Extra! Extra!
Added 2025-05-07 04:09:52 +0000 UTCWe kick off the month with a couple news stories and some casual conversation amongst friends :)
Comments
What doesn't click for me with self-driving cars is that the other stuff is real. Online stores work, taxis worked, diapers work. Self-driving? You can do it in a few locations, the self-driving is often middling... this is not a real market to me. It sounds more like a grift to capture investor money.
Amanda
2025-05-15 19:31:11 +0000 UTCTemu makes a lot more sense once you know that the app it’s based on (the Chinese app Pinduoduo, Temu is the American version) at one point offered payday microloans in-app to the extent that it had the potential to destabilize the national economy. Also, the company that owns both apps has such brutal working conditions that their OFFICE WORKERS have died from exhaustion working there. It Could Happen Here did a pretty good episode on it a while ago, horrifying stuff
Eva
2025-05-08 16:47:18 +0000 UTCLolo is such an awesome addition to the podcast he brings the rest of you so much joy
Tormentum
2025-05-07 20:28:58 +0000 UTCIn response to your question of how musk and Waymo see a path to profitability: They're following the current big tech playbook which is the same as Amazon, the same as facebook, and that is grow big enough and fast enough that you can use your growth and massive funds to undercut the market. Uber did a similar thing to drive cab drivers out of business by offering unrealistically low rates, that they knew were on profitable, but all they needed to do was drive the competition out of business and then, with no competition, they can charge whatever they want. This is the goal for Tesla and waymo. They aren't trying to make a business model that is actually better than what we have, or is somehow more profitable. All they're trying to do is capture the market. Once the market is captured they can charge whatever they want and make all of that burned money back. You see this time and time again with stuff like Amazon massively discounting diapers on their website to drive a diaper competitor that would not sell to them out of business. You see it with meta buying Instagram and then massively increasing the ad load that users see. Their business model is literally just to have a burning money competition, and they bet that they can burn money longer, and at the end the winner gets to charge exorbitant prices and make butt loads of money all at the public's expense.
Marshall Halleck
2025-05-07 13:55:10 +0000 UTC"I have a lot of disguises" Dude what a fucking legend
Joel Bonasera
2025-05-07 11:30:59 +0000 UTCTrump has destroyed the femtanyl industry complexity.
Troy DeCarolis
2025-05-07 10:06:57 +0000 UTCI've never bought anything from Temu before but I did buy some stuff from Alibaba once in like 2016 and I assumed those were basically the same? The last year I was looking for something online and Temu had it. I didn't really wanna buy from Temu but I clicked the link just to take a look and was IMMEDIATELY ASSAULTED by that insane fucking website which didn't even let me look at the thing. Really conjures the same feeling as when you accidentally click on a virus link.
Ronin Fredricson
2025-05-07 08:52:44 +0000 UTCPlease come to Houston for the Texas live show. The food here is by far the best
John Her
2025-05-07 05:59:01 +0000 UTCYou can apparently beat microdots by programming the printer to add additional dots to disrupt the encoded info
John Her
2025-05-07 05:28:43 +0000 UTCExcited to listen to whatever fresh hells the crew has uncovered
John Her
2025-05-07 04:11:25 +0000 UTC
