thomas avazian

@QuestsAbroad All very true!

There are a few stages of fluency and the last one requires you to get angry. When learning a language, you start with small talk and ordering coffee, eventually graduating to deeper topics with friends. Building a life outside your home country also means you also have to be a functional adult. Successfully navigating a doctor appointment or opening a bank account in your second language is a massive win. However, nothing compares to the ultimate fluency test of yelling at someone. There is a very strange sense of pride that washes over you after completely telling someone off in Spanish. You are furious, but a tiny part of your brain is doing a victory dance because you found all the right words and did not stumble a single time.

Miami Florida, 🇺🇸

@dom_lucre Oh but I thought only the Chinese have cool drone shows? So cool!

🔥🚨DEVELOPING: A mind blowing drone light show depicting Jesus on the Cross was spotted in the skies of Manvel, Texas by The Church on Master’s Road. Thousands of drones were used to create this spectacle.

They already nuked everything I had. I’ve got nothing to lose. No sleep til victory. We have a city to save.

Spencer Pratt says he has already arranged for the criminal investigation team at the IRS to come into City Hall and Spencer is opening the books in his first week as mayor. He will make sure they find every dollar crooked NGOs and government officials stole. Spencer MUST be Mayor.

@BillAckman @X Any Fortune 500 company as you know would settle, it’s classic BS, but if you can go to the mat and fight it and absorb a worst case scenario do it.

