Tesla

I keep seeing headlines of “Tesla-killer” blah blah blah, and every one of them completely misses the point of what Tesla’s been able to accomplish.
The big one that everyone’s obviously aware of is that they made an EV when no one else had made a commercially-viable EV before. Right? Obvious.
The second one is that they made the Supercharger network, which right now, completely changes the value proposition of “Tesla” vs. “Any other EV”.
The one that folks miss is that the Model 3 wasn’t just a commercially-viable EV. It’s an *astonishing* car. Yes, you can nitpick that certain things aren’t as awesome as they could be. But my point isn’t “Teslas are great!” it’s that they’re *defensible*, because there isn’t an apparent way “in” as a competitor.
Do you need a faster car than the 100DL? Absolutely not in daily use. Teslas are (to date) awful track cars, but that’s a niche application we can safely ignore.
Do you need a *nicer* car than the Model S or X? Not really, unless you have extremely specific tastes or special needs.
You might want a cheaper car than the 3, sure. But that’s coming over time, and right now, no one can make a *significantly* cheaper car that competes with the 3. The Bolt is wonderful, but it’s only incrementally cheaper, and without Superchargers, lacks a major ingredient in Tesla’s success.
And that’s the point. The Bolt isn’t a Tesla-killer because it’s only incrementally cheaper. The Lucid Air isn’t a Tesla-killer because it may be incrementally faster, but who cares? Faraday Future is dead. Porsche’s Mission-E or whatever looks great, but no Superchargers means limited utility means that if you’re cross-shopping the Tesla and the Mission-E, you have to REALLY REALLY REALLY want the Mission-E, and it has to be an emotional, rather than pragmatic decision.
For someone to be a Tesla-killer, they need to build a better car than one of the best cars on the market, AND build a giant infrastructure project. No startup can do that. No established car company is going to take that big a risk.
I’m looking forward to massively expanded EV availability in the next decade. But the articles that keep trying to crown a new Tesla-killer? Forget it.

Parenting Struggle

Parents: have you had a situation where your kid wanted to do something, you spent the time & $$ to do it, and they immediately refused to do it? How did you deal with it?
In my case, Kuno wanted to do soccer again. At the first class, 15 minute she in he said he was tired & didn’t want to continue. I tried to get him to go back out, we took a break, tried again, and then he just collapsed in a pile & said he didn’t want to do it.
I was *pissed*, but tried to be calm. We left, and before we left, I asked him if he wanted to try again, and if we left we wouldn’t come back. He didn’t want to try again. So we left, and I canceled the ready of his soccer classes. I’m not sure how to have handled this better, but it’s clear there are better ways to have handled it.
Advice, please.

Apples

re: Apple’s announcements – the things I’m most interested in were the cellular watch (even though I don’t typically wear a watch, this is definitely useful for swimming, and the price isn’t … mindbending)… and… hm. Everything else (even the X) feels evolutionary more than revolutionary.
I’m jazzed that iTunes will support 4K, and that effectively all my media “evolves” with it, which was a huge ?, but they answered in a way I’m really happy with. The catch is, I don’t really care all that much for 4K/HDR just yet, and the investment I’d need to make to upgrade is significant. It’d be a new ATV, a new TV, and a new receiver (since our old one is missing some critical HDMI support) – which means an ATV upgrade is effectively a $1500 upgrade with a shitload of extra gear.
And while sure, 4K is interesting, I haven’t seen anything that (for the size of the TV we have) makes a great case for it being worth the upgrade cost.
So the ATV is a no.
I need a new iPhone – the 6+ has fallen way off the technology curve. The pricing on the new models is … weird. The 8 is what, $849? Which puts it firmly in the camp of “really fucking expensive”. It’s significant enough that to me, the difference between $849 and $999 is kind of a wash, given that I keep my phones for about 3-4 years (until they’re really no longer supported by the manufacturer).
But with any product (and while Apple does better than most, they’re not immune to this) their first generation of anything always sees a significant improvement the next go-around. So while the 8 is an iteration on a well known & proven formula, the X is … ? Who knows. It’s also unlikely to see massive 3rd party adoption of the novel display because you can’t develop an app for just the leading edge of consumers. So you’ve got this marvelous display for photos & web stuff, and I don’t know that that’s a critical selling point for me.
So where’s that leave someone in my situation? Spend $$ for an 8, or spend $$+ for an X, where the features are maybe interesting but not that critical?
Chances are, I’ll skip the watch – just because I honestly find them uncomfortable to wear. Even in the swimming situation, it’d be nice, but not necessarily critical. Chances are I’ll skip the ATV until 4K is more firmly established as a more long-term standard. Then the decision is mostly 8 or X, and the answer I’d guess given the pricing is *probably* X at 64gb.
But who knows? The 6+ is annoyingly slow (and uncomfortable) at this point. Maybe it’ll hang on for another year, though.

