Maybe OP's use of the word "Coach" instead of "help" is not great here, but I read this as a coworker trying to help an under-appreciated colleague.
I do not think promotions or raises are a "one shot" situation, and I don't think having an advocate on your team is going to result in bad consequences, not unless they force the issue or management is truly awful.
As to coaching/checklists - I don't think someone has to be in the exact same situation to help. Every good coach starts from zero coaching experience, and it's easy to advocate on behalf of a teammate. I've had a lot of help from lots of people with different backgrounds, skills, etc. in my career - I would hate for them to think they couldn't help me because they haven't been in the exact same position.
"but at the same time a bit condescending to think that you can assist him by some techniques picked up at an internet forum"
I don't think it's condescending to show empathy for, and attempt to learn how to help a colleague.
At worst, it's naive, because OP may not understand what a complex circumstance it can be - but I've worked with a number of Americans who do not understand work visas at all and have no intention of learning more. It's good to see OP asking; this industry could use more people looking out for each other.
If you're in the US some cities will give access to their library system as long as you live in the state. Overdrive has a good UI, and with waitlists, I always have something to read.
If you could, how would you rate the value of self-promotion compared with learning and education in your own industry?
Obviously learning is more important, but would you recommend spending, say, 1 hour of promotion or networking per 10 hours of learning, or 5 hours? What worked for you?
For what it's worth, I'm about 2-3 years into my career and see a lot of advice to spend a significant amount of time promoting yourself.
1. Make it part of your routine. For instance, make it a weekly habit to have coffee on Sunday morning and update your journal. If you pair writing with another routine activity, (especially an activity that you enjoy doing) then you'll be more likely to complete it.
2. Hang a wall calendar in a high-visibility location