I am reaching out to the @X community for advice with the likely risk of sharing TMI. I have been sufficiently upset about the whole matter that I have lost sleep thinking about it and I am hoping that this post will enable me to get this matter off my chest. By way of background, I started a family office called TABLE about 15 years ago and hired a friend who had previously managed a family office, and years earlier, had been my personal accountant. She is someone that I trusted implicitly and consider to be a good person. The office started small, but over the last decade, the number of personnel and the cost of the office grew massively. The growth was entirely on the operational side as the investment team has remained tiny. While my investment portfolio grew substantially, the investments I had made were almost entirely passive and TABLE simply needed to account for them and meet capital calls as they came in. While TABLE purchased additional software and other systems that were supposed to improve productivity, the team kept increasing in size at a rapid rate, and the expenses continued to grow even faster. While I would periodically question the growing expenses and high staff turnover, I stayed uninvolved with the office other than a once-a-year meeting when I briefly reviewed the operations and the financials and determined bonus compensation for the President and the CFO. I spent no time with any of the other employees or the operations. The whole idea behind TABLE was that it would handle everything other than my day job so that I would have more time for my job and my family. Over the last six years, expenses ballooned even further, employee turnover accelerated, and I became concerned that all was not well at TABLE. It was time for me to take a look at what was going on. Nearly four years ago, I recruited my nephew who had recently graduated from Harvard and put him to work at Bremont, a British watchmaker, one of my only active personal investments to figure out the issues at the company and ultimately assist in executing a turnaround. He did a superb job. When he returned from the UK late last year after a few years at Bremont, I asked him to help me figure out what was going on with TABLE. When I explained to TABLE’s president what he would be doing, she became incredibly defensive, which naturally made me more concerned. My nephew went to work by first meeting with each employee to understand their roles at the company and to learn from them what ideas they had on how things could be improved. He got an earful. Our first step in helping to turn around TABLE was a reduction in force including the president and about a third of the team, retaining excellent talent that had been desperate for new leadership. Now here is where I need your advice. All but one of the employees who were terminated acted professionally and were gracious on the way out (excluding the president who had a notice period in her contract, is currently still being paid, and with whom I have not yet had a discussion). The highest compensated terminated employee other than the president, an in-house lawyer (let’s call her Ronda), told us that three months of severance was not enough and demanded two years’ severance despite having worked at the company for only two and one half years. When I learned of Ronda's request for severance, I offered to speak with her to understand what she was thinking, but she refused to do so. A few days ago, we received a threatening letter from a Silicon Valley law firm. In the letter, Ronda’s counsel suggests that her termination is part of longstanding issues of ‘harassment and gender discrimination’ – an interesting claim in light of the fact that Ronda was in charge of workplace compliance – and that her termination was due to: “unlawful, retaliatory, and harmful conduct directed towards her. Both [Ronda] and I [Ronda’s lawyer] have spoken with you about [Ronda’s] view of what a reasonable resolution would include given the circumstances. Thus far, TABLE has refused to provide any substantive response. This letter provides the last opportunity to reach a satisfactory agreement. If we cannot do so, [Ronda] will seek all appropriate relief in a court of competent jurisdiction.” The letter goes on to explain the basis for the “unsafe work environment” claim at TABLE: “In early 2026, Pershing Square’s founder Bill Ackman installed his nephew in an unidentified role at TABLE, Ackman’s family office. [His nephew]—whose only work experience had been for TABLE where he was seconded abroad for the last four years to a UK watch company held by Ackman—began appearing at TABLE’s offices and conducting interviews of employees without a clear explanation of his role or the purposes of these interviews. During this period, he made a series of inappropriate and genderbased [sic] comments to multiple employees that created an unsafe work environment. Among other things, [his nephew] made remarks about female employees’ ages (“Tell me you are nowhere near 40”), physical appearance (“Your body does not look like you have kids”), as well as intrusive questions about family planning and sexual orientation (“Who carried your son? Who will carry your next child?”). These incidents were reported to senior leadership at TABLE and Pershing Square. Rather than being addressed appropriately, the response from senior management reflected, at best, willful blindness to the inappropriateness of [his nephew]’s remarks and, at worst, tacit endorsement.” The above allegations about my nephew had previously been brought to my attention by TABLE’s president when they occurred. When I learned of them, I told the president that I would speak to him directly and encouraged her to arrange for him to get workplace sensitivity training. The president assured me that she would do so. When I spoke to my nephew, he explained what he actually had said and how his actual remarks had been received, not at all as alleged in the legal letter from Ronda’s counsel. I have also spoken to others at the lunch table who confirmed his description of the facts. In any case, he meant no harm, was simply trying to build rapport with other employees, and no one, as far as I understand, was offended. Ironically, Ronda claims in her legal letter that TABLE didn’t take HR compliance seriously, yet Ronda was in charge of HR compliance at TABLE and the person who gave my nephew his workplace sensitivity training after the alleged incidents. In any case, Ronda, as head of compliance, should have kept a record or raised an alarm if indeed there was pervasive harassment or other such problems at the company, and there is no evidence whatsoever that this is true. So why does Ronda believe she can get me to pay her nearly $2 million, i.e., two years of severance, nearly one year of severance for each of her years at the company? Well, here is where some more background would be helpful. Over the last two months, I have been consumed with a major family medical issue – one of my older daughters had a massive brain hemorrhage on February 5th and has since been making progress on her recovery – and I am in the midst of a major transaction for my company which I am executing from a hospital room office next to her . While the latter business matter is publicly known, the details of my daughter’s situation are only known to Ronda because of her role at our family office. Now, let’s get back to the subject at hand. Unfortunately, while New York and many other states have employment-at-will, there has emerged an industry of lawyers who make a living from bringing fake gender, race, LGBTQ and other discrimination employment claims in order to extract larger severance payments for terminated employees, and it needs to stop. The fake claim system succeeds because it costs little to have a lawyer send a threatening letter and nearly all of the lawyers in this field work on contingency so there is no or minimal cash cost to bring a claim. And inevitably, nearly 100% of these claims are settled because the public relations and legal costs of defending them exceed the dollar cost of the settlement. The claims are nearly always settled with a confidentiality agreement where the employee who asserts the fake claims remains anonymous and as a result, there is no reputational cost to bringing false claims. The consequences of this sleazy system (let’s call it ‘the System’) are the increased costs of doing business which is a tax on the economy and society. There are other more serious problems due to the System. Unfortunately, the existence of an industry of plaintiff firms and terminated employees willing to make these claims makes it riskier for companies to hire employees from a protected class, i.e., LGBTQ, seniors, women, people of color etc. because it is that much more reputationally damaging and expensive to be accused of racism, sexism, and/or intolerance for sexual diversity than for firing a white male as juries generally have less sympathy for white males. The System therefore increases the risk of discrimination rather than reducing it, and the people bringing these fake claims are thereby causing enormous harm to the other members of these protected classes. So what happened here? Ronda was vastly overpaid and overqualified for the job that she did at TABLE. She was paid $1.05 million plus benefits last year for her work which was largely comprised of filling out subscription agreements and overseeing an outside law firm on closing passive investments in funds and in private and venture stage companies, some compliance work, and managing the office move from one office to another. She had a very good gig as she was highly paid, only had to go into the office three days a week, and could work from anywhere during the summer. Once my nephew showed up and started to investigate what was going on, she likely concluded that there was a reasonable possibility she would be terminated, as her job was in the too-easy-and-to-good-to-be-true category. The problem was that she was not in a protected class due to her race, age or sexual identity so she had to construct the basis for a claim. While she is female and could in theory bring a gender-based discrimination claim, she reported to the president who is female and to whom she is very close, which makes it difficult for her to bring a harassment claim against her former boss. When my nephew complimented a TABLE employee at lunch about how young she looked – in response to saying she was going to her 40-year-old sister’s birthday party, he said ‘she must be your older sister’ – Ronda immediately reported it to our external HR lawyer. She thereby began building her case. The other problem for Ronda bringing a claim is that she was terminated alongside 30% of other TABLE employees as part of a restructuring so it is very difficult for her to say that she was targeted in her termination or was retaliated against. TABLE is now hiring an external fractional general counsel as that is all the company needs to process the relatively limited amount of legal work we do internally. In short, Ronda was eminently qualified and capable and did her job. She was just too much horsepower for what is largely an administrative legal role so she had to come up with something else to bring a claim. Now Ronda knew I was a good target and it was a good time to bring a claim against me. She also knew that I was under a lot of pressure because on March 4th when Ronda was terminated, my daughter had not yet emerged from consciousness, she was not yet breathing on her own, and my daughter and we were fighting for her life. I was and remain deeply engaged in her recovery while at the same time I was working on finishing the closing for the private placement round for my upcoming IPO. Ronda also knew that publicity about supposed gender discrimination and a “hostile and unsafe work environment” are not things that a CEO of a company about to go public wants to have released into the media. And she may have thought that the nearly $2 million she was asking for would be considered small in the context of the reputational damage a lawsuit could cause, regardless of the fact that two years of severance was an absurd amount for an employee who had only worked at TABLE for 30 months. She also likely considered that I wouldn’t want to embarrass my nephew by dragging him into the klieg lights when her claims emerged publicly. So, in summary, game theory would say that I would certainly settle this case, for why would I risk negative publicity at a time when I was preparing our company to go public and also risk embarrassing my nephew. Notably, she hired a Silicon Valley law firm, rather than a typical NY employment firm. This struck me as interesting as her husband works for one of the most prominent Silicon Valley venture firms whose CEO, I am sure, has no tolerance for these kinds of fake claims that sadly many venture-backed companies also have to deal with. I mention this as I suspect her husband likely has been working with her on the strategy for squeezing me as, in addition to being a computer scientist, he is a game theorist. My only advice for him is to understand more about your opponent before you launch your first move. All of the above said, gender, race, LGBTQ and other such discrimination is a real thing. Many people have been harmed and deserve compensation for this discrimination, and these companies and individuals should be punished for engaging in such behavior. Which brings me to the advice I am seeking from the X community. I am not planning to follow the typical path and settle this ‘claim.’ Rather, I am going to fight this nonsense to the end of the earth in the hope that it inspires other CEOs to do the same so we shut down this despicable behavior that is a large tax on society, employment, and the economy and contributes to workplace discrimination rather than reducing it. Do you agree or disagree that this is the right approach?

