I feel like there are parts of the country where it does need to be clarified. Utah may be one of them. 😉

I was out in Wenatchee and Leavenworth today (to be fair represented by a Democrat) and it is VERY smoky. We have it easy on the west side.

Edit: for a frame of reference for those not from Washington, my car still smells like a campfire.

Our taco bell closes at like 9pm, which blew my mind. I assumed no one ate there before 11pm and alcohol or other substances were involved.

I don’t think I mean a complete stop. I mean like a managed approach of tax incentives that over time encourage smaller families. Predicting and paying for degrees or training so we have a workforce that can fit into the economy easily. And a targeted immigration policy scaled to supplement gaps in the workforce or population.

I think it is worth figuring out how to manage it - the alternative isn’t super sustainable. The other thing is that it is like a 50 year challenge, which isn’t insurmountable.

A couple years before my time, but a cheerleader was assaulted and killed on campus while waiting to meet up with her team.

There are 4 people in my household and no one eats the same thing. I have celiac and food intolerances. One kid has avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. My husband eats low carb. And while the other kid is picky, no one else is eating the same thing, so we just make him whatever he likes. Also, we free feed them like animals. Restaurants are difficult, there are like 2 we will all will eat at. Delivery works ok for my husband and the kids sometimes, but not for me.

Dumb question: do we really need more people? It feels very much like technology/productivity will allow us to support a good lifestyle with fewer people.

Solid advice. Will apply myself.

Unpopular opinion: Immigration probably has a lot to do with it. Tech pays really well and they can recruit talent from across the globe (and bring them together in the US). You don’t hear too much about infrastructure or manufacturing industries recruiting on top talent from across the globe (they do rely on them for staffing shortages, but they are not seeking them out the same way tech scours the globe for employees).

We had to use newspapers, books and encyclopedias - lots of print stuff. Or someone taught us. Sometimes we learned stuff from tv. Less efficient for sure. It seems like there was less misinformation. It was different, but I don’t think of it as bad.

Pickled asparagus.

I’ve left several jobs for greener pastures. In all cases, I learned a bit more about what I like and don’t about tech and non-tech (and big biz vs small biz, etc.). I went from tech to aerospace manufacturing, back to tech, to utilities, back to tech and then started my own company. I was shocked at how far behind some companies are from a tech perspective. I was pleasantly surprised at the slower pace. I thought the best talent was swooped up by tech (probably because they pay so much more). In the end, having more control, even if I’m paid a lot less, is preferred.

I use different ones for different things. Perplexity answers my tech questions best (what is the dax formula for ___). Gemini is good if I’m making something that needs more casual language or some help brainstorming. Copilot is good for corporate jargon. It plays nice with other MS tools, so if I need to connect it to a PowerAutomate or Power app, I can do that. I used ChatGPT to make a lifetime movie plot generator with great success.

It’s probably not playing nicely with your operating system. I don’t have those kinds of issues - all the basics work in the latest Windows. 🤷

I like Teams. A huge chunk of it is that it is rolled into an overall subscription that includes a bunch of other stuff I need - and is WAY less expensive than piecing alternative apps together. But I also use it to create a central workspace for myself by embedding things like, dashboards, apps/automations, and lists (which can subsquently be attached to automationsnand dashboards). More recently I’ve attached it it Agents to the library of content to help speed up my work. The fact that the share and leave buttons in a meeting are right next to each other and I regularly leave meetings instead of sharing is actually a bonus. I don’t think any of us really want to be on that call.

They should. Or at bare minimum give the employees enough visibility into the company performance that employees can make good informed decisions (like the company has lost money 3 months in a row and the sales pipe is light - employees can at least determine if they need to start looking).

I think all businesses should be prepared for this, which is totally legal in the US AND sometimes just has to happen for the employee (family emergencies, health issues, sudden interest in not working there anymore). Any business that can’t handle this is not well run.

I call it the “witchcraft par of my health journey.”

I have had absolutely terrible luck with PCPs believing my symptoms or looking at them holistically - even just to gat a referral to the right specialist. In this moment AI has been better at pointing me in the right direction than my previous PCPs. 🤷