valuable information?' Of what, how much of my preferred hallucinogen it will take to make a girl think I have horns?
-How can you NOT be 'more than your politics?' Evidently, be a commentator at Autopian.
My wrist watch cost $250. I have no idea what make/brand it is. It does one thing only, the thing such devices were originally designed to do. It runs on a battery which only rarely needs replacing.
I like the way it looks.
Any questions?
Yes ~ why didn't you buy a TIMEX ? .
-Nate
Perhaps he did.
No, he said he $pent an egregious amount .
-Nate
$250 is not that bad for something that's gonna last you a decade. Hell, twice that wouldn't be egregious.
Of course, being a Timex man myself, I see your point.
My Timex Indiglo is well over 30 years old and never misses a beat .
I understand nice watches, I was looking at rectangular shaped, retro (1930's) design watches and my Sweet bought me one just because .
It's a Breitling and the fact is was only $350 gives you an idea of how long ago that was .
It too never misses a beat but I only wear it when I know I'll be with her .
-Nate
That's a fine watch, sir, wear it in health!
I love Indiglo. I've had poor luck with them lasting the beating I give a watch. Good lume on a $80 watch with analog hands is the holy grail.
Casio dive watch for the win. $50.
As a Timex owner, I usually have this question in my head when I see a watch over 100 bucks. But we all understand perceived value and the racoon brain that wants shiny. And 250 bucks isn't a lot of money anymore in "these _________ times."
As a Casio, Timex, Citizen, Tag, Ebel, Movado, Bulova, Victorinox [Insert some other mid-tier under $2000 watch brand] - I think you hit the head on PERCEIVED VALUE (which is a combination of what's IMPORTANT to the buyer, in relation to what they are willing / can afford) plus shiny new thingy.
Where folks differ is in perceived value. What's affordable for you and makes reasonable sense for purchasing, may be vastly different than someone else.
It's hard for me to wrap my head around folks who buy things simply because they are expensive. But I'm sure it's equally as hard for others to look at folks (like me) who have thousands of dollars wrapped up in watches (and not a single "investment" / high-end watch to show for it).
In my defense:
1. Watches are about the only form of acceptable male jewelry (at least at my age / generation),
2. I buy them for me, typically to mark a sentimental milestone (birth, promotion, anniversary, big trip, etc.),
3. I buy what I like, which is a combination of looks & an appreciation for build quality (this includes $30 Casios),
and lastly 4. I allot what I find reasonable to this frivolous endeavor (I struggle to call buying things and looking at them a hobby), which for me is high 3 figures / low 4 figures. If my income was much more or much less than what it is today; my threshold would be different.
I don't have a wrist watch because I'm a minimalist. That's weight I can use to carry another spare magazine instead.
I can't tell the time, but I can tell you that a spare magazine allows me another 4.25 seconds of outgoing fire with 1/4 second splits.
Being the guy in the gunfight who still has bullets is not a commonly seen flex, but when the opportunity arises there is none higher.
When you need another mag, you REALLY need another mag if you don't get holed in the first very long 7 seconds.
I’ll never criticize someone for carrying an extra mag, but I’ll sure as fuck criticize someone for suggesting that wearing or not wearing a watch was what allowed/prevented them from doing so. Nonsense.
That’s how I feel about my Eco Drive which wasn’t much more than your watch. It’s nice to think “I bought this thing, it’s optimized now, I don’t have to think about this category again for 10+ years.”
Kind of like what Ed Norton said about his sofa in Fight Club.
“ Half of the watch-collecting hobby’s rocket trajectory has been due to the fact that every kid in the ghetto has an Apple Watch now.”
I saw an interesting tweet or tik tok or whatever where an interviewer went around and asked a bunch of “kids in the ghetto” what time it is, and every single one said “I ain’t know man my watch ain’t charged.” The hypothesis was that these are either A) all stolen so they don’t HAVE chargers or B) “those people” just don’t maintain stuff.
I’m happy to believe either because since about 2020 I’ve turned into an unrepentant racist. Take that Autopian wimps.
Easy credit turned Being Busy into the 21st Century's Mercedes, because what good is having an S-Class if every hood-rat weed dealer can have one, too?
"“those people” just don’t maintain stuff"
now imagine if the smartwatches chirped when the batteries ran low
“Ceiling bird is now wrist bird! Dafuq?”
"it jus do that"
Falconry.
Apparently, some people think the chirps mean the smoke detectors are working.
Those double digit IQ points at work
There's a big difference between 85 and 99. The U.S. military won't accept anyone who tests out below the equivalent of 83 because they can't be trained.
i recall reading that the cutoff for mental retardation was changed from 75 to 85 becuase about half of the demographic would then qualify for social assistance and that was too expensive
Apparently there are 130+ iq guys who comment right here who are retarded
The “welfare babies” are coming of age! Who knew that they all wouldn’t be pillars of society?!
If this isn't an argument for either ending welfare or eugenics, I don't know what is.
Theyre not completely wrong
Do they actually sound like a low-battery beep from a smoke alarm? Christ, I’d NEVER allow that battery to run low, that being the case!
I'd presume A and B. They stole and they don't maintain it. Example B: Kias.
Also, I don’t read Autopian but I recently found out against my will that Motor Trend wrapped up a long term test on a Model Y and they absolutely slammed it.
Now I have no great love for Teslas/EVs, but I have to think that their criticism (which I did not read, it’s fucking Motor Trend) has more to do with the fact that the author is an (I’m not making this up) ironic-mustache-having vegan bicycle enthusiast. I’m sure he LOVES Elon. Fag.
damn you called him gay three times in a row
It’s been a long time since I’ve read anything in Motor Trend but when I did read MT it seemed like they never met a car they didn’t like so I can’t wrap my head around them slamming anything, especially an environmentally friendly electric car.
The liberal Jesus of 2021 (Mr. Musk) is now the antichrist. One must hate his vehicles and pine for BYDs to be welcome into the club.
It kinda' makes me want to buy one, just to tweak my leftie friends' noses, and I think BEVs are the greatest grift in the history of the industrial age.
Kinda'. Not enough to, you know, actually be seen in one.
They also had one on Tesla owners who are horrified by his political involvement and the “Nazi salute”. I think it was the same writer. Very Jalopnik.
The "low-tech parenting" thing reminds me of how the aristocracy has spent the last half-century encouraging the dissolution of poor and middle-class families, only to zealously defend that same intact home when it applies to them.
Western civilization for the last 100 years has been an exercise in our "betters" doing everything possible to turn us back into serfs.
In a world where there is no dust on the track, Max leads half the race.
Would it matter?
It might have, because it would have forced Oscar and Lando to scrap it out. If Lando gets ahead of Oscar then retires... maybe Max wins.
I thought Max might have been able to put a move on Oscar at the final restart (giving the tire offset). I think he would have if there were something meaningful to play for (for him).
Max is good enough ill give you a maybe here but he hasn’t been able to keep the mclarens behind him. And yeah, the track.