I remember when a major leader at Google told everybody once the vaccine was widely available we'd all go back to work and things would be normal.
I laughed and told them that they should stick to CS, and that biology and medicine don't work like computers. They didn't like it (and have since moved to New Zealand).
Ok, but please post substantive comments rather than supercilious putdowns. If you know more than others, that's great, but on HN the thing to do with that is to share some of what you know, so the rest of us can learn. Putdowns don't do that—the only thing they really say is how much better you are than someone else, and that is not really information.
it wasn't a put down. I've had to spend much of my life educating computer scientists about biology. my statement was an anecdote consistent with the reality that the leadership at Google is clueless when it comes to the virus and has repeatedly had to confront reality after making unrealistic claims.
If you post a comment that just says somebody said something dumb, you laughed and told them they should stick to $other-thing, and they didn't like it and have since moved, that's a putdown even if you didn't intend it that way. You've actually done this again with your reply: all it tells us is how much more you know than other people, how clueless other people are, and how you've had to spend your life educating them. That may all be true, but a comment like this doesn't teach us anything—it just makes the environment more acidic.
IMO the basic problem is that we all tend to read our own comments as informed by all the information that's in our own head. You have direct access to your knowledge and experience, so for you it's implicitly included in what you posted. No doubt that that makes your comment very rich and meaningful—but it's not the comment the rest of us get to read. We don't have access to any of that—all we have is the information that you explicitly include in your message. That makes for an enormous difference between how your comments appear to yourself vs. to readers.
it's an isolated democratic nation-island with immense physical beauty and resources and relatively large amounts of land available for rich people to build compounds. Also they have better internet connectivity than before. Further, early on they had almost no transmission because it's fairly straightforward for them to close their borders.
Yeah they were able to live without masks for a long time, I was really jealous of them.
But we're at the point now where the zero-covid countries are at a disadvantage because they've had almost no natural exposure so they have to rely entirely on vaccines. The increased travel and the high contagiousness of the new variants now make the zero-covid policy a guarantee for infinite lockdowns. I don't envy then anymore.
Perhaps we could have killed covid like that if we'd all done it like them but that time has passed.
Ps the country is indeed the most beautiful on earth. I hope I get to see it again some day. But I live on the opposite side of the planet between covid and the climate crisis I doubt it'll ever be feasible again.
1. Many high ranking people suddenly started leaving USA and move to other countries and New Zeland is just one of them.
2. High ranking people have been always leaving USA to other countries.
3. High ranking people are moving to New Zeland because of reasons which are not necessarily the same for everyone.
4. High ranking people are moving to New Zeland because of one common reason. The reason being.
Some possibilities.
4.1 Because of quality of life. Is New Zeland experiencing a sudden influx from non high ranking people as well?
4.2 Because of its remote location and if things go wrong in mainland it might be the safest bet and they think things are going to go wrong bad. Very bad.
> 4.1 Because of quality of life. Is New Zeland experiencing a sudden influx from non high ranking people as well?
I doubt it because immigration is extremely tough there. You either have to be under 35 with desirable qualifications or be some VIP at a major corp. Otherwise you can forget about it.
New Zealand only offers a high quality of life if you bring money with you.
Our productivity and wages are low, and we have some of the least affordable housing in the world - our median house price is around 600usd (and the quality of that housing is very poor).
I laughed and told them that they should stick to CS, and that biology and medicine don't work like computers. They didn't like it (and have since moved to New Zealand).