225: AMA with Matt Ferrell

[@hankmartin8473]

Q: Why do chicken coops have 2 doors? A: Because if it had 4 doors it would be a chicken sedan.

[@Babarudra]

we need more tech for removing the microplastics from everything.

[@hrothgeirrH]

What I want is a waste heat scavenging pump for the kitchen/bath/laundry to provide a point of use water pre-heater.

[@shawnduffy279]

If there is anything I have learned from this channel and others when it comes to building a newer home is, you don't have to break the bank on the first go. Start with the cornerstone of the entire thing and that is the house itself. If you have a leaky house, it doesn't matter how much you spend and on what tech. Your house will literally suck. But what you can do is build an airtight home, follow the manufacturer specs for your build, because different build mats require different ways to build a better home. Then you preplan your "dream scenario". Adding solar for example. Roof or ground? If roof, and you can't afford a full 48 panel array, okay, get 2 or 5. You can ALWAYS ADD later. You just have to preplan. Budget your best build of the house now. Plan out your future and knock those items off your list as you save money just by having a well built home and saving on energy use.

[@tkonzl6059]

Is there anyone capturing their water from their A/C or heat pump? Is this water suitable for watering plants? I'm doing this with my new mini split here in TX because it stops raining through most of June, July, and August and having this extra water is helpful. I can collect 2-3 gallons per day with my 2-ton unit.

[@johnseberg6989]

Desalinization? C'mon Sean. 😆( Desalination )

[@pixelpusher220]

Q: How realistic would it be to buy an EV and just use it as a home battery? Given your experience with sprinkler limits not applying to 'cars'... Looking at Fisker Oceans potentially being *only* $14k seems like an interesting deal

[@FoxInClogs]

The cow needed to get to the udder side?

[@GeorgeBP81]

Because the grass is always greener on the udder side!

[@laughinggas5281]

Speaking personally the two technologies that I keep obsessing about are geothermal energy which theoretically can produce energy any place on Earth with a much smaller footprint than wind or solar. And the other one is autonomous tunneling for utilities. That one has such potential. We spend billions and billions of dollars repairing the above ground systems after weather calamities. Billions lost in economic output from the power outages. Billions lost and natural places wiped out when fires are sparked from utility lines. And yet we keep putting them right back up where they were before. And we spend decades arguing about the land that the lines are supposed to cross. And then our backyards and streets are laced with utility poles that ultimately have to be kept clear from trees. And if either Russia or China wanted to mess with our electrical systems they don't have too much trouble finding them. The Boring Company's developments are promising but we need to invent technologies that are smaller diameter. And we need to build technologies for tunnels that can carry the water from the desalination that was mentioned in this video.

[@michaelkolozsvari3575]

Specific to Engineers and companies (relating to plastics), better packaging. How much waste is there even recycling freaks like me!

[@laughinggas5281]

I'm not sure about Matt's investment advice. If you try to invest right now in brand new technologies or chemistries you are taking a great risk. You're risking the chemistry and the technology as well as the company that is trying to bring them to market. It's rare that you can get all of those things correct even if you are extremely knowledgeable. Ideally you would find a company that is making such things and is already making profits on them rather than finding pre-revenue companies which are extremely risky. But even if you find a profitable sodium ion company what's to say that the next technology around the corner isn't going to supplant that as well. Finally even companies that are making profits are not killing it from a stock price standpoint. Just look at catl and byd stock prices which sort of crawling along for the last 4 years. Same width LG and Panasonic Tesla stock price only recently started to react to the volume of Mega packs they were selling You need to keep in mind that China is trying extremely hard to dominate that industry and to do so they will cut prices to the bone making profits almost impossible for any competitor, and it also applies to those same Chinese companies