Piran

Views are personal.

[Piran @piranmerchant]

@RajAryan2611 Suzuki made a fundamental mistake by launching it in a 5-door avatar. The expectation mismatch started from there. They should have let its authentic 3-door version establish the brand.

[Patriot Network @usmidino]

QUIT YOUR BITCHING!!!!!!
Grandpa didn’t have a $90 month internet bill, a $130 phone bill, seven app subscriptions at $72 month, an Amazon addiction for $200 month, he didn’t have Netflix, Paramount or HBO for another $112 month and his haircuts didn’t need a ‘stylist’!

I’m worn out hearing people moan, “Our grandparents could buy a house on one paycheck, but now we can’t even afford rent on two!”
Yeah, maybe because Grandma wasn’t dropping half her income on $14 iced lattes and avocado toast shaped like art projects. Back then, if they wanted coffee, they boiled it at home in a dented pot. It tasted like burnt rubber and regret — but it woke you up and cleaned your pipes.

And Grandma wasn’t “out to brunch.” You think she had time for mimosas and hashtags? She was making something called whatever’s left in the fridge and feeding six people with it.
Don’t even start with Uber Eats. You think Grandpa was out here paying $38 to have a burger delivered three blocks away? Please. He grilled mystery meat on a rusted barbecue, and everyone called it dinner.

Now people cry about being broke while sitting in a house full of gadgets. Two SUVs in the driveway, six streaming services, three air fryers, and matching tattoos that cost more than their light bill. You think Grandpa had a tattoo? He did. It said “Korea, 1951,” and it came with trauma, not Instagram likes.

And the kids—Lord help us. “We can’t make ends meet, but Brayden needs the new iPhone!” No, he doesn’t. You’re handing an $1100 device to a child who still eats crayons and forgets to flush.
When we were kids, there was one phone. It hung on the wall like a family relic. The cord stretched just far enough for you to whisper secrets before someone yelled, “Get off, I need to make a call!” And guess what? We lived.

The TV? One. In the living room. With three channels and a dial that clicked like a safe. And if Dad wanted to watch bowling, you were a fan of bowling, end of story.

Now there’s a flat screen in every room, the baby’s got an iPad, the dog’s got a camera, and everyone’s wondering why they can’t afford rent.
Because you’re living like rock stars on retail salaries, that’s why.

Grandpa wasn’t leasing Teslas or buying $12 smoothies called “Green Zen Awakening.” He drove a truck that coughed smoke, rattled like a storm, and smelled like oil and hard work.
They lived within their means. Whatever Grandpa brought home on Friday — that’s what they had. They weren’t keeping up with the Joneses; they were keeping the lights on.

So yeah, Grandpa bought a house on one salary. But he also didn’t have a gym membership, three delivery apps, and emotional support crystals on his nightstand. His only support system was Grandma, who told him to quit whining and mow the yard.

Nowadays, everyone’s broke, anxious, and “manifesting abundance” while ordering tacos on DoorDash for the fourth time this week.
It’s not the economy — it’s the lifestyle.
Wake up, turn off your subscriptions, make your own coffee, and maybe—just maybe—you’ll smell the truth.

It’s truth....God is Good, God is Great, I thank HIM for this day and everything I have!!

[Ammanichanda @Arkasiraee]

Be China.

> The year is 1975.
> You have 924 million people.
> Your entire economy is worth $164 billion.
> Barely $180 of GDP per person.
> More than 80% of your people live in villages.
> Life expectancy is just 61 years.
> Millions struggle to afford basic necessities.
> Much of the countryside lacks reliable electricity.
> You don't even have a modern expressway network.
> You have a problem.
> Nearly a billion people need a better life.

1978 arrives.

> Start reforming agriculture.
> Let farming families keep more of what they produce.
> Productivity improves.
> Open your doors to foreign investment.
> Turn a small border town called Shenzhen into an economic experiment.
> Start making clothes, shoes, toys and cheap household goods.
> Foreign companies bring orders, machinery and expertise.
> Millions begin leaving farms for factory jobs.
> Your economy crosses $300 billion in 1985.
> Growth reaches 15% in a single year.

