olcor

I'm a life-long straight-edger who knows next to nothing about e-cigarettes except that it looks like they're much better nicotine-delivery systems which don't have the extra harmful stuff cigarettes have wrapped up, so please take all I say with multiple grains of salt.

IMO is a good decision. And I say this with full cynicism; I really don't care either way. I don't have many people in my circle who're smokers or vapers, and I've never done either, so I can't really relate.

I feel this is a good decision because:

- Cigarette and beedi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beedi) companies have been entrenched in this society for long, so they can battle things out for the existing products. Most people have started to wisen up to these though, so the effects on mass population are reducing day by day (education and those large images of cancer help). In e-cigarettes' case, getting something out before it becomes entrenched, is IMO, a good thing, however unpopular. It took so damn long for people to realize tobacco is dangerous. Better this info gets out quicker now, especially in a country like India where accurate and well-rounded information is hard to get.

- E-cigarettes still contain addictive nicotine. While the current war against normal cigs/bidis might be about the smoke and other stuff, the central hook is still an addictive substance. E-cigs have the potential to dial up delivery of this addictive stuff up to 10. This isn't good for most people.

- Say whatever you want about e-cigarettes. It's known that it's seen as a cool thing among kids, and the packaging is damn near perfect. a country could do better to avoid getting its future generations getting hooked up with a snazzy-looking thumb drive before realizing too late that their parents' money is now captive to fruit-flavored pods. I've noticed juul usage amongst teens in the US, and some seem hooked beyond repair (just like smokers are today).

I don't really care however this goes, I'm not going to be the one who'll be vaping or smoking or whatever so I don't have much of a stake in this (I don't even like the current politics either). But to me, getting something out of the picture before it becomes a huge issue might be a good idea (unless, like in Harry Potter parlance, where the best thing Umbridge did to make sure The Quibbler was read was banning it...)

I find it interesting that you try to answer for the millions who are "living in the slums".

There is enthusiasm for space in general (many are glued to their TVs or radios because the landing is going to start soon; one could say it's a point of national pride). I can say that because I live here, see the poverty in front of my eyes every day and talk to some of the people facing it. Sure, quite a few have opinions similar to yours, but they are across the economic spectrum, not just amongst the poor.

This is an argument which pops out frequently when there's a scientific success coming out of a developing country, and especially when India tries to do high-end science. The development in India has been insane, and many have moved out of poverty in a relatively short span of time, mainly because of multiple efforts by the people, the government and with the help of other countries, and this is going to continue happening. Meanwhile, space exploration will continue, whether some people like it or not.

There are many attempts ongoing to solve immediate problems. Doesn't mean that we can't aim for space or push through with science which isn't immediately focused on solving issues on the ground. ISRO is only one of the government's many agencies. It's doing good work and getting scientific publicity, but so are many other programs.

If America can focus on space as well as the opioid crisis and mass shooting issues, why can't India do something similar?

The “coding seen as too low” mentality is slowly changing. Most of the very well paid employees and even many of the founders of newly found companies are known to be good programmers. People who look down on code are (rightly) missing out

I moved back home to India a couple months ago. Apart from the occasional mosquito bite and some customer service issues, there’s little difference.

No more nonsensical visa stuff to worry about; I live my current life and plan my future in peace.

Based on PPP calculations and the current USD-INR exchange rate, a third of the salary is roughly equal in terms of purchasing power, and half could be a substantial pay hike.

Source: http://salaryconverter.nigelb.me which uses world bank numbers.

The writing on the wall has been there for quite some time. I’ve been hearing lots of issues with foreign students facing issues, not just for OPT, but also difficulties getting or continuing assistantships, finding campus jobs, facing direct/indirect threats of losing their visa, etc. This is to be expected; international students are in a vulnerable position, and can be easily taken advantage of by both university officials and by industry (assuming they somehow get a job).

I’d advise any foreign aspirant to avoid the USA for further studies unless they can easily afford tuition. No need to fill university coffers with out-of-state tuition for such degrading treatment.

I’ve found numbeo to be practically useless for most cities I’ve been to and stayed. MITs calculator is much more accurate, especially if you are someone who doesn’t earn a high wage.

Most people aren’t going to stay in Greenwich village/SOHO/UES if they are in NY, or similar elsewhere. Prices reflected in the MIT calculator seem to take all areas of living into account, that too by county.

Edit: Numbers on numbeo seem to have improved a lot since the last time I saw them. Taking back my previous opinion, but I find both to be useful resources.

I’m going back home this month. There is literally no point living here, given the ridiculous wait times for having a stable life. Even after the “battle” is done, life here, tbh, isn’t all that awesome outside of work. I can always be a visitor.

Exactly; quality of life isn't income (if that was the case, I wouldn't be bothering to move). It's all you say; it's also food you're used to, the people around you, family ties, the freedom to have multiple income streams without your visa blocking you, and also the lack of worry that you'll be thrown out of the country.

