Sunday Read-o-rama: Springtime in January

by Bill Sweet
Spring is BACK in New York and better than ever! Nothing is greater than 55 degree weather in January.

I do feel bad for people who love winter. But let's face it - these are people who don't have to toil and shovel snow off of their driveways.

In my book, Springtime in winter is great; if you can't take it, move to Alaska (they could use your revenues).


New York State Heating Demand is 22% Below Normal This Year

"On a statewide basis during the past week, the number of heating degree-days (193) was 17.5% below the year-ago level of (234) and 23.4% below the normal trend (252). On a cumulative basis since October 1st, current year heating degree days (1,723) are behind the year-ago level (2,107) by 18.2% and the normal trend (2,212) by 22.1%."


A New Old Plan for Penn Station

Penn Station is obviously a dump. “One entered the city like a god; one scuttles in now like a rat,” said Vincent Scully.

"Picture a minimum-security prison that sells magazines and popcorn, or a rat colony under martial law, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what needs fixing."

Looks like efforts are booting up again to change that. Not the first time, but I can definitely dig it.

What used to be a national monument.

via Josh


You Don't Need More Free Time

"[I]t’s not just that we have a shortage of free time; it’s also that our free time, in order to be satisfying, often must align with that of our friends and loved ones. We face a problem, in other words, of coordination. Work-life balance is not something that you can solve on your own."


Daniel Kahneman in Conversation with Michael Mauboussin on Intuition, Causality, Loss Aversion and More

Kahneman & Mauboussin forming up like Voltron? I'm in.

"I would summarize the answer as saying there is one thing you should not do. People’s confidence in their intuition is not a good guide to their validity."


You're Not Going To Win the Powerball Lottery And Neither Is Anyone You Know

Publicly-run lotteries are the scourge of my existence. My mission in life is to convince people that saving small but significant bits of their earnings over time can grow in a compound manner and drastically improve their chance of financial success. The exact opposite of this is a public scam that promises instant wealth with an ever-increasing jackpot, but one that has effectively zero chance of working.

Money spent on lottery tickets might as well be thrown into a tire fire. There's no problem with buying a ticket or two every other year for the "fun" of losing, but anything more than that is a colossal waste of your hard-earned funds.

Bill