mlac's comments

It's not about money for government jobs. It's about the mission and, for many, the previously perceived stability + pension. The good ones, the capable civil servants who made the commitment to the government, do not need to work there but do out of a sense of duty, the interesting work, and commitment to the country.

Offering 2x is like going to Thanksgiving dinner lovingly prepared by a relative and asking at the end how much they want paid. You know, to just square up. It couldn't have been more than $20 a head. The social contract has already been altered, and there will be a non-zero number of government employees looking to the private sector. The capable ones will likely leave on their own in the coming years.

2x is also likely less than the private sector is willing to pay. Try like 4x. It is this way for cyber jobs where we will see massive brain drain. The only way cyber compensation starts to get even is through contracting work, but even then it's less than private sector. Which shows the level of stupid this policy was.

People in these roles are not fungible. That is a big logical error. People who can pass a background check with a PhD in Nuclear engineering aren't being pumped out every few months. They can't go to a web developer boot camp. There is a multi-year lead time and scholarships designed to attract them to the public sector. Same for capable cybersecurity talent (my field).

This is also a warning shot to all those in the government that their jobs, no matter what they are covering, are not safe from the stupidity. And if the BS factor gets too high they will leave.

I used to sell things (books, video games…) occasionally on Amazon and I would use fulfillment by Amazon. Very good seller rating and only one complaint ever out of 30-40 sales (person failed to read the item description).

Within the past two years, any listing I put up immediately gets flagged and removed by other sellers. It’s a hostile environment for new or infrequent sellers, and existing sellers are using reporting as a barrier to entry.

I’m not sure I follow - if there is no budget to hire a junior dev, or hiring a junior dev would further lose the company money, why would a company do that?

A company can’t give promotions and hire new people if it isn’t a profitable thing to do.

Anecdata also Catholic. NFP and hormone therapy worked but it was a journey. Tried for 2+ years before realizing we had an issue and did NFP to conceive. Lots of other Catholic couples struggling with it go that route as it is a church-approved method.

Tried for 6 years (age 25-31). Finally considered adoption and then got pregnant and lost the first baby in a miscarriage. Had a healthy second baby at 32. Now have a third healthy baby at 34.

I think a lot of factors combine, but will state that we moved an average of once per year until age 30, so subconsciously we probably didn’t feel settled. It’s a very complex topic with too many variables to effectively model. And even when pregnancy occurs miscarriage rates are high.

I’ll note that young couples with kids are much more obvious in church (they make noise) and more likely to be at masses with other families. Young couples without kids often go to the later masses (in cities sometimes 9 PM).

This is an interesting question. If you’re accelerating and take your foot off the gas pedal, the car continues to accelerate until braking is applied. So if you accelerate very quickly to the speed limit, there would be a likely situation where you pass the desired speed unless you get on the brakes, which requires reaction time.

But yeah - I don’t necessarily agree with regulating it away for safety - people need to have personal responsibility. But regulations could make car companies optimize for other variables though (like distance and economy) which could be good.

“Sorry your payment has been declined. Airbags and seatbelts have been reverted to the default economy mode and 911 auto-call has been disabled.

Your engine will be shut off if you fail to update your payment information.“

You’re young. You could die early, but it’s statistically unlikely. There’s a balance.

With 20k (and if you’re really lucky no debt) and a job that most people on this site have, you are lucky and will be able to do some things others can’t.

I’ll give you one. I spent about $2,000 in 2014 to take my wife to Paris and London (part of the trip was covered by my work, so it was a little less expensive). At the time we had debt, we were young (mid 20’s) and could afford it but the more prudent thing to do would have been to throw that money at debt or invest it. The S&P 500 was roughly 1900 at that time. Today it’s 3900. So invested I would now have $4k in the bank. As someone in my mid-30s, no amount of money can bring me back to my 20s with my wife in her mid 20s, without the responsibility of kids, for a week in Paris and London.

And playing that further out - if that money even 20x’d by the time I’m 80, at that point I’d still give it up to have had the experience with my young wife.

Not sure if that makes sense - but recognizing these tradeoffs while you can and making the decision to take the action is a tricky thing to get right. You can always make more money but you can’t make more time, and you won’t get your youth back again. So have fun. But everything in moderation and recognize that you need to take care of your future self as well (e.g. don’t take two years off around Paris and London and lose your job, etc…)

While I think a US non-profit makes a lot of sense, I would exercise caution with the non-profit board.

The board’s job is to provide oversight and to appoint a director [1]. In this case it would clearly be Thibault, but what happens in a few years when Thibault is ready to go? Does he have say in his replacement? Does the French organization take precedent over the US nonprofit when it comes to leadership and governance?

I say this because Lichess is extremely valuable (even as a non-profit) and that will attract the wrong kind of people. Thibault should take every precaution to make sure he retains control of the org, with good people around him. I’m not sure if there is a non-profit equivalent of retaining voting rights, but I’d want to be sure he retains control until it’s well established as a non-profit and a succession plan is in place.

The wrong board could evaluate his performance (which right now he says he works at his leisure and loves what he does) and say “we need more fundraising and appearances in the US at tournaments” and he could balk / want to focus on the product. They could then look to appoint a US director of the nonprofit and things could get awkward and extremely costly.

