TIL: you should use CCCP only if abbreviating using Cyrillic. In the Latin alphabet, you should use SSSR or, in English, USSR.
1,805 karma · joined January 12, 2012
I think it's basically what you wrote - these games weren't the "twitchy fingers" hand-eye-coordination fest of the average Atari title.
But even the average worker... I've seen people milking FAANG for years too. They would bring 300K-1M home and remove value from the company in return.
I think there is no way we are going back to the 100% office life for most workers, as we are not going back to horses and carriages.
I'm a hybrid worker departing my position to go full remote. It's not that I hate the office, but it's so wasteful for me. My worst work is done in the office, and my best at home. Coming to the office feels like an anachronism - collaboration is inefficient because of the noise, meeting rooms are crowded (and I waste 5+ minutes to resettle on a new room) and peers are annoying when they chitchat (including passerbys distracting me).
Junior team members, the ones that are supposedly most eager to come to the office, are working from home more than the allowed maximum.
The only exceptions I'm seeing wanting to come every day are brand new hires who need constant help, the odd office environment fans and people who have poor work environments at home (small children).
I think it would be misguided to completely discard the office, as they can serve well in some scenarios including occasional "bonding get togethers" . And for that we'll see highly flexible hybrid, or largely remote, becoming more and more common.
No comments about needing a lawyer to subscribe to a local gym, it's utter nonsense, perhaps even malicious.
This said, the visa issue could be a major hurdle and it's important to do your homework about this work visa that will be given to you.
Regarding the negativity about living in the USA... I immigrated to this country 20 years ago and I love it. I would never trade the US for Europe, despite Europe being an interesting place. It's not fun being poor in the US, like in most of the world, but I think overall it's an amazing country with lots of opportunities, great quality of life and wonderful people.
I respect those who enjoy this, but that's not me.
Middle managers are a totally different beast altogether and are supposed to be coordinating resources for strategic rather than tactical goals. It's a lot easier to coast in this position, however, as many competent frontline managers often have the same skill set.
Nonetheless, I'll try again to not leave you empty handed... What I'm saying is that "right" and "wrong" have little to do with the situation. I suggest you read Wikipedia on Realpolitik: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realpolitik
In the world sphere, there is no de facto government. The UN is an attempt to create some sort of world governance, but as we know it's quite imperfect and it doesn't have the stick (i.e., the equivalent of a police force) to enforce its resolutions. Thus, the world works in a fragile equilibrium of military and economic power, with multiple countries forging alliances and pacts to try to put in place some form of civility.
So, while Ukraine "can decide" what alliances to join, there is nobody to ensure that it "can decide". Ukraine was relying on the West/US/Nato to get some say in its future, but we are seeing how that's unfolding. Ukraine unfortunately has to "earn" this right by forging alliances or building a stick big enough to ensure that others respect it.
Ukraine doesn't have a stick (it gave it up after the fall of the Soviet Union) but Russia does. Thus, Russia gets away with enforcing its own view of the world.
Unless other countries use their own sticks to enforce their point of view about what should happen with Ukraine, Russia will simply get away with it. "Rights" have very little to do with will happen.
I cannot think of a time in human history when things didn't work like this.
"The treaty was created with an armed attack by the Soviet Union against Western Europe in mind, but the mutual self-defense clause was never invoked during the Cold War."
After WW2, it became clear that a new world order had emerged around what would be called "First World" (US-led countries members of NATO) and "Second World" (Soviet Union-led communist countries members of the Warsaw Pact). The "Third World" were non-aligned countries, often confused with "poor countries".
The roots of the current crisis trace back to these power structures. The fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of China could be seen as the beginning of new alignment, but so far, we haven't seen it fully taking shape (China is certainly working on it). Russia, while nowhere near its Soviet Union peak, remains a military superpower and the owner of vast natural resources.
Russia's current role in the world is unstable - there is a dissonance between its hard power and its actual influence in world matters. It doesn't accept being relegated to a weak geopolitical player, and the invasion of Ukraine is part of an attempt to assert its position in the world.
But do we even know if this person is a MIT tenured professor caliber? Maybe they are simply not as good as MIT expects. Maybe they are arrogant, unpleasant or hard to work with.
I have been on corporate promotion committees where I rejected, and have seen others rejecting, promotion cases. Everybody thinks they are amazing and deserve to be promoted. Trust me, that's not always the case.
Prometheus had some good pieces - I particularly enjoyed the travel to the alien world and its vistas. Arguably this is 90% special effects instead of talented directing, but worthy of my time nonetheless. The movie does fall apart when they start exploring, though...