There is a tradeoff I am making, and weirdly India is better off in it. I will miss the good air and the incredible work environment in the States, but apart from that, Mumbai can offer everything else (not many power outages from what I know, I grew up there), and quite frankly, I like the bustle.

Ha! I had a similar experience in the valley (mountain view) during an interview. Took me 15 minutes more, and I got late for my first round.

Driving in NYC is out of the question any time of day.

> where expats can return to without incurring a major loss in QOL or effective wages.

I’m moving back to India soon (NYC -> Mumbai). My quality of life will likely increase; wages will not even be close (savings rate might be the same though). Which cities are on your mind for this?

Jiro Dreams of Sushi -- the price of commitment

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room -- the necessity of using your head and keeping your eyes and ears open in the face of corporate carrot-and-stick

Secret History of the Credit Card -- the workings behind all the credit card bonuses and other tricks banks play

Agreed; I'm not talking about people who don't have a safety net. I'm talking about folk wisdom discouraging people who already have a rather substantial one where they definitely do not need to work. The idea is that sloth is addictive, and often sends the wrong message to the children.

Living off interest and investments seems to be a recent phenomenon (FIRE). My grandmother ensured that all her well-off children never sat on their laurels and depended solely on passive income even though it could be considerable.

The goal was to keep the mind fresh and running, and to be a productive member of society even if you didn’t exactly need to work. If you had more, you could give back more, but stopping work was always heavily discouraged.

This is a fantastic idea! Keep going.

Small nit: If I don't specify a hobby image, I still get a "hobby image" link on my resume. Is it possible to just list hobbies if the user doesn't want to provide images?

The article seems to have been taken from the main Bloomberg site: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-24/spain-top...

The "click here" link is for terminal subscribers only so I guess Quint might not have been able to resolve it properly.

Brutalist architecture, by itself is fine (example all of the UCSD campus). But when architects decide to put a brutalist building right in the middle of a city where the rest of the architecture is not Brutalist is when it rankles (example Boston City Hall).

Oh definitely you do get much more for the same amount in Seattle today, but it was ~1200 three years ago. Meanwhile rents in NY have pretty much stayed the same (except for minor increases) for me and my peers.

I hear that prices have flatlined /fallen recently; let’s hope it stays that way.

Apart from the state/city taxes, there’s little difference in NYC and Seattle any more. My rent has barely moved in the last three years; my friends in Seattle are complaining about ridiculous rent increases. I visited a year ago and did not see a massive difference in prices for every day goods and services. Unsure about housing market though.

That doesn’t mean that people in NYC don’t talk to each other as much.

Sure it might be easier to hop in the car and talk to developers in the valley. But I don’t just want to talk to developers (and even if I do, not necessarily developers of a tech company). Technology is primarily an enabler for the rest of the world, not just something significant in and of itself.

I can still talk to developers in NYC. But developers are not the only ingredient of a project, company or ecosystem. I can also talk to the best domain experts in finance (different types, not just VC), media, law, health, government, advertising, academia, architecture, etc. all at one place with more ease than in SF. This gives me, a developer, more perspective than I can glean elsewhere.

I agree with the GP that you’ll find a lot of pure tech in the valley. But the applications of that tech all have significant presence in New York in comparison to the valley.

+1. Sociology is an extremely important area to learn, not just in tech. How people work, play and live within different types of social constructs (and how these constructs are built and maintained in the first place) is valuable info to anyone who wants to get things done properly.

I’m not arguing against criticizing ideologies. I have no intention of republishing what the flagged parent said; I merely pointed out that the criticism needs to be valid, properly sourced and have understanding of nuances. This includes criticism of white supremacists and nazis.

> Islam and Christianity are just two sides of the same coin

As an agnostic Indian (Hindu family), I’d prefer if you don’t color entire religions and people with a broad brush. As for Christian missionaries abusing laws and forcibly converting people, please cite sources.

Religious and tribal dogma isn’t confined only to certain religions; feel free to believe what you want but try and exercise restraint against unequivocal labeling of others.

> Many of the employees calling former colleagues also ask for advice on the best way to leave Facebook, according to multiple former employees. This is because the company categorizes departing employees under one of two tags: "regrettable" or "non-regrettable" attrition. Being labeled as "non-regrettable" is the equivalent of getting blacklisted by Facebook and prevented from ever working there again. For anyone in Silicon Valley who wishes to work at a top company, getting a banned by Facebook cuts down job opportunities drastically.

Not working at Facebook again is fine, but why should another company know whether the employee left in a “regrettable” manner, unless the person did something really bad or illegal? This seems like an egregious failure of privacy and an unfair branding of people.

Thorstein Veblen's "The Theory of the Leisure Class" (1899). The book was difficult to read for me since the language is very archaic, but it pretty much explained a lot about how class and community is structured.

As an introvert and a social recluse, this book is a goldmine; it eased a lot of confusions in my head about how society and class structures work, and taught me to better avoid the pitfalls of consumerism and peer pressure.