np-

I mean if we are going with “knowing people” as an anecdote, I know a LOT of extremely rich, successful, and motivated people (especially in SF and NYC) who smoke cannabis basically nonstop.

I'm replying to the post saying this is an "industry standard" thing--I'm not saying that there is no disaster scenario ever. Obviously not every contingency can be planned.

However, there are certainly signals that a company respects a developers' time. Things like...was there effort put in the product around things that might minimize developer on-call time, like having more user self-serve options, or spending more time on testing, or having a proper feedback loop for recurring issues to be permanently squashes in a timely fashion, etc etc. Are managers regularly a part of these off-hour on-call issues so they're affected too, thus motivated to resolve it? Or does the company just abusively unload all of the burden on the developer and force them to use up their own personal time to maintain a product? Far too often it's the latter, and I think it should be clear to all that this is abusive practice and not "normal" or "standard" nor should any of us consider it that way.

I think most experienced engineers realize on-call is a complete fool's game -- you will never get accolades for fixing shit at 2am. Literally never. Your only "reward" will be to become the escalation point to continue getting called at 2am. It's not only mentally demanding work, but also bottom-feeding work that gets no recognition. No one is doing their best work after being woken up in the middle of the night, it's all band-aid hacky fix shit that is being generated. Also in general the type of personality who would tolerate working 2+ hours beyond their working time is probably the type of person that isn't even going to use up all of their PTO to begin with, so I always find those kinds of rewards laughable.

I don’t know if it’s that straightforward of a comparison—while it may be true that taxis are bad for traffic, you have to take into account what the use of them is: transporting people around. If you consider the alternative where taxis don’t exist, at least some percentage of taxi passengers would probably just bring their own personal cars into the city, thus making traffic much worse.

Thus, though it’s true that the impact of taxis on traffic is significant, the alternative is much worse. People still need to get around.

I am pretty sure this just means that messaging companies will need to provide a publicly accessible API. There won’t be any mandate to actually implement this interoperability beyond that, but of course someone could write an open source client that uses all these newly exposed APIs to make a unified chat app with Tinder, Slack, and WhatsApp all in one place. But the tech companies themselves aren’t being forced to work with each other, the ask from the tech company side is actually relatively small.

I am just a random somebody around your age in previously mediocre but now significantly improved shape since starting kickboxing. One of the most important things I learned is that all that most age related “injuries” and “soreness” etc is counterintuitively almost always caused by _lack_ of exercise rather than being too active. In fact it’s probably impossible to be so active as to outweigh the benefits you’d get, it’s basically entirely a positive feedback loop once you get started. (Note I am not talking about people who have suffered serious physical trauma and need to recover, that is something else entirely—-just more like an average couch potato).

> How can I practice detachment (buddhism inspired letting go) while simultaneously accomplishing goals?

I think this is somewhat addressed in Hinduism -- the thing you need to realize is that there is your Self, and there is your Role, and those are two entirely separate things. Your Role might be "spouse" or "child" or "software engineer" or "soldier in an army." (not trying to assign any particular morality to a role). Your true Self is entirely independent of that. It is incumbent on you to perform your role to the standards expected, but it's also just a subsystem that exists within your greater Self, it is _not_ equivalent to your self. To find a role, you need to think about unmet needs in the universe. The role you perform is not about you and your self, but it is about something much greater.

Buuuut that doesn't necessarily address motivation - what if we're fine just wanting nothing and sitting around all day just wanting that nothing. The way that is typically addressed in Eastern religion is to actually make that into a virtue - sure, if you want to sit around and self-actualize all day then go ahead and do it, you will be one of the greatest saints ever to live. But that's the catch--it's _way_ harder than it sounds. Generally most of us will get bored at some point, and that boredom will drive us to look at the fuller picture of the universe.

Yeah, sort of, but I feel like this is because most people don't really understand it's not exactly the same thing as sitting around surfing the web. Obviously this isn't a physically challenging job, but it is a mentally challenging job (and the brain is a physical organ too, remember simple physics conservation principles--none of your thoughts come for free, they all cost energy, and complex thoughts take massive energy!). That drains you in an entirely different way.

I would almost argue that having a physically tough day makes me feel sore and tired, but _accomplished_ at the end of the day. Having a mentally tough day doesn't confer any sort of sense of accomplishment, it's just a draining feeling.

Also consider the "happy" ending to Office Space--the protagonist ended up much more satisfied doing a physical construction job in the end.

It doesn't seem particularly nonsensical to contend a concrete wall has some form of consciousness. Concrete walls don't spring up out of nowhere, they're built by humans who have a need to separate things (either for good or for bad). A single concrete wall might not seem like much, but in the greater scope of things, the rising and falling of all concrete walls seems to represent some sort of plane of humanity and its consciousness. Even think of the extremely complicated emotions evoked by different types of walls: i.e. the Berlin Wall, the U.S.-Mexico Wall, the Great Wall, etc. I know I'm probably reading way too much into this specific example, but I think this could generally apply to a lot of things.