It’s incredible what has been built and maintained with a small team. I think they will see extreme diminishing returns after they hit a certain level of governance. Whether that’s going international with a nonprofit status in the US or at another point is beyond my level of expertise.

If someone more knowledgeable that I am can correct what I’ve written above and point out that my concerns are overblown, I’d be happy. I’d also ask that person to volunteer and help Lichess establish a presence in the US.

[1] https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/tools-resources/board-ro...

Fun story for ordering food: https://www.mit.edu/afs.new/sipb/user/marthag/postscript/bur...

I got part way through Digital Vegan, but admittedly haven’t finished it yet.

It’s been a few weeks since I had to put it down for another book, but here is my main takeaway (so far) - it’s all true, but in my opinion it comes across with very strong views and some extreme options as something to hand non-technical friends. It’s also relatively expensive to obtain in the US.

But thank you for your contribution to the discussion on this topic. I think you’re probably closer to where we should end up, but I don’t see a path to get there.

If I was in your shoes, here’s what I’d do:

1) Set a timeline for her to take time off with the kids. Summer would be perfect, and she can start applying in the fall. She’s probably burnt out and needs the time off more than either of you know.

2) If you’re not already, develop a written plan to get completely out of debt except for your mortgage. This will lower your monthly fixed costs as much as possible and allow for flexibility.

3) She should be lightly looking and networking (but not stressing) for opportunities over the summer. Bump that information against the review of finances and you can determine whether or not she needs to (or wants to) go back to work or stay home with the kids. Recognize that only 1 income adds stress to your life, because if you lose your job then it gets real, really quickly.

4) Longer term, she can look at online training opportunities or local colleges if she wants to switch careers and feels a degree would help her transition.

This may lead to a reduction in lifestyle, but in a lot of cases (not necessarily yours) lifestyle inflation may have eaten up all of her salary anyway. Cut back on eating out, nicer cars, etc, and you will have more time with the family while the kids are young. The reality may be that she can’t take a break right now due to your financial situation. Then I’d spend the next couple of months figuring out what to cut, realizing that time with family is likely more rewarding than a slightly bigger house, BMW over a Subaru, and more toys.

TL;DR: Take a break. Get your finances in order. Figure out your next steps without pressure.

You might if the fireman is pointing the hose at the wrong house, or a larger fire has broken out and you need to figure out whether he should change what he’s doing.

You can use FSA money for custom ear plugs on Ultimate Ears. Then they take your mold of your ears and you can use that.

It used to be a model they would put in your ears, but now it’s an image scanning device.

I haven’t purchased the in ear monitors, but have the ear plugs.

Yes. My wife got the opportunity to go there for grad school and the year I spent on campus with her was one of the highlights of my life. It’s an amazing place, and it will give you as much as you put into it.

You go. Full stop. Do not pass it up. The connections you will meet will put your life on a totally different path.

If after one year you totally hate it, you can transfer to the other school. But going the other way may not be an option.

I read weird as “curious” “odd” or “interesting”. Not inherently bad or “weird” like a 3rd grader would say it.

I hadn’t seen that one before! Very cool plane. Even though it was designed long ago, physics doesn’t change…

I posted this comment on a less popular thread a few days ago:

I had the luck of seeing this plane on approach to IAH airport while driving in Houston.

For the first few minutes, it looked like a normal size plane, but felt too low and too slow. Then for the next few minutes, it kept getting bigger and bigger. Then I saw it had 6 engines. And a tail wing that seemed as large as a normal plane’s wingspan. I was lucky that it crossed right in front of me as I was near the airport (about 2.5 miles from the runway). It looked so low, so slow, and just massive. I went home and figured out what it was by googling it. That time it was transporting part of an oil rig. I tried to find it to go see again ever since, but I could never get a clear schedule and it didn’t line up with where I was in the world. I was telling my wife the other week that this was something I’d like to seek out. It’s something that anyone on this site, aviation enthusiast or not, would have appreciated seeing.

Or throw it on the backlog to track it…

I had the luck of seeing this plane on approach to IAH airport while driving in Houston.

For the first few minutes, it looked like a normal size plane, but felt too low and too slow. Then for the next few minutes, it kept getting bigger and bigger. Then I saw it had 6 engines. And a tail wing that seemed as large as a normal plane’s wingspan. I was lucky that it crossed right in front of me as I was near the airport (about 2.5 miles from the runway). It looked so low, so slow, and just massive. I went home and figured out what it was by googling it. That time it was transporting part of an oil rig.

I tried to find it to go see again ever since, but I could never get a clear schedule and it didn’t line up with where I was in the world. I was telling my wife the other week that this was something I’d like to seek out. It’s something that anyone on this site, aviation enthusiast or not, would have appreciated seeing.

This war is useless. The loss of life and destruction of homes and materials is a waste.

I wonder if the size of the warehouse has some effect. In that size space, things look smaller and less substantial so you buy more or subconsciously feel more need.

I know I bought a TV and thought it looked ok / a bit small but then when I got home it was huge. I had measured prior to going and was between two sizes.