$856 Million, Lucky 8s, and My Fraternity Lottery Dictatorship
The Powerball jackpot has climbed to $856 million, with the next drawing on Saturday, August 8, 2026 (8/8/26).
Now, I think the number 8 is considered lucky in Mandarin. I'm not entirely sure. I speak approximately three words of Mandarin, and two of them are probably pronounced wrong.
Still... 8/8? I'll take all the luck I can get.
I've also made an executive decision for the fraternity lottery pool. We've doubled the buy-in from $10 to $20 per person, which means twice the tickets and slightly better odds of one of us becoming completely unemployable.
To keep everyone informed, I've been posting the ever-changing odds in our Discord channel based on how many brothers are playing. It's educational. It's transparent. It's probably the most math some of us have done since college.
There has been one other policy change.
After weeks of organizing the pool, collecting money, driving to Harris Teeter, buying tickets, photographing them, and sending updates, one particularly ungrateful fraternity brother has been permanently promoted to... former participant.
Congratulations!
Your lottery odds with my pool are now exactly 0.000000%.
It's amazing how quickly the Fraternity Lottery Commissioner can become the Fraternity Lottery Dictator.
Long live the Commissioner.
Good luck to everyone else. If we win $856 million, drinks are on me.
Well... probably not. That's how people stay rich.
Join the fun on NielFlamm.com/blog.
Day 53: Is the Market Celebrating Improvement or Ignoring the Questions?
As I write this, NXDR is up.
The market is clearly reacting positively to Nextdoor's latest earnings report.
I understand why.
The company reported a smaller loss than in previous quarters, along with revenue growth and improved operating metrics.
As a shareholder, I'm glad to see progress.
But I also see it differently.
To me, it's a bit like a marathon where you've consistently finished last and this year you finish second-to-last.
That's an improvement.
It deserves acknowledgment.
But you still didn't win the race.
Nextdoor is still reporting a GAAP net loss.
The company has now been operating for approximately 15 years, and while CEO Nirav Tolia described this as the company's best quarter, I believe it's also fair for shareholders to ask what "best" should ultimately look like.
For me, financial performance is only part of the equation.
Today also marks Day 53 since I requested a study from Jacob Chavis.
Fifty-three days later:
No study.
No acknowledgment.
No explanation.
No response.
I've also noticed that the last Nextdoor Insights article appears to have been published on July 6, 2026.
As a shareholder, I naturally wonder:
Are new studies still being produced?
Has the research strategy changed?
Is the Insights program on pause?
I don't know.
That's exactly why I've continued asking.
This isn't about criticizing improvement.
It's about asking whether improving financial results should also be accompanied by improvements in communication, transparency, and accountability.
Potential alone doesn't create long-term shareholder value.
Execution does.
Communication does.
Culture does.
One quarter doesn't define a company, just as one stock move doesn't define its future.
I'll continue recognizing progress when I see it, and I'll continue asking questions when I believe they're warranted.
That's what engaged shareholders should do.
Join the discussion at NielFlamm.com/blog. Leave some feedback—I'd love to hear from you.
Is It Really a Recruiter... or a Sales Pitch?
Have you ever been contacted by a recruiter with an "exclusive opportunity" that wasn't posted anywhere?
I was.
What happened next raised more red flags with every message.
The conversation moved from LinkedIn to Microsoft Teams, questions went unanswered, and what appeared to be a recruiting opportunity took a very different turn.
If you're actively looking for your next role, you need to know what to watch for before you invest your time—or your money.
I break down the entire interaction, the warning signs, and what happened next in this video.
🎥 Watch here: https://nielflamm.com/videos/scams
More Than a Stereotype: What My High School Gave Me
I was watching another Facebook Reel very late at night—or very early in the morning, depending on your perspective and how much judgment you would like to apply—when this video appeared in my feed:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DvswRzH8W/
The Reel presents five Long Island high schools along with the stereotypes attached to them. The very first school out of the gate was mine, Westbury High School.
Well, that woke me up.
I graduated from there in 1990, ranked around seventh in a class of approximately 250 students. My parents wanted me to be number one. I was apparently comfortable leaving room for six other people to shine.
Still, I worked hard, did well, and remember the school as a great place where I learned a tremendous amount. My education extended far beyond textbooks, report cards, and trying to convince my parents that seventh place was actually quite respectable.
I excelled at two musical instruments. I took AP Biology and AP Math. I joined the Mathletes—yes, I was a nerd before being a nerd became marketable—and received a school award for physics. I also won recognition for a poem I submitted about the AIDS epidemic.
During my senior year, I participated in a student exchange program in France that I did not have to pay for. For a teenager, “France” and “free” are two excellent words to hear in the same sentence. After returning, I spoke with incoming exchange students about my experience.
