Newc

Season may be over next week, at least for Colorado/Utah. High pressure dome settling in around mid-March. Not sure how Colorado/Utah will recover from that.

I’m a lawyer, and I’ve spent a lot of my time the past 2-3 months incorporating AI into my practice. I’m a little over 15 years removed from law school. Here are my observations:

1) Engineering prompts / delegating to AI takes more time than delegating to a senior associate. However, if you give AI a detailed roadmap, it can chop off a ton of associate / review time. I’d say that a complicated motion to dismiss on an issue I did not have much familiarity with took 5-6 hours of my time instead of 2-3 hours of my time plus 20+ hours of associate time.
2) Litigators are safer than transactional attorneys. I think transactional attorneys will lose a lot of their workflow. As long as there are human judges, opposing counsel, ethical rules, human clients, etc., litigators will be needed. Business lawyers? Tougher sledding.
3) Due diligence and doc review hours will be gone. Paying an attorney to review thousands of contracts to flag certain key contract terms is over.
4) Young attorneys are in trouble. I’d rethink going to law school right now.
5) The work that you get from AI is serviceable but it is not inspired. It’s like B, B+ work. That’s probably fine for the vast majority of legal work.
6) This could be the technology that makes the legal profession work closer to the way it should work. The cost of litigation is obscene right now. I’d rather be in court and in depositions than behind a desk slogging through discovery.
7) This technology will come for everyone. Legal is impacted because the same code that applies to software engineers also applies to legal (ie they are both rules based).

In short, I’m glad I’m more than 15 years into my career and have some measure of experience and judgment. I imagine I will be doing more high level, judgment-based work, and will just be working with AI instead of young attorneys. Figuring out how to monetize the practice of law is going to be challenging.

I’ve collected and obsessed about watches for a large chunk of my life. I spend a lot of time learning about watches. I appreciate the aesthetics, but a lot of my interest gets into history and philosophy, and hunting down my next watch.

In terms of history and philosophy, man has sought to control time for millennia. It’s only in the last 40 years, with the advent of quartz technology, that man has had an accurate understanding of time. Time more or less controls the world - my day is dictated by our human interpretation of time. The marine chronometer allowed the British Empire to circumnavigate the world. Accurate time allowed the New World to connect to the rest of the world. I am endlessly fascinated with the pocket watches and early wristwatches that represented man’s attempt to control time. That says nothing about the craft - making thin, polished levers with no CAD or CNC is a marvel.

In terms of hunting watches, trying to find a 75 year old watch in strong condition is exceedingly difficult. Understanding what the watch should look like, why it is important, differences between series, etc., requires research online, in books, newspaper clippings, old auction catalogues, etc. It can be a very narrow yet fascinating hobby.

Look at the funbags on that hose hound.

Just an altitude test. Stepping stone for Denali, for me. The guide I normally use was guiding an expedition so I hopped in with him.

This was impressive, no doubt, but Jim Morrison (back from the dead) completing the first descent of the North Face of Everest via the Hornbein Couloir is more impressive to me:

LINK

The lack of supplemental oxygen is crazy, but the South Col route is far less complex.

Still, both crazy ski accomplishments.

5 digit double quickset Day Date is the way. No better deal in watches right now, can get a gorgeous example in great condition for sub $20,000. 5 digit is much better balanced than 6 digit in my opinion. 6 digit is kind of an abomination, too shiny and bloated.

I think Baton Rouge is a fine place to live if you live in the right area. I’m under 10 minutes to work, a few minutes from Trader Joe’s, Albertson’s, WF, and any other number of stores, there are more restaurants than I have time to go to restaurants, I have a nice neighborhood to walk in, near a playground for the kids, etc. My life is incredibly convenient, and most people are very friendly. I think it’s a fine place to work and raise a family.

That said, I have no desire to retire here, and if I lived in the suburbs, I’d be counting the minutes to leave.

All have slightly different business models. Knowing what you are looking to purchase would be helpful. Jomashop actually has inventory (when indicated). Chrono24 is just an aggregator. Bezel and Grailzee… never used those but they seem to be an auction type service and hold the watch in escrow? All four are probably fine, but just be careful.

So, this is an 8171 not a 6062. The 8171 is distinctly odder - it is a 38mm, non-oyster case that is unlike anything Rolex has made since. It feels far more like a midcentury complicated Patek like a 2497 - and frankly, that appears to be what Rolex was going for. The 6062, in contrast, has a typical oyster case and is a bit more conventional. With that said, the 6062s with stelline dials, or the special iterations like the Bao Dai, are out of this world.

The 8171 is trickier. Because it has a snap back case, a lot have sustained pretty awful dial damage. Further, the case is not sympathetic to a polish at all - the coronet and serial number are very lightly etched and the case is a mix of polished and brushed surfaces. Thus, there is a huge mix of values at auction.

Here is a particularly awful example (note, the second track was sanded out!):

LINK

Here is a pink gold example that is not as nice as mine but is in pretty good condition from this year (pink gold is held in higher regard than yellow gold and commands higher prices):

LINK

Personally, I fell in love with the case of mine, coupled with the honest, lightly patinated dial. I don’t mind some age to a dial. But the case is just about perfect. Plus, it comes on a period correct stretch oyster rivet bracelet which is so fun to wear. No one makes a bracelet like Gay Freres did in the 50s. It has little tiny springs that allow the bracelet some give.