I’m not the original poster, but there is definitely increasing evidence in modern health research that gut bacteria is directly linked to mental health: https://www.science.org/content/article/meet-psychobiome-gut...

They don’t need to listen to audio, which is very cumbersome and error prone, if they have your location. If your location is available, so are all of your friends’ locations. The apps can easily see who’s in the same place at the same time and generate a “friend” network. Presumably you talk to your friends about your thoughts, and they talk to their friends. All it takes is a few people to start googling something new (or looking up products in Amazon, or searching for the same tags on Instagram, etc etc) in this network for the algorithm to realize this might be something you’re ALL talking to each about, and thus advertise straight to you, giving the perfect illusion that whatever you’re talking about is advertised back to you.

To be pedantic, Apple does allow Progressive Web Apps which can bypass the App Store. (The Xbox cloud gaming app is a big one that goes down this path)

Note that I don’t support at all this decision to cooperate with an autocrat.

I don't think this is a US vs Europe thing. There are a LOT of Europeans who go to the same exact beach in southern Europe every single year. Take any RyanAir flight from the UK to Spain, and you will see that the average passenger is not exactly the educated elite who have put a lot of thought into their trip.

If you are trading on an SEC regulated exchange: https://www.sec.gov/fast-answers/divisionsmarketregmrexchang..., then yes the SEC can see everything.

Even if that's true, that's still well beyond a reasonable bound of sanity. Agreed that 8 years seems a bit light though, considering the notoriety of the crime.

Regardless of the thief, it does seem a little concerning that the chain of custody for actual human heads involves being left unattended in a random employee's car.

People shouldn't always just blindly accept what is told to them as truth either - they need to have the ability to determine if something is true or not on their own, and experiencing/verifying things yourself is a powerful way to do that. So overall it's a balancing act. There's also a lot of information that's lost when you merely just tell someone something. There's just no way to know exactly how bad it feels to touch a stove unless you have been through the experience yourself, there's no way for a human to convey that level of feeling to another human verbally, and as such it's inevitable that humanity's curse is that we have to relive things over and over again.

1) A big thing is trust - people trust Apple to keep their data secure much more than they trust Amazon, especially when you contrast both company's main business model.

2) Apple's "Find My" was pitched first and foremost as a feature and benefit for the user. And the value proposition was very clear and useful from day 1. You can find your lost phone even in a place there is no signal. Now with Airtags you can find any device. It's easy to imagine a horror story where you lose your $1000 phone in a basement bar or drop it in a parking garage somewhere. Apple in general has better PR.

3) No one's losing their Alexa device. I mean for 99.99% of users it's never moving once it's placed. So what's the point of this feature? It's just pure revenue gain for Amazon with like zero benefit to the average user. They want to use our wifi purely for their benefit? Come on. I know there is Tile functionality, but it's still creepy - you're using my _home_ as a tracking beacon? At least when it's my phone, I'm on the move and could be anywhere.

Just to expand a bit on the last point - the way Apple's "Find my" works is that the only information shared is that there was an iPhone at some location and crossed paths with a lost item at that location. The way Amazon's Tile will work is that a lost item is crossing paths with an "anonymous beacon" which happens to reside in a very specific location.

In Apple's implementation, there is almost no way to personally identify whose iPhone made the detection. In Amazon's case, it's trivial to identify it - it's the beacon that's at the same place all the time, which happens to be your house.

My theory is that they’re super successful in one area, so it probably doesn’t matter at all what the rest of the company is doing. Just one major successful project can float thousands of failed teams, due to the vast sums of money involved. I’m also positive the “golden goose” teams aren’t subject to the same kind of scrutiny and have more autonomy so they’re not subject to these kinds of policies

I'm surprised this is the top comment, what's the deal with Europeans tending to talk like they're the authoritative source on American culture based on a few people they've met and a few websites they've read? This seems like an absurd reductionist view of both European and American cultures. It honestly seems like the type of anecdotal content I would expect from a Reddit thread.

Fair trade for the German word for mobile phone: “handy”, which certainly has more than one meaning in English ;)

There’s a pretty common four word slogan called “Loud pipes save lives” - if you look out for it you’ll start to see it everywhere, bumper stickers, tshirts, etc. Its somewhat controversial and not widely accepted by all motorcycle riders.

It’s not a Europe vs US thing. For example in Germany it’s still somewhat common for an apartment rental to come with no kitchen and barely any fixtures and you have to supply your own. That would be considered a step too far in the US.

