Immigration lines for foreigners at airports correlate well with state capacity.
For example, Singapore is fully automated and couldn’t be faster.
In Germany, I’ve never waited more than 10 minutes, usually less than 5.
My ten best photographs of 2025
https://www.chowla.com/photography/2025/ten-best/ten-best.twig
Even if I was willing tolerate the fees, I’d expect very low base fares.
Southwest has now a terrible value proposition: fee happy and high fares.
The oversized bag fee on Southwest is now a $200 up charge so $235 total! 👀
Fortunately, my bag is just under the new limit Southwest put in this year.
I have zero interest in flying on airlines whose primary mission is to slap customers with extra fees.
Southwest Airlines has declined in to being an awful experience. Massive lines to check a bag at SJC this morning.
Agent decides to my bag that I’ve flown with 50+ times all over the world might be oversized and measures it.
Might as well fly Spirit. It would be cheaper.
Requiring tourists to turn over social media profiles and information on their family members is a terrible idea. It will discourage tourism and thus cost the US economy.
www.cbsnews.com/news/us-tour...
I wrote about how product managers should imagine themselves in their customers' shoes and figure out if they would buy their own product
open.substack.com/pub/pmmaxims...
Trump could change the H1-B fee to 250k or $1M tomorrow so this makes impossible for employers to plan anything.
My view is the fee is illegal since Congress already set fees by statute. Hopefully this gets quickly blocked by the courts.
The Trump’s H1-B changes are a disaster. The arbitrary granting of exceptions is a recipe for graft and corruption. Applying $100k fee to people already holding visas is crazy.
Trump is going to kill the tech industry in the US.
Is $100k too high?
Seems high to me but no one can say for sure which is why an auction is better.
Unclear if it $100k application fee or per year as I’ve seen both reported.
The best system for H1-B fees is a Reverse Dutch Auction which would ensure the visas are allocated to their highest economic use.
The government is poor at setting prices. Auctions remove the need to set a price.
Not looking forward to two more months of dueling yes on Prop 50, no on Prop 50 ads.
Each side is tracking to showing me 100+ adds which seems like a waste of ad money to me.
Debating whether to buy @aripaparo.com 's Yield as an e-book or audiobook. Leaning towards audiobook since when I listened to the sample, it felt like Ari was personally telling me the story, like one of the framing devices one sees in a movie.
I can’t tag Cortese since he can’t be bothered to have a presence on Bluesky.
I’m a constituent of his and beyond disappointed he is sponsoring this faux environment bill.
Maybe his press secretary @bethwillon.bsky.social can explain why the Senator can’t be bothered to be on Bluesky
Here’s Reddit post from someone from Peru explaining the benefits.
www.reddit.com/r/caltrain/c...
It’s the height of first world arrogance and faux environmentalism to say that it’s better to scrap a diesel train than send it a city that badly needs i.
Apparently State Senator Dave Cortese thinks it better Lima residents sit horrible in traffic
www.kqed.org/news/1201727...
Instead of carve outs from CEQA, please repeal it entirely.
California needs to build more housing and better infrastructure faster and cheaper than we do now and that’s not possible with CEQA.
For those in favor of CEQA and millions spent and years lost on EIRs, please tell me where I can find the EIR that details the environment impacts of more people driving due to subpar train service.
Oh that’s right, only fixing stuff needs an EIR. The status quo can stay poor forever with no EIR.
If it is due a train colliding with someone, that’s a bit more in the mountain of evidence that the tracks should be 100% grade separated.
Of course, building anything is near impossible due to years of environment impact reports needed. Time to abolish CEQA and build the infrastructure we deserve
Gave up on Caltrain mid-commute this morning due to the indefinite delay and am taking a Lyft the rest of the way to work.
Annoyingly, Caltrain is just saying “police activity” so there’s no clear reason for the delay.
Oh, good lord. The Gatsby movie has Daisy call Gatsby at the end which makes which makes her far less monstrous than in the book.
It’s a complete rewriting of the story.
For a bit, I thought the Gatsby movie might be tolerable but then the writers of the movie decided to tell the story in a different order than Fitzgerald told it.
🤦
The mystery surrounding Gatsby is an important part of the story. It’s not supposed to get resolved half way through.
I can’t remember if I saw the film when it came out. I think I must have but perhaps I blocked out the memory of what is looking a cultural atrocity.
After re-reading the Great Gatsby earlier this year, I decided I’d watch the DiCaprio film.
I’m five minutes in and I’m like WTF? Nick is in a sanatorium, going on about how is disgusted with every one except Gatsby?
This film is going to murder a great American novel
I wrote about why product managers should focus on the problem they are trying to solve
open.substack.com/pub/pmmaxims...
Costco delirium (n) a state of confusion induced by spending too much time wandering the aisles of a Costco.
Those afflicted often put large quantities stuff they do not need into their cart while forgetting what they came to Costco to buy in the first place.
I've been dismayed by how the current occupant of the White House has disrespected and mistreated our neighbors to the North.
Canadians are rightly upset by this mistreatment. I hope the US and Canada can resume our friendship once this unpleasantness has passed.
Canadian Flag
Happy Canada Day!
I've been fortunate to be in Canada for Canada Day several times. I love the energy of Canada Day. People have a happy-to-be-Canadian energy that makes the celebrations special.
