Zac Monsees

Why does it cost less to build a base on the moon than high speed rail from sf to la

Chuck Norris always had Chuck Norris jokes. Rest easy, legend.

Here’s a set from the terrific 9-hole par-3 Cliffs Course at the Olympic Club. Visually stunning from its perch above the pacific, Cliffs provides the perfect finishing touch after a day of testing your tournament game on the Lake or Ocean Courses. I’m a big fan of this relatively recent trend of adding short courses (9 holers and par-3s) to the full size options at clubs and resorts. Hopefully it keeps up and continues to give us gems like this little beauty.

Gaudí is undefeated.

Blue state playbook: create a supply problem, throw subsidies at the symptoms, then raise taxes to pay for it all. Because you increased demand instead of supply everything gets more expensive. See: housing, energy, healthcare, childcare in CA vs TX. Eventually, people leave (or don't come), including many wealthy folks in the tax base (the top 1% pay 45% of taxes in CA)… but you keep spending, so taxes have to keep going up. Washington, New York, California are all moving to increase taxes, meanwhile, red states are moving in the opposite direction, competing for the same wealthy residents that blue states are pushing away, and they are attracting them, and many of them are bringing jobs with them… and people can live there because it’s cheap. I spent some time in Texas this year and it’s easy to see why their model works- it’s the real abundance state… They just let people build and don’t get in their way. Often ugly, but it is cheap to live there, and that makes a huge difference. They have TONS of immigrants for this reason. They have jobs and it's cheap to live there- pretty simple. Despite all the subsidies for immigrants in California, and lack of them in Texas, immigrants choose Texas over California... Cheap housing does more for quality of life than any government program. Same pattern with solar. California subsidizes demand while making it painfully slow to permit and install, while Texas just makes it easy to build. Texas generates more solar power than California and is adding new capacity at 7x the rate. Why don't I move? SF has network effects in tech and is the most beautiful state in the US. I just wish it were better governed!

If your perimeter passing is so off-target it looks like you're trying to feed the seagulls at Aquatic Park instead of your teammates. Fix your fundamentals, calm your mind, and keep your legs. #ForwardisEarned

Sure, billionaires leaving California hurts the state. But what the data will never capture is the talented entrepreneurs who will never start their careers here in the first place.

I really dont think 95% of society realizes how hard it is to play any sport at any level in college.

This is mind blowing Things that cost less than the new 2 mile LAX Airport Train in Los Angeles California - The Beijing High Speed Rail $2.3 billion. 75 miles of train for half the cost of our 2 miles - Paying $100,000 to every homeless person in the city of Los Angeles - Overthrowing the government of Venezuela - The Apollo 11 mission to the moon (not adjusted for inflation) - The third tallest building in the world - The second tallest building in the world - Both these buildings COMBINED is still cheaper than the 2 miles of train at the LAX airport Cost of 2 miles of train at LAX airport is $4.9 billion (this is the estimated cost to complete and operations)

The Taco Bell in Pacifica, CA

"We built up scaffolding of environmental laws from the 1960s onward that have basically made it illegal to do stuff. California, bit by bit, has restricted what I call chemistry at a foundational level. Where now it's basically illegal to do chemistry with metals. And if it's illegal to do chemistry with metals, you can't build anything with the electric stack. California was an industrial superpower. We built half the world's battleships at one point. We built the Kaiser shipyards. The bridge super structures for aircraft carriers were built right around here. California really prided itself on being at the forefront of the EV revolution and the solar revolution. But because of past reckless environmental stuff, we've built laws that have effectively banned us from being able to compete...despite a lot of the best engineers in these technologies being here." @sdamico @aphysicist

Alexander Wang (Youngest Billionaire) : How to get ahead of 99% of people.

