olcor

- My connections list would make a potential recruiter (and maybe even the Linkedin Algorithm) be slightly more confident that I am who I say I am, i.e. I did work at the companies and studied at the schools I listed) because there would be people in that list who have shared that history with me. I make sure these are the only people in my connections list, apart from a few recruiters I wouldn't mind chatting with again.

- I can be discoverable professionally/personally by a google search. I don't have any other social media accounts.

I take some effort to maximize this value and minimize the other irritations and distractions. Example: I unfollow everyone I connect, so my feed is mostly empty. I don't connect with people I don't know or those who don't bother interacting in any other way except just sending a request.

Some people could go a few steps further and use uBlock origin's element picker to permanently block the UI elements constituting the feed and anything else they don't want to see. This way all you get is maybe a few emails a month maximum, and potentially good job opportunities. Everyone else just sees a quasi-official page about my professional experience.

> I’m gonna stop reading the news, it’s too much stress for me.

This I feel is actively dangerous. You _need_ to know what is going on out there. While I agree that most of the news counts as opinion (and is marked as such sometimes), you need to develop a skill which parses through the fluff and take just the facts into account. This might not be easy, but it is worth it.

> The wait is largely the result of an annual quota unchanged since 1990, and per-country limits enacted decades before the tech boom made India the top source of employment-based green card-seekers.

Senate didn't pass a bill approved by the house to abolish country caps: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/19/20873985/b...

While he did officially make a late entry in the race, started throwing a lot of money and research power quite early. It just so happened that the American public looks at more factors than just a lot of money.

I wish people didn't do this, not any more. Getting a full-time job (even on F1 STEM extension) had been increasingly difficult to get pre-coronavirus, even if you were pretty smart. I've had many employers reject even looking at my application because of potential visa issues, and big cos who can handle the visa process have a very hit-or-miss interview process. And this is just for software jobs; the going gets a lot tougher for people in non-software STEM fields.

Unless you can easily afford 2 years of tuition + living expenses and/or get full-ride scholarships, it is time to seriously reconsider going to the US to study. Almost all random events like the virus (and even known, regular events like political elections) are always going to make things even more difficult than they already are.

125: https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_int/nokia-125 150: https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_int/nokia-150

They have a huge range of "classic" phones anyway: https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_int/classic-phones

> the browser largely still does what it did twenty-five years ago

Maybe that's by design? The browser (at least major ones) can be easily extended the way the user wants; if they want something which helps them not get distracted, there's an extension for that (like the one which blocked the FB newsfeed). There are other extensions to remember URLs, and search is better than ever if you are opting to save your browser history.

Also, if you say you're fundamentally changing the browser, at least mention how? What are your core ideas of the redesign, apart from a few random and vague use cases? Without that, the site is just a pretty placeholder.

> The five of us learned a lot from working at a handful of startups, as well as Snap, Instagram, Facebook, Amazon, and the Obama White House

and

> Beyond our team, we’re lucky to be supported by our family and friends, as well as investors who played a role in some of our favorite software companies over the years (Airtable, DuckDuckGo, Github, Instagram, Slack, Stripe)

The experience you mention is _definitely_ not the same I would trust in building a new brower, except perhaps DDG. The last thing I want is people from FB/Amazon/Snap telling my how my browser should behave.

For the most part you can definitely find what you want with an older-gen iphone, or the new SE.

Unfortunately mobile systems have now consolidated to only iOS and Android, and many android phones don't get regular updates / get much slower within 1 year / aren't supported long and even not expected to have a long life by their manufacturers. OTOH lots of people hold on to their iphones for a really long time because they just work, and for many years. Notice how many people still hold the original SE or the 7.

The feeling of independence (or not feeling like “cattle“) is substantially reduced in big cities, where you are subjected to a lot of traffic rules, overcrowding of cars, jaywalkers, accidents, potholes, diversions, expensive parking space... I could go on.

Personally I don't even think there was anything new in the episode, most of it is common knowledge in India and the show is geared towards an American audience which might not know the full picture. I guess it's just Hotstar being ultra-safe, which IMO they don't need to be.

I’m not sure if the poll was portrayed to be serious.