@lalovestrump @LatinosPorPratt Si!

Spencer .. SACA LA BASSURA ! @LatinosPorPratt

@tommyswriting Good call!

Travel health hack: fast when you’re in airports Just black coffee, water and nicotine (totally optional and not advised) You won’t eat shitty, overpriced airport food and you can eat a banging local meal when you land (Santo Domingo 🇩🇴 ➡️ Bogotá 🇨🇴 ➡️ Buenos Aires 🇦🇷 )

🚨 WOW. California governor candidate Steve Hilton (R) exposes that Gavin Newsom and Democrats shoved a $1,350 PER MONTH CHARGE for 20 years on every new single family home into a bill "They snuck it into the bill that was supposed to SOLVE their housing crisis!" "Vehicle Miles Travelled, and it's yet another sneaky, stealthy way that the Democrats in charge of California want to gouge you for the crime of driving your car." "They're trying to punish single-family homes. They want to stop single-family homes from being built, and so they're going to put this charge on it, VMT, because if you build a new home, people are going to drive to their new home. That's vehicle miles travelled." "They are trying to sneak in a charge, wait for it, of $1,350 per month for 20 years on every new single-family home. And this is in the bill, AB130, that Gavin Newsom said would solve the housing crisis. They don't want to solve the housing crisis." California needs to wake up and vote red for once!

@MyLatinLife Useful post!

