Quick Hits on Provocative Topics — March 19, 2025
“Personally, for the frequency of posts, I'd like to see some variety in length - like mix in-depth stuff with some quick hits on provocative topics.”
— A retiredpdx.com reader
Thanks again to those who answered the survey I initiated in my post for “Six Months In.” Following up on this suggestion for a variety in length, I thought I’d do “quick hits” in each of the topics I write about.
Reflections — Depressive Episode
Health — Dr. Google
Finance — Got the United Quest card
Tech — Getting a new M4 Macbook Air
Business — Stock market like the Princess Bride
Politics — Pete Buttigieg and Adam Schiff are on Substack!
PNW — Check out the rainbow stairs
Depressive Episode
When I explained during a family state-of-the-union (SOTU) how I was feeling one day, my younger daughter suggested that I Google the term “depressive episode.” I did that!
Oh my. I’ve written about each of these topics!
Feeling empty, loss of interest, fatigue, and changes in appetite from Ozempic!
Sleep disturbance associated with sleep apnea
Difficulty making decisions with failing memory
Thoughts surrounding death in writing my own story
The good news is that AI can also analyze my writing and know that I’m not actually having a depressive episode. I fed my Substack into Google Notebook LM, and here was the response to the question “Is Stephen Pao having a depressive episode?”
Those here in Portland who see me face-to-face on a regular basis also know that I’m not depressed! I’m actually quite happily retired!
Have my posts made you think I’m depressed?
Dr. Google
This Googling of my psychological condition put me in the majority. Most U.S. adults (59%) search online for their health information, and over a third (35%) are “online diagnosers” who use the Internet to figure out what medical condition they or another may have.
A potential problem, of course, is that of these “online diagnosers,” the same study reported that 35% of these “online diagnosers” say they did not visit a clinician to get a professional opinion. Does this matter? The study didn’t attempt to determine whether these online searches are thus “good” or “bad.”
What do you think? Should people really use Dr. Google? Does this help outcomes when people are using Dr. Google in conjunction with clinicians?
Got the United Quest Card
This is a quick follow up to my prior post about credit cards.
Marsha and I have always been ones to “carry on” and not check luggage. However, with our kids living in New Jersey and Chicago — both United hubs — now, we’ve been thinking about how we bring stuff to them. As a retiree, I no longer have status on any airline, so we just signed Marsha up for a United Quest Card, which allows the primary cardholder (Marsha) and a companion (me) to have first free and second checked bags. The cost of the card is $250, less a $125 credit to use on United. We plan to only use this card for United flights. We’ll also get priority boarding.
Let’s see if this will be a good deal for us. Basically, we figured we pay back the cost of the card by just checking 4 bags ($35 each).
Do any of you have cards that you use just for one purpose? We already do this for the Alaska Airlines card, which we use just to get priority boarding (“group C”) and the $122 companion fares ($99 plus taxes and fees).
Getting a new M4 Macbook Air
I’ve been a huge fan of the M1 Macbook Air that I bought in 2020. After 4.5 years, this is the longest life I’ve ever had for a laptop that I use as my “daily driver.” However, I’ve been watching my SSD usage, and smartmontools is reporting that I’m at 71% “Percentage Used” and 1,120 TBW (terabytes written).
For a more user-friendly view, DriveDX is reporting a yellow “low” (29%) on my “SSD Lifetime Left Indicator.”
So, it’s going to be time to prophylactically upgrade. Time to use an Apple trade-in!
The timing is also right with the introduction of the new M4 Macbook Air. I like the new sky blue color, too! More information is available in this video. “M1 vs M4 MacBook Air - HECK YES, it's Finally Upgrade Time!” Boom!
Anyone else looking at the new M4 Macbook Air?
Stock Market like “The Princess Bride”
In my opinion, one of the funniest movie scenes is this one from “The Princess Bride.”
The basic premise of this scene is that Westley challenges Vizzini to a “battle of wits.” They sit down at a table with two goblets of wine. Westley proposes that he will poison one of the goblets, and Vizzini must choose which one to drink. Vizzini tries to outsmart Westley by using convoluted logic and psychological tricks to deduce which goblet is poisoned. After some funny back-and-forth, Vizzini confidently chooses a goblet, drinks, and dies. Neither choice would have been right, as Westley had developed a tolerance to the poison itself.
This is where we’re at with the stock market, which stupidly went up after Trump won the election. Despite Trump promising tariffs all along, many analysts believed that Trump was lying. When Trump announced tariffs after all, other analysts believed Trump would retract any tariffs when the stock market went down. When the stock market went down, different analysts believed Trump was using tariffs for negotiation and that these tariffs would only be short-term. In the process, Trump has started what the Wall Street Journal editorial board calls “the dumbest trade war in history.” Contrary to analyst predictions, Trump no longer cares how markets react. Trump observed that Biden lost the last election, despite a booming stock market during the Biden presidency. So, no analysts really predicted what Trump would do, and clearly, Trump has a tolerance for poison.
This would all be funny if it weren’t true.
I don’t think this is a partisan issue. 90% of Democrats and 57% of Republicans are worried that these tariffs are harmful. Do you agree?
Pete Buttigieg and Adam Schiff are on Substack
Despite the capacity for all of us to “doom scroll,” I am happy that politicians are starting to use Substack as a first-party platform to intelligently state their views. Just over the past week, I’ve seen two prominent politicians launch their Substack.
This was Adam Schiff’s launch post last week. And Pete Buttigieg’s launch post a day later. I’ve subscribed to both so far, as I’ve really appreciated their messaging that I think everyone can get behind, despite the Democratic leanings of these two politicians. I won’t editorialize here quite yet, but I invite you to comment on what you think!
Check out the rainbow stairs
We have seen and felt an extremely unfortunate backlash against DEI initiatives. Marsha and I were on a walk the other day, and were reminded that Portland still has a number of very visible expressions for underrepresented communities. Here’s a photo I took a few years ago at the Lower Macleay entrance to Forest Park. I appreciate this kind of expression.
Do you have any photos to share from local landmarks?
Feedback?
As mentioned this is s a new format of “quick hits” I’m trying for this post. Does this format work better?
Also, if you haven’t yet taken the survey yet, would you do it?
Being frugal, I'm tempted by the MacBook Air M2, $699 vs. $949 at Costco.
Steve, I downloaded that DriveDX app to run on my 2019 Intel MacBook Pro. I was surprised my usage stats are a lot lower than yours. Although now that I think about it, I used it for 3 years, and then UPWK gave me a new M1 unit. Then when I retired, they made me turn it in, so I’ve been using the old one. It barely holds a charge though, so I’m planning on getting the M4 MB Air as well. Any other buying tips?