There's another problem.

> Factories need electricity.
> Build coal mines and power stations.
> They need steel, cement and machinery.
> Start producing those too.
> Goods need to reach the rest of the world.
> Build ports, roads and container terminals.
> In 1988, you have just 147 km of expressways.
> By 2000, you have over 11,000 km.
> Join the World Trade Organization in 2001.
> Export orders pour in.
> Your economy crosses $2 trillion in 2005.

But assembling cheap products can only take you so far.

> Start manufacturing more components yourself.
> Move into electronics, automobiles and industrial machinery.
> Learn to make the equipment that makes other equipment.
> Keep the clothing factories running anyway.
> Keep the toy factories too.
> Why abandon industries you already know how to run?

> Your economy crosses $6 trillion in 2010.
> Become the world's largest manufacturing economy.
> Open your first modern dedicated high-speed railway in 2008.
> Then build another line.
> And another.
> Your cities keep growing.
> So do your electricity needs.
> Expand steelworks, power grids, highways and entire industrial districts.
> Move into batteries, solar panels, electric vehicles and advanced materials.
> Your industrial system now stretches from raw-material refining to finished products.

The year is 2025.

> Your population is 1.4 billion.
> Your economy is worth roughly $19.5 trillion.
> GDP per person has climbed to nearly $13,900.
> Life expectancy has reached around 78 years.
> Nearly 68% of your people now live in cities.
> You have almost 200,000 km of expressways.
> More than 50,000 km of high-speed railway.
> Your railways carry roughly 12.6 million passenger journeys a day.
> You produce more than half the world's steel.
> Build more than half its commercial ships.
> Manufacture nearly three-quarters of its electric cars.
> And remain a major producer of the clothes and toys you started exporting decades ago.

Remember 1975?

> Your entire economy was worth $164 billion.
> In 2024 alone, you invested $7.4 trillion in new fixed assets.
> Around 45 times your entire economy of fifty years earlier.
> Nothing about this happened by accident.

This is China, a civilizational nation that locked the F in for fifty years.

And the results speak for themselves.

[Brivael Le Pogam @brivael]

Il y a un mal français dont on parle trop peu. Ce n'est pas la dette, ni les impôts, ni même la bureaucratie. C'est ce que tout ça a fini par produire dans les têtes : un mindset de gâteau fixe.

En 1965, l'anthropologue George Foster étudie des sociétés paysannes et décrit ce qu'il appelle "l'image du bien limité". Dans ces sociétés, tout ce qui a de la valeur (terre, richesse, statut, même la santé) est perçu comme existant en quantité finie. Si ton voisin gagne quelque chose, c'est forcément qu'il te l'a pris. La réussite d'autrui devient une menace, et la jalousie devient une forme de rationalité.

Soixante ans plus tard, c'est la France.

Je le vois partout. Chez les salariés, chez les fonctionnaires, chez les entrepreneurs, et même chez des gens de droite qui se croient libéraux. Dès qu'une transaction n'est pas parfaitement équilibrée et immédiate, les gens se sentent menacés. On négocie chaque miette comme si c'était la dernière. On soupçonne celui qui réussit. On protège sa rente plutôt que de créer de la valeur.

Ce n'est pas un défaut moral. C'est une adaptation rationnelle à un environnement sans croissance.

Quand la dépense publique pèse près de 57 % du PIB, quand chaque projet passe par dix guichets, quand créer une entreprise est un parcours d'obstacles et la licencier un procès, le gâteau grossit à peine. Et quand le gâteau ne grossit pas, la seule façon d'avoir plus, c'est de prendre la part de quelqu'un d'autre. La politique devient une guerre de redistribution. Le dialogue social devient un rapport de force. L'économie devient un jeu à somme nulle.

Les chercheurs l'ont mesuré. Stefanie Stantcheva et ses co-auteurs à Harvard ont montré que la pensée à somme nulle est fortement liée à l'expérience de la mobilité : les gens dont les familles ont connu peu d'ascension sociale voient le monde comme un gâteau fixe. Benjamin Friedman l'avait formulé dès 2005 dans The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth : les sociétés en croissance deviennent plus tolérantes, plus ouvertes, plus généreuses ; les sociétés stagnantes deviennent rancunières, fermées, obsédées par la répartition.