List of Prohibited 🚨 countries on Mercury bank: Afghanistan Albania Angola Bangladesh Belarus (Republic of Belarus) Bhutan Bosnia & Herzegovina Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Central African Rep Congo (the Democratic Republic of the) Congo (the) Croatia Eritrea Gambia Haiti Indonesia Iraq Kyrgyzstan Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Maldives Mali Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Nepal Nicaragua Nigeria Pakistan Palestine (State of) Philippines Russia (Russian Federation) Somalia South Sudan Sudan (the) Syria (Syrian Arab Republic) Ukraine Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) Vietnam Yemen Zimbabwe

The seven best doctors in the world: 1. Jesus Christ 2. Sun 3. Exercise 4. Diet 5. Water 6. Good Sleep 7. Mind your Business

@Handre Great explanation

The greatest economic experiment in America plays out daily between California and Texas, and the results scream one truth: markets work, bureaucrats don't. California collected $220 billion in state taxes in 2023 while Texas managed with $78 billion. You'd expect California's superior public services to justify spending nearly three times more per capita. Instead, California leads the nation in homelessness (181,000 people), hosts crumbling infrastructure despite the nation's highest gas taxes, and watches middle-class families flee to states that don't treat productivity as a crime. Sacramento's bureaucrats burn through $600 billion annually (state and local combined) yet somehow can't keep the lights on during summer or prevent human waste from covering sidewalks in San Francisco. Texas collected far less but delivered what people actually want: functioning infrastructure, reliable energy, and the revolutionary concept that you keep most of what you earn. Since 2010, Texas gained 4 million residents while California hemorrhaged over 500,000. This isn't random migration; it represents human capital fleeing confiscatory taxation in search of economic freedom. Tesla, Oracle, and Hewlett-Packard didn't relocate to Texas for the weather. Voluntary exchange creates wealth while coercive redistribution destroys it. Every dollar California's legislature redistributes first gets extracted from someone who earned it, then filtered through bureaucratic machinery that consumes massive resources while producing zero value. Meanwhile, every dollar Texans keep in their pockets gets invested, saved, or spent according to individual preference—generating real economic activity. California's political class promises paradise through taxation while delivering dysfunction through redistribution. Texas proves you can fund essential government services without turning citizens into tax cattle for an ever-expanding administrative state.

The PRATTical choice for la mayor

📍Coral Gables, Miami, USA 🇺🇸

Sofía Vergara was studying to be a dentist in Colombia when a photographer spotted her on a beach and changed her life. At 23, her brother was killed, so she fled to Miami with her son and zero money. She worked nonstop, told her accent would never work in Hollywood, so she made it her superpower. At 37, she landed Modern Family, going trom $3ok to $500K per episode, becoming the highest-paid woman in TV for 8 years straight. Now worth $180M+, she proved your accent, age, and past can all be your advantage. I share powerful insights every day.

Although I love my job, I love surfing more

@levelsio Yes to do laundry you need a CPF ridiculous!

🇧🇷 My friend booked a very nice upscale hotel in Rio de Janeiro But to pay for the booking online they required to enter a Brazilian taxpayer number (CPF), so he called them and said he doesn't have a CPF No problem they said, they'll sent a new payment form without CPF where foreigners can enter their passport This payment for required a Brazilian phone number though The catch-22? To get a Brazilian phone number you need a CPF number! And recently the Brazilian government made it much harder for foreigners to get that, in my case I had to physically visit the Brazilian embassy in Lisbon and wait for an hour to get my CPF So he had to physically go there to pay Brazil really needs to fix this stuff or it's never going to get more tourists because it's so hard to pay for things here! And it's not just hotels! Because in everything else Brazil is so hospitable and inviting to gringos PLEASE FIX THIS BRAZIL!

@QuestsAbroad Villamelon with the fat, sweaty ladies was the call back in the day! They’re probably all still working there!

@avaziant El Villamelón across the street from Plaza del Toros is definitely an iconic one. I heard that as well. Supposedly, non-lethal bullfighting is still allowed so we’ll see.

Ask any chilango what their favorite food is and the answer, 9 times out of 10, is tacos al pastor. They will follow that statement with the name of their absolute favorite spot and insist you go. In fact, they'll offer to take you there themselves. If another local overhears, chaos completely ensues. A fierce debate instantly breaks out over who actually has the best trompo in the city. Everyone will defend their neighborhood taqueria like their life depends on it. It is a never ending debate among locals, and witnessing that level of passion for an iconic Mexico City food is another beautiful part of living here. I am still searching for my favorite taqueria to defend tooth and nail when the next debate inevitably arises.