SebastianVillarreal():

—Aquí, es donde van los nombres de los residentes — dijo el arquitecto. Presumía su edificio nuevo, el lobby reluciente, y al centro, con un foco encima (el mejor foco), el directorio.

Su fondo de felpa, su marco de estaño, y esos renglones hundiditos donde van las letritas de plástico blanco que siempre están algo chuecas.

1A podría ser un consultorio. Quizás sea un doctor. O un psicoanalista.

1B podría ser un abogado, de esos independientes, que despachan de su casa.

En los pisos de arriba, residentes, obviamente. La viuda con gatos. La pareja recién casada, el señor es ingeniero, pero algo hippie, en las fotos siempre sale descalzo.

Es importantísimo el directorio. Fundamental. Así la gente sabe a donde ir, cuando vengan a visitar a sus amigos.

5A DOMINGUEZ
5B URRUTIA MONDRAGON

Tac tac tac, hay alguien en la puerta, seguro es Miguel que siempre llega temprano a las fiestas.

Hoy el directorio sigue ahí, pero ya no dice nada. Dicen que por la inseguridad. Que "No vaya a ser."

Pero yo creo que es otra cosa.

We turned the oceans into seas;
the vast beyond into the space between.

And some romantics think the more
you know a thing the less it means.

But that more I know you, the less
I know about the sea.

And what once was beach,
now is wave;
what once was cove or bay
now open ocean;

and what once was endless froth,
endless surface, infinite plane

is dark, and deep, and down.

I can't take credit for the words in this poem, I basically lifted them from an NYT "live update". I changed the whitespace (and a few words), as if making a collage.

***

"
Joe García, the husband
of Irma García, a teacher
killed in Uvalde, died

this morning
of a heart
attack

after visiting
his wife
's memorial
"

"Ya no hay tantos
moños negros" dice Ana,
como hace un año,
cuando pasamos
por este mismo pueblo

y cada tercer casa
-algunas de colores
otras de bloc desnudo-
remataba con un moño
la puerta de
la entrada.

Nunca me acuerdo
de los muertos.

"Tuve suerte" pienso.
"No perdí a nadie
este año.

Es más, no he perdido
a nadie nunca."

Y el abuelo hace año y medio?
Y tú primo Patrick?
Y los dos tíos,
segundos, pero tíos?

No mames, cabrón,
no eran cercanos, pero
eran, eran famila
que te pasa, estás mal,
cómo no te acuerdas.

Nos topamos una
procesión fúnebre.
Alegre, de pueblo,
con tuba y trompeta
y chiquiti bun a la
bin bon ban
chiquiti bun a la
bin bon ban
el muerto! el muerto!
ra! ra! ra!

La mía será
más solemne y triste.
Que hueva.
Ni modo,
no todo se puede en la vida.

I found myself
the darkest sky
I could.

No clouds,
no moon,
no mountains

to obscure
the vault—

three hundred
and sixty degrees
of azimuth, and
half as much the
other way.

And as my eyes
adjusted to the
darkness, the sky
began to bloom.

And so, beneath
that garden of light,
I picked one star.

I counted it
and I named it:
one, a word.

I picked another:
two, a word.

I picked a third
a fourth, a fifth:

three a word
four a word
five a word.

Every point
of light
I named
that selfsame word.   

Like a rosary
I whispered,
fast, so fast;
counting stars
instead of beads.

Degree by degree,
I counted.

I named until
the job was done;

until,
minute by minute,
the entire sky
was named for you.

Me fui a comer en bicicleta
en una de esas tardes

cuando hace calor al sol
y hace frío a la sombra
y la única manera de estar cómodo
es estando en movimiento.

Y voy por la ciclopista
de avenida chapultepec
sol sombra sol sombra
sol sol sol sombra

así si, pienso,
que rico, que deleite,
que delicia

y tengo esa tonadita en la cabeza
que delicia suma
ser pez y nadar
si estuviera hecho el mar
de cerveza moctezuma

pero no, que delicia ir en bicicleta
en una tarde como esta
y decido, no se por que,
no suelo hacerlo, ni que tuviera
9 años, pero levanto
las manos del manubrio,
me siento recto, erguido,
saco el pecho, paveando

y siento que voy rápido,
muy rápido,
pero no es eso, es que los coches
van lento, o más bien no van.

Presumo el metro veinte
que tengo de cada lado
Presumo que voy sin manos
Presumo mi velocidad

(que a decir verdad
no es tan rápida,
pero tampoco voy tan lejos)

High street full
of frozen faces. Strike a pose.

Most of them laugh
with no mouths. Some laugh with porcelain lips.

