The 2022 Mazda MX-30 misses the market, but does it matter?

By Jay Torres

We reported before that Mazda made the MX-30 slower “to feel more like a gas car.” Throughout the drive, we did not find acceleration and power delivery to be particularly inspiring. Mazda told us that its reason is that EVs with instant torque can be too “herky-jerky,” which can ruin the passenger experience. So Mazda muted the “jerkiness” of acceleration to follow the same curve as an ICE car.

This is absolutely baffling. The instant torque is one of the benefits of owning an electric vehicle.

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Dad Things – Issue #28

By Jay Torres

Every year, former Wired editor Kevin Kelly comes up with a list of bits advice he wish he had known. This year he has 103 bits of advice. Here are my favorites.

  • There is no such thing as being “on time.” You are either late or you are early. Your choice.
  • Ask anyone you admire: Their lucky breaks happened on a detour from their main goal. So embrace detours. Life is not a straight line for anyone.
  • You’ll get 10x better results by elevating good behavior rather than punishing bad behavior, especially in children and animals.
  • You will be judged on how well you treat those who can do nothing for you.
  • Your time and space are limited. Remove, give away, throw out things in your life that dont spark joy any longer in order to make room for those that do.
  • Aim to die broke. Give to your beneficiaries before you die; it’s more fun and useful. Spend it all. Your last check should go to the funeral home and it should bounce.
  • To keep young kids behaving on a car road trip, have a bag of their favorite candy and throw a piece out the window each time they misbehave.

    • You can read the rest here and subscribe here.

A Good Problem to Have

By Jay Torres

This post originally appeared as an issue on my newsletter. If you’d like to get early access to my posts, please consider subscribing.

I have to get my Tesla repaired.

Let me back up.

I got a Tesla Model 3 in December. I’ve had it on order since October and I’ve been wanting one ever since they came out in 2017(?). I took delivery on 12/19 and it’s everything I wanted and I’m completely happy with it.

For NYE, we visited my in laws. It was a delayed Christmas celebration combined with a NYE celebration. They live in a suburban community in Orange County. Whenever we visit them, I always park on the street. It’s the type of neighborhood where kids play on the street all the time. No crazy city traffic or anything like that. Except on this day, a group of kids on their bikes were chasing each other through the neighborhood, one of them lost control and slammed into the bumper of my car. One of the parents came out and alerted us to what happened. We figured out who lost control and their parents offered to pay for the repair. Rightfully so.

But three weeks into having my new car, I had to find a few body shops to get a few quotes to send to the parents so they can decide if they want to pay out of pocket or go through insurance.

The moment I saw the scratch, I knew it wasn’t going to be easily buffed out. But it was also big enough that I couldn’t let it go unrepaired. I knew the hassle and time it was going to take to find shops, get quotes, and then ultimately get the repair done. But I also knew “getting the scratch repaired on my brand new Tesla” is very much a first world problem and is not the worst thing in the world by a long shot.
I caught myself saying “I have to get my Tesla repaired” and realized how lucky I was to even be in that situation. I could have thrown a fit but I took a step back and realized in the grand scheme of things, things could be a lot worse.

I’ve had to have this mindset for the majority of the pandemic. “We’re all safe and healthy”, “We’re all vaccinated”, “We have a place to live and food to eat” were all things I had to tell myself when the variants would come and go and the end of the pandemic was nowhere in sight. Which ultimately is a good skill to have. Not just during this pandemic, but for life in general.

Dad Things – Ted Lasso, S2 E8

By Jay Torres

This post originally appeared as an issue on my newsletter. If you’d like to get early access to my posts, please consider subscribing.

Hey Friend,

Hopefully, this shows up in your mailbox like each past newsletter did. I decided to switch back to Revue due to their integration with Twitter. The kids are back in school (full time!) and things are back to somewhat normal in terms of work and school schedules.

Labor Day just passed and we’re into the home stretch of the year. I’m hoping we don’t hit a major surge with Delta going into the winter (get vaccinated!), but I’m feeling good heading into the last quarter of 2021.

The Acura Integra Type R Lives Up to Every Teenage Dream

This was such a great read and brought me back to my high school days.

Why Managers Fear a Remote-Work Future

This paragraph right here 🔥

Remote work empowers those who produce and disempowers those who have succeeded by being excellent diplomats and poor workers, along with those who have succeeded by always finding someone to blame for their failures. It removes the ability to seem productive (by sitting at your desk looking stressed or always being on the phone), and also, crucially, may reveal how many bosses and managers simply don’t contribute to the bottom line.

