I honestly don't think I would be comfortable off grid without 4x+ that size. Of course, environments vary so significantly that these numbers don't translate well when discussing them without geographic context.
My primary concerns would be consecutive cloudy days, and winters with very short days. While my actual heating/cooling needs are more mild than global averages, I think the combination of short daylight hours and increased heating needs makes off-grid solar unviable for climates closer to the poles, especially those not near sea level. I do think relaying on propane or wood for heating might make off grid viable for these locations, but that introduces questions of scalability and increased carbon footprint.
There is some argument that burning wood should be considered carbon neutral if the trees are replanted and used as a renewable resource (Carbon is released to the air, and then captured by the next tree in a cycle), but the land intensive approach wouldn't scale to meet the heating needs of a significant portion of the population. Additionally it ignores the carbon required to grow, harvest, process, and transport the trees or the alternative uses the wood might find elsewhere.
My point is for others to take their local climate into consideration before thinking that 5kw/14kWh would be enough for them to go off grid.
Users have inertia, it takes years for superior products to win.
VC capital is useful for speed & innovation, but most of the time leads to bloat & rent-seeking. Does DocuSign need 7,000 employees? My journey of bootstrapped entrepreneurship has been much more sustainable and respectful to my users.
1. Stock is mostly a tech thing, which is a smaller percentage of NYC home buyers.
2. Real estate is a safe haven asset to put capital into. In uncertain markets some buyers will choose real estate over stock or other more risky investments. NYC real estate is a highly valued asset globally.
3. Real estate prices in prime global locations (London, Dubai, NYC) are determined more by global liquidity than by local wages.
4. Recessions often impact real estate prices less than stock prices. 2007 was an outlier because of how many defaults occurred in real estate. In general the mortgages today are much stronger than before.
5. If mortgage rates decrease then that would have upwards pressure on housing valuations.
EDIT: Prices might come down, but I wouldn't expect fantastic bargains in NYC.
I live and own in NYC. Stock is very much also a part of comp in finance as well (I’m not in it, but my wife is).
I think you are spot on that prices will come down slightly (bonus pools will drop and that matters) but NYC real estate is rarely a bargain (or at least hasn’t been since 1998).
2009 - 2013 there were some good bargains in LIC and other areas. It will take a major recession to see some prices come down again to some reasonable level.
Also, I wonder what the volume of transactions is. Because I see little inventory (I was looking into Brooklyn), and perhaps only new construction is selling, which means it skews prices higher (new construction is always more expensive).
> Libraries are now seen as entertainment centers by many librarians, not as a place to educate yourself.
I think you might be missing that there are many different types of libraries. For a city or county library, they have to meet the very diverse needs of the local residents.
Yet these same local libraries used to be filled with the sorts of books I'm talking about. They threw them away to replace them with DVDs of Marvel movies, the worst dreck imaginable in the children's section, and shelves and shelves of the latest romance and mystery novels, along with whatever "hot" ghostwritten politics book is out.
Frankly, I look at that is abandoning their original mission and no longer feel inclined to support them in any way. Libraries should have led their communities as centers and sources of learning. What we have now is something else wearing libraries as a skinsuit, and I don't see why libraries like this deserve public support as a library.
But at any rate, as I said, the problem is not limited to municipal libraries, it's ongoing even at institutional libraries.
> At some point, there’s going to be a large number of cities where a majority of homeowners are too old to drive.
If you're too old to drive you're probably also not in the best position to walk far or walk while carrying shopping/groceries. Combined with the obesity epidemic many people simply aren't healthy enough to walk 1km.
Mobility challenged people can take electric wheelchairs along sidewalks and bike routes, and board buses and trains with level boarding. These usually have storage for groceries. Some elderly people are physically capable of driving a car but can be a danger on the road.
I don't think it matters if it's better or worse. There are plenty of bad browser based email implementations. I think we should be encouraging companies to borrow and steal good software ideas from each other, because otherwise we end up stifling innovation.
I don't know why exactly, but I don't get almost any "watch part 2" content on YouTube shorts. That's actually the only reason I started using it instead of TikTok - those really enraged me.
Funny, I thought the whole point was to hold on to the bag as long as you can. Think back to the first time you heard about btc or eth, and how much return a modest investment would have made. It's the people that sold early that lost out.
You're not wrong, but has there ever been a time when buying & holding the 3 largest market cap coins wasn't a winning strategy?
Most of the deadcoins were very low cap, and low cap investments are inherently risky. Most of the rugpulls were schemes around small coins or individuals not actually holding the private keys to the wallet.
I haven't thought about Valis in a long time, but I do generally tend to label various people/organizations as "The Empire". I didn't realize how much that book stuck with me.
I'd recommend a re-read! There's so many layers to that story that show themselves only on subsequent readings. Much like the layered flow of PKD the author, PKD the character, and Horselover Fat.
My primary concerns would be consecutive cloudy days, and winters with very short days. While my actual heating/cooling needs are more mild than global averages, I think the combination of short daylight hours and increased heating needs makes off-grid solar unviable for climates closer to the poles, especially those not near sea level. I do think relaying on propane or wood for heating might make off grid viable for these locations, but that introduces questions of scalability and increased carbon footprint.
There is some argument that burning wood should be considered carbon neutral if the trees are replanted and used as a renewable resource (Carbon is released to the air, and then captured by the next tree in a cycle), but the land intensive approach wouldn't scale to meet the heating needs of a significant portion of the population. Additionally it ignores the carbon required to grow, harvest, process, and transport the trees or the alternative uses the wood might find elsewhere.
My point is for others to take their local climate into consideration before thinking that 5kw/14kWh would be enough for them to go off grid.
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