Prithvi Datla

A man expresses love through duty.

My wife mentioned a nice private school over dinner this week She said the campus was beautiful I asked what's the tuition She said we should look at it as an investment in him not a cost I made a note She said don't make a note I said I always make notes She said this isn't a deal I said everything is a deal She closed her eyes She said we'd discuss it Saturday I agreed Saturday 7:02am She came downstairs in her Saturday robe Coffee in hand I had my cargo shorts on The dining room had been cleared The projector was on The analyst was at the head of the table Quarter zip on, three iced coffees, a legal pad, and two laptops He had been there since 6:44am I texted him at 11:14pm Friday The text said dining room 6:45am bring the model He sent a thumbs up My wife stopped in the doorway She said what is this I said you said you wanted to discuss it She said this is not a discussion I did not respond She sat down anyway The analyst stood He said good morning ma'am She did not respond He sat back down A printed deck in front of each seat A fourth copy in case Slide 1 Tuition Schedule $38,500 per year Thirteen years $500,500 nominal Before escalators The school has raised tuition 4.2% per year for a decade With escalators $648,000 My wife said okay I said I'm not done Slide 2 Opportunity Cost Even before escalators $38,500 invested annually 10% nominal return S&P long-run average since 1928 By his eighteenth birthday $944,000 My wife said we can afford it I said I know that's not the slide Slide 3 Terminal Value at Age 65 $83 million She was quiet The analyst slid the sensitivity tables across the table 8% return $31 million 10% return $83 million 12% return $222 million She did not look She said this isn't about money I said it's always about money She said no it isn't I said then what is it about She did not answer She said you can't put a dollar value on his teachers his classmates his environment I said I can the analyst already did slide 6 He flipped to slide 6 She did not look She said the school is the best in the city I said best is a feeling She said it produces the best students I said the students were already the best before they got there She said our son deserves it I said our son deserves $83 million My son walked in He is five Dinosaur pajamas He looked at the projector He looked at the open deck on the table He looked at slide 3 He said are we modeling pre-tax or after-tax The analyst opened a new tab My wife looked at the ceiling He said what's the discount rate The analyst set down his pen She closed her eyes He said is this the same return assumption from the 529 conversation The analyst stopped typing He looked at me I did not say anything She stood up Sat back down He said dad can I help I said yes He pulled up a chair The analyst handed him a printout He started reading My wife watched him read She watched him for a long time She said his name He looked up She said do you like school He said the work is too easy and the kids don't ask questions She did not respond She looked at the ceiling She walked out of the room The analyst started packing up He said should I follow up Monday sir I said no follow up needed He'll be fine Sent from my iPhone

People like her are why America is in its current state 🇺🇸

@eve_bouff @ycombinator Not the Scam Altman pic 🤣

there’s something deeply inspiring about the yc mountain view office

“can i start you off with an appetizer, maybe 30 tortillas?” “god no, i can’t eat that many tortillas!” “how about if cut them up into triangles, fry them in seed oil, & serve them with some salsa?” “omg that sounds delightful”.

🤣

What a lovely hug ❤️

@RBReich Who hired you at Berkeley? 🤣

Effective tax rate paid by Jeff Bezos from 2014 to 2018: 0.98% Effective 2025 federal tax rate paid by Amazon: 1.4% Typical tax rate paid by the average American: 14.5% Just thought I should point that out.

@naval True. It is harder to find these books. We’re running out of books written by dead men. Most books in the last two decades are some form of “How to…”

If it’s not one of the best books you’ve ever read, don’t read it.

@DarrigoMelanie The same teachers who haven’t been able to teach kids spelling and math for the past 2 decades?

Jeff Bezos paid $500M for his super-yacht and $75M for his super-yacht’s mini-yacht — both of which he’s allowed to write-off on his taxes. That alone would cover $180 in classroom supplies for every public school teacher in the U.S.

@brivael @dinealog - Voice agent for restaurants, takes orders, manages reservations, answers questions. Demo any US restaurant in 60 seconds at Dinealog.com

Post your project here 👇 If the onliner is good. Repost instant.

Beautifully written

She posted him 🤣❤️

Economics is pretty simple. Private property. Free trades between people. No state should try to make the market efficient, the market is efficient by design. And that’s it.