Dice Words

One thing I wanted to do is design a dice-based word game. I got a little bit into it, and found that my original thought wasn’t really practical to implement – having some “communal” dice and some individual dice, and you form a word based on those things. It’d work as a videogame (though it wouldn’t feel interesting), but it doesn’t work as a physical game.
Part of the pleasure is moving the dice around and manipulating physical stuff, but if the dice are communal, it’s hard to move ’em around and think of a good word to make.
So maybe that’s not the point. Maybe the point is that some of your dice just let you take other player’s dice. I really liked the contrast between the bigger dice and the smaller dice, and I liked having color-coded vowels, consonants, wilds, and powerups. Looked nice and vibrant without being overwhelming or confusing.
There’s another potential layer in having characters with unique skills, and potentially powerup cards & such. But I feel like until the core word game makes more sense, it’s not worth diving into those things just yet.
I like the idea of having powerups let you take other peoples’ stuff, but I’m not sure I like my stuff being taken.
I wonder if maybe it’d be worth having the communal dice form a 2×2 grid, and you’d have to use your individual dice to form the outer layers of a Boggle board. Then maybe if you place your dice, your opponents can also place their dice, and you do it in turns somehow… Hm.
How would that work? I like the idea of being able to build off of other peoples’ letters, but if you can do that, then everyone in the end will just get a kind of communal super-word. Maybe that’s not a bad thing. Maybe the goal is to build a big word matrix cooperatively? Hrmmm. I don’t think so. One of the real joys of word games is beating someone with a better word.
Hm. The Boggle board thing is worth exploring. The original concept for Word Ace was actually around Boggle, not Scrabble. We ended up doing a Scrabble thing at the time because I’d communicated the original idea badly. But maybe there’s something there.

Work Trauma

Tried answering a question on Quora that was related directly to something re: my experience from 2013-2014. Realized I still can’t really do it. Most of the time, I’m fine. Therapy was a great help (and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who even had a twinge of “hmmm” when reading that).
But when I end up thinking about it for whatever reason, it really is just a rage spiral. The folks involved were so comically moustache-twirlingly evil. And they got away with it, with everything they could have ever wanted to get out of it, completely scot-free.
And the thing that bugs me is that the folks who really got the most by fucking me over got the most *because*, specifically, of *my* work. In the case of one of them, he essentially profited *four times over* because of things that cost me, directly. And he thinks he did it all himself & is the hero of the story, and is probably too self-absorbed to even realize what went on.
Most of the time, I’m fine. It’s over. Past. But good grief, when it hits it hits hard.

Phineas & Ferb

It’s been sort of weird – the last year, and particularly the last few months. Between the political landscape, which is comically miserable, and trying to figure out what to do re: work, and feeling pretty bleak about the last few years & my contribution to the world, one thing that’s been able to really have a positive impact on my worldview has been Phineas and Ferb.
The show as a whole is really optimistic – and since the kids like the music so much, we’ve been listening to a LOT of it. One song that’s really stuck in my head is this one, Carpe Diem. Some of the lyrics are just really charming…
—
Just find your own way to make the most of
Every minute
No more waiting for the right time, you’re in it
Just grab those opportunities when you see ’em
‘Cause every day’s a brand new day, baby, Carpe Diem
—
That “No more waiting for the right time, you’re in it” is just perfect. There’s also just something to that swooping, “And you don’t have to build a rollercoaster” line that just … picks me up.
And it’s not even the only song that does that – there’s a whole litany of songs from this show that are *fantastic*.
In the optimistic vein of Carpe Diem, there’s Summer Belongs to You, When Tomorrow Is This Morning Again, Summer (Where Do We Begin?), Today Is Gonna Be a Great Day. If you’re looking for something that’ll worm your way into your brain and is complete nonsense, look for “There’s a Platypus Controlling Me”. 😃
Anyway. Just really love this show.

