From Bloomberg:

As chairman, Bren remains the ultimate decision-maker at Irvine Co. He’s tan, athletic, “forceful and confident,” says James Doti, the former president of Chapman University, a private liberal arts school in the city of Orange. “He speaks. You listen.” Bren comes into the office every day, where he works on the ninth floor, at a desk overlooking the Fashion Island shopping center (which he owns) and, farther in the distance, the exclusive Harbor Island (an artificial island where he has a mansion). He’s been known to sign off on construction documents and profit and loss statements by hand.

I went to UC Irvine for undergrad and lived in Irvine for many years once I started working. It is the next city over from Laguna Beach and we spend a lot of time at Irvine Spectrum. I knew of the ubiquity of The Irvine Company back then, but this is the most I’ve read about the company and its chairman, Donald Bren. For someone like me who lived in and around Irvine and notices “things”, this was a fascinating read.

Fun fact: you know you’re at an Irvine Company property if the markings for the parking spaces are painted green.

★

More on how trump’s tariffs are completely idiotic, Nicole Narea at Vox (Apple News+ link):

Vietnam was hit with 46 percent tariffs, one of the highest rates on the schedule that the White House unveiled. That’s because Trump has sought to target Vietnam and other countries that have a high trade surplus with the US, believing that they’re “cheating” America. However, he ignores the reason why Vietnam has a trade surplus with the US: It is relatively poor and cannot afford to buy many American-made goods.

Any one with a high school education can figure out why there is a trade deficit with certain countries and why it wouldn’t make sense to hit them with tariffs.

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Kyla Scanlon on her weirdly named newsletter, Kyla’s Newsletter:

Trade deficits: These don’t automatically mean a country is “cheating.” A trade deficit means we import more from a country than we export to it. This can happen for benign reasons like strong consumer spending, the US dollar’s global strength, or the fact we don’t grow certain crops here. If we reduce imports from China via high tariffs, we might just buy from Vietnam or another country (likely Latin America based on the tariff rates). The overall deficit just shifts around because we simply cannot produce things like bananas or coffee here. Also, these are countries that send things to us, like Cambodia, so we have a giant trade deficit – but it isn’t because they are taking advantage of us, it’s because they simply can’t afford to buy our things. There is no way to ‘even out’ that deficit, and it really shouldn’t be a goal.

Just an overall great piece on this whole tariff bullshit.

★

Kevin Wammer on what he calls his life framework:

A collection of rules, thoughts, and ideas I try to live by. I’m posting them here as a reminder to myself, not for you to copy, though you’re welcome to steal a few and make them your own. They might not apply to you at all, but publishing them forced me to sit down and shape them. Otherwise, they’d still be gathering dust in my notes app.

Some of my favorites:

• Curate your inputs. Cut the noise. Cut the hatred.
• Make weird shit.
• Eat whole foods. Not everything needs to be “clean”, but your grandmother should recognize it.
• Be useful. Be kind. Be decent. Don’t be an ass.

The whole list is great, it’s worth checking out. A lot of these self improvement books, articles, podcasts, etc. are all the same basic ideas repeated and remixed over and over. Once you’ve seen it in one form, you’ve seen it all.

Still, it’s a good reminder that all this really isn’t that hard.

★

Mark Rober takes on Tesla Full Self Driving in his latest video.

The results do not surprise me.

On a road trip to Northern CA, our first in an EV, I used Tesla’s FSD on the boring part of the 5. Ahead of us were skid marks where you could tell a car lost control and veered off the road. As we got closer to the skid marks, I could feel the car start to “follow” the skid marks. I firmly grabbed the wheel and and turned it enough so that FSD stopped and I took control.

That was the moment I came to the realization that FSD is bullshit. I’ve tried it here and there since Tesla gives you 30 day free trials for users to try it out in hopes of buying or subscribing. That right there should give you pause. But on other trips, there were numerous times where it just wasn’t confidence inspiring and it just did dumb stuff.

Tesla Full Self Driving is bullshit.

★

David Sparks, of MacSparky, on changing your career:

So, if you’re in your forties—or even earlier—and wondering if you should start preparing for a possible change, the answer is yes. That doesn’t mean you need to quit your job or make a drastic move.

It just means placing small bets on things that interest you. Explore different skills, build relationships in other fields, and don’t be afraid to try something that might not work out. Even if you never need to pull the ripcord, it’s good to have options.

I’m in my mid-forties (it feels weird just saying that) and I feel like I’m in the prime of my career. I’ve found my niche in the HVAC world and I can confidently say, I’m pretty good at what I do.

I also have interests outside of work that I bring into my work life: Apple products, social media, and YouTube. I have no idea if these things will lead into anything similar to David’s path, but I know that these skills are skills that not many in my industry have and it could potentially lead to something else.

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Rachel Sugar in The Atlantic:

A quiet monologue runs through my head at all times. It is this: dinner dinner dinner dinner. The thing about dinner is that you have to deal with it every single night. Figuring out what to eat is a pleasure until it becomes a constant low-grade grind. It’s not just the cooking that wears me down, but the meal planning and the grocery shopping and the soon-to-be-rotting produce sitting in my fridge. It is the time it sucks up during the week. It is the endless mental energy.

I love cooking, but the weeknight dinner is one of the most stressful things in my day to day.

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