Escape From Plan A

Mike and Teen talk briefly about de-dollarization and whether it's an existential threat or a bit overhyped; then, Mike takes a deep dive into large language model AI and they spend a Friday evening pondering what kind of crazy self-replication anybody can now do with a mid-range laptop.

REFERENCED RESOURCE:

"ChatGPT is a Blurry JPEG of the Web" by Ted Chiang (https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/chatgpt-is-a-blurry-jpeg-of-the-web)

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Mike, Steve and Teen spend a Friday evening discussing whether Peak Sinophobia has arrived. Can Congress get any frothier, any more insane, after Ted Cruz said China is waging a "thousand year war" on America? Will Tim Apple and the other money men have to sit Congress down and give them the shekels speech?

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Mike and Steve return to drink some hard liquor and talk about getting jobs, whether one can fully relax upon retirement, Credit Suisse and the slow-motion banking meltdown, and the shambolic TikTok hearings.

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Chris, Adam and Teen talk about the recent explosion of Asian visibility in Hollywood at the Oscars, and whether the optics of white Hollywood "finally seeing" Asian people is real, or whether in fact Asians have strived and embedded ourselves into the entertainment business no different than any other professional industry, and are in fact insiders to the Hollywood firmament. Also, Teen explains his love of Ken Leung's Pierpoint Managing Director of Cross Product Sales, Eric Tao, and how it opens up the mind to what is possible in a narrative future that includes realistic Asian American men.

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"Why Vietnam doesn't want to claim Ke Huy Quan" https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64963161

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Mike and Steve are back to talk with Teen about whether the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is a bellwether for another financial collapse. The news, we believe, is not good.

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Resigned to a likely triumphant night for Everything Everywhere All At Once at next week's Oscars, Liza and Chris discuss that movie along with Tár because of each film's competing ideologies on separation of art and artist, as well as the meaning of art. Plus, some Oscars predictions.

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REFERENCED RESOURCES:

“Tár,” Reviewed: Regressive Ideas to Match Regressive Aesthetics by Richard Brody | The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/tar-reviewed-regressive-ideas-to-match-regressive-aesthetics

Hollywood’s hot new trend: Parents who say they’re sorry by Emily St. James | Vox: https://www.vox.com/culture/23025832/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-parental-apology-fantasy-turning-red

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This podcast sort of has two parts. First, Jess, Adam and Teen talk about the news of the day, the growing urgency of anti-Asian racism as official government policy, and the utter disinterest that politicians have in anything but career advancement.

Next, they talk about Asian enclaves as a sanctuary against nosebleed inducing rents and home prices in the fashionable neighborhoods of big cities.

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REFERENCED RESOURCES:

Making it on $400k/yr: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/06/biden-defines-400000-a-year-as-wealthy-how-far-it-goes-in-a-city-.html

The Fleishman Effect: https://www.thecut.com/2023/02/the-fleishman-is-in-trouble-effect.html

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Jess and Teen chat on a Saturday evening about mindless Sinophobia exploding in the United States, how social justice movements and leftist politics are utterly incapable of protecting Asian Americans. What, then, will shield us from the worst excesses of anti-Asian racism that occurred in the past?

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REFERENCED RESOURCES:

John Hao's GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-needed-for-a-beloved-global-spartan-john-h

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Parenting is the topic that keeps on giving, and so Jess gets together with Eliza and Filip to talk about the peculiar way Professional Managerial Class (PMC) parents raise their kids. If the PMC obsession with spending money on bougie strollers and Harvard-prep daycares doesn’t lead to happier, more successful kids, then what’s it actually for? Eliza shares some practical advice for Asian American parents who want to escape the rat race.

Part 2 is available on Patreon for subscribers.

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REFERENCED RESOURCES:

The PMC Has Children from Virtue Hoarders: The Case against the Professional Managerial Class by Catherine Liu: https://publicseminar.org/essays/the-pmc-has-children/

Death of a Yuppie Dream by Barbara and John EHRENREICH: https://inthesetimes.com/article/death-of-a-yuppie-dream

The Real Class War by Julius Krein: https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2019/11/the-real-class-war/

The Characterless Opportunism of the Managerial Class by Amber A’Lee Frost: https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2019/11/the-characterless-opportunism-of-the-managerial-class/

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Mike and Steve aka The Degens talk with Teen about mid-life careerism, the professional managerial class lifestyle trap, and tales of surgery and other medical milestones of middle age. Why is it so hard to keep spending low when income rises? Why is careerism seemingly easier to manage in mid-life than when we just started out? And how do we ever get off this hamster wheel of striving?

Part 2 is available on Patreon for subscribers.

Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag

Check out the new Plan A merchandise shop: planamag.com/shop/

REFERENCED RESOURCES:

The Exciting New World of Digital Finance: https://www.youtube.com/@theexcitingnewworldofdigit157

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