Maintenant regardez la Silicon Valley.

Là-bas, personne ne se bat pour une part du gâteau. On en invente un nouveau. Paul Graham appelle ça "the pie fallacy" : l'erreur de croire que la richesse est une quantité fixe qu'on se partage, alors qu'elle se crée. Quand Google naît, il ne prend rien à personne : il fait apparaître des centaines de milliards de valeur qui n'existaient pas. Peter Thiel va plus loin : "competition is for losers". Les meilleurs ne se battent pas pour un marché existant, ils en créent un.

C'est pour ça qu'à San Francisco on présente des gens qu'on ne connaît pas, on aide des concurrents, on investit dans des inconnus. Ce n'est pas de la naïveté. C'est la conséquence logique d'un monde à somme positive : si le gâteau grossit, la réussite des autres te profite aussi.

Le vrai drame français n'est pas qu'on soit pauvres. C'est qu'on soit devenus mentalement pauvres. Un État trop lourd n'a pas seulement freiné la croissance, il a façonné une psychologie collective de la pénurie. Et cette psychologie s'auto-entretient : moins on croit que le gâteau peut grossir, moins on essaie de le faire grossir.

La sortie n'est pas d'abord fiscale. Elle est mentale. Il faut réapprendre qu'on peut gagner sans que personne ne perde.

Construire plutôt que répartir. Faire grossir le gâteau plutôt que s'entretuer pour les miettes.

C'est le combat de notre génération.

[Jack Moses @jackmoses777]

My theory on the future of work:

In 5-10 years, huge percentages of white-collar and blue-collar jobs will be wiped out by AI and robotics. UBI will come in fast to provide basic housing and living needs to counter mass layoffs. Many won't know where to turn for work, but also for meaning and purpose. Degeneracy and hedonism will rise in many, but so will creativity and expression in others. This will begin a great split in society. Some will fall into deep states of unconsciousness and sedation. Others will begin to awaken into greater degrees of consciousness and spirituality. Read Revelation and you can see this potentiality prophesied.

In 25 years, we will live in a completely different world than the one we see now. Everyone will have personal robots. AI will be fast and powerful beyond comprehension. Very few people will have to do work they don't enjoy. The concept of work as we know it will be totally different. How much love and happiness you can provide to humanity will become more valuable than how productive you are (AI will blow all humans out of the water from a productivity standpoint). As long as you contribute to the collective happiness of humanity, you will be rewarded. Even if you don't, your baseline needs will be taken care of, but the cost is that your spirit will feel empty. It will be a strange time. We will have to relearn what it means to live a life of meaning, to grow up, and to provide value to the world. Humanity will be on the edge of total freedom and infinite abundance. But it will be strange. It will feel too good to be true. There will be a lot of nihilism and hopelessness. It may become darkest before the new dawn. We will have to turn back to nature, children, shamans, and spiritual texts for meaning and direction as individuals and as a species.

In 50-100 years, as long as we don't destroy things, there will be nothing left to do for the sake of survival. All there will be to do is create, play, explore, and love. Nothing else will matter. Being a creator will be the only thing that exists. But you won't create for money. You will create for the sake of creation, because creation is intrinsic to your nature as a human being. It will be like being a kid again, but all the time. The concept of jobs, careers, and money as we know it will be ancient relics of the past. We will look at them as forms of mental and spiritual slavery that we imposed upon our own race. Humanity will exist in a new Golden Age of abundance, free to create, play, love, and express themselves. All that will matter is community, family, love, creativity, and spirituality.

It is our return to Eden, as long as we don't fuck it up first.

[McMich @McMichelSim]

Respect !!! 🔥 Superbe témoignage 🥰
À 96 ans, Clint Eastwood fait voler en éclats certaines illusions rassurantes sur le vieillissement.

Lors d’une récente interview, il explique comment le corps se transforme avec le temps.

