Entrepreneur, optimist, ex-exec, dad, SciFi nerd, Keto & Excel🥷, builder, nature lover.
Waterloo, Ontario
Joined March 2009
- Tweets623
- Following280
- Followers132
- Likes4.7K
Owen retweeted
The trade imbroglio with the United States is escalating and ramifying in ways that are potentially dangerous. The Carney government refuses to release the final offer or produce the conclusive evidence that would settle whether the prime minister was reacting to provocative American attempts to change the deal at the last minute. As long as that doubt exists, it is going to be difficult to conduct the war that Mr. Carney has instigated. Juvenile acts such as booing and shouting down the American national anthem are stirring up unprecedented hostility toward Canada in a country of 350 million people with a GDP of US$32 trillion.
There has never been one word of justification for breaking off negotiations that still offered this country unequalled access to by far the greatest and most swiftly growing market in the world. Of course we must pursue our national interest, but with this uneven correlation of forces it is poor tactics to escalate the disagreement. Mr. Carney seems to take himself for the global David firing his slingshot at the orange-tufted Goliath, overtly trying to hurt Trump in the midterm elections while bandying recondite asides about the ancient Greeks. This is not Finland resisting Russia in 1940; it is more like Romania declaring war on Germany in 1915.
Canada is completely dependent on the United States for almost 70 percent of its exports and for its military security. Leaping into the arms of the Chinese who conducted a form of genocide on the Uighurs, meddled in Canadian elections, and proudly continue the legacy of Mao Tse-tung is not an acceptable answer. Nor is continuing the helter-skelter policies that have put terrible pressure on housing costs, produced a fertility rate of 1.25, and made us the suicide capital of the world. If our cause is righteous, this could be a chance for Canada to demonstrate moral strength and a mature nationality. Self-impoverishment and primal-scream therapy will not achieve it.
🤖 Made with AI
Owen retweeted
DuckTales premiered 39 years ago today.
I loved that show. Not for the gold. For the idea that adventure meant going somewhere wild with people you love.
It was Indiana Jones for kids.
Nobody's making the movie, so I made the trailer. Sound on. 🦆
🤖 Made with AI
Owen retweeted
I have stock in SpaceX and Tesla, not some big pile of cash.
As my companies do more and more useful things, their value increases proportionate to their projected usefulness. All shareholders benefit along the way, including most retirement programs.
Owen retweeted
Canada can learn something from Trump and start aggressively pursuing its national interests. The priorities of our government should always be the improvement of affordability, the standard of living, and the quality of life for Canadians. It’s high time we started using our many advantages to become a more prosperous and influential country in the world, not just a well-liked but largely inconsequential one.
There is nothing wrong with the US actively trying to repatriate as much manufacturing as it can, and if it views Canada as low-hanging fruit for bringing back car-manufacturing jobs, there is some logic in pursuing that. Personally, it doesn’t seem the juice is worth the squeeze. Given how disproportionately susceptible auto manufacturing is to job losses through automation, any jobs they repatriate in that sector are unlikely to exist in 10 years. So it amounts to short-term pain without any meaningful long-term gain. At the end of the day, it’s their right to drive a hard bargain in pursuit of American interests in whatever manner they see fit. But we should be taking a page out of this playbook and playing to our own distinct advantages: a world-class pool of natural and human resources.
Given how important US trade is to the Canadian economy, we don’t really have the luxury of enumerating a long list of deal-breakers or demands for concessions. While I am no trade wonk, the only sticking points as I see them are supply management and the potential for China and others, after we have negotiated a preferential trade arrangement with the US, to use us as a back door to undermine whatever agreements the US has negotiated with them. These are legitimate concerns, but there’s no reason we can’t provide assurances and iron them out.
My sincere hope and expectation is that this trade war will be a temporary blip. I predict we will reach a deal sooner rather than later that largely amounts to business as usual with a bit of fine-tuning. And as a very positive corollary, Trump’s belligerence will have awoken the Liberals from their decade-long fever dream about environmental apocalypse, misplaced guilt for committing imaginary genocides that never took place, and the horrors of there not being a sufficient number of letters in the LGBT(etc.) acronym, and they will finally realize that economic growth is a priority.
Owen retweeted
Marc Andreessen just named the lie that held for a hundred years and is collapsing in real time.
We gave authority to the people who explained things. Not the people who built them.
And nobody questioned why.
For a century, builders created and journalists translated. The public accepted it because complexity demanded a middleman.
But the middleman was never the expert. The middleman was the channel.
And we mistook the channel for the source.
Andreessen: “You set it loose and it will write you literally a 30-page answer. This is basically like a textbook on any topic.”
Any topic. Infinite depth. Zero cost. No gatekeeper.
He has a name for what comes next. Practitioner media.
Andrej Karpathy doesn’t sit across from a journalist. He turns on a camera and teaches the world how the architecture works. No filter. No editorial framing. No one deciding what you’re ready to hear.
The press calls it dangerous.
They are not protecting the public. They are protecting the bottleneck that gave them power.
The critic always needed the creator. The creator never needed the critic.
They just had no other way to reach the world.
Now they do.
Is this a real story? Why are we studying this? 😳😅🙄🤪
Cannibalism is bad for your health, scientists find ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/article/…
The most important fable of our time:
Atlas Shrugged made simple:
1. Society runs on a small number of highly capable producers – industrialists, inventors, engineers – whose work everyone depends on but takes for granted.
2. The system starts rewarding need over achievement: the more capable you are, the more you’re expected to sacrifice for those who aren’t.