I also played football during my junior and senior years. As a senior, I was the starting center on a team that won only two games. Let’s just say nobody was making a movie about our championship season.
We may not have had a winning record, but being part of that team taught me about responsibility, discipline, perseverance, and showing up for the people beside me—even when the scoreboard strongly suggested that everyone might have been happier somewhere else.
My high school gave me opportunities to explore science, mathematics, music, writing, athletics, international travel, and leadership. That is an impressive list for someone who supposedly was not motivated enough to finish first.
The school’s demographics were very different from what many outsiders might have expected. As best as I can remember, it was roughly 90% Black, about 7% Spanish-speaking or Latino, and perhaps 3% white. Then there were my brother and me. I know those numbers do not add up neatly—that is how small the Asian population was. Consider us the rounding error.
Yet I never saw that environment as something that limited my education. Quite the opposite: I learned a great deal about the world, my community, other people, and myself. Some of those lessons came from the classroom. Others came from hallways, football fields, music rooms, friendships, disagreements, and the everyday experience of being part of a diverse community.
I remember the teachers, coaches, and administrators as available, open, and welcoming. My parents were deeply involved in my education. They pushed me—probably a little too hard at times—but they paid attention, asked questions, and helped me make course corrections when I needed them.
When my SAT scores suffered, I was not allowed to continue playing football until we reached an agreement about how I would improve academically. This was not the type of contract negotiation young athletes dream about, but it worked. My parents understood something I did not fully appreciate at the time: football was a privilege, while my education was the priority.
Of course, I still made poor choices. I was an adolescent. Making questionable decisions is practically part of the job description. Somehow, I came through it reasonably well-adjusted—or at least well-adjusted enough to write reflective posts after watching Facebook Reels in the middle of the night.
More than three decades have passed since I graduated. Things change, and they do not always change for the better. I cannot pretend that my experience in 1990 automatically reflects what students experience there today. Apparently, neither the school nor I has remained frozen in time, although some mornings my knees suggest otherwise.
But a school should never be reduced to a stereotype in a social-media video. A school is its students, families, teachers, coaches, administrators, opportunities, struggles, and shared history. It is also the lessons its graduates carry with them long after they leave.
When a school is not serving its students as well as it should, students and parents have a responsibility to speak up, ask questions, demand accountability, and advocate for change. Educators and administrators must be willing to listen and respond. Strong schools are built through involvement, communication, and a shared commitment to doing better.
My high school was not perfect. Neither was I. But it gave me room to learn, compete, create, travel, stumble, recover, and grow.
No stereotype can capture all of that—especially one squeezed into a Reel between cooking videos, dance challenges, and whatever the algorithm thinks I need to see at two o’clock in the morning.
Day 52: Better Numbers. The Same Questions.
Nextdoor released its Q2 2026 financial results, and there are positive developments that deserve recognition.
Revenue increased to $75 million, up 15% year over year.
Platform Weekly Active Users grew to 22.9 million, a 5% increase.
The company also narrowed its GAAP net loss to $2 million, compared with $15 million a year ago, reported $10 million in Adjusted EBITDA, and maintained $378 million in cash.
As a shareholder, I'm glad to see progress.
Credit should be given where it's due.
However, one number still stands out:
Nextdoor is still losing money.
The loss is much smaller, but it's still a loss. Financial results reflect leadership decisions about where to invest, cut costs, monetize the platform, and allocate capital.
Today marks Day 52 since I requested a study from Jacob Chavis.
Fifty-two days later, I still haven't received:
An acknowledgment.
A timeline.
Another observation caught my attention.
The last Nextdoor Insights article appears to have been published on July 6, 2026.
I'm still waiting on a response from Jacob Chavis, and I haven't seen a new Insights article in about a month.
Those may be unrelated.
As a shareholder, I have a few questions.
Has Nextdoor shifted away from publishing Insights?
Are new studies still being produced?
I don't know.
That's why I've continued asking.
A simple response—even "the study isn't public"—would provide clarity. Silence leaves shareholders filling in the blanks.
I've written extensively about what I believe are three major challenges:
A communication culture that doesn't adequately engage with shareholders.
An unpaid moderation model that creates inconsistent user experiences.
Strategic decisions that deserve scrutiny, from monetization to capital allocation.
The earnings report shows improvement, and I hope that trend continues.
I genuinely want Nextdoor to succeed.
But I also believe leadership decisions influence profitability, corporate culture, and shareholder confidence.
I've said this repeatedly because I believe it:
Communication isn't measured when everything is going well. It's measured by how a company responds when someone asks a simple question.
I'll continue acknowledging progress while also raising concerns.
That's what I believe engaged shareholders should do.
Join the discussion at NielFlamm.com/blog. Leave some feedback—I'd love to hear from you.