I do appreciate the looking out. Fortunately I have already left my own personal toxic situation, and went somewhere that respects my boundaries much better - and life is indeed much better. I'm not particularly resentful of it either, I learned a valuable lesson (and sometimes you need to touch the hot stove to realize that it'll burn you).

What my prior experiences with this have done is hardened my resolve that my own personal time is indeed 100% my own time. How I choose to spend it is none of the companies' business. Though it does seem like I'm still somewhat triggered by the word "passion" - it just seems like a nice way to beat around the bush for exploitation, especially when coming from those who stand to gain the most from your passion. My attitude now is a bit more cynical in that "what's in it for me" is front and center, and if I'm not satisfied with the answer I will move on.

The problem isn't that we don't care at all. A lot of us were drawn to software engineering for some reason or other, maybe we can call it "passion." But I resent that my "passion" is only being exploited to make other people more money. If I do something over the weekend, it's not because of any sort of financial motivation. But when it's framed in the employment perspective, obviously, people would prefer to hire those who are going to do more work for less money, and those who spend time studying in their off hours. Why wouldn't they? Now your passion has been taken over and corrupted as a means for somebody else's profit (and chances are you aren't even going to get a cut of the spoils). If you're not spending your weekend learning the latest framework, who even are you? Of course people are going to become cynical when this kind of perversion happens - it's usually only those straight out of college who haven't realized they're being taken advantage of yet.

It's actually sad because once you've been around the block a few times with these kinds of managers, your passion starts to feel like a dimming light bulb until it's totally put out. And at that point you're only in it for the paycheck while you're mentally checked out. Just look at the videogame industry and its famous burnout stories to see what happens when you hire a bunch of passionate programmers.

Eh, in general it's a common fallacy that just because somebody is especially good at one thing, they're good at everything. This is a hard pill for many to swallow, especially if they excel in their field. You'd take basketball advice from LeBron James, but probably should be skeptical about anything else he says. Best to learn that lesson sooner rather than later.

You can buy your coworker a pizza with your credit card today. At most the fee would be 3%. From start to end the whole process would take no more than 5 mins. Plus, pretty much every decent pizzeria on the planet already accepts it as payment.

The BTC transfer fee is something like $20 now, more than the cost of a pizza, and the transaction might take like an hour to clear? Maybe it's fine if you don't mind overpaying, aren't too hungry, or you enjoy cold pizza.

What I mean is that if we’ve (meaning the privileged Americans) already got it pretty good, then why should we leave? If the reason is that life would be better elsewhere, then that’s a valid reason to go. If the reason is that we feel our fellow citizens are treated unfairly, then shouldn’t we stay and try to fix it (as voting Americans with potential influence). I’m not saying to take responsibility for the world’s poor, I’m saying that if you’re already in a privileged spot, it’s the ultimate privilege to just up and leave.

You’re right, and again I’m not saying America is perfect. This was specifically in the context of being a developer, of which very little of the parent comment is true. Risk/reward and all that, yes, that’s likely a cultural or personal issue where we might weigh the pros and cons differently, which is fine. I’m not saying my way is the only way.

But I do also feel on a personal level that for an American born in America, running off to Europe in search of a more perfect society is basically no different just running off to a gated community somewhere in a rich state where I don’t have to see the poor people anymore. They’re still there though, just out of sight. Since I do see problems and do have the resources to help, I’m obligated to do what I can. But again that’s a personal decision, and I would never truly knock on someone who was genuinely trying to improve their lot in life.

I get what you're saying, and I'm not denying this all exists in Europe. And I don't mean that America is perfect, it's actually in a shameful state for many people. But what I mean is that the "brutal reality" of the US doesn't exist for many software devs. I don't mean this as a humblebrag, but my wife and I are both software engineers in the NYC area, both in non-FAANG companies.

* My wife was laid off in 2019, pre-COVID. She got almost 9 months worth of full US salary paid. Likely equivalent to 2-3 years salary in Europe. She found a new job within 3 months and pocketed the rest. Obviously, stronger employment protection is nice, but the generous cash payout is a nice consolation prize.

* Health insurance for both of us is excellent. The cost compared to salary is negligible (fortunately, the worst we've had to deal with is serious dental surgery, which was handled very professionally and cost effectively).

* Unlimited vacation for both of us. We have spent the past month in Florida.

* We live in NYC, public transit is excellent for US standards (though it's garbage compared to Asia). We do have a car entirely voluntarily, it's not necessary. My wife doesn't drive at all.

* Parental leave ~6 months for each of us.

Like I said, we're at non-FAANG no name companies that you've probably never heard of. FAANG would be much more generous. On top of all this, we're paid extremely generously, likely 2-3x what you would expect in Berlin/Amsterdam plus generous equity compensation. If you're responsible with saving your money, there's basically no place better to be a software engineer on the planet.