We are out of the ZIRP era, and Ubers and Lyfts are now back to costing the same as a taxi ride. As I’m taking more taxi rides, I’m noticing that taxi drivers drive much more recklessly than rideshare drivers and are also more distracted on their phones. Car cleanliness and politeness is also a hit or miss. I theorize the main driver of this difference is feedback. Rideshare drivers get a feedback rating after every single ride and are de-platformed if their rating goes below a threshold (I believe 4 or even 4.5 stars). Taxi drivers have no such feedback loop. You can similarly compare restaurants and medical providers. Restaurants are a brutally hard industry - ones that don’t get consistently good reviews from patrons and critics fail inevitably. This also improves the overall quality of restaurants that do survive. Hospitals and doctors, on the other hand, have no such feedback loop. Patients have no good place to check a provider's ratings or even know if a doctor is tre...
We get upset and unhappy about many things. Someone something said or did upset you. Your parents, partner, friends, or kids are asking you to do things you don't want to, or they misunderstand you. They don't act in a way that you feel is right or helpful. Your manager, colleague, or customer criticized your work, or they aren't cooperating. You didn't get the promotion or award you wanted or think you deserved. You are running low on savings and income and worried that you can't support yourself and your family. You are in physical pain or your health is declining and you have unusual body aches and insomnias. Your country or community is divided. The system seems broken, leaders seem corrupt, and people seem selfish and ignorant. So many flavors of unhappiness, incessantly knocking at your door! But all of these worries and unhappiness are rooted in these four main causes. If you conquer or make peace with those causes, you can rise above all unhap...
When Saudi Arabia revealed their plans for “The Line”, a 105 mile long skyscraper city, a lot of people scoffed. I have to admit I didn’t think much of it either, and may even have laughed it off. But now, as they are actually building it and making progress, I’m wow-ed by both how unique the idea is, and the audacity and conviction to pursue such a huge and innovative project. 9 million people in one connected complex in the middle of the desert, mirrored exterior and other features for clever temperature control, 100% renewable, underground water desalination, no cars, everything you need within 5 mins, a train that can go end-to-end within 20 mins, and a whopping $1T budget. That’s straight out of a science fiction novel, and I’d love to visit or even live there for some time! What a cool and interesting experiment for humanity! When people propose and pursue bold ideas, we need to default to cheering them on; not criticism or mockery. We want to live in a world of wonder and a...