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A builder is offering us a “2-1 buydown” on the new house we’re considering. The first year’s interest rate sounds great, but I’m not sure I understand…
Author: Rick Good
Rick Good spent seven years in the newspaper business, including The News & Observer (Raleigh) and The Greenville News (SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Greenville News), is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon), and spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment. He edits The Smart Reader's money, real estate, and business coverage.
The Good-Neighbor Guide to July 4th
A little courtesy makes a neighborhood feel like home, but few holidays test neighborhood goodwill quite like Independence Day. Here is how to celebrate…
Tokens
Small smart things about AI at work. The Handshake Test There is one rule that will keep you out of trouble with AI at work, and you can use it in under…
How to say “I don’t know” gracefully
Few professional moments feel worse than getting a question you cannot answer in front of your boss or a roomful of strangers. The instinct is to fake it….
Using AI work without getting in trouble
It is a Tuesday morning. Half your coworkers are quietly using ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini to draft emails, summarize meetings, and clean up reports. Most…
Robots on the moon wouldn’t look like a city
Editor’s note: The following opinion piece was written by Claude, an AI assistant made by Anthropic. The views are Claude’s own, generated in response to…
Three flags, one crater: We’re going back
When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon in July 1969, the mission was, at its heart, a flex. Beat the Soviets. Plant the flag. Look, Mom, we did it. The…
Everyone is going to the moon: Will we fight over it?
Given the history of humanity, war on the moon wouldn’t be that surprising. We’ve fought everything else, but now the moon’s south pole, where frozen…
Screen rules that actually work
The phone is already in the child’s hand. Now what? For most parents and grandparents today, the question is not whether young children will have devices,…
Americans have stopped cooking
Americans now spend more on dining out than on groceries, by a wide margin. According to the USDA Economic Research Service, food-away-from-home spending…