pthomas551 | 5 years ago | on: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices
India is a regulatory nightmare. It's more likely to be Tokyo or Seoul. Maybe Sydney but from a geographic perspective Australia isn't exactly ideal.
pthomas551's comments
pthomas551 | 5 years ago | on: Work-from-home boom leads to more surveillance
Yep, an obsession with (the appearance of) "hard work" and "frugality" combined with hardcore nepotism is the Midwestern way.
pthomas551 | 5 years ago | on: Slack was down
SLAs and maybe even company politics. Incidents are politicized at a lot of companies. Even if the official rhetoric says "when it comes to incidents we don't blame people and there are no politics" the reality is often the complete opposite.
pthomas551 | 5 years ago | on: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever
Maybe this is true if you are stuck with roommates, but given how terrible most open offices are now the bar is pretty low for home to be better.
My home office in my small 2br city center apartment has a better monitor than the one at my open office workstation, I can listen to whatever music I want, no BS small talk, and I don't feel like there are eyes on me constantly. Plus, commuting sucks no matter where you live, most city dwellers don't live within walking distance of their offices.
I do like the opportunity to socialize w/ coworkers from time to time but 2-3 days/week in office is more than enough for me.
pthomas551 | 5 years ago | on: Lyft lays off 17% of workforce, furloughs hundreds more
Yeah, but in Google's earnings call yesterday they said that the situation is stabilizing.
pthomas551 | 5 years ago | on: Facebook Reports First Quarter 2020 Results
FB mainsite is on the decline...in the US.
Globally it's still going strong.
pthomas551 | 5 years ago | on: Lyft lays off 17% of workforce, furloughs hundreds more
Based on what we've heard from Google yesterday, and FB's Q1 results just now, it looks like the much heralded ad crunch is turning into not much more than a speed bump.
pthomas551 | 5 years ago | on: Lyft lays off 17% of workforce, furloughs hundreds more
You're making a sweeping assertion with zero evidence to back it up.
One obvious counterpoint to this argument is that this recession was not caused by markets realizing that many publicly listed tech companies actually had no market and no path to profitability.
Also, non-tech companies took on a large number of engineers in the late 90s to address Y2K - many of whom got laid off afterwards. Not an issue here.
pthomas551 | 6 years ago | on: The End of the Beginning
Was it really that hard to predict the Internet? SF authors picked up on it almost immediately.
pthomas551 | 6 years ago | on: Typography of Neon Genesis Evangelion
not sure Westerners are in a place to criticize given that we love to thoughtlessly appropriate Hindu/Buddhist imagery all over the place in our culture
personally I love this aspect of Evangelion because it makes me examine my own orientalist biases
pthomas551 | 6 years ago | on: U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory: Marijuana Use and the Developing Brain
Yeah, illegal cannabis growers are known for using incredibly toxic pesticides. Another reason to stick with licensed dispensaries.
pthomas551 | 6 years ago | on: Programmers: Before you turn 40, get a plan B (2009)
The thing is as startups mature and become enterprise level shops, they need people who know how to work with enterprise software. Guess who has all the experience with that? Yep, the people with 10+ years experience. My company is hiring very senior devs like crazy right now for exactly this reason.
pthomas551 | 6 years ago | on: The decline of the family has unleashed an epidemic of loneliness
Plenty of women in hijabs in rural Minnesota these days. Depends on the town but in a lot of places it's no problem at all.
pthomas551 | 6 years ago | on: The decline of the family has unleashed an epidemic of loneliness
It's a bit easier as an expat because there are lots of other expats also looking to meet people. Very freshman year of college type vibe in my experience. Your problem becomes less making friends, and instead ensuring you make the right friends. There are a lot of dodgy characters in expat communities.
pthomas551 | 7 years ago | on: The 'Dark Ages' Weren't as Dark as We Thought
Yeah, written English corresponds to spoken English more than in a lot of other languages, where the vocabulary and grammar can vary considerably between the written and spoken word.
pthomas551 | 7 years ago | on: The 'Dark Ages' Weren't as Dark as We Thought
Yep, it's extremely mistaken (but very American) to assume that American preferences on writing style prevail in all other languages and regions. To take one example, in written German the passive voice is often considered better style, whereas in contemporary English it's the exact opposite.
pthomas551 | 7 years ago | on: Ask HN: Those who moved careers from the West to China, what's your experience?
IMO, unless you really need to live in China for whatever reason, you should focus on starting a career in the States and getting an expat assignment in China. You will have a much more comfortable lifestyle and have something at home to go back to if things don't pan out.
pthomas551 | 7 years ago | on: Life on the wrong side of China’s social credit system
Yeah I'm no CCP supporter but sick of the bad takes on this. China has no national credit reporting system and it's very difficult to enforce civil court judgments across city/provincial lines. "Social credit" systems are mainly intended to help with this problem. The person in the article is in trouble for not paying his debts, not political activity or having the wrong friends.
I'm sure the CCP would love to use social credit as another tool of repression, but for now they're having enough trouble getting a normal credit reporting system going.
pthomas551 | 7 years ago | on: Stepping into the Uncanny, Unsettling World of Shen Yun
More like the Taiping Rebellion...
pthomas551 | 7 years ago | on: Stepping into the Uncanny, Unsettling World of Shen Yun
Shen Yun is run by Falun Gong, which is a Scientology-like cult. Their followers may be heavily oppressed in China, which is wrong, but it's still a cult. We're not talking about traditional performers who fled during the Cultural Revolution or something.
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