Destiny & Diablo

I’ve got really mixed feelings about Destiny 2. And oddly, the reason is Diablo 3.
Thing is, I recognize what the pull of D3 is. And it’s very similar to the pull of Destiny – more better loot, tasks to tick off, lists to complete. In the moment, it’s *great*. Super motivating, often fun to play – Destiny was one of the best feeling shooters I’ve played, and everything else since has felt worse.
It’s also nice that it’s a game, like D3, that you can just … keep playing. The core loop is fun & rewarding, and you can just keep grinding away pretty much forever. I haven’t put more hours into a game than I have with Destiny, and D3 is probably a fairly distant second.
But the reason I play these games is to basically “turn off”. They’re games that require no thought, no emotional engagement, no … effort, other than time. But they demand a LOT of time. Destiny always felt like I was working really hard, but that the top end was always cut off to me, because I simply would never be the kind of person who would work as hard as the folks who were really into Destiny clans.
I also wanted something slightly different than what hardcore Destiny players want. I don’t want the enforced social interaction. I want to play with my friends, or play with faceless-but-decent randos, but I don’t want to schedule it. I don’t want to coordinate it. I don’t want to shape my real life around it in any way.
And with Diablo, I’m starting to feel the fact that I’m only playing to tick off a few more lists. Season 11 was fun, but I’m done with it – to the degree that I’ve done as much as I care for. And I’m not looking for another thing to eat my time. I get more pleasure – literally – out of folding laundry, because the satisfaction at the end is that I did something I needed to do, and made progress on something in real life, even if it all falls apart in a day.
So I think I’m passing on Destiny 2. At least for now. I’m sure there will be lots of wonderful stories that come out of it, and I loved my time with D1. But I don’t need more.

Update

Lots of stuff. Been a crazy last month, even though one would think that being unemployed, I’d have a ton of free time.

  • Moved my parents to Concord, from NY. Mostly went off without a hitch. We’ll see, when their stuff arrives, supposedly on Tuesday. Not that it wasn’t stressful. It was bananas. But nothing went terribly wrong.
  • Been learning to kiteboard. Fun, but difficult to find enough time to actually go now that things have ramped up a bit – even if “ramped up” is just “need to pick up kids in camp” and “help the parents with whatever.”
  • Started looking for work. Some stuff starting to line up, which is good. Some stuff I’m unsure about, which isn’t. Need to make a call soon.
  • Odd milestone – added separate calendars to iCal for the kids. Realized they’re going to start having their own schedules more frequently, and it’d be worth differentiating. Feels very weird.
  • Went to London for a week. Awesome. Saw a lot of stuff, did some generic touristy crap like the London Eye, river cruise, and a Duck Tour. Doesn’t matter – they were awesome, and I’d recommend them all. Also went to the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, Hyde Park (specifically, the Princess Diana Memorial Playground, which was GREAT). Loved it. Saw Brandon, who we haven’t seen in 15ish years, which was great, and caught up with Jenny, who I’d seen way more recently.
  • Then went to Dublin, and spent the week with Alan & Becky, which was a really fantastic trip. Kids had a great time, saw a bunch of interesting stuff (Dublinia, Powerscourt Garden, Johnnie Fox’s, Fade St. Social), played a ton of boardgames (Mysterium is awesome), and spent a good long time just hanging out, which was a ball.
  • Been swimming more. Went consistently for three weeks, and saw significant improvement & felt better about myself. Problem is, I have no idea how to integrate working out into an actual real schedule with a job & taking care of the kids & what have you. It’s definitely *getting* easier, but it’s not yet anything I’d say approaches easy. My form isn’t terrible, but oh my god I’m in terrible shape.