Parents Are Not Okay

Instead it was a year in limbo: school on stuttering Zoom, school in person and then back home again for quarantine, school all the time and none of the time. No part of it was good, for kids or parents, but most parts of it were safe, and somehow, impossibly, we made it through a full year. It was hell, but we did it. We did it.

2020 was definitely one of the most difficult years ever. Things aren’t completely back to normal, but I’m SO THANKFUL that in our school district, the kids are safely back in school.

The Next Pandemic

Vox’s Explained series on Netflix is excellent. They’re 3 seasons in and each episode is interesting. This episode on “The Next Pandemic” was filmed in 2019. Really. You can’t watch it without thinking how the US, and most countries in the world, completely botched their response.

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Why the Hybrid Workforce of the Future Depends on the ‘Geriatric Millennial’

By Jay Torres

Aside from this, being able to bridge the gap between upper management and those in their twenties and early thirties is my other valuable work skill.

Geriatric millennials are valuable because they have a varied skill set to refer to — one that lets them cater to the needs of people with different degrees of understanding of (and patience for) the digital world. Being fluent in both analog and digital communication styles is a key skill for today’s leaders.

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Why Managers Fear a Remote-Work Future

By Jay Torres

There are many pros and cons for both working remote and in office. I like a mix of both. This point stood out to me:

Remote work empowers those who produce and disempowers those who have succeeded by being excellent diplomats and poor workers, along with those who have succeeded by always finding someone to blame for their failures.

I can now see how some people got to where they are.

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The Power of Positive People

By Jay Torres

“I argue that the most powerful thing you can do to add healthy years is to curate your immediate social network,” said Mr. Buettner, who advises people to focus on three to five real-world friends rather than distant Facebook friends. “In general you want friends with whom you can have a meaningful conversation,” he said. “You can call them on a bad day and they will care. Your group of friends are better than any drug or anti-aging supplement, and will do more for you than just about anything.”

In my early thirties, I noticed my circle of friends getting smaller as many of friends, and myself, started settling down. Then in my late thirties, as everyone was starting families, the number of friends got even smaller. This is definitely a feature not a bug. I wish I’d learned this sooner. Letting go of negative friends is hard, but benefits you in the long run. The small circle of friends I have definitely fit this description.

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CarPlay is finally (just barely) good enough that you should never look at your phone while driving ever again

By Jay Torres

Matt Haughey wrote about his experience using CarPlay. About 5 years since it’s been released, he feels it is “good enough”. He does point out what, I think, is the biggest flaw with CarPlay.

See this CarPlay screenshot? Notice how there are three icons along the left side showing my last three used apps? You know what happens when you use a few apps, then someone texts you but your Messages app wasn’t used recently and you stay on this home screen view? That’s right, you’ll never know you got a new text unless you change screens to the one of all your apps and spot a red “1” on your Messages app.

Apple treats the icons in the dock as recently viewed or used instead of static icons. When I’m driving, I want those three icons to be Google Maps, Overcast, and Messages. That’s it. Those are the apps I use the most while driving. If I need another app, I will go look for it when I need. I don’t need that app taking up space when I want to listen to the Padres game on the MLB app that one time while I was driving, for example. Matt’s example is the best. I will never know if I’ve received a text message if the Messages icon gets bumped off the CarPlay dock. It’s probably the only reason why I pick up my phone while driving. I would hate to miss a text from my wife asking to pick up something on the way home.

I love CarPlay. I would be hesitant to buy a car without it (ahem, Tesla). I really hope Apple takes a look at this behavior and at least makes it an option.

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Dad Things

By Jay Torres

I’m thrilled to announced my new podcast interview series Dad Things. It’s an interview series where I talk with other people about what it’s like to be a dad.

I’ve always enjoyed listening to interviews of interesting people. I especially enjoy interviews between two people who talk about their experiences about being parents. Being a parent is one of the hardest thing in the world. It is slightly comforting, and also very entertaining, to listen to other people talk about their experiences of being a parent. It makes you feel like you’re not alone in your daily struggles. I’ve always enjoyed talking, and commiserating, about being a parent with my friends. I thought it would be a fun project to interview other people about their trials about being a parent.

I plan to post more about this project as I dive into it. I’d like to talk about my thought process, my previous, long lost, solo podcast Pints and Bottles, and more about the evolution of this project.

My first guest is my Bay Area buddy, old podcast host Nick Pro. Please follow the podcast in your app of choice and leave a review if you enjoy it.