I'm noticing Westerners are continously having lower standards every year and seem to not even notice the declining quality standards of everything around them
I do notice it and when I tell them (IRL or on here) they make me sound jaded or disconnected from reality as if we expect too much
They're literally boiling the frog and most don't notice it
Then we fly out to Switzerland, UAE or East and parts of South East Asia and we realize there's nothing to complain about so it's not us, it's the West
ð @mmjukic: https://x.com/mmjukic/status/2105602006719348751
Read on levels.io â
I do notice it and when I tell them (IRL or on here) they make me sound jaded or disconnected from reality as if we expect too much
They're literally boiling the frog and most don't notice it
Then we fly out to Switzerland, UAE or East and parts of South East Asia and we realize there's nothing to complain about so it's not us, it's the West
ð @mmjukic: https://x.com/mmjukic/status/2105602006719348751
Read on levels.io â
âĪ3ðĨ1
ðŠðš EU bankruptcies have now reached the highest level since they started measuring them in 2019
Meanwhile new EU business registrations have been stagnant or decreasing
I discovered this after another one of the interior design stores in the Netherlands we bought from suddenly disappeared off the internet, luckily we already received the stuff we ordered (a big stone table) and dodged a bullet
Quite expensive stuff and their Trustpilot is full of "where's my âŽ7000 table". This is the second interior design store we bought from that went bankrupt just after we received our things, very interesting
So I started looking at EU bankruptcies and discovered they're skyrocketing and new business registrations are stagnant or decreasing
They really managed to regulate and tax away any existing business while making people give up to even think of starting a business in Europe
The US also has bankruptcy growth since 2022 but there it's actually quite stable if you compare it to 2010-2020, no skyrocketing growth
ð https://x.com/levelsio/status/2105759722175357279
Read on levels.io â
Meanwhile new EU business registrations have been stagnant or decreasing
I discovered this after another one of the interior design stores in the Netherlands we bought from suddenly disappeared off the internet, luckily we already received the stuff we ordered (a big stone table) and dodged a bullet
Quite expensive stuff and their Trustpilot is full of "where's my âŽ7000 table". This is the second interior design store we bought from that went bankrupt just after we received our things, very interesting
So I started looking at EU bankruptcies and discovered they're skyrocketing and new business registrations are stagnant or decreasing
They really managed to regulate and tax away any existing business while making people give up to even think of starting a business in Europe
The US also has bankruptcy growth since 2022 but there it's actually quite stable if you compare it to 2010-2020, no skyrocketing growth
ð https://x.com/levelsio/status/2105759722175357279
Read on levels.io â
A good example @johnonolan sent me today
An Apple Store in Dubai where you have Apple Watches lying around freely with the door open, not secured, not behind glass
Right by the front door!
A high trust society like we used to have too
ð https://x.com/levelsio/status/2105649487788036574
Read on levels.io â
An Apple Store in Dubai where you have Apple Watches lying around freely with the door open, not secured, not behind glass
Right by the front door!
A high trust society like we used to have too
ð https://x.com/levelsio/status/2105649487788036574
Read on levels.io â
ðĪĄ6
It's such a weird experience that I can now build things faster than I get new ideas for things
ð https://x.com/levelsio/status/2106138101043044498
Read on levels.io â
ð https://x.com/levelsio/status/2106138101043044498
Read on levels.io â
âĪ4ðĪĄ1ðĪĢ1
This is great and another example of city states attracting all the skilled Europeans with better living, working and regulatory conditions!
ð https://x.com/levelsio/status/2106376810305040731
Read on levels.io â
ð https://x.com/levelsio/status/2106376810305040731
Read on levels.io â
ðĪĄ3ðĪĢ3
Just a day later and now Javier Milei is offering full Argentinean citizenship with residence and passport for $350,000
Countries will keep plucking out the high skilled and wealthy from around the world for better conditions elsewhere
Which is easier than ever especially in Europe
This isn't new of course, this is what the US, Canada, South America and Australia did for centuries to attract people
It's why there's Dutch dairy farmers all over the world because many got poached in 1950 after WW2 to migrate elsewhere (and often get free or cheap land to farm on)
ð https://x.com/levelsio/status/2106695234990063921
Read on levels.io â
Countries will keep plucking out the high skilled and wealthy from around the world for better conditions elsewhere
Which is easier than ever especially in Europe
This isn't new of course, this is what the US, Canada, South America and Australia did for centuries to attract people
It's why there's Dutch dairy farmers all over the world because many got poached in 1950 after WW2 to migrate elsewhere (and often get free or cheap land to farm on)
ð https://x.com/levelsio/status/2106695234990063921
Read on levels.io â
ðĪĄ3ðĪĢ2ð1
Airbnb's entire rating scale is now 4.5 to 5.0
You can't make this up ð
I made a site called http://hotelist.com to fix this, it normalizes ratings from booking sites: for example if it's always 4 to 5, it stretches those ratings to 0 to 5, so a 4 becomes a 0, and a 4.5 becomes a 2.5
It also uses scours the web for actual opinions about hotels instead of booking sites and then rates based on that
ð https://x.com/levelsio/status/2107055382459732293
Read on levels.io â
You can't make this up ð
I made a site called http://hotelist.com to fix this, it normalizes ratings from booking sites: for example if it's always 4 to 5, it stretches those ratings to 0 to 5, so a 4 becomes a 0, and a 4.5 becomes a 2.5
It also uses scours the web for actual opinions about hotels instead of booking sites and then rates based on that
ð https://x.com/levelsio/status/2107055382459732293
Read on levels.io â
ð2ðĪĄ1
I analyzed the range of ratings on booking sites and it's pretty crazy
Airbnb goes just from 4.5 to 5 with a median of 5!
