levy

cinema paradiso feels like a love letter to movies, but really it’s about memory, growing up, and realizing the places that shaped you don’t stay the same forever. some movies entertain you. this one makes you miss a version of your life you never even had.

main character syndrome is when someone starts acting like everyone else is just an extra in their life. everything somehow becomes about them, every moment needs an audience, and every inconvenience turns into part of the plot.

citizen kane. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033467/?ref_=fn_t_1
12 angry men. https://www.imdb.com/...r_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_12%20a

how long should a company reasonably expect the things it sells us to last?

godwin’s law says less about hitler and more about how quickly people run out of better comparisons.

the banana you think of when someone says “banana.”

the weird part is that nearly every cavendish banana is basically a clone of another one. no seeds, almost no genetic diversity, just millions of genetically near identical plants being reproduced over and over again.

that is also why the entire variety is vulnerable.

the cavendish became dominant after panama disease nearly wiped out the gros michel banana in the twentieth century.

now another strain of the same disease threatens cavendish too.

the supermarket banana is basically a global monoculture with a fungal disease slowly chasing it.

wigig feels like one of those technologies that accidentally arrived before the world was ready for it.

italian culture: how seriously people can take something as simple as when you drink a cappuccino. in a lot of places coffee is just coffee. in italy there are all these unwritten little rules around food and drink that nobody necessarily explains to you because to them they are just normal.

an economy where value does not always move through prices, contracts, or immediate repayment.

you give something because relationships matter, reputation matters, obligation matters, community matters, or simply because giving itself has value.

the interesting part is that gifts are rarely truly free.

someone buys dinner, helps you move, shares knowledge, takes care of your child, gives you food, or does you a favor. no invoice appears, but something invisible has still changed between you.

gift economies run on memory.

not “you owe me $40.”

more like “we take care of each other.”

money keeps score precisely.

gifts keep score socially.

if you want beautiful water, good food, and somewhere quiet to actually relax, you are in the right place.

definitely ask whether your hotel or rental has parking. just like in a lot of places in greece, parking can be a pain.

navigation is fine around the main towns, but do not trust it blindly when heading to coves or mountain villages. you can end up on what feels like a goat trail pretty quickly. check the route before you leave. road lighting at night is also pretty bad in some areas.

if possible, avoid july and august. those are by far the busiest months.

it is an island, so prices are generally higher than on the mainland.

la scala is probably the most famous beach club on the island. i have been to thassos a few times but never went because it is not really my kind of place. it has more of a çeşme or bodrum style party atmosphere, which feels pretty different from the rest of the island.

and honestly, do not plan your whole trip around whatever youtubers say is popular.

apparently there is a real chance they eventually make sex robots. elon musk has basically confirmed the possibility.

if they actually pull it off, it could end up being one of the biggest businesses in human history.

suno updated its usage policy and introduced a monthly download limit for paid pro users, capped at 20 downloads.

there is still no limit on creating songs or releasing them within suno itself.

their reasoning is basically to cut down on mass production and reduce the flood of low effort ai music being generated and dumped everywhere.

since i actively use suno for two music projects i’m working on, my first reaction was, “we’re paying this much and now there’s a download limit?”

but after thinking about it, i realized i usually only download around 10 to 15 finished tracks anyway, mainly the ones i actually plan to send to a distributor.

so for serious production work, 20 downloads a month honestly feels reasonable and more than enough.

image image

on september 9, we all sat there and watched apple explain how the slightly faster version of the phone they sold us last year was somehow a turning point in human history.

everyone who walked on stage called it incredible, magical, and the most powerful iphone ever made. honestly, the real revolution will be the day an apple executive gets up there and says, “yeah, guys, this one is basically the same as the last one.”

the big difference this year was the foldable iphone.

samsung has been making foldable phones for years, but the second apple opened and closed one on stage, foldable technology was officially invented. naturally, the hinge was not just a hinge. thousands of engineers probably spent years perfecting it, and i was fully expecting it to have some name like ultra fusion hinge.

open it and it is an ipad.

close it and it is an iphone.

check the price and it becomes an economic reality that folds you instead.

the iphone 18 pro and pro max showed up too. the camera got a little better, the chip got a little faster, and the battery lasted a little longer. once apple put all of that on a giant screen with percentages, my current phone suddenly looked like a calculator.

five minutes before the event, i was perfectly happy with it.

the apple watch once again reminded us how little we sleep, how stressed we are, and why we are out of breath after walking up a flight of stairs.

airpods got better at blocking out the world too. once i saw the price, i kind of wanted to block out people completely anyway.

i watched the whole event, got hyped, and genuinely liked the new phones.

then the prices came out.

i wiped my current phone screen with my shirt, looked at it for a second, and thought, “yeah, you still got a few good years in you.”

the foldable iphone is expected to start at around $2,000 in the u.s.

apparently it will also support apple pencil and come in dark blue and white.

after the orange iphone 17 pro max, looks like rich people just found their next fetish object.