troels · HackerTrans

I wonder if that might backfire. I've been using Chromium for a while now, but whenever I need to see video, I copy paste the url over to Firefox. At some point, I'm going to be bothered enough to just switch permanently to Firefox.

troels

7 anni fadiscuss

Yeah, but for those they have a cheat sheet next to the register.

troels

7 anni fadiscuss

They stuck to it for a long time and the argument was indeed speed and to some extend ergonomics (the cashier doesn't need to lift up items). There is a system to it (100-199 is liquor, 400-499 dairy etc.), so it's fairly easy to memorise it.

troels

7 anni fadiscuss

Some dialects allow you to hint to what index to use.

troels

7 anni fadiscuss

wtf

Brought to you by the same folks who figured that locale settings should determine how CSV is generated/interpreted.

troels

7 anni fadiscuss

And because everyone knows this, a contractor can easily charge 2-3 times what an employee makes - aka what they're actually worth. The system works (Except of course for the employees)

troels

7 anni fadiscuss

This is the "common knowledge" thing to do, but I don't think it's always applicable. If you have an advantage in the market (e.g. are sought after), you can simply present a high figure and either they accept or you move on to the next. By playing the let-them-go-first game, you're implicitly signalling that you don't know where the ceiling is. On the other hand, if you say a high figure with confidence, they may accept it even if they weren't really prepared for that to begin with. Information asymmetry can also go the other way.

troels

7 anni fadiscuss

You seem to assume that the company/management would act rationally. I'm going to guess that you are an engineer?

troels

7 anni fadiscuss

This is very accurate. I think it might be somewhat true for the majority of the workforce though. For specialised roles such as developers, management etc. I think the spread is bigger.

If I were to guess, I would say that the lower bound is higher, giving a skewed distribution with a big bloc of salaries around the same avg. range. Couple this with a reluctance for high earners to speak openly about it and you have the illusion of everybody getting roughly the same.

A very clear sign that wages are kept superficially low, is that as a contractor I can get away with asking 3x what I would as a perm developer. In theory I get less job security this way, but in reality there is so much demand that this is a non-issue.

troels

7 anni fadiscuss

It also seems to apply to all types of employees, not tech specifically. The executive is from ISS, which is a services company, not a tech company.

troels

7 anni fadiscuss

Ok - Thought perhaps I was missing something. The analogy probably isn't a good fit for luxury watches, which is a truly weird industry. Rolex, with their near-mythological status could probably shut down all advertisement and still sell their watches.

But your original point might still be true, regardless.

troels

7 anni fadiscuss

Curious - Where do you have the information fro that TAG have a smaller advertising budget than Rolex? I would've assumed the opposite.

troels

7 anni fadiscuss

It really depends on why you want to join a startup/where you are in your career. If you are young, you probably want to focus on gaining experience and build your network. If you are older, you may value financial aspects more.

troels

8 anni fadiscuss

    The Army decided some years ago to give every Company (~140 people) a Raven drone for recon. However, it's a huge deal if it gets lost (if the GPS guidance were to suddenly fail), so no one ever uses them to avoid the fallout associated with losing Army equipment.

That sounds like a serious problem?

troels

8 anni fadiscuss

Same in Denmark, at least for DUI. You'll get roughly 10 x BAC x monthly salary (post tax). A local footballer famously got hit hard by this, with a fine of DKK 842K (~ USD 130K).

troels

8 anni fadiscuss

> It's a bit heartbreaking at first (you spend hours/days/weeks working on something, and then a fellow hacker comes and cuts of the unnecessary pieces), but in the long run I'm grateful we do that.

The single hardest thing about programming, I'd say.

troels

8 anni fadiscuss

How does that benefit you though?

troels

8 anni fadiscuss

I'm sure Microsoft had the same reasoning about IE.

troels

8 anni fadiscuss

" ... so I transitioned to an automatic"

Clever.

troels

8 anni fadiscuss

Somewhat related. I wonder how often someone would plant false information that would cause a panic sell-off, then buy on the dip, before everyone realise that it was a lie? It's like the opposite of inside information. (Does this particular scheme have a name?)

* Edit:

A quick googling suggests this is fairly prevalent. Must be keeping the SEC busy.

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