Neil Block

@YashPnke @kpottermn There are no major airlines in the US that hedge fuel and they haven’t for years

@kpottermn Fuel hedging is about to be everyone's favorite new term on their earnings calls, huh? Basically airlines buy future oil contracts to lock in prices and reduce risk.

NEW: In a letter to employees, United CEO Scott Kirby says the airline is prepping for oil to hit $175/barrel & “doesn't get back down to $100/barrel until the end of 2027.” United is shaving 3% of off-peak flights - “think redeyes, Tues/Wed/Sat flying” - this spring & summer.

Noooo my redeyes 😭

@pathfinder17m Clearly not excusing it. Increases costs and looks like garbage. Most cities today have a hard-on for mandating this stuff in MF

@neilblock poor excuse

developer: why are my construction costs so high? architect: i put 9000 intersecting planes on your building

@mikitaposts @atlanticesque Are you more likely to die from crime/violence/accidents in our biggest cities, our suburbs, or our rural areas? Correct answers only

@atlanticesque I think most Americans would love to live in a city if your average American city didn’t have a comically high crime rate. I know it depends on the city but still.

The question isn't whether Americans prefer space or density. We live in a market economy and people can choose among different alternatives, according to price. The question is whether one side of a nearly 50/50 split should be able to ban the other side's preferences entirely

@maxdubler @UFStudent2 8.37 FAR?! Golly gee

@UFStudent2 Please enjoy this fine whine from a Vancouver planner: biv.com/news/commentar…

The backstory here is that the Squamish people of what is now Vancouver were illegally dispossessed of this land a century ago. They sued, got their land back, and used their sovereignty to ignore local zoning rules and build 6,000 new homes over the objections of nearby NIMBYs.

@mlh496 @NavyStrang Satellite shot from October 2023, clearly very current

@NavyStrang Here's a link to the satellite view of this tiny bit of infrastructure. You can scroll around and see a complete lack of track or any additional work. Street view also shows graffiti on this overpass. maps.app.goo.gl/4kAsPknuBhjmUQ…

They keep showing this years old picture. That viaduct is connected and they are now laying track

@moseskagan @memeticsisyphus Or community input meetings ;)

@memeticsisyphus This is why you don't want direct democracy

People might mock him here, but this is the sophistication millions of people have when it comes to our financial system.

@patio11 And like you say downthread, the current paradigm (friction of engagement and handholding) is priced in. This just changes the friction points and we’ll get a new pricing equilibrium to reflect that

They are getting very, very good at being Dangerous Professionals.

human drivers in SF are so bad

@Waymo Bro, drivers in SF have to stop

Our new safety data is in 📈 Over 170M miles through Dec 2025, the Waymo Driver was involved in 13x fewer serious injury or worse crashes than human drivers in those same cities. At our current scale, that means preventing a serious injury crash every 8 days—a real, positive impact on road safety. Learn more: waymo.com/safety/impact/

Human drivers are dangerous, but human drivers in San Francisco are *exceptionally* dangerous

new Waymo safety report just dropped

@alvaromunozz_ @actsmaniac Guess that’s why it’s so cheap to live in Manhattan or San Francisco or Santa Monica or Boston

@actsmaniac You grossly overestimate how many people want to live in dense housing in cities.

We are all a lot poorer than we could be because it's difficult to build dense housing in cities

@visakanv @lisatomic5 Yeah I just use a nonstick pan and wipe it out with a paper towel. Easy to reuse later for lunch/dinner and just save the cleanup for the evening. Truly relives the burden of daily eggs. I rotate between toast and tortillas (throw in leftovers to make egg tacos) for variety

@lisatomic5 oh my god this will change my life

my routine these days is i wake up and drop my kid off at preschool and get home to do some writing, but i keep forgetting to get breakfast and end up crashing like a fool. what are your favorite no-brainer mom/dad breakfasts? after the classic peanut butter sandwich

@shadowcrewtroll @channel_echo @balajis So it’s bad they have the power to do… exactly what they’re doing now, after we intervened?

