I love buying out of the money options. It's like a tournament. Often you lose your buy-in, but every now and then, you hit big. And that's just plain fun!

This blog post is quite similar to my feelings about leaving Google:

So if everything is so great at Google, why am I stupid enough to leave? And part of me does indeed feel a bit guilty about not being able to fully appreciate and enjoy working at Google — after all, there are many people out there in the world that have dreary and monotonous minimum-wage jobs, without any benefits or perks to speak of. But in the end, I have realized that I am just much more of a startup person than a big-company person. Perks and everything are great, but this is ultimately not what motivates me. At an early stage startup, every single individual has a tremendous impact on the company (good or bad…), along with a much broader set of responsibilities (everybody has to wear many hats). Then, there’s the pioneering spirit, which is extremely energizing and contagious. These days, it seems like a lot of the true innovations are made at small startups, which have the benefit of being orders of magnitude times more agile and efficient than a large company will ever be. Sure, many ideas don’t go anywhere, but every once in a while, something new comes along that leaves a big footprint (and let’s not forget that even Google started out like this). Last not least, there is of course a significantly bigger upside to working at a startup. Of course the harsh truth is that most startups fail, but at least there is that 1 in a 10 chance of being tremendously successful (and the sense of actually being able to contribute to this chance).

So with what is arguably the greatest financial crisis in 80 years happening around us, what do y'all think about owning gold & silver, as a hedge against the breakdown of the international financial system?

Personally I have a lot of confidence in said international financial system, even after everything that's happened. Yeah, I'm worried about a run on the dollar, I'm worried about the US socializing a big sector of the economy and that weighing on our growth prospects. But I'm not very worried that the dollars in my safe will become worthless pieces of paper, and the ammo in my closet will become far more valuable. I think the US still produces lots of valuable stuff, and that puts a floor under the dollar.

Am I overly optimistic? Should I own physical gold & silver as preparation for a true apocalypse? Are there realistic situations where it would be better to stock up on gold & silver than on ammo & food? Are there realistic situations where it would be better to stock up on physical gold & silver than on financial futures related to gold & silver?

Are you worried about apocalypse? How are you hedging against it?

Our back unit (#4), 8pm.

A zinger from Arnold Kling:

Big Finance and Big Government have much in common. Both are coveted by Harvard graduates. Both are characterized by an arrogant sense of entitlement and importance.

Instead of thinking of the pending bailouts and financial regulation as a new era of government supervisions of markets, think of it as preserving the system in which a Harvard elite controls other people's money. In fact, very little is likely to change. Reading the news stories about how Secretary Paulson plans to implement the bailout, it seems as though the same people will be in charge of the money. Print some new business cards, change the logo on the front from "Goldman Sachs" to "U.S. Treasury," and everything else continues as it was. It's just that it becomes a lot more difficult for ordinary people to opt out of using the elite's money management services.

(After watching PoC: Curse of the Black Pearl)

choiceful: "Look, I ate hamburger when I could have been eating the ice cream browascension left us."
patrissimo: "Good. That's good pirate food - predator food. Be like the wolf - eat meat, stay lean and strong. So you can prey on the weak. Don't eat sugar and get fat - that's for the sheep. That we prey on."
choiceful: laughs
patrissimo: "Errr...except you should eat lettuce. It sounds like sheep food...but it's good for you! And vegetables. Hmm...this whole metaphor is breaking down."

When two poly women have a close conversation, is it referred to as a "tart-to-tart"?

:)