Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago School economists and fellow travelers.
It was another sunny winters’ day here in Chicago while the East got socked with snow. Here is the Trump building, IBM, and new construction. I like the water tank, too (don’t know what the “Big Picture” stands for but its been there for years).
Just North of the Brazilian steak house is a building that’s been semi-constructed and abandoned since the 2008 property crash. Hopefully they can get it completed before the next crash.
For Christmas a friend of mine rented a house to host their family staying from out of town and to have a holiday party. The house was in a “hip” part of town (near Wicker Park, where I used to live) and was a large 3 story very nice home typical of the area.
She rented the house from Airbnb. Private individuals rent whole apartments, houses or rooms in their house to essentially strangers using the service. For example, this is an example of an entire house for rent in Wrigleyville.
While I was first thinking that this seemed like a risky move, the party turned out very well. The house was beautiful, with a nice TV, stereo, fully stocked kitchen, and even a decorated Christmas tree. Since the house was so nice, everyone seemed to go the extra mile to keep it clean – if a drink was spilled, someone cleaned it up right away (probably the fact that there was a damage deposit helped, too).
A recent BBC News article on Airbnb described the phenomenal growth of the service and how an idea that seemed radical (renting out your home to complete strangers) is now becoming mainstream.
Airbnb is a website matching up homeowners with tourists and backpackers wanting a place to stay. Set up in 2008, it’s one of a wave of sites – like Wimdu, and Homestay – making money out of those seeking a bargain. The firm says it has listings in more than 35,000 cities in 192 countries.
I know of other people who travel around the world using Couchsurfing, where you basically just crash for free on a strangers’ couch. This seems even stranger, but apparently works out well and people generally make friends and have a good time, although of course there are horror stories (probably the ones your mother would send you if you told her this is how you planned to travel the world).
Likely one element that makes this successful is the fact that most of the people doing the hosting and the people using the service are outgoing and friendly types. The sort of person that would use or trust someone else in the first place are generally the ones that would make these services successful. Another type of service like this is HomeExchange, where you can exchange your home in a tourist friendly area for one in another tempting locale (generally there are additional checks on these sorts of arrangements that you wouldn’t see in Couchsurfing).
An analogous situation is when we go on a tour with a company called “Backroads” where you travel to great locations like Italy but you do active vacations including bikes, hiking and even kayaking (although I am certain it wouldn’t stress out Dan). If you take an “active” tour, you seem to have positive experiences with your peers, since the fact that they volunteered for a tour involving physical fitness (and not just sitting on a bus) makes them the type of people less likely to complain and generally to have an upbeat attitude. We have been on four of these trips and have not had significant issues with any of our fellow tourists, even though we are confined with them (at various times) for 5-7 days.
The idea is that the type of people likely to assume that the other person won’t steal or take advantage of you, and in fact might be someone interesting that you might enjoy spending time with, is a positive social trait that would be associated with many parts of the world. I don’t know if I’d expect this type of reciprocity everywhere, however.
Cross posted at LITGM
I recently walked about town with my new Pentax K-01 camera recommended by Jonathan over at Chicago Boyz and even read a bit of the manual (a shock!), and found a custom setting for “blue sky”. The camera took far better pictures than I was used to although I am still having trouble fitting what I want to see into the frame since I am used to a tiny (crappy) digital camera.
Here is 900 North Michigan with the distinctive 4 spires on top and the Chicago city flag blowing in the breeze.
The Allerton hotel with the iconic “Tip Top Tap” bar on the roof, and the Hancock in the background.
This week I walked by the always-mobbed Apple store on Michigan avenue where they had a big window display for the new iPad mini. I liked the expression on this woman’s face as she looked at her new iPhone.
Down the street you can see the lonely Garmin store. Garmin, the GPS related company, has its only retail store in the world (per wikipedia, at least) on Michigan Avenue and I have been by it many times and it is sparsely populated, at best.
GPS used to be a great hype story, with the possibilities seemingly endless, and companies poised to clean up with huge stock prices. Soon, however, GPS became a widely used tool, background almost, and the hype was forgotten. Garmin (GRMN on NASDAQ) initially was a darling of the stock market, a momentum stock, but which has since transformed itself into what appears to be a well-run and diversified company spread across the marine, flight, exercise, and auto areas. They have changed from a stock touting the limitless growth of GPS to a practical stock that explains their gross and operating margins for each segment clearly and also how they are using the free cash flow that they receive to pay investors a large and growing dividend – go here for a brief presentation for investors from their web site.
It is interesting to see how our perception of a company or stock is based on our personal experience with the consumer devices. We see Apple at home or at work, and interact with it every day of our lives (if you are an “Apple” person). On the other hand, few of us think much about Garmin, but it is integrated into cars, exercise devices (one of the few stand alone devices that really seems to be growing), planes, boats, and many other areas. At one time it seemed that everyone would have a stand alone GPS devices, but then the “coolest” consumer application components were integrated into iPhones and Android phones and became commonplace in autos so it just became less exciting over time.
Cross posted at LITGM
Back when I was growing up we kept the boxes on all electronics. Up in our attic there was a box for each PC, each TV, our stereo, and anything else of similar worth. You kept the box because these items were valuable and you might want to return them, and if you moved (in and out of college, or between apartments), the boxes might minimize damage to these important goods in transit.
Recently I bought a new printer, an Epson all-in-one Workforce 545. I bought this printer specifically because it had “iPrint” which allows for immediate printing with no drivers or other installation on all Apple devices, including iPads, iPhones, and my Mac. For your iPad or iPhone if you upgraded to IOS 6 you can see it immediately when you click on the icon. It works great. I have it directly connected to one of our Windows PC’s and it works great as a traditional printer, as well.
But what do we do with the box nowadays? I keep it around for a couple of days to make sure everything runs reasonably well, and then I throw it out. Why? Because that printer, which has capabilities that would have seemed like science fiction a few years ago in a home device (remotely print across all devices without drivers) cost me about $130. That printer is essentially disposable. This printer, which includes a scanner and actually relatively advanced networking functions, has plummeted in price from what it WOULD have cost to do the same functions (if it were even possible) a decade ago.
To see the opposite of efficiency, go out for dinner and drinks on a Friday or Saturday night in River North. Entrees, an appetizer salad, a couple of drinks each, and a dessert will definitely cost you north of $100 and likely closer to $200. Every time I go out on the weekend I essentially purchase one of those printers and throw it away anyways.
This difference between manufactured goods and services (or “crafty” items, like designer lighting or tile) has grown immense. I understand why it is expensive to buy a meal in River North – real estate is punishingly expensive, food is expensive, labor is expensive, you have to pay a raft of fees and taxes of all sorts (likely under and over the table) to run your business, union labor has to be used to build everything (unless you want a giant rat installed in front of your business, which I see a lot in River North). There is little or no efficiency inherent in any of the above items (except for food production), and few incentives to change the business model when you can just pass on these rising costs to people like me who go out on the weekend as long as they are willing to pay for it.
I still fall for the “mental trap” and sweat over paying a few dollars more for an electronic device buying from one location or another and whether or not to pay more for an upgrade or advanced features. Meanwhile I go out on the weekend and end up paying $200 for a meal for two and that is business as usual (in River North, at least). This is because I haven’t yet shed my upbringing to “keep the box”.
Cross posted at LITGM