bluGill

Depends one where you live. In the US where I live until you get to $50/person or more all restaurant meals are exactly as your parents say - reheated in some way. Even at that high price level many of the meals are the same reheated things the cheaper ones are serving with better arrangement, but at least then some things are cooked yourself.

You live in Europe - there are some great restaurants there that are cheaper. However there are also a number of reheated garbage just like we have in the US.

It isn't hard to learn to cook for yourself, and once you do it is hard to see why people pay so much money for just garbage food. But people do all the time and don't see anything wrong with it - some even call it good.

Sad my congressman is not on the list. I wrote him letters. They seem not to be feeling enough pressure, time to write another letter, if their votes don't change they need to be primaried by the grassroots.

I'm blind without my glasses. I've thought about surgery but I'm wear ansi safety glasses anyway - I know what it is like to go to the bathroom without my glasses - that is okay in the middle of the night - but I have no interest in my whole life being like that so I'm protecting my eyes as best I can.

You forgot inflation. If you are happy with 40k today that could be 80k by the time you retire and likely will be over 150k by the time you die.

You are not wrong - but the point is there is value here, are just not getting it to the right people.

All spying needs to be owned by the person who owns the car. GM or however might have data, but it needs to not be accessible by them except by my agreement. Do I want my dealer to know when I need an oil change - maybe (depends on if I trust my dealer), or maybe I want my independent mechanic to know this, or maybe I change my own oil and want only me to know.

There are useful things about internet connections and phone home. Maybe not for you, but for many.

For company vehicles when the car is due for an oil change the mechanics should be informed not the driver. Likewise the company should be able to track where their cars are and when they are driving (and restrict them from driving outside of their territory). For things like snow plows the company needs to track where they have plowed already.

When it is cold it is nice to tell the car to start warming up 5 minutes before you get into it. For electric cars that are currently plugged in this is important as it lets you spend grid energy to warm up the car instead of range.

It is also useful to have up to date maps on the car - there are things a built in system can do that android auto / apple carplay cannot do. Though you have to drive a lot for this to be worth it. (My car as GM's onstar and no android auto - I don't pay for it, but I could see in a 10 minute test drive how onstar is better if you are driving the car for hours every day - since I mostly work from home or bike it isn't worth it, but I can see how it is better despite not being better)

But there needs to be a non-charge option for things like remote start.

Somewhat, but it also scares me.

I know that I'm very introverted. I like to go "heads down" writing code all day. However I'm also painfully aware from experience that not talking to others means I'm out of the loop and soon I'm developing great code for something the company doesn't need. I need to spend time in the office listening to others talk - I get much less done, but at least what I get done are things the company cares about, and in turn I'm much more likely to keep my job (having to find a new job is one of the worst things that can happen to an introvert - I have to convince strangers to hire me)

Right now I go to the office about 16 hours a week, which seems to be enough. I also live close enough to work that I can ride my bike - in turn commute time is also exercise time, something I need to get more of anyway.

Onless you will die in a few years growth should be where most of your retire early money comes from. As you get older you need less growth though.

That depends - 3% is a safe withdrawal rate gowing your income with inflation and not running out. However you won't live forever and so can touch some principal and so can go higher - how much is the question.

Maybe you can't but there are people with natural oil springs on their land who could. I don't know any who do and the amount coming from the springs isn't much, but they could.

ethanol fuel is done by a few people at home, it isn't hard, just takes a lot of labor.

Very true. Right now most cars are still petro and so stations are everywhere. The average car is about 12 years old and most poor people will choose to scrap them at around 25, so there are plenty of stations to meet the demand. However in a few years that average will not include enough petro to support as many stations - how will they respond is a question.

in 20 years petro will be a special order thing outside of a few niches. At least by current trends - perhaps some alternative will come and change everything, who knows.