The inner voice of a great competitor… “This WILL be a tough game. That’s ok…I’m going to love every second of executing with attention, with intensity, and with a positive intent… This WILL be a tough game. That’s ok…I’m in charge. I’m in control. I dominate my mindset. I own my mindset… This WILL be a tough game. That’s ok…I have within me the skills and competencies to deal with the challenges the game throws at me…” 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 (not dissimilar to the inner voice of a great learner)

My take on California’s “One-Time” Billionaire Tax. It’s much worse than it looks. 📉 Will it pass? Yes, likely. It only needs 50%+1 voter approval. SEIU + CTA have done this before—Prop 55 won 63% in 2016. ⚖️ Will it get tied up in litigation? Almost certainly. Retroactive wealth tax on a tax type CA has never had = due process challenges. Billionaires have the legal budgets for years of fights. 👋 But it’s clearly … only the start. The goal is an annual tax, not one-time. And the target is $25m-50m net worth folks, including illiquid foldings (early stage founders raising a Series B). The “one-time” framing is strategic, not terminal. The same coalition (CTA, CFT, SEIU) already has AB 259 written—an >annual< 1% wealth tax at a >$50M threshold<, with plans to go to $25M. It’s been introduced 3 years running. The one-time tax removes the constitutional barrier. Once that’s gone, the annual version becomes a much easier ballot measure. 🔃 CA Policy Center said: “If SEIU hopes to keep Medi-Cal spending growing, it may need to place repeated wealth taxes on the ballot—potentially lowering the threshold as billionaires flee.” The real risk for founders: At $1B, you’re taxing ~200 people. At $50M, you’re taxing 23,000 households—including most successful founders on paper before any liquidity event. The rational move isn’t to leave when you hit the threshold. It’s to leave—or never incorporate in CA—before you get anywhere close. ✈️ Net net: it will make sense to leave before the Series B. Vinod Khosla nailed it: “Even people who don’t expect this initiative to pass are still planning to leave because there will be another one.” The one-time tax is the constitutional Trojan horse. The annual tax — at a much lower threshold — is already waiting inside.

Larry and Sergey can’t stay in California since the wealth tax as written would confiscate 50% of their Alphabet shares. Each own ~3% of Alphabet's stock, worth about $120 billion each at today's ~$4 trillion market cap. But because their shares have 10x voting power, the SEIU-UHW California billionaire tax would treat them as owning 30% of Alphabet (3% × 10 = 30%). That means each founder's taxable wealth would be $1.2 trillion. A 5% wealth tax on $1.2 trillion = $60 billion tax bill, each. That's 50% of their actual Alphabet holdings—wiped out by a "5%" tax. Section 50303(c)(3)(C) of the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act states: "For any interests that confer voting or other direct control rights, the percentage of the business entity owned by the taxpayer shall be presumed to be not less than the taxpayer's percentage of the overall voting or other direct control rights." This means if a founder holds shares representing only 3% of economic interest but 30% of voting control (through Class B supervoting shares), the tax would presume their ownership stake is at least 30% for valuation purposes, not 3%. The wealth tax is poorly defined and designed to drive tech innovation out of California.

Miami is in the national title game. Miami has two losses to SMU and Louisville. Those teams both lost to Cal. Cal now has six double transitive college football playoff wins. The power of the California Golden Bears continues to grow unchecked.

someone told me yesterday that when they feel nervous about trying something new & their heart starts beating really fast, that they call it their “inner applause” because their body is cheering them on, and i think that’s the best narrative adjustment ever.

Low-frequency electromagnetic fields can degrade collagen, weaken tendons, and cause soft-tissue damage at levels regulators call "safe." We have a real world case study proving this: An NFL team whose practice facility sits next to a massive electrical substation. THREAD 🧵 peteranthonycowan.substack.com/p/could-chroni…

If you don’t get flooded with gratitude multiple times a week you’re dumb: -we live in a free country -gyms exist -Christopher Nolan movies exist -NFL Sundays happen 20+ times a year -you and your wife can drink 5 bottles of red wine then smash all night without a condom -you can build yourself into a superhero in a few months of hitting the gym -every food item in the world has been hunted and gathered for you (grocery stores) -you didn’t have to spend your entire life figuring out how to make a car… you were born into a world where they’re already invented -you could be working in a coal mine in a third world country 16 hours a day breaking your lower back for less than $1 -you’re spinning on a sphere in an infinite universe and the fact you’re alive is a 1 in 500 trillion miracle If anyone complains in front of you tell them they’re an idiot :)

Wow: The legendary Tom Brady was asked if he would have stayed at Michigan in today’s portal/NIL era. His answer is PRICELESS.