Il brosse un tableau brut et sans concession de ce qui se passe à l’approche des 100 ans. « La lumière vous fait mal aux yeux, et même respirer peut sembler être une corvée », a admis Eastwood, décrivant la lutte incessante contre un corps qui faiblit.

Mais, le véritable fardeau du grand âge est d’ordre émotionnel et psychologique. Une fois passé le cap des quatre-vingt-dix ans, le paysage des relations sociales subit une transformation profonde.

On regarde autour de soi et l’on réalise que la plupart des gens qui nous ont connus dans notre jeunesse

— ceux qui partageaient notre histoire, nos complicités et les épreuves de la vie
— ont disparu. Le cercle des visages familiers se réduit comme peau de chagrin, le téléphone cesse de sonner et le rythme des jours s’étire péniblement.

L’épreuve la plus amère n’est pas la douleur physique, mais l’absence soudaine de quelqu’un qui a vraiment envie de vous écouter !

Eastwood explique que revisiter ses souvenirs n’est pas le signe d’une fragilité mentale, mais une tentative vitale de trouver une continuité dans sa propre existence.

Nous vivons dans une culture qui érige la longévité en trophée, tout en ignorant totalement la solitude écrasante qui accompagne cette survie.

Nous célébrons ce qui brille, ce qui va vite et ce qui est hyperconnecté, ne laissant aucune place au rythme lent et répétitif de la vie des personnes très âgées.

En fin de compte, les rides sur le visage des presque centenaires ne sont pas de simples signes de vieillesse ; elles dessinent la magnifique carte d’une vie pleinement vécue.

C’est un privilège de s’asseoir pour écouter le récit de leur parcours de vie !

[pal9999 @pal9999]

最近、フランスの暴動と絡めてフランス革命の話してる人いるけど、俺がフランスの体質の極北として挙げたいのはWW1だね。

WW１は最高にフランスがフランスした件。

まずフランスは戦費��達が難しかった。これはいつもの話。借金踏み倒しの常習犯だからね。そこでフランスはイギリスを保証人にしてアメリカから借金してドイツと戦った。

「勝ったらドイツに支払わせればいいし、負けたらそもそも払えない」

という算段が見え見え。最初から自分で払う気はないのである！！

ところが計算違いが起きた。1917のロシア革命である。当時のフランス銀行はロシア国債を大量に買っていたのでこれが一夜にして灰になったわけ。

なのでフランスはなんとしてもドイツに勝って賠償金を取らないといけなくなった。

1919年、フランスはアメリカの資金のおかげでドイツに勝てた。そこでドイツに押し付けたのが、あの悪名高いベル���イユ条約である。

320億マルクという天文学的な賠償金、つまり戦費+アメリカへの借金+ロシア革命の損失をドイツに付け替えた。

しかし、皆さんご存じの通り、ドイツは破綻してしまい、アメリカは「借金返せよ」と言ってくる。

金？そんなものはない。誰も貸してくれない。借金踏み倒しの常習犯だから。

困ったフランスはポアンカレ・プランでフランの価値を５分の１に切り下げて帳尻を合わせる事に。

国を救うために戦時国債を買ってくれた国内の地主や中産階級の資産をインフレによって合法的に8割カットしたのである。

これが！！国を信じて！！！債券を買った人間にすることか！！！！

これで国内向けの借金は事実上焼却しきった。愛国者達の財布を焼くことでな！！

でも対���向けの借金はこれじゃ焼けない。フランスはどうしたか？

実はイギリスもアメリカもWW１でフランスに借金踏み倒された被害者である。

1929年に大恐慌が始まるとフランスは「ドイツが払わないなら俺たちも払わねーよ」と一方的にアメリカに通告してバックレ。

ブチ切れたアメリカはジョンソン法作って「借金バックレたやつには二度と金をかさない」としたが、フランスはフルシカト。

ここでイギリスはフランスの保証人だったのでアメリカへの支払い義務が生じた。イギリスは借金の約束は守る国である。その為、コツコツと借金をアメリカに返し続けた。イギリス没落の原因の一つである。