3. Success gets treated like a debt – taxed, regulated, resented – until the most capable start asking why they bother trying at all.
4. One by one, led by a man named John Galt, they simply withdraw – walking away rather than keep propping up a system that punishes them for producing.
5. Without them, the whole structure collapses, revealing that the “automatic” prosperity everyone assumed was actually being generated by specific, irreplaceable people.
6. Atlas is the Titan from Greek myth, condemned to carry the sky on his shoulders forever – Rand’s stand-in for the producer class, holding up civilization while getting blamed for it.
7. “Shrugged” is the whole argument in one word: Atlas doesn’t fight, doesn’t protest – he just quietly sets the weight down. Nobody realized the sky was being held up by anyone in particular, until the day it isn’t.
You don’t want us? We just go…🤷🏻♂️
Owen retweeted
Socialism is like a parasite. It needs a healthy capitalist host to survive.
It doesn't create much new wealth on its own. It mostly feeds off the productivity, innovation, and surplus that free markets generate. History keeps proving it.
Nailed it! All the positives are on point - on the negatives: the look grows on you, and highly recommend wrapping it.
I took delivery of the new All Wheel Drive $59k Cybertruck late last week. Since then I’ve put more than 400 miles on it, including two mini road trips on back to back days.
Here are my thoughts so far.
The Bad:
The truck is ugly as sin. Seriously. I think it’s awful looking. I don’t like it. At all.
The stainless steel is impossible to keep clean. It’s a fingerprint magnet, and because there are no exterior door handles, there are handprints all over it.
The windshield is massive. Cleaning the inside of it is going to be a chore.
This thing is huge. It’s incredibly long and wide. It barely fits in my garage and, at times, feels almost too big.
The Good:
This thing is huge. I am 6’5” and I make large humans. We all fit comfortably. There is plenty of room in every direction. The comfort in width is especially enjoyable.
The giant windshield, oversized windows, and glass roof make the cabin feel incredibly open. The kids don’t get car sick, and everyone has something to look at.
It’s the most comfortable and enjoyable vehicle I’ve ever driven. Yes, it’s a truck. But it rides unbelievably smooth. It’s quiet inside, has tons of room, fantastic speakers, and incredibly comfortable seats.
Tesla downgraded a few things on this model compared to the higher trims, like the suspension, sound system, and interior finishes. Honestly, I can’t believe how good it still feels for the price. A trade off I am enjoying!
The truck bed is awesome. It’s huge, there’s no awkward wheel well taking up space, and it’s basically one giant rectangle. It easily fits a sheet of plywood with the tailgate down. I’ve already bought a few accessories, including three large storage bins that fit perfectly and keep everything from sliding around. So many customizable options to make the bed work for your lifestyle. It’s great!
Speaking of that, the automatic tonneau cover is a game changer. Every truck should have one. Push a button and the bed is either completely covered or completely open. Better security, better weather protection, better aerodynamics. It’s awesome.
The range has been excellent. I left Gilbert at around 80%, drove all the way to Payson and back, and still pulled into my garage with more than 15% battery remaining. No charge needed.
And charging? Ridiculously fast. I stopped at a Supercharger around 40%, ordered and ate a sandwich, and by the time I finished I was back to 80%. I was genuinely impressed. Charging is even faster than the model 3 we have and the model Y I sold.
Full Self Driving continues to be the most impactful technology of my adult life. It’s not perfect yet on the Cybertruck, but it’s still incredible. I drove from Gilbert to Payson and back and only touched the controls to park when I arrived. It handled traffic, mountain roads, twists, turns, a vehicle on fire on the side of the road with lots of smoke, and everything else remarkably well. I absolutely love it. I think it’s one of those technologies everyone should at least experience before forming an opinion. It’s not only amazingly convenient but makes drives safer.
The yoke steering wheel and steer by wire are fantastic. They make driving such a large vehicle surprisingly easy. When I’m not using FSD, it’s genuinely fun to drive, and the steering wheel itself is far more comfortable than I expected.
Finally, I love Tesla’s design philosophy. Very few buttons. Very little clutter. No rattles. Everything is clean, simple, intuitive, and easy to use. It’s just… nice.
I’m sure I’ll discover more things I love and a few more things I don’t as I spend more time with it. But so far, the pros far outweigh the cons.
I’ve been a huge fan of the Tesla buying and driving experience the last year or two, and this Cybertruck has only reinforced that. It’s an excellent truck. But more importantly, it’s still a Tesla. That’s a pretty great combination.
Owen retweeted
David Sacks just delivered an economics masterclass on Elon becoming the world’s first trillionaire.
@davidsacks: “People see the headline and imagine Elon suddenly has a trillion dollars in the bank. That’s not how it works. His balance sheet didn’t change overnight.”
Why?
The real point is deeper. Wealth isn’t in the “stuff” we consume. Food, shelter, clothes. Things that depreciate and disappear. It’s in the machines that create stuff for decades: tools, workflows, and corporations.
These are the true engines of human progress.
“If you create a machine that makes more stuff, then there’s a discounted present value for all the stuff in the future that machine might create. That’s where the wealth comes from.”
Elon started with nothing. An immigrant who slept on the floor building Zip2. He created these machines from vision and relentless effort. Thousands joined him, including a SpaceX welder who turned his labor into a million dollars in stock.
That’s the magic of tech and free markets: labor can become capital. It’s fluid.
The outrage misses this entirely. The people building machines that deliver medicines, energy, and abundance are creating lasting prosperity for everyone.
What do you think? Does viewing wealth as future productivity change how you see stories like this?