2026-04-11 12:33:47
I have driven cross-country four times, at least if you count a 3/4 trip as valid. I also have driving experience in virtually all states, including Hawaii and Alaska, neither of which would be part of typical cross-country travel.
I recommend this mode of transport highly, especially for the United States. Here are a few observations:
No matter which route you take, so often Mexican food is your best option.
I most prefer the southern route, involving Memphis, Texas, and southern Utah/north rim of the Grand Canyon. Do I have to tell you no major highways?
The extreme northern route is better than the middle route. Visit Duluth.
The music you bring is essential. While this will depend on your taste, in general try to have some regional music to match your route. Dylan and also folk music sound good in most parts of the country. CDs can be a better medium than online music for these trips. Do not listen to music when you start your day’s drive, however, as you will end up burnt out. Save it for after a few hours of driving. Nor should you listen to too much high energy music. Woody Guthrie is better than Led Zeppelin in this setting.
How much you should roll down car windows, vs. relying on air conditioning, is a critical decision. The correct answer will depend on the route and time of year, but please do not screw this one up. Usually I like windows down, but with raised windows you can hear the music better.
Salads in the Midwest can be good.
In Texas and Oklahoma you may see some amazing storms. Texas is the best state for random food stops.
Use paper maps, GPS may bring you along too efficient a route.
Issues of children aside, optimal group size is two, no larger. To avoid least common denominator effects.
You can do these trips at any pace you want, even an hour in a place can teach you a good deal.
You could do a trip simply by stopping in every interesting place in New Jersey, one of the smallest states.
I prefer Vermont to New Hampshire, at least for driving purposes. I also prefer Montana to Wyoming, the latter for me being beautiful but somehow quite a boring state outside of Yellowstone? You cannot spend too much time in Utah.
Oregon is one state where I never have been driving. Is that a great loss? I know only Portland there.
Driving cross country, or only parts of it, is the very best way to see America.
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2026-04-11 01:02:20
Yes I will be doing a Conversation with him, Wikipedia here. I very much enjoyed his new book on the Rolling Stones, plus he has many older books of note, including on the 1969-1970 Knicks, Woodstock, Ronald Reagan, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Julia Child. All good books! He also for a while worked as manager to both Bruce Springsteen and Elton John.
So what should I ask him?
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2026-04-10 23:31:24
1. Trump’s focus on cultural issues (NYT).
2. Claims about Mythos (speculations). And a claim that the power of Mythos is being exaggerated.
3. The wage returns on industry credentials.
4. 2026 Roots of Progress blog-building intensive program.
5. Brian Albrecht reviews The Marginal Revolution.
6. Those new service sector jobs.
7. Harvard Crimson on Ludwig Straub.
8. How and why the Democratic Party has been evolving? Less interest in predistribution?
9. The price of GPT Pro is being cut in half?
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2026-04-10 21:53:03
Zach Lowe shares a tanking solution idea that came up in the GMs meeting that intrigued a few General Managers:
A proposal to not get rid of the draft entirely, but get rid of the draft order. Every team gets 100 draft credits let’s say. You bid your draft credits on every individual slot in the draft. You can also trade your draft credits like a veteran player for 40 draft credits if you want to go in a rebuilding direction. As teams advance in the playoffs, they lose draft credits so the best teams would have less to bid on individual picks. So you can take all your credits and bid on the number 1 pick in the draft if you want. Or if you think next years draft is better, you roll your credits over.
Can that work? Here is the tweet.
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2026-04-10 17:22:55
From young professionals to the working poor, many Cape Town residents complain that out-of-control housing prices have forced them to live far from the jobs, affluent schools and healthy supermarkets available in the city center. They blame deep-pocketed tourists for occupying housing in prime locations and developers for pricing them out.
Some 70 percent of the downtown residential housing stock is dedicated to hotel rooms or short-term rentals, according to a report the city released last year.
“The city’s actually being upgraded for tourists,” said Lizanne Domingo, a telemarketer. She takes a daily two-hour commute to work each way because she can’t afford to live close to the city, she said. “It’s not for our own people because the cost of living is ridiculously expensive.”
…housing prices in the city have surged 38 percent over the past six years.
Here is more from the NYT. It is one of the very best places in the world to visit right now.
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2026-04-10 12:53:00
These days South Africa is one of the best places to go to have interesting conversations. Obviously an English-fluent country does have many people following Trump, Islam in Europe, and so on. But you can have so many conversations about quite different topics, topics that are hardly covered in other parts of the world.
Like South Africa. But not only. The southern part of Africa too. People who live there are on the whole quite historically aware, since their history remains so influential on a day-to-day basis. I recall being introduced to one person who is a “Huguenot,” as his ancestors came over with the 100 or so Huguenots who came to South Africa in the 1680s. He is in fact a Huguenot.
Since the Gini coefficient of South Africa is about the same as the Gini coefficient of the world, South Africans are typically thinking about problems that are pretty close to the problems of the world as a whole. That is not usually the case for say Americans or Brits.
Few South Africans will underrate the importance of Africa for the world’s future.
It is easy to get into conversations with people from Zimbabwe, Malawi, Congo, and sometimes Nigeria. There are also readily accessible Jewish and Muslim communities, yet with perspectives different from what you might find elsewhere.
There is plenty of religion, if that is your interest. Plenty of good music too, sometimes on the street. An excellent arts scene, and past Kentridge probably you have not heard of any of the creators. The art too gives you a lot to talk about.
All sorts of tribes and languages, many of which I had never heard of before.
The European parts of the citizenry have some pre-Enlightenment origins and overall do not seem incredibly Woke. Your mileage there may vary, but again it is different from the educated classes in many other parts of the west.
Again for better or worse, but the “trad wife” phenomenon seems quite normal there, they might just use the word “wife.”
In some parts of the country, you can watch gentrification in reverse.
Most of all, South Africans have a finely-tuned sense of contingency. Things for them could go pretty well, or they could go pretty badly. Most people know that, and perhaps that is the greatest wisdom yet? Many of the rest of us try to deny that.
Visiting South Africa makes so many things transparent, or at least less opaque. Go!
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