Limbs frozen in painful angles. Look at this dress. Look at this belt. Look at this season.

They look at us behind boutique glass. Perhaps they look at themselves. Perhaps they look at nothing at all.

One of the things that bugs me about most consumer goods is the throwaway mentality of their design. It's so... inefficient. Not only is it bad for the environment, but it's also more expensive over the lifetime of the products. There's also something spiritually wrong about the whole thing.

I understand the market forces at work: hyperbolic discounting, and that most people are cash constrained. Buying $50 blenders every 2-5 years is more appealing than buying one $100 blender, or even one $75 blender that last forever.

One solution to this problem is financing, so I'm surprised that even cars nowadays seem to be designed with planned obsolescence. Maybe this has to do with the distribution model of cars: the profits of repair and upgrades are captured by dealerships, so the auto manufacturers are disinclined to make ultra-durable cars.

Tesla doesn't have this problem because they sell direct to consumer. Perhaps they could offer a car of infinite durability! In a sense they already kind of do this with their wireless software upgrades.

I often think about products I'd like to buy that don't exist, so in an effort to try to put more of these thoughts on paper I wrote a fake press release for a buy-it-for-life car offered by Tesla.

Caveat: I know nothing about cars, or car manufacturing so... don't expect this to be any good.

Tesla announces new line of "forever cars".

April 1, 2019. Fremont, CA

Tesla CEO Elon Musk presented Tesla’s new vehicle, the Tesla Model 3∞, at the company’s factory in Fremont today.

The Model 3∞ is a sedan designed with a 100+ year lifespan. “We’ve designed this car to be the last car you ever own” said Musk. “Every single part of the car has been designed to do two things: to last a long time, and to be easily replaceable and upgradeable. Not just whole parts, like seats or brakes, but components too. Even the wire coils in the motors can be replaced with simple tools.” Musk then added: “This car can literally be kept up to date for the rest of human civilization.”

The Model 3∞ was designed to address the reasons people most frequently replace their cars. Tesla head of design, Franz von Holzhausen, commented on the design philosophy behind the Model 3∞. “People don’t switch cars because they stop working—they switch cars because the entertainment system is old. It seems silly, but that’s the way we’re wired. It’s kind of like looking at a movie with old CGI. It’s like how did I ever thought this looked good. The ∞ line of Teslas is designed to address this. Entertainment, safety, energy economy: as technology improves, so can your car. It will always be up to date.”

This design is not without trade-offs. The Model 3∞ costs about 70% more to manufacture than the standard model 3.  Yet the lifetime cost of ownership makes it more affordable than any car on the market. Musk commented: “At Tesla we have always thought about Total Cost Of Ownership. In the same way you should consider gas savings, so should you consider depreciation. Unlike every car on the market, the Model 3∞ doesn’t depreciate. You don’t have to get a new car, ever.”

The Model 3∞ will retail at $55,000, but is paired with a 15 year car loan offered by Tesla Financial. “When you think of a car as a permanent good, it starts to make sense to offer ultra-long car loans” said Jimbo Jones, head of Tesla Financial. “This means you can get a Model 3∞ for about 300 dollars a month. That’s cheaper than a Civic. And again, this will be the last car you ever buy.”

Besides being more profitable for the consumer, it’s more profitable for Tesla. Tesla CFO commented on the Model 3∞’s  impact to the Tesla bottom line. “Even though we will only sell this car to you once, Tesla will sell you service and parts for the rest of your life. Even taking this into account, the customer still saves money. The only people that lose are the junkyards.” Tesla is also creating an aggressive recycling program. “We can also re-use and recycle the parts you replace. So batteries that are no longer appropriate for automobile use can be installed in less demanding applications, and so on.”

Tesla is in a unique position to do this compared to other auto manufacturers. “Two things make this possible” said Musk. “The first is our technology. You can only sell a car like the Model 3∞  if you can do over the air updates like we can. The second reason is our business model. Nobody else can sell a car like this because the dealerships would rebel. It’s called channel conflict. They are fucked.”

Model 3∞ is a new direction for Tesla, and will be followed by a similar version of the Model S, the S∞.

The Model 3∞ will retail at $55,000 before government incentives. 3, 5, 10 and 15 year loans are available. Shipments start in January 2020.

1. Sometimes your product will have a high-friction step
2. Beware of "silver bullet" thinking: making the process easier will not solve all your problems
3. Always precede a high-friction step with a low-friction indicator of intent

Three entrepreneurs want to build three rocket ships. They each design a capsule and the rockets, attach engines, put on their suits and climb aboard. They strap themselves into the seat.