Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

In case of emergency

The problem with modern cars is that they don’t come with spare tires. My BMW M2 certainly does not have one. In its trunk space where a spare is suppose to be, there’s the 12-volt battery (because race car), and a can of tire goo. There’s no emergency jack, or a lug wrench to take off the wheels. In the event of a puncture, I would hook that can to the faulty tire’s valve stem, and the goo is suppose to fill up the tire’s innards. Doing so is suppose to buy me just enough time and mileage to get the car to a tire repair shop.

Oh by the way, the punctured tire that I just filled with goo? It’s irreplaceable. Even if the offending hole is otherwise small enough to be patched. I guess BMW really expect its owners to have the income to replace a $300 tire (if you don’t cheap out, that is) without it hurting. Don’t forget: for balance, you typically should replace the other tire on the same axle as well. That’s $600 in potential repair simply because of a tiny piece of sharp object on the road surface. It’s either that, or call a tow truck. (Presumably, being left stranded on the side of the road is not a choosable option.)

I went with a third option: making and packing my own emergency tire kit. The consensus on the best scissor jack for BMW cars is this $25 unit from Harbor Freight. The head fits into BMW jacking points perfectly. Also from Harbor Freight is this heavy duty tire repair kit. It has everything: plier to extract the foreign object, reamer to prepare the hole, insertion tool for the rubber plugs, and a blade to cut off the excess. The $22 it costs is vastly cheaper than replacing an entire tire. You hate on Made in China until you have to pay for Made in the USA prices.

Lastly, I bought this lug wrench from Amazon. It’s got the necessary 17mm socket for BMW lug bolts. With these three tools packed in the M2’s trunk, I can tackle any puncture during road trips, short of something catastrophic. (That can of goo isn’t going to do much for a hole that size, either.) Best of all, I can take these tools with me to whatever my next car would be. Because it’s very likely that will also not have a spare tire or emergency tools.

Did you get got?

Is your Social Security number amongst the billions of personal information records that were hacked from National Public Data, a background check service? Apparently a hacking group stole all of that information, and has been offering them for sale on the dark web. You can go here to check if your very own personal information is a part of that data breach.

I am lucky: there were no matches found for my information. Unfortunately, I have friends and coworkers who were not so lucky. They now have to freeze their credit at the three major credit bureaus, and keep a hawkish eye on their Credit Karma accounts.

It’s crazy to think that back in the day - well before my time, San Francisco State University ID numbers were people’s Social Security numbers! Either that was the stupidest thing ever, or indeed it was during a time when the Internet isn’t what it has become today. Back then, even if you know a person’s Social Security number, using it for nefarious stuff isn’t so easy. To open lines of credit, you would have to physically visit a bank. Pro tip for those looking to commit fraud: best not do so in-person, at places with security cameras.

Obviously it’s whole new world these days. A name with a matching Social Security number is a gushing gold mine for opening credit cards. Some ill-gotten spending power is just a few clicks on a banking website away.

You know what they should do? Invoke a second factor authentication whenever Social Security number is used. Something that only the actual person would know, or have access to that information. Perhaps the total gross income from a specific tax return year. The bank should be able to verify this with the IRS. It’s a hassle, sure, but I would definitely want that safety when my credit identity and worthiness is at stake.

Not without the sacrifice

Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, got into some controversy during a recent talk at Stanford. Basically, he said that Google is falling behind AI startups like OpenAI because of work-life balance and working from home policies. The virtual-signaling crowd has come out in criticism, saying work-life balance is super important, and not everyone wants to dedicate a majority of their time energy towards work.

And that’s fine - have your work-life balance! Just don’t expect the same results as a team of workers spending 80 to 100 hours a week slaving away at a problem. As the great Thomas Sowell wrote: “There are no ideal solutions, only trade-offs.” Eric is absolutely correct: a mature company of many thousands can get beaten by a plucky startup dedicated to a eureka moment. For every Adobe, there’s a Figma willing to out-grind its ass.

Work-life balance has many positives, but there are indeed trade-offs. I know this first hand. My career working IT at a university has tremendous work-life balance. However, I know I’m leaving lots of money on the table. In fact, I make the least out of my group of friends. The equation is simple, really: the more time you spend working, the more money you will make. Show me a CEO who goes home right at 5:00 PM, and I will show you a failing company.

I think what people want - and honestly, who wouldn’t if you can get it - is to have work-life balance, but also the high salary. They want the results without the sacrifice. Obviously, that’s not how it works in the real world. If you have aspirations of climbing a company ladder, you put in more work than what is minimally required. You are going to get beaten to the higher seat by the coworker who can come in on a Saturday, while you are home tending to the kids.

Is it fair? Of course it is. The lunch is not free. What do you want to sacrifice?

You can't take a shortcut

Blink and you’ll miss it. My housemates’ set of twins turned a year old! Cliche to say, but it does indeed seem like just a few months ago they came home from the hospital. Those tiny little humans! Also cliche to say: when it comes to kids, the days are long, but the years are short.

I think having children is the best reminder that good results simply takes consistent effort over long periods of time. There aren’t really shortcuts when it comes to raising kids. You change their diapers and feed them milk for the nth amount of time, then they start talking and walking. There’s no hack, or top 10 tips to get your babies to grow faster. There’s only the work, day after day after day.