Also, as someone who was in the US for quite some time, I found that (very much contrary to national stereotypes), Americans were quite knowledgeable about geography and global current affairs. This was evident from the multicultural societies where people knew about their friends, social meetups talking about a lot of different subjects across the world, etc. I refuse to believe that most people are bad at pointing out roughly where different countries are, unless they are countries which genuinely aren’t very well known.

Edit: Even FB is fine here.

Uber/Ola has slotted itself as more of a nice transport option than a necessity. That’s a good deal for me, all things considered. Hopefully it stays that way.

From what I've seen from the internet, almost every content creator making something of good quality without ad support has decent funding backing them up, either from donations or paying customers (ironically, uBlock Origin, one of the best open-source ad blockers out there doesn't even ask for money in any way). Everyone else is playing a game of affiliate links, ads or both, and most of the time quality dies because they end up selling what will bring them the most revenue from sources of income other than the reader / consumer. I'm using the blocker to protect myself from the latter. The former isn't harmed by ad-blockers.

It is rather weird that the post tries to defend the "small guy using ads to support herself". The user is not using the ads to act against the small guy, but rather against the big players who're vacuuming every bit of data they can get by handling the ads / website revenue and throwing pennies on the dollar to the content creator.

There was a time when this argument would've worked. But now, with the internet being a cesspool without an ad blocker, this doesn't arouse any sort commiseration on my end.

Consider the conversation here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21107264

200k CAD is roughly comparable to 3 million INR in PPP terms, and that salary is for senior folks. Most senior engineers at Google Bangalore/Hyderabad or well established software companies are likely to make more than that.

Both might be considered to be salaries for remote offices of American companies or internationally funded startups. But if I look at the market in general, I’d rather be a software engineer in India than in Canada. The market is too big and the possibilities are too varied to ignore, even considering all the known problems (Canada might also have some of its own, I’m sure).

Salaries for top talent in Bengaluru are better than almost everywhere on earth except the US. While that may or may not last, the immigration process is still very painful and there are many more opportunities here than before.

I feel I have that mentality of valuing the security the money gives me because I read books like Millionaire Next Door, Intelligent Investor, FIRE subreddits, etc and come from a family that has similar ideals.But I’m also aware that a lot of people are very different from that, and are known to end up playing differently with their money (status symbols, lifestyle upgrades, etc). Cultural aspects of many societies value the latter more than the former.

While I get your point, I don’t fully agree with this statement. The anti-intellectual strain is pretty common in India as well, it’s just a bit warped. There definitely is a fetish for getting into a good college and getting the right/prestigious credentials, but actual education (grounded, multi-disciplinary, non-rote-based) is many-a-time sneered upon, at least in my personal experience. I was lucky enough that my parents encouraged reading (they sometimes strained their finances so that my sister and I could get good books). A lot of my peers did not share or appreciate the necessity of reading “outside the syllabus”.

https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/272672/wntd...

Smokeless tobacco is more widely used than cigarettes, and quite a few states have banned gutka products already.

There still is a lobby, but I’d be hesitant to think that that’s all there is to the issue. Smoking is already on a decline, awareness regarding existing products is high. There is a high likelihood of risk avoidance in introducing newer products which might be misunderstood / improperly marketed by taking advantage of lack of knowledge. It is a bit heavy handed IMO, let’s see how the effects of the decision go.

Sorry to hear that. I didn't intend to add to your worries; this was all for purposes of a debate. I do hope things turns out well for you.

Why do you think that is? Even after all those full-pack warnings! Don't people know they're bad?! And to answer what we tried: Gutka (a form of tobacco) banned in most Indian states. Ban on advertising of alcohol and tobacco products. Full scale cancer pictures on cigarette boxes. Why not a blanket ban? Because, well, people want it, just as much as you're vigorously defending now... the ban on vaping is before the majority starts wanting that too. It sucks, but in the eyes of the government, it's something which is easier to defend.

> and let's not forget that this all began with "VAPING IS KILLIN PEOPLE!"

No, it began with people getting hooked to nicotine-delivery substances and not being able to stop.

> How so? We have no reason to believe that vaping is harmful long term. It's a risk, sure, but "car crash"? Based on what exactly?

