I think this comment (and TFA) is really just painting with too broad of strokes. Of course there are going to be people in tech hubs that are very pro-AI, either because they are working with it directly and have had legitimately positive experiences or because they work with it and they begrudgingly see the writing on that wall for what it means for software professionals.
I can assure you, living in Seattle I still encounter a lot a AI boosters just as much as I encounter AI haters/skeptics
> Walmart builds their buildings to last only 15-20 years and then builds a new facility.
I'm really curious about the 15-20 year statistic that the author mentions and I was disappointed not to see a source on that claim. I couldn't find much from official sources after a quick search. That seems like an incredibly short lifespan, especially for buildings so large.
It's true that many commercial real estate developers design buildings to roughly match depreciation lifetimes, reason being, depreciation reduces tax and once your basis hits zero (the item is fully depreciated), you can't use depreciation to shield any more taxable income. The base depreciation lifetime of US commercial real estate is 39 years though, not 15-20.
The other elephant in the room is that building to last is really expensive, at least upfront. So it isn't, and perhaps shouldn't, be something we do for everything.
Every town has "forever buildings": schools, village halls, religious institutions. Places that cater to basic needs that aren't going to change. Imagine a typical "old" American school: a giant brick building, with a steam boiler, well-made doors, and thick walls. This is what "built to last" looks like. There are often ornamental features like murals on the outside walls. Ditto for churches: thick, heavy buildings with materials like marble or other stone. Old, well-made houses are the same way.
This isn't how big box stores are made. They have way more drywall, polished concrete floors (definitely not tile), cheapo sliding doors, thin walls with stucco or other flimsy materials, standardized designs that don't change based on where they are (vs. something designed specifically for the area), and giant parking lots. The entire mentality is different. These are built to last a couple decades, then get taken down, or demolished. It's actually the same with McMansions, giant 4000 square foot houses in deep suburban areas.
One other thing, read patio11's "Mortgages are a manufactured product" [1] -- CRE (buildings) is also a "manufactured" product for a lot of the same reasons, namely, there are buyers in the economy that structurally desire regular income streams (rental payments) from these buildings, and the fact that they're a Walgreens, or a Wal-Mart, or whatever else, barely even registers. The "customer" of a lot of this stuff is the pension fund / endowment that ends up holding the debt on the property, not the people or businesses that actually, you know, occupy the place day-to-day.
Source: husband of an architect, and commercial real estate owner/manager
Its likely they are referring to [0] where Coinbase announced that they were going to be discouraging internal focus on "broader societal issues" and "political causes".
I can assure you, living in Seattle I still encounter a lot a AI boosters just as much as I encounter AI haters/skeptics
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