この時の恨みがイギリスとアメリカの対仏不信となり、その後のヒトラー融和政策の元となったのである。これを知ってないとイギリスとアメリカが何で最初ヒトラーからフランスを助けなかったのかがわからない。

当時、覇権国のイギリスと世界最大の債権国アメリカの両方のメンツをぶっ潰す暴挙にでた国はフランスだけである。

どうです？これがフランスです。どんな相手だろうと踏み倒す。それが覇権国だろうと世界一の債権国だろうと。ぶれない。本当にぶれない。

奴らはいつもこうなんです。だから次もやりますよ。

[Vineet Nayar @vineetnayar]

Trump wants fewer Indian technology professionals moving to America. The unintended consequence may be more American technology work moving to India.

I have spent more than three decades in this industry. So when I read about the latest US action restricting some large technology companies from using PERM, the route through which employees move towards permanent residency, I was less worried than the headlines suggested.

One number explains why. Indian IT companies accounted for less than 1,400 of the 117,849 PERM certifications last year. Less than 2%. The direct impact may therefore be smaller than it first appears.

But something more interesting is happening underneath.

The original Indian IT model was simple. The customer had important work in America, so we sent Indian engineers there to do it. Then we discovered that much of that work could be done from India. The onsite-offshore model was born. I lived that transition.

We may be at the beginning of another one.

America is making it harder to move Indian talent there, while technology is making it easier for smaller teams in India to take responsibility for increasingly sophisticated work.

There is an irony here. In trying to reduce the movement of Indian talent to America, the US may accelerate the movement of American work to India.

But I don’t mean another wave of coding and maintenance jobs.

The opportunity is architecture, product engineering, cybersecurity, AI implementation, industry solutions and eventually ownership of products and IP.

Indian teams should not merely receive specifications from New York. They should help decide what gets built. Not merely maintain a global bank’s technology platform, but help redesign the bank. Not just supply engineers to solve somebody else’s problem, but own the problem.

There is an uncomfortable truth too.

For thirty years, growth in Indian IT and growth in Indian IT employment travelled together. Win more business, hire more engineers.

As AI technology improves productivity, that relationship may weaken. Indian IT could win more sophisticated work and create more value without headcount growing at the same rate.

So we need a different definition of success.

For thirty years, Indian IT competed largely on the cost of Indian talent. The next thirty will depend on the capability of Indian talent.

Can we create architects rather than only programmers? Build products and IP here? Move more global decision-making to India? Create more value per person and therefore pay our people far better?

Those are much bigger questions than how many visas America issues.

So worry not about the visa headlines.

Trump may make it harder for Indian engineers to move to American work. The opportunity is to make American work move to Indian engineers.

[Piran @piranmerchant]

@ViCustomerCare . As we near the 3rd decade of the 21st century, a tip on CX -- replacing a sim should not require a visit to ur store. Esp if ur customer is differently abled. And if a process change is impossible, then atleast make ur store accessible with a wheelchair ramp.

[Piran @piranmerchant]

@DiianaD___

[Nithya Shri @Nithya_Shrii]

What they hate in you is often what they can’t find in themselves.

[Nithya Shri @Nithya_Shrii]

Never destroy someone’s reputation with false accusations.

[Piran @piranmerchant]

@allrockmusic

[Piran @piranmerchant]

@JeremyWingert79 In "Surrender", Bono's autobiography, he writes of how fans of U2, and rock-concert commentators in general believe that when U2 play that song, it's like "God entered the room".

[diva @divaagurlxw]

This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This This

[Piran @piranmerchant]

@RaminNasibov AC/DC, Van Halen

[Piran @piranmerchant]

@PacoNez1 @ikisabicanal Thank you

[haruka no yume【はるかのゆめ】 @haruka_no_yume]

🇯🇵 Wim Wenders' did an amazing job of showing what Tokyo looked like in the middle of the 1980s.

Sometimes, it almost looks like a dream or like AI but it's actually completely real.

[Piran @piranmerchant]

@girdley A shared reality.

[Piran @piranmerchant]

It's that time of the year when someone needs to wake up Billie Joe Armstrong.