thoughtexplorer

> It's a contemporary euphemism for "trickle down"

Really? Trickle down proponents have co-opted the rising tide aphorism? Ugh.

A rising tide lifts all boats.

> "A chatbot called DoNotPay has saved motorists millions in parking fines."

Why does this so often get framed as though it is a good thing? Parking fines help regulate limited parking spaces. They're necessary and exist for a reason.

This sort of hand wringing seems like a distraction from the likelihood that Amazon has moved up the date* in which these jobs will be eliminated. Whether employees are netting out the same or not is going to be moot. If it's similar though then that really doesn't seem like a good deal longer term.

*Robots will be able to do the jobs for $15 hour sooner than they'll be able to for $7 an hour. The math will accelerate the move to automation.

> Who on Earth approved this trailer?

Ha, if you're surprised about that, check out what they approved here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8J5BWL8oJY

The United States, Canada and others are too sprawling and sparse for that. Cars are going to be a fact of life for a very long time yet.

As far as helping to solve climate change, cars are part of it, but I wish people paid much more attention to the larger contributor: Agriculture.

I often get the feeling that people think changing cars to electric will solve the problem. It's important and helps, but it's just one piece of the pie. Not the biggest piece of it either.

Yes. There is a bonus to being a woman in this situation, all other things being equal.

Silicon Valley did a good bit on this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dek5HtNdIHY

It's funny because it's true.

It sucks what happened with them. TED/TEDx talks were awesome and I used to be able to recommended people watch any and all of them.

Until I started seeing stuff like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8J5BWL8oJY

Sadly that extends to everything. Story and emotion trump facts.

Anyone who has worked at tech companies and has been involved in the hiring process knows the following:

The best thing to be right now is a woman engineer. You can easily get hired within the week.

Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be well known outside of those involved in hiring.

That probably does play a part but it's a different level than what we're talking about. Its more narrowly about whether people's current interests are being allowed.

Because that's an inconvenient truth that doesn't fit the oppressor vs oppressed narrative.

> if people would just let them.

People do let them. You can't force what people are interested in and you can't let in that which does not exist. In fact many places in tech give preference to women applicants, because they don't apply often and the companies want more women. They're just rare to see. :(

There's no grand conspiracy. The truth is much less exciting: Women and men have different preferences, generally speaking.

Women are more interested in people (i.e. healthcare). Men are more interested in things (i.e. engineering).

Most nurses are women. That's not because women are activity trying to keep men out. It's because fewer men are interested or apply!

We also don’t see women in the most dangerous jobs. No one seems to have a problem with that, just as no one has a problem with most healthcare jobs being dominated by women. As they shouldn't, because people should be allowed to pursue and apply to what they want to.

Being persistent while 3 feet tall will never get you into the NBA. So you find something else to be persistent with.

Conversely, being 7 feet tall isn't enough on its own. You still need persistence to get into the NBA.

Those born with the right skull shape still need persistence and discipline with diet and exercise to make it as a model.

Persistence is still critical to rise above the crowd with most things.

I think it is largely about the environment in which people live and kids are raised. Losing energy as we age has always been true. The lizard brain hasn't changed.

The environment has changed significantly.

The availability of food, especially cheap sugar and processed foods.

Tech to occupy our time and not letting kids play outside.

Kids that grow up eating McDonalds every meal and Soda with every meal. That is normal to them and very difficult to ever break from that if that's been your entire life and if the people around you are functioning that way.

They edited the post after my response.

What I responded to was different.

So I see how it appears that way.

Serious question: What would you do if you didn't have to work?

This is meant as constructive feedback: You're not thinking clearly if you believe that. Take some time to consider how many people get pulled over every day. Think critically about the odds.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that what you see on the news or social media is normal.

Sadly you're probably right. It woudln't surprise me if it's even further reduced to "So-and-so is anti-women".

It's interesting to think about what it'd be like if we could read the tweets or Reddit posts of historical figures from the past.

And how that would change people's impression of them, especially considering how social norms have changed.

Here's a good example. This tweet from a respected Dr. is really unfortunate.

"But it’s called the Presidential Alert because Trump has a huge ego. And he loves his intruding into our lives without consent."

https://twitter.com/eugenegu/status/1047562343503122432

He states it as though it's fact. Now many of his 200,000+ followers also think that, if they didn't already.

I might've also believed that if I didn't do the work to look it up.