Great is the not-sucking.

If it is great, then it does not suck. If it sucks, then it is not great. To be great is not merely to be good, it is to actually not suck. Then you are great, in the most minimal, barely clawed yourself over the line way.

You build something, well enough that it can handle the traffic, and people come, and it does.

Welcome to the gaming industry

Costco pledges (I have no idea if its true) that they offer goods at cost, no markup, and their profits (net income ? this is where it gets fuzzy) are simply the membership fees. In fact, I think there's a lawsuit from a Costco purchaser to get back some tariffs if Costco gets refunded tariffs.

So the idea is premium groceries (and homegoods, and tires, and pharma, etc) with zero retail markup.

Its a compelling idea, and it works because it actually seems to work. What you write is "priced well comparatively" is (according to the legend) the wholesale pricing at the quantities offered (again, I'm not sure about spoilage and some of the other details)

Firstly, there's a ton (TONs) of water left at the end of the burn, unless things have changed a lot in the past 20 years, nobody is running out of water. I'm guessing a few people have snacks left over.

Some people are getting pissy and hiking out, and the rest are going to party on until the road is rebuilt, helping one another the whole time, and some will be dancing their butts off.

I remember being with a group that had a van breakdown on the way into the playa, and the only sensible thing to do was tow it into the playa to get help from mechanic friends who would help fix the van on the playa.

https://polymarket.com/event/will-jesus-christ-return-before...

Comparing open source social to algorithmically based social is never going to work, that's like saying the Light Phone isn't as popular as the iPhone, so its a failure.

The question is, does it work for you ? If over time open social gets a toehold then it will be an option people know about and can choose.

There's plenty of legal avenues for the next administration to outright shut these firms down

Unless Iran bought some CM-302 missiles from China, the mere threat of which appears to mean that China and Iran now control the oil in the gulf.

But ELI5 me maybe I don't understand realpolitik

I find a company that actually built a solid product, dangit this is really good. They appear to have executed well, but they failed, or went nowhere, heck the app is still out there. Maybe they are even chugging along but its a smaller business even with a better product than I would have been able to build. Had I been a founder of the product, I would be questioning staying.

Then I also find sometimes I was doing it all wrong and the world has moved past my notions of products. I think there's a market opportunity because I don't realize that the rest of the world is already cool using a $15 plant hygrometer bluetooth device which can also keep track of your medicine or food in your cooler, my notion of the value of something is skewed by western costs