Tim Violino > Recent Status Updates

I sense that plastic is the major challenge that the author faced. My question is why even use it? You could just swap the plastics for more metal and insulate with clay.

You can make something that toasts bread without all the junk in a toaster. Is he trying to build something that works like a toaster or that looks like a toaster? It seems like this is more about looks and commenting on economies of scale.

Pretty great so far, the attention to detail is phenomenal.

The female shrimp acceleration of puberty after losing one eye story is utterly outrageous. The author posits that this discovery led to a shrimp revolution.

Physics in relation to other sciences and conservation of energy

Parts 3 and 4 went by in a breeze. There was a somewhat whimsical anecdote about slawlsa that revealed the insane busyness in the life of a food entrepreneur and a deep dive into the life of a Whole Foods employee. I found the conclusion that forced happiness amongst employees being low on their perceived grievances to be interesting, and thought the mechanization of employees championed by Amazon concerning.

Part 2 is a deep dive into grocery trucking. It’s heavy stuff. The author spent a large amount of time riding with a trucker named Lynn who demonstrates to him just how cruel, unfair, and exhausting the job can be. Low wages, sexual harassment, poor sleep, hopeless debt; it’s a lot to take in. I am fully engrossed by the journalism, and my sympathy goes out to anyone suffering in this thankless and difficult job.

The second half of part one gets pretty stimulating. The Germans just bought Trader Joe’s to create an international grocery empire with Aldi. Joe and the Germans didn’t see eye to eye as he wanted a quirky, healthy, and responsible store while they wanted minimalism and the lowest prices.

Prior the story about 2 Buck Chuck is pretty great, also Joe’s decision to target over educated/underpaid customers.

Interesting read so far, it heavily focuses on the rise of Trader Joe’s and speculates on why the store is popular. Joe’s focus on maximizing profit per volume of item and matching wages to cost of living are insightful strats. The author’s style is verbose; he spends a bit too much time developing a depressing / emotional tone to statements that would be as strikingly effective if left neutral and objective.

This is basically a modern remake of The Richest Man in Babylon except that it extrapolates the concept of compound interest growth to more intangible things like happiness, habits, and health. There is a prevalent feeling that the author is trying to convince the reader that the best thing they can possibly do with their lives is read more self-help material, it’s almost like he stands to gain wealth from it…