"Tu peux te tromper, t'es pas économiste." Cette phrase résume 80% de la pathologie intellectuelle française. L'idée qu'un sujet appartient à une caste. Que pour en parler, il faut un parchemin. Que sans le tampon de la Sorbonne ou de Normale Sup, ta pensée n'a pas de poids. C'est faux. Et c'est même l'inverse. Le diplôme dans 90% des disciplines molles (économie, socio, sciences po, philo politique) n'est PAS une preuve de compétence. C'est une preuve de conformité. Tu as passé 5 à 10 ans à régurgiter le consensus d'un milieu, à ne jamais le contredire sous peine de ne pas avoir ta thèse, à citer les bons auteurs dans le bon ordre. Au bout du tunnel : tu es certifié pour penser comme les autres certifiés. C'est exactement l'inverse de ce qu'il faut pour comprendre un sujet en profondeur. Piketty a un doctorat. Il a construit toute sa carrière sur r > g. Sauf que son "rendement du capital" est un agrégat qui mélange rente foncière, plus-values monétaires et profit entrepreneurial. Trois choses qui n'ont rien à voir. Sa thèse entière repose sur une prémisse statistique pourrie. Mais il a le diplôme. Donc on l'écoute. Les marxistes recyclés en "hétérodoxes" enseignent encore la théorie de la valeur travail. Théorie morte en 1871 avec Menger, Jevons, Walras. 150 ans qu'on sait que la valeur est subjective, dans la tête de l'acheteur, pas dans le travail incorporé. Mais ils ont le diplôme. Donc on les écoute. Pendant ce temps, moi, à 15 ans, j'ai compris l'économie en codant un jeu. Jeu de gestion futuriste. 3000 joueurs par univers. 3 ressources : métal, cristal, deutérium. Aucun PNJ. Aucun "régulateur". Aucun prix fixé par moi. Les joueurs s'échangeaient les ressources librement. Et un taux de change émergeait. Stable. Juste. Auto-correcteur. Si une ressource devenait rare, son prix montait, plus de joueurs en produisaient, le prix se rééquilibrait. La "main invisible" que les profs ricanent depuis 50 ans ? Elle existe. C'est juste le nom poétique d'un phénomène d'émergence dans un système complexe. Et les prémisses qui font marcher tout ça : Liberté des flux. Liberté des stocks. Propriété privée. C'est tout. À 15 ans. Sans diplôme. Par l'observation directe. Pourquoi est-ce que JE peux voir ça et qu'un agrégé d'éco ne peut pas ? Parce que je raisonne en first principles. Comme @elonmusk le fait en tech. Quand Elon a dit "une fusée ne coûte pas le prix d'une fusée, elle coûte le prix des matériaux qui la composent", tous les "experts" aérospatiaux ont ri. Ils avaient 30 ans de carrière, des doctorats, des publications. Ils savaient que c'était impossible. SpaceX existe parce qu'un mec sans diplôme d'aérospatial a refusé leurs prémisses. Quand @JMilei a dit "on supprime 10 ministères, on libère les prix, on dollarise", tous les économistes argentins (et la moitié de la planète) ont prédit le chaos. Ils avaient les diplômes, les revues, les chaires. L'inflation argentine s'effondre. En 18 mois. Milei est économiste, certes, mais autodidacte sur l'école autrichienne qu'on n'enseigne quasiment plus nulle part. Deux mecs. Deux domaines. Même méthode : Ils ont refusé les prémisses du consensus diplômé. Ils ont reconstruit depuis les axiomes. Ils ont gagné. Voilà ce que personne ne veut admettre : Le diplôme prouve que tu as accepté un cadre. Penser, c'est refuser ce cadre quand il est faux. Les deux sont littéralement opposés. Ça ne veut pas dire que les diplômes sont inutiles. En médecine, en physique théorique, en mathématiques pures, le diplôme certifie un savoir technique réel et cumulatif. Mais en économie ? En philosophie politique ? En sociologie ? En "sciences" humaines ? Le diplôme certifie surtout que tu n'as pas remis en cause le dogme du département. Donc quand on me dit "tu peux te tromper, t'es pas économiste", ma réponse est : Tant mieux. C'est précisément parce que je n'ai pas été formaté pendant 8 ans à régurgiter Piketty et Stiglitz que je peux voir ce que les formatés ne voient plus. La question n'est pas "as-tu le diplôme". La question est : tes prémisses tiennent-elles ? Si oui, parle. Quel que soit ton CV. Si non, tais-toi. Même avec trois doctorats.

"We should pour sand into this engine to slow it down"

🤣🤣🤣

Elon Musk just defended America better than every politician in Washington combined. Musk: “After World War 2, the US could have basically taken over the world and any country. Like we got nukes, nobody else got nukes. We don’t even have to lose soldiers. Which country do you want?” One nation on earth held a weapon nobody else had. Total dominance. Zero competition. No risk of retaliation. Every empire in history that held that kind of advantage used it. Rome. The Mongols. The British. The Ottomans. They conquered until they collapsed. America had a bigger advantage than all of them combined. And it rebuilt the countries it just defeated. Musk: “The United States actually helped rebuild countries. So it helped rebuild Europe, it helped rebuild Japan. This is very unusual behavior, almost unprecedented.” Almost unprecedented? It had never happened before. Not once in 5,000 years of recorded history. The Marshall Plan wasn’t foreign aid. It was the most radical act of restraint any superpower ever committed. America turned its enemies into allies. Turned rubble into economies. Turned surrender into partnership. Germany went from ashes to the economic engine of Europe in a generation. Japan went from unconditional surrender to the third largest economy on earth. Three years after the war, America was flying food into Berlin. A city in the heart of the nation that just tried to destroy it. That’s not policy. That’s a civilization deciding what it is at the exact moment it has the power to be anything. You’re being told a story right now. That America is the villain of history. You hear it everywhere. Media. Universities. Social platforms. Musk: “There’s always like, well America’s done bad things. Well of course America’s done bad things, but one needs to look at the whole track record.” Every nation on earth has dark chapters. Every single one. The difference is what a country does when nobody can stop it. And when nobody could stop America, it fed its enemies and rebuilt their cities. Musk: “The history of China suggests that China is not acquisitive. Meaning they’re not going to go out and invade a whole bunch of countries.” Probably right. China has historically built walls, not fleets. But the real question isn’t about borders anymore. We’re approaching a moment that mirrors 1945 in ways nobody has fully processed yet. AI is going to give a handful of people a power advantage that makes nuclear monopoly look quaint. If someone is going to hold that kind of power, who do you want it to be? The country that conquered when it could? Or the one that rebuilt when it didn’t have to? Every alliance. Every trade route. Every economy. Billions lifted out of poverty. All of it traces back to one act of restraint that had never been done before. And carries no guarantee of being repeated. The most powerful thing America ever did wasn’t building the bomb. It was what it didn’t do after.

🤣

India doesn't have a manufacturing problem. India has a respect problem. We respect the guy who cracked CAT more than the guy who can build an engine from scratch. And that concludes the whole story.