[FRIAM] Roger Mcnamee !!??

[Marcus Daniels]

Nick writes:

< So what do your present investments look like? >

I work at home, and like most people (during the pandemic) there's a point at which you want some privacy and quiet space to do work.   So, I hang out in the garage, which is fine most of the time here, except for right now.   It is the few months of the year where it is uncomfortably cold.

I look at my PGE bill and ponder my options.  I can do nothing and be annoyed with noise and distraction.   At about the same cost I can 2) build an insulated ceiling in the garage and turn on heaters, or 3) not insulate the garage and heat it.   If I heat with gas or propane, it will be a relatively low cost.   If I use electricity, it won't be cheap.   To fix the electricity problem, I'll need to slap down $40k or something to get the Tesla Powerwalls + solar.   If I do that, I don't even need to insulate since I'll have power to spare.   Ideally, I would do both 2 and 3.

The problem is that I'm incentivized to do the lazy thing which is to get a cheap gas heater.
They should be taxing the natural gas so much that I don't even consider it.

Marcus
________________________________
From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> on behalf of thompnickson2 at gmail.com <thompnickson2 at gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 2, 2022 2:00 PM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <friam at redfish.com>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Roger Mcnamee !!??


So what do your present investments look like?



n



Nick Thompson

ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com<mailto:ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com>

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/



From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Sunday, January 2, 2022 2:58 PM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <friam at redfish.com>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Roger Mcnamee !!??



Nick writes:



< So, what does a healthy 2040 community look like.   What are we working TOWARD, here.  Once of the things that the Mcnamee podcast highlighted for me was my feeling that, in a chaotic world, people like me, planners, are just out of tune with the world. >



I don't think it really matters how people interact in social media or what they think.   What will matter is how people adapt to climate change and the exhaustion of food and energy, and the migrations resulting from climate change.  That's where the opportunities will be.   If there are millions of people that deny it is happening like they deny pandemics, then things simply must be arranged so that the natural accounting occurs.   The planners will look past the chaos and make their investments.. and wait.



Marcus

________________________________

From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com<mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com>> on behalf of thompnickson2 at gmail.com<mailto:thompnickson2 at gmail.com> <thompnickson2 at gmail.com<mailto:thompnickson2 at gmail.com>>
Sent: Sunday, January 2, 2022 1:32 PM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <friam at redfish.com<mailto:friam at redfish.com>>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Roger Mcnamee !!??



So, what does a healthy 2040 community look like.   What are we working TOWARD, here.  Once of the things that the Mcnamee podcast highlighted for me was my feeling that, in a chaotic world, people like me, planners, are just out of tune with the world.



By the way, I think “surfing the web” , as it has been used, is a terrible metaphor.  What most of us do is like water skiing the web.  Bouncing over the wake, never actually getting into the water.   Gives surfing a bad name.  A surfer finds the few survivable paths through an immense concentration of hostile forces.  Surfing is more like martial arts.  In fact we must begin to surf the web.   To realize the manners in which its hostile forces constrain us and find the few paths that allow us to master those forces and come out of the curl safely.  We thought it was a playground; now we see it’s a minefield.



n



Nick Thompson

ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com<mailto:ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com>

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/



From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com<mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com>> On Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Sunday, January 2, 2022 2:18 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com<mailto:friam at redfish.com>>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Roger Mcnamee !!??



Nick writes:



< Imagined a world in which we all worked at home, everything was on zoom, and everything was delivered by Amazon by drone.  I realize this is a reductio, but hum along with me for a few bars.  There would be no intermediate social landscape between the home and the distribution center.  No intermediate human scales.



I can’t say immediately why this would be a bad thing, but my gut doesn’t like it.>



I can't think of many examples where the intermediate scales are anything but wasteful or intrusive.   Maybe to see a tailor coupled to the purchase of certain clothes?  I still drive to services (dentist, doctor, hair stylist), just not to redistributors, because they don't really add anything.   There's still a farmer's market that seems as popular as ever -- but they DO offer something unique.    I can drive five minutes to Home Depot but honestly half the time their inventory is exhausted for what I want, and I end up ordering it online.



Marcus



________________________________

From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com<mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com>> on behalf of thompnickson2 at gmail.com<mailto:thompnickson2 at gmail.com> <thompnickson2 at gmail.com<mailto:thompnickson2 at gmail.com>>
Sent: Sunday, January 2, 2022 1:03 PM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <friam at redfish.com<mailto:friam at redfish.com>>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Roger Mcnamee !!??



Marcus,



I would like to be convinced …. But



Imagined a world in which we all worked at home, everything was on zoom, and everything was delivered by Amazon by drone.  I realize this is a reductio, but hum along with me for a few bars.  There would be no intermediate social landscape between the home and the distribution center.  No intermediate human scales.



I can’t say immediately why this would be a bad thing, but my gut doesn’t like it.



Nick



Nick Thompson

ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com<mailto:ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com>

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/



From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com<mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com>> On Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Sunday, January 2, 2022 1:38 PM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <friam at redfish.com<mailto:friam at redfish.com>>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Roger Mcnamee !!??



I can see living without Facebook (I do), but why can't we live with Amazon?   It seems like they did a pretty good job of displacing the likes of Walmart.  It could happen again.  What added inherent value do stores have, other than as a mechanism to prevent he consolidation of market influence w.r.t. to prices?

________________________________

From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com<mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com>> on behalf of thompnickson2 at gmail.com<mailto:thompnickson2 at gmail.com> <thompnickson2 at gmail.com<mailto:thompnickson2 at gmail.com>>
Sent: Sunday, January 2, 2022 12:03 PM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <friam at redfish.com<mailto:friam at redfish.com>>
Subject: [FRIAM] Roger Mcnamee !!??



I just listened to this podcast



https://feeds.megaphone.fm/VMP5489734702



a conversation between the former prosecutor, Joyce Vance, and the musician, financier, turncoat Facebook investor Roger Mcnamee, who likens this moment with big tech to the moment before the food industry regulations of the early 1900’s and anti-pollution legislation of the 60’s, moments when Da People reasserted control over over-weening industry interests.  He is author of the book, Zucked.



An hour-long pod cast is a terribly inefficient way to learn about something, so I hope that one you, for whom none of this is news, can offer a more condensed source.



We are basically talking about the Amazon paradox, here: can’t live with it; can’t live without it.  How much ARE we willing to pay to have the trains run on time?



As usual, I am in need of instruction.



Nick Thompson

ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com<mailto:ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com>

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/


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