And somehow I have little sympathy for people who want to leave the US for political reasons but have a problem with countries where wealth is distributed more evenly.
Well, I guess that's true. Given the site is an aggregator for a SF-based incubator I figured a reasonable enough number of people would be a American.
I'm also not sure why my comments have anything to do with being an American. I think not swearing at work would be universally good advice. I guess if swearing at work is integral to your identity you may be offended by someone declaring that you shouldn't swear at work. But it's generally not a good idea if you're wanting to optimize your career progression.
Don't expect that in the US anytime soon as we haven't even mandated annual leave yet.
I really think natural light should be required for all. I went to a high school in Texas literally modeled after a prison. No windows, no natural light anywhere in the entire building. Built in 1979. What is wrong with these people?
I took my SATs at a high school classroom with a huge windows looking out to a forest setting... It was incredible
I struggled with fatigue for most of my sophomore year of high school. I started falling asleep in class out of nowhere. Then, as suddenly as I started falling asleep in class, I stopped.Looking back, I realized that I had been going days and weeks without seeing the sun. None of my classes had windows, nor did the lunchroom or the gyms. I had been getting to school early for clubs and leaving late because of sports. I was arriving at school before sunrise and leaving after sunset once the days got short enough.
Speaking of forests -- I think schools are overly concerned with controlling the environment kids learn in. I personally think that letting the mind wander for short periods helps your mental stamina recover.
I developed more-than-moderate SAD in high school that took years to get over. They really need to stop making high school kids get up so damn early, and adjust the school year so kids are off more in the worst of the Winter (like, most of it, ideally)
It could also work for much of Europe, but we probably wouldn't use the word "sophomore", and I've never seen or heard of a school with no windows. I doubt it is allowed.
(For example, the UK requirements for a school building state "giving priority to daylight in all teaching spaces, circulation, staff offices and social
areas" and "providing adequate views to the outside or into the distance to ensure visual comfort and help avoid eye strain" [1])
The shortest day in San Francisco is 9.5 hours. The shortest day in Chicago is slightly north of 9 hours. The shortest day in London is less than 8 hours.
That's not an insane schedule. It's a bit longer than regular day, unless you're in London or north.
Well I wasn't taught the 'Dutch Reach' either when I got my driving lessons. I also have never heard the term before and it certainly is not standard practice.
Same experience, over the course of over decade. iBook, Powerbook, Macbook, whatever, all frayed power cords or other defects at the laptop connector end.
I'm an Apple fanboy most of the time, but damn is this getting old.
Sugru works wonders though, if you catch it early enough.
Not to mention the thieving jerks charge $90 for a replacement. Mine seem to last 18 months at most.
Even if they insist on keeping their incredibly fragile cords, they could make them user swappable -- just like the wall end -- and sell replacements for $10.
This happens with Dell chargers all the time too but that's just because the terrible design makes it impossible to wrap the cable without putting a lot of stress on the end.
It's a difficult problem to solve, I'd prefer if the cables were simply a cheap replaceable part.
As a European who regularly hires people from outside the EU (including Americans), it always seemed to me that the American H1B Visas were deliberately designed to suppress wages.
Any other skilled migrant visa system I know of has a very explicit and fairly high wage minimum to prevent such abuse.
As a result, the stereotypical underpaid Indian engineer is a rarity in Europe. Indian engineers that do end up here are usually amongst the higher skilled and better paid workers.
Hell, it's even common for skilled migrants from outside the EU to get a higher starting salary than their local counterparts (especially those from poorer EU countries) just to meet the wage threshold.
I don't know what you call abuse but I see the this sort of thing here in Germany. In one of the teams I have dealings with, there are two non-EU developers who get unusually low wages (I don't know the exactly what). They both put up with it because the german residency permit is valuable to them.
There might well be a salary limit, but it's obviously not very high, at least not by the standards of engineers. These guys are getting decent salaries by the standards of oridnary working Germans. I suspect it is a similar story for H1B in Aemrica.
Any other skilled migrant visa system I know of has a very explicit and fairly high wage minimum to prevent such abuse.
The US State Department (who initially adjudicates the visa requests) works with the US Department of Labor to determine a range of compensation that is "standard" for a given job description. Unfortunately, that range is national, with the result that you see a lot of people hired in the Bay Area at wages that would be generous in West Garbut, AR.
And what country is this? Because I've been approached by European (German and Dutch) companies and the compensation was way below my expectations. If I'm not mistaken the minimum required in those countries to get a visa is only about €45k/€50k a year.
Which is the median salary in those regions. While an argument can be made it should at least be in the 75% or something, this definitely doesn't disprove the original statement that at least it won't suppress wages (to something like Indian or eastern European levels).
Edit: I guess I might misunderstand the word suppress actually. If it means keep wages constant then I guess expanding the worker pool at the median salary level would probably do that, and the effect of not having any restriction would depress them!?
More likely, sold. Every service that collects user data will get offers, and many can't resist the temptation.
Doesn't matter however, businesses that will sell you to the highest bidder (and in many cases, outside the US, illegally) can't be trusted to ever seriously invest in security. So if they aren't breached, they sooner or later will be.
Hanging out with people you don't agree with is one thing. Hanging out with people that want you to stop existing is an entirely different matter.
If people are willing to (vote to) cross that line, time for talk and bridging divides is not just over, it's suicidally naive to think otherwise.
I could go Godwin here, but you get the point.