@channel_echo @balajis No, it isn’t. None of those countries control the SoH, a choke point for a considerable portion of world energy, work to destabilize the region through state funded terrorism as much as Iran, or are an apocalyptic death cult.

I'm going to make some obvious points. (1) Blowing up all the oil infrastructure in the Middle East is an insane idea, and may well result in a global economic crash and humanitarian crisis unrivaled in the lives of those now living. We're talking about the price of everything everywhere rising, from food to gas, at a moment when inflation was already high. All of that will be laid at the feet of the authors of this war. (2) The antebellum status quo of Feb 27, 2026 was just not that bad, but we're unlikely to return to it. Expect indefinite, long-term, ongoing disruptions to everything out of the Middle East. (3) Also assume tech financing crashes for the indefinite future. The genius plan to get the Gulf states caught in the crossfire has incinerated much of the funding for LPs, for datacenters, and for IPOs. Anyone in tech who supported this war may soon learn the meaning of "force majeure" as funding gets yanked. (4) Many capital allocators will instead be allocating much further down Maslow's hierarchy of needs, towards useful basic things like food and energy. (5) It's fortunate that all those progressives yelled about the "climate crisis." Yes, their reasoning about timelines was wrong, and much of the money was wasted in graft, but the result was right: we all need energy independence from the Middle East, pronto. It's also fortunate that Elon and China autistically took climate seriously. Now they're going to need to ship a billion solar panels, electric vehicles, batteries, nuclear power plants, and the like to get everyone off oil, immediately. (6) It's not just an oil and gas problem, of course. It's also a fertilizer problem, and a chemical precursor problem. Maybe some new sources will come online at the new prices, but it takes time to dial stuff up, particularly at this scale, so shortages are almost a certainty. That said, China has actually scaled up coal-to-chemicals[a,c] (C2C), and there's also something more sci-fi called Power-to-X[b] which turns arbitrary power + water + air into hydrocarbons. But all of that will need to get accelerated. I have a background in chemical engineering so may start funding things in this area. (7) Ultimately, this war is going to result in tremendous blame for anyone associated with it. It's a no-win scenario to blow up this much infrastructure for so many people. Simply not worth it for whatever objective they thought they were going to attain. But unless you're actually in a position to stop the madness, the pragmatic thing to do is: scramble to mitigate the fallout to yourself, your business, and your people. [a]: reuters.com/business/energ… [b]: alfalaval.com/industries/ene… [c]: reuters.com/sustainability…

@TheHistoryOfTh2 I love that outlook. Thank you for sharing!

@neilblock Thank you! I am not against development, but I am against using regulation to steal property value.

Here’s an example of the best kind of person: they didn’t want a big building next door, or their view blocked, so they simply bought the property in question. Most people in their position would just try to abuse the power of the state instead! Kudos to these Austonites

@VeteranNoob1 @TunetoCarry @StarAdvertiser It’s really, really dense!

@TunetoCarry @StarAdvertiser >"It's an urban solution to a mostly suburban city." You gotta be kidding. Honolulu is one of the most densely populated major cities in the country and constantly filled with tourists. It's one of the only major American cities with tons of high rise buildings outside downtown.

OPINION: "The proposed extension of Skyline from 'wherever' in Kakaako to the University of Hawaii at Manoa is absurd. It threatens the entire area with yearslong expensive chaos for minimal gain." Read more in a letter: 808ne.ws/4buS3MW

@rmusimg @nick_benson NYC cameras don’t ticket unless you’re driving 11+ mph over the posted speed limit. Following traffic laws?

@nick_benson Nick, we can place cameras, and speed restricting devices all around town — these will not prevent or stop bad drivers from driving reckless. All it does is collectively punish drivers who follow traffic laws and etiquette — and in the process tax low and middle income people.

Maybe they should be NYC: 2-3 traffic deaths per 100,000 people Houston: 10-13 per 100,000 people And NYC has a whole lot more tourists on top of the 8.5 million residents on its streets

@Mishka__1 California progressives are very conservative in particular ways

@neilblock LA was and still is a very conservative place in some respects

Many people in LA, unironically: “RETVRN”