I expect things will start to slow a bit, which’ll be nice. Ei-Nyung got a WONDERFUL new job that we’re both super optimistic about, which is great, and will start mid-September, which gives her two months to chill out for a bit without that impending fear of unemployment. Not so much for me (the fear is present), but whatever.

So yeah – busy, stressful, but mostly good news. Let’s see how the rest of the summer goes. Heading to Tahoe next weekend, which will be fun.

 

Restless & Undirected

It’s difficult, sometimes, remembering that right now, waiting is the right thing to do. It certainly doesn’t feel like the right thing to do. But it is what it is. We’ve closed on my parents’ house in Concord, so I’ve got work to do getting that prepped – the two things we need are accessibility ramps & A/C + new furnace + ductwork. It looks like I’ve got the latter taken care of, and the former is a fairly straightforward process.

We’ve got a trip coming up in a few days, going back to London, then to visit good friends in Dublin. After that, we’ve got a week here, and then I’m off to NY to actually help my parents with their move, which is both something that’s taken forever, and feels much too fast. Still, it’s a step that needs taking, might as well get it over with, and better to do it now, while unemployed, than later, when I’ve gotta juggle all this and a job, which would be a challenge.

The kids are bananas. They draw all the time. Huge fans of Dav Pilkey’s work –  Captain Underpants and Dog Man, primarily. They’ve both been drawing the characters, making their own comics, flipbooks, and all kinds of stuff. It’s been a huge leap in Jin’s enthusiasm for writing, which is great, and Kuno’s getting to a point where he knows most of his letters, and he’s great at copying stuff out of the books. So he’s gotten to the first step of writing, which is really fantastic.

I’ve been spending a reasonable amount of time swimming & learning to kiteboard. Wind’s been useless this week, unfortunately, but before that, I’ve had a couple solid efforts at it, and I think I’m super close to it being fairly comfortable. One or two more stints. It’s really just a time issue. Getting the kids in the evening means cutting out pretty early, just as the wind is picking up – so I’m never there at the optimal time. Ah, well. It’s getting there, slowly, and there’s a lot of the season left.

I’ve spent a lot of the time at home cleaning – not really “cleaning”, I guess, so much as “decluttering corners of the house that have been building up for years.” All that random stuff that we don’t really have a place for – getting rid of it where that makes sense, reorganizing and putting into some sort of organized storage where that makes sense. It’s interesting, also, trying to figure out what to keep & what to hang on to re: the kids’ stuff. There are some toys that are clearly “aged out”, but then there are others that are more cyclical. So I’ve taken to putting some of those in the closet, and hopefully when they come out again, they’ll be interesting & fresh. Then for the other things, they’re in the process of getting donated.

So. Organization. Feels like one of those things that’s satisfying because progress is almost inevitable given an investment of time, whereas much of the rest of my life feels like it’s out of my hands.

Been starting to look at potential jobs, and it’s … daunting. Finding a job outside of games will be a challenge, I think, in large part because my skill set is difficult to categorize for someone who’s not really experienced with game development. I’d like to do something that makes a tangible, positive difference for people other than “fun”, and something that helps people become better people. There are some nibbles on that front for something that looks a lot more like contract work, but it’s still a bit nebulous.

Part of the problem is that we’ve just got a high burn rate. Between my parents’ house, daycare, medical insurance, etc. – our burn rate is something I would have never even though possible, particularly because our lifestyle hasn’t blown up in ways that seem obvious to me. Hopefully once we get jobs, and once we get my parents moved out here & their other house sold, that burn will come down significantly. But it’s still bananas, and it’s been on fire for nearly three years. So… yeah. Ah, opportunity cost. We paid a lot for the ability to try to follow our dream of independence. Sad it didn’t work, but it was worth giving a solid shot. Now, it’s time to find something new.

So off on vacation for a few weeks, dive into moving craziness, and once I resurface in mid-July… we’ll see where we go from there.