Back in the early 2010s, there was a wave of popular articles about people who owned oddly specific, low numbers of things, like 75, or 200, or whatever. At first I was kind of fascinated by this, but the fascination wore off, and years and years later I would see this made fun of as […]
Ways to Change a Wheel Bearing
As a follow-up to my previous post, I thought this might prove insightful, not because I know many people who need new wheel bearings, but because this simply presents some interesting ways of thinking about the problem. I probably haven’t given enough thought or credence to these. (Also note, this is for pressed-in bearings only. […]
Wheel Bearing Chronicles: Tough Lessons in Economics
Many, many years ago, I bought a 20-ton press for changing wheel bearings. I had this idea in my head that I wanted to be able to do as much as possible on my car, and since I already had experience removing knuckle assemblies to change captive rotors (look it up, it’s horrible), I figured […]
Why I Don’t Own Individual Stocks
Several years ago, I started a software development job at a MegaCorp. I was very fortunate in that the branch I worked at felt more like a small company, and our product was one small niche out of the much larger pie of software the company produced. This saved me from dealing with most of […]
Life Engineering: Entropy Management
Stuff breaks down. Stuff wears out. And fixing stuff costs money. What’s unfortunate is when people invest in complex things, only for those things to break, leaving the owner to deal with the hassle and expense of repair. Entropy is all around us. Your car will stop running. Your TV will break. You will die. […]
Philosophy of Car Ownership – Part 2
A car is one of the most expensive things you will ever own, but it is deceptively easy to take for granted. If you drive a car around for several years, this becomes a normal part of your life, and the loss of this can cause some pretty severe stress. Much of this can be […]
Philosophy of Car Ownership – Part 1
Some people think you should always buy new. Others think you should always buy used. Some would never pay to rebuild an engine on a car that is more than 10 years old. Others pay to rebuild engines on cars that are 25 or 30 years old. Our society’s Kantian ethics tends to fall apart […]
The Polished Product
I believe our culture has a strong bias against improvisation, and I have mixed feelings about this. With a few carpentry skills, the majority of furnishings in our lives could be created instead of purchased, but it takes advanced skills to stain, polish, or upholster furniture, and the average person does not possess these skills. […]
Best and Worst Purchases of 2020
Another year has passed, so it’s time to look back at whether I spent money on good things that improve my life, or useless crap! Having last year’s best and worst in mind I think helped me make better choices this year, as the “worst” section has been harder for me to figure out. But […]
Weights
Ah, weights. A key staple of most guys’ possessions. There’s so much to be said about these. In 9th grade, my gym class did a rotation through weights training, and I thought it was kind of fun, so I asked for a weight set for Christmas. I still have this set. I’ve used it off […]