Hey, I don't have answers, but I'm free tonight and tomorrow if you want to go sit by the beach. Let me know.

The GAO, the OMB, and the various OIGs literally already exist for this purpose and have clear items identified to increase government efficiency. Their work and reports have been public for decades. It's just that lobbyists/the 1% don't like what they have to say, so we pretend they don't exist.

Something in Ender's Game was foundational to my moral framework, but it was along the lines of "in order to truly understand another, we must acknowledge their own self-perception, and in doing so we must love them as they love themselves. This does not stop us disagreeing with or defeating them."

I don't know if you have anyone else telling you this so I wanna make sure it gets said- Even if you put on some weight you'll still be an amazing person and hot as hell. So get some good food in you and have a nap.

The answer is more hot dogs than most men are comfortable admitting to.

I wouldn't call E or X "food" necessarily, but they'll certainly take you for a ride.

Balls crossed for you! Not sure if it's luckier, and it's definitely more uncomfortable, but in the spirit of the tanuki it feels appropriate.

All the cranes flying overhead at sunset is such a visceral Albuquerque memory for me. Love that place.

One of the biggest insights I've ever had into the behavior of the political spectrum in the US was realizing just how vulnerable the human psyche is to the desire to possess "secret knowledge". As a species we are HUGE suckers for the idea "I know the REAL TRUTH that most people don't understand."

Lol we need to buy you some new pants.

For my money, it's staggering to me that modern readers are completely unfamiliar with the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books. I know they're older, but they feel like such central pillars of scifi/humor lit. And yet time marches on...

I was born around when Snow Crash came out. I think it's met the same end as basically all old cyberpunk lit: the ideas, themes, and tropes of the work have become so well-established that to young readers it just all feels cliche and undifferentiated from the genre as a whole.

It's all a reckless spray of BS to try and throw the system into chaos, but that's the narrative they're trying to put together.