Paul Kedrosky Profile picture
Mar 7 6 tweets 3 min read
On the California Sierra Nevada snow situation, saw a note from a major snow removal contractor today pleading with second homeowners to not come, given they can no longer blow snow high enough to clear 30-40-foot snowbanks along driveways and guarantee home access.
This is exactly the kind of "long emergency" with which humans cope poorly, as opposed to a hurricane, where bad things happen, and then the storm moves on. Risk is piling on risk in mountain communities, and at this point many should be cordoned off or evacuated. #xp
The situation is very dangerous and arguably unprecedented, with little required to tip it into an outright disaster, given that tens of thousands of people treat such communities as weekend playgrounds, and wander blithely from the coast, unaware of the risk exponentials. #xp
And why hasn't that happened? In part it is because resort operators in the Sierras closed during pandemic, and they faced a class action suit that they only just settled expensively (e.g., skipasssettlement.com). Loathe to have that happen again, the risks are exacerbated. #xp
Addendum: A few people have asked, & the key risks take various forms:
- Supply chain disruption
- Cyclic loading
- Total loading

Wrt the latter two points, dense Sierra snow can be 20+ pounds per cubic foot. With 20+ feet of snow on many roofs, you do the collapse math. #xp
As an aside, home insurance prices have soared in recent years in the Sierras, but largely on the back of wildfire risk. Insurers will take a hit here, so watch future premiums when policies are adjusted for mispriced, fat-tailed, winter events like this one. #xp

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More from @pkedrosky

Feb 18
Early morning skate-skiing around frozen lakes in the alpine this morning. Lovely and quiet, but brutal aerobic effort. Going from sea level to 8,500 feet and then skating some miles is ... work.
Pic and elevation
Btw, those dead trees are from volcanic C02 outgassing events, which come and go in this location, with disastrous tree consequences.
Read 4 tweets
Feb 18
The AI revolution in the workplace has only just begun, and people are already realizing who is supervising whom. wsj.com/articles/ai-ch… #xp
I had a conversation with an economist friend the other day, who argued that in the long run, automation creates more jobs than it displaces. Yes, historically this has been true, even if the N is small wrt macrocycles of automation. #xp
But job disruption tends to happen much faster than the creation of new jobs, which is, in part, what led to the textile mill riots and Ludditism in the 19th century. Job displacement on a much larger scale today in a more fragile society will be profoundly destabilizing. #xp
Read 4 tweets
Feb 16
So, a quick story, without naming names. Years ago two nice guys building an outdoorsy company came to me and explained what they were doing, and said that ... I had inspired them to do it. It was people, like me, they said, that they were targeting. #xp
As I always say when people say I'm their target market, I said "You're probably fked". After all, I'm a weirdo one-off, and extrapolating from me to a mass-market will generally lead you rapidly to financial crisis. #xp
I kept tabs on them over the years, however, and things were going well enough, it seemed. And then today I found out they were doing almost $200m in revenues, with no investors: the founders have the whole thing. #xp
Read 4 tweets
Feb 16
Back when I was hanging at @KauffmanFDN writing things and making mouth noises I used to argue that some of the best markets for young companies weren't new ones, but existing ones where you can make it non-viable for incumbents. #xp
There are a bunch of reasons for this, not least of which is that when you make a financial ecology difficult, it changes the predation game, sometimes in your favor as a new company that can price or do things very differently. #xp
But the other reason isn't said enough, that it's _good_ when people are already spending gazillions on things, because then you don't have to convince them to spend more on something new. People and companies don't like to do that. #xp
Read 9 tweets
Jan 27
Heretical, but ... flat-rate pricing is what's destroying the ski industry, not algos. Resorts are overrun by people on season passes, resulting in massive lines. Dynamic pricing is one solution.

Arizona Ski Area Has the Priciest Lift Ticket at $300+ skimag.com/news/arizona-r…
Granted, resort skiing is a ridiculous, mass-affluence non-sport sport. I would be perfectly happy to have it eat itself, goaded on by flat-rate pricing, private equity owners, yield management algos, etc., so I'm admittedly an unreliable narrator here.
Failing that, we're likely to see more resorts eventually impose daily quotas, or even become private clubs, as is happening in various places. As I say too often, the physical world does not scale to digitally-aided and abetted appetites.
Read 4 tweets
Jan 26
I try not to say much about the current AI/chat mania, because it mostly makes me want to punch me in the face repeatedly, but I will say that I find monied tech bros' paeans to a post-AI UBI (universal basic income)... instructively stupid.
I mean:

1) We ran the experiment of paying people to stay at home and surf the Internet already, and the main byproducts were the Capitol riots, Qanon, and OnlyFans. Do it a second time and ... well, let's not.
2) If said bros think that people having jobs, even ones they hate, isn't essential to self-worth and societal stability, they need to read more widely in history and philosophy—but at least more than their diet of inbox pitches and wackaloon Substacks.
Read 4 tweets

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