Comments

Episode-2354- Listener Feedback for 1-7-19 — 8 Comments

  1. Regarding cell phones at meals. I lost my mom last may. Your (well, Mrs Spirko’s I guess) comment about wishing for just one more dinner conversation with mom really hit home. If I’m at a fast food joint getting a quick bite alone, I might browse the news or something on the phone, but if I’m with someone, especially family, the phone stays in my pocket, period, always.

    • I wanted a griddle but having just built my dream outdoor kitchen I didn’t want something else taking up space. Also given I just put in an awesome Weber 6 burner Genesis it seemed sort of redundant to have more heat sources. So I went with a Little Griddle GQ230. It covers 4 of my 6 burners, so I still have some grill space, gets plenty fricken hot, and when not in use it sits on top of my pot rack out of the way. https://amzn.to/2Fnu4ll

      If you have a high end grill these things are awesome and the small one is now only 46 bucks. If you have a cheap grill though they just won’t get up to temp for you.

  2. Happy New Year, Jack! Back in the excellent “Richest Man in Babylon” episode (~8/16/18), you said investing in whole life is the worst thing ever. Could you elaborate? I was seriously considering it after Liberty Forum  but that episode and a job loss (on the same day!) de-prioritized the idea.

    Anyone try a wok on a rocket stove? I think it would result in great “Wok-chi” but haven’t tried it. Would cast iron or carbon steel be best? Thanks!

     

     

    • Life insurance is life insurance, you should get as much as you can for as little as possible and you do that with TERM.  Investing is investing, it isn’t insurance.  For some very high net worth individuals whole life is part of a strategy to leave money to heirs without the death tax, for anything else it is the fucking devil.

      Price whole, price term, invest the difference.  Get 20-30 year term or even term to 90 (which I have) and in 20-30 years the investments will be so significant you won’t give a fuck about life insurance.

      You will find the only informed people that defend whole life, also sell it.

  3. I haven’t listened to the episode yet. But wanted to comment on Excel. I’ve written apps in spreadsheets and it is great. Sure they aren’t as good as a real app. But it gets me most of the way there. I use google sheets now days just because of the query operator and being online. I know Excel is online too but I need the ctrl+<down arrow> to quickly navigate the spreadsheet and a few years ago Excel didn’t have that capability.

    I recently created an app in google sheets that tracks soccer players (there were 13 girls on my team) during games, what positions they played, and how many times they played. It was great for making sure that everyone got to play in different positions and got to play about the same amount.

    I’ve actually written a quite complex application in Excel which exports data to HTML files. The company I wrote it for is still using it for their clients after about 6 years now. It really should have been done in JavaScript with a proper back end. But I was cheap for the company and creating apps in Excel is extremely easy. Again, not ideal and not always super user friendly. But when your other developers are tide up working on other projects and resources are scarce Excel can be a great tool to create prototypes/bridges for applications. And, as a personal tool, to create great custom apps.

  4. Another option for small pumps is Harbor Freight.  I have a typical IBC system (top 10″ cut off and flipped on top for a growbed) with an additional bed beside it (old bathtub).  I have one HF 264 gph feeding each bed and the flow is just about perfect.  I usually run a constant flood system but will sometimes run a bell siphon or timed flood and drain.  If one pump plugs/dies, it’s likely  that the other still runs so there’s always water circulating and aerating as it falls back into the tank.

    I pick these pumps up when they are on sale for around $17 and they last quite a long time (1-2 years).  The axle that the rotor spins on will eventually wear clear through but I just cut new ones out of a length of stainless TIG welding rod.  Eventually the rotor gets pretty worn also so I just drop a new pump in.  Never have had an electrical failure on one.

  5. Regarding wills and leaving things anonymously to your heirs.

    Having recently had to go through the probate process. Upon your death, your will needs to be filed with the court and becomes a public record. Anybody who wants to, can go to the courthouse and read it.

    If you want something to be anonymous, do it like Jack said in the episode or you can get advice on creating a trust and have your heirs inherit from the trust which will not become public record.