But most others aren't better, they all range from about 4 to 5, and almost all have a median of 4.25, with not many scores outside of it!
The best site in terms of honest ratings is actually Yelp, whatever they're doing it's working, it shows an actual normal distribution and ratings you can trust
Hotelist itself is a normal distribution with median at 3.5, which was my goal, most stays are average/okay which I'd consider 3.
From https://hotelist.com/stats#rating-by-site
ð https://x.com/levelsio/status/2107088849163665717
Read on levels.io â
Airbnb goes just from 4.5 to 5 with a median of 5!
But most others aren't better, they all range from about 4 to 5, and almost all have a median of 4.25, with not many scores outside of it!
The best site in terms of honest ratings is actually Yelp, whatever they're doing it's working, it shows an actual normal distribution and ratings you can trust
Hotelist itself is a normal distribution with median at 3.5, which was my goal, most stays are average/okay which I'd consider 3.
From https://hotelist.com/stats#rating-by-site
ð https://x.com/levelsio/status/2107088849163665717
Read on levels.io â
âĪ1ð1
Airbnb just responded to "reviewgate"
The replies here are literally hundreds of people who got their reviews removed directly contradicting what Airbnb says here
The "policy" they have seems to be to remove a guest's review and rating whenever a host asks for it
I don't get why they don't just fix this? Everyone would love to see Airbnb have honest reviews and ratings you can trust
Short term you might get more bookings if everything is a 4.5 or 4.99 but long term people discover it means nothing and they can't trust your platform and they leave elsewhere
I think they're in some internal gridlock by MBAs who want to see revenue go up, not realizing that they're destroying a company
I hope they fix it!
ð https://x.com/levelsio/status/2107417249216679999
Read on levels.io â
The replies here are literally hundreds of people who got their reviews removed directly contradicting what Airbnb says here
The "policy" they have seems to be to remove a guest's review and rating whenever a host asks for it
I don't get why they don't just fix this? Everyone would love to see Airbnb have honest reviews and ratings you can trust
Short term you might get more bookings if everything is a 4.5 or 4.99 but long term people discover it means nothing and they can't trust your platform and they leave elsewhere
I think they're in some internal gridlock by MBAs who want to see revenue go up, not realizing that they're destroying a company
I hope they fix it!
ð https://x.com/levelsio/status/2107417249216679999
Read on levels.io â
ð1ð1ðŊ1
I own land and property in exactly these areas and will keep buying land and property in these areas
This is exactly my post-AGI thesis too
Scarse coastal or mountain land with clean air
ð https://x.com/levelsio/status/2107501437135520070
Read on levels.io â
This is exactly my post-AGI thesis too
Scarse coastal or mountain land with clean air
ð https://x.com/levelsio/status/2107501437135520070
Read on levels.io â
ðĐ3ðŋ3
I discovered that 1000s of bots are actively monitoring X for new links posted, probably not just on my account
I noticed when everytime I'd share one of my sites new features or pages, the page would get a bit slower just after posting, then I asked Claude to analyze it
I tweeted a test URL as a reply somewhere deeply hidden in a thread (so not even a main post)
And within 8 seconds there's thousands of crawlers opening the page!
One is a military intelligence firm, that scans social media for breaking news and sells alerts to newsrooms, banks, companies and government, it specifically follows accounts with many followers
Another one is a social media monitoring company that tracks what people say online
I knew of course high frequency trading firms use online news to trade fast on things, but interesting to see it in real life
Twitterbot (X) of course is first, within 0 seconds of sharing, it opens it (probably when I wrote the tweet)
The first non-X bot arrives just 8.40s later, which I think is pretty fast considering it's a reply by me deeply hidden in a thread somewhere
TL;DR they're watching you!
If it's a main tweet (so not a reply), it's even faster
Within 0.4 seconds there is non-X crawlers opening the link!
ð https://x.com/levelsio/status/2108196980983795995
Read on levels.io â
I noticed when everytime I'd share one of my sites new features or pages, the page would get a bit slower just after posting, then I asked Claude to analyze it
I tweeted a test URL as a reply somewhere deeply hidden in a thread (so not even a main post)
And within 8 seconds there's thousands of crawlers opening the page!
One is a military intelligence firm, that scans social media for breaking news and sells alerts to newsrooms, banks, companies and government, it specifically follows accounts with many followers
Another one is a social media monitoring company that tracks what people say online
I knew of course high frequency trading firms use online news to trade fast on things, but interesting to see it in real life
Twitterbot (X) of course is first, within 0 seconds of sharing, it opens it (probably when I wrote the tweet)
The first non-X bot arrives just 8.40s later, which I think is pretty fast considering it's a reply by me deeply hidden in a thread somewhere
TL;DR they're watching you!
If it's a main tweet (so not a reply), it's even faster
Within 0.4 seconds there is non-X crawlers opening the link!
ð https://x.com/levelsio/status/2108196980983795995
Read on levels.io â
ðĨ3ðą3ðĪĄ1ð1ðĪŠ1