And unlike something like exercising or going on a diet, parents can’t exactly just stop this whole taking care of a child thing. Well, the morally sound ones, anyways.

Parenting is suppose to be hard. I think if there were this hypothetical shortcut to raising kids, those that did it before the hack was invented would be seriously resentful. The same way those who have diligently paid off their students loans are loathe to see those who didn’t get theirs forgiven by the government. Or those who lost their excess weight through diet and exercise, are hateful towards those who can now simply inject Ozempic into their bellies once a week.

Paradoxical, isn’t it? People love a shortcut (get abs in two weeks videos), but people also hate those who take shortcuts (can also be known as cheating). I think it’s positive to see that ultimately, we all know that putting in the work consistently is what makes that pot of gold at the end genuinely worth its weight.

Again!?

It’s not very nice to wake up to an email from Squarespace saying the price of a website subscription has, once again, gone up. This, after the company has already raised the pricing only last year. Inflation may have slowed to “normal”, but Squarespace certainly doesn’t think so! It might not be right now, but at some point I have to rethink whether or not it is worth the $200 per year just for the ability to say: I’ve got a website!

Is Tumblr still free? (Who owns it now anyways?) Maybe I should go back to blogging on that. It wouldn’t look as nice, but that extra $200 per year can easily cover a single trip to Costco. Hashtag browsing.

You ever look at your W2 during tax time, and wonder out loud where the heck did all your money go? You’ve made a certain amount of money this past calendar year, and yet your checking account can barely cover a month’s worth of bills.

All of these subscriptions we enjoy can add up to a large number, given a long enough timeline. $15 per month here and there may seem eminently affordable, but I would say those are the phantoms leeching away your monthly paycheck. For me, my subscriptions combined is easily $160 per month. While that can barely cover a single trip to Costco, imaging saving that amount every month. Do it for a long enough timeline…

That said, asceticism does not interest me. You got to spend your money on something, right? Though I think it’s important to periodically reevaluate whether or not something is worth the time and money. This website of mine remains worthy. But if prices keep going the way of these past two annual renewals, I’m going to have to think about it.

No soup for you

Word on the street is that Costco will begin scanning membership cards at warehouse entrances. As if the problem at Costco is they don’t check for your membership enough? Not only do they already visually check for a card at the entrance, but then they scan your card again at checkout. One time I was at self-checkout, and a team member asked to see my card, even though I already scanned it at the machine?! Nowadays you even need to show proof of membership before buying at the food court.

Of course, I get it: Costco has to protect its 4.5 billion dollars per year cash cow in the form of membership dues. Inflationary headwinds has made it difficult for Costco to keep its famously bargain prices. Much like how Netflix cracked down on account sharing, the prevailing standard operating procedure is clear: no more freeloading. A hot dog and soda for $1.50 - a menu item that Costco most certainly loses money on - is for paying members only.

I wonder if non-members have solicited members to buy food for them. Like teenagers asking an adult to go inside a gas station to buy liquor. With fast food prices in the 10s of dollars for a meal, $1.50 for a hot dog and soda just might be the closest thing to a free lunch.

I guess Costco membership “sharing” is not statistically insignificant? I mean, otherwise the company wouldn’t bother implementing account scanning at the front entrance. They want to make doubly sure the membership is active, and the cardholder is the actual person there. No more taking screenshots of the membership QR code in Costco app and sending it to your friends or relatives. (Does that even work?)

Hey, if that means less people inside of Costco during busy times, I welcome the new membership enforcement mechanism!

Afford to maintain

My BMW M2 is due for its annual service in September. Good news for me, I already prepaid for this last year. $800 for two annual services seems like a fantastic deal to me, especially so with all the inflation going on.

It would be naive to think the inflation hammer missed the automotive maintenance and repair industry. Apparently, there’s a shortage of skilled mechanics. You know what that means: labor cost is higher to keep the few good ones. Even if parts and material costs remains flat (I see the five quart jug of motor oil I bought back in 2022 is only $3 dearer), the price for an oil change would have certainly increased due to the higher shop rate. Can Jiffy Lube even do $20 oil changes anymore?

It feels like $100 is the new $20.

The average transaction price of a new car is $48,000. Auto insurance premiums have increased about 20% for everybody. Gasoline prices (for 91 octane) have stayed consistently above the five dollar mark this entire year (San Francisco Bay Area). The math of car ownership is quickly becoming a painful one. It’s no wonder people skimp out on vehicle maintenance. A car only needs periodic oils changes, and nothing else, am I right?

Japanese cars have a reliable reputation because they can survive on oil changes alone. German cars have an unreliable reputation because they absolutely cannot. For example: the M2 calls for spark plug changes every three years. Go see how long the engine will last if an owner ignores the book and just changes the oil every year.

I think German cars can be equally reliable as the Japanese, so long as you follow the maintenance manual to the letter. Obviously, that’s going to cost a hearty chunk of money annually. This is why I would hesitate to buy a used German car that doesn’t have a full stack of maintenance invoices matching the book. The only used car I ever bought - the 911 GT3 - had full dealership service records.

I am definitely saving up for future maintenance spend for the M2. It most certainly is going to get more and more expensive.