Vaping might not be bad health-wise. Nicotine addiction is bad, at least on economic consequences (remember, this isn't a rich country, so for many people it's a choice between nicotine and other necessary goods), and might be multiple-packs-a-day bad, because you know, addiction. I'm not sure if I want to wait for multiple generations to get hooked up to addiction before the health results of multi-decades of careful research (sometimes sponsored by vaping companies) are out.

> Smoking rates are way down. Why do you think it's your responsibility or right to dictate whether or not I can smoke?

Yeah, and look what that took. Millions of people dying before a dent in the numbers (and let's not attribute that to vaping, at least in India, because it hasn't caught hold on that scale yet). A developing country can't see people die for that long for addiction risk declines. And yes, it is my right as a citizen to support something I know is curbing a bad thing before it gets hold in my country. You might be benefiting from vaping, but I don't see an issue in preventing large companies peddling more bad stuff to people, kids or otherwise.

Again, the last thing I would say is helpful is banning things, and I'm kind of starting to understand your points as well. But vigorous defense of nicotine isn't the right way to go IMO. We can trade arguments all we want, and honestly, I'm not fully antagonistic against anything here, but it is my belief that I'd like to make a smoke-free person's opinion heard alongside people who are struggling with quitting, or don't want to. I enjoy a smoke-free and addiction-free life, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it, but it took me a lot of fighting peer pressure + manipulative advertising to be in this position today. It shouldn't have been a fight at all, but there's no company which is going to profit from non-smoking/teetotalism/whatever, and governments aren't going to see revenues from it.

For the sake or argument, why? Don't they deserve some thought? Or are you completely insensitive to so many of the teenagers who've gotten addicted and can't go back to a nicotine-free life?

> It's not a good enough reason to infringe upon my rights and health

What's a guard rail for you is a potential car crash for the rest.

> It's inevitable. I'm not saying don't try to curb it, just don't punish me at the same time. Make it harder to get for anyone under 21. Institute reasonable regulations for juice manufacturers. I'm fine with that.

I'm sure that's what they said (and maybe did) about cigarettes. How's that going? "We like it and we're not going to stop" -- that's what an entire generation which didn't have full knowledge about the ill effects of smoking might be saying. That's what a million vapers from the next generation are going to say because they didn't have full knowledge of the harms, and people better hope it's just an addiction issue and not a health one. Kids will probably always do what's bad for them, but it's up to the adults to minimize damage. And yes, there's a gap. A Juul is going to reach middle India faster than the knowledge that it's addictive and should be handled with care.

> Banning it completely is far from "some backlash".

Yes, and I didn't say it was perfect; in fact I believe it might end up having an opposite effect. But the reasonable ways out haven't worked well. There's a very high probability that the government knows this too, and is going to end up trying all the steps you suggested. But at least the message is out.

> we like smoking, and we're not going to stop

I have a feeling that you don't mean that, but would you rather have a bunch of kids thinking they're doing a cool thing (apparently a lot of kids used to think that about Juul not too long ago in the States)? For them, cigarette's not going to be a substitute as it is for smokers currently. Cigarettes are already that icky thing old people do and cause lung cancer (basically their favorite movie star told them so for 2 years).

By all means, smokers can continue smoking, but they should expect some backlash towards your new favorite thing because it might be less harmful than smoking, but is still harmful for potential new users.

I'm not sure if this decision "kills" people. I know nicotine is addictive. I know giving up addictive stuff is hard. But if you think that having something which is less harmful for people already consuming more harmful stuff and more harmful for the rest who might be pulled into this, I'd believe that some action to reduce the damage being taken is not a unilaterally bad decision.

I try very hard to not get addicted to stuff, because I know it's damaging. But I'm not sure if it's a good idea to keep something we are pretty sure is bad (nicotine addiction) around just because it's an easy out for someone who's already doing harm for himself and people around him.

People fought to contain smoking, they lost. Clearly neither forced abstinence or knowing temperance is an awesome solution. But I'd rather ban something small which has the potential to get to the big bad real soon (e-cigarettes don't come with a doctor's approval as far as I know), because it's doable, than handhold people into something we know is not ideal, and can possibly be much worse.

I agree that it's not the best of implementations. Unsure how effective it will be though, but it's one of the easiest to cook up.

edit: I fully support downvotes if you think this comment is insensitive, but at least provide a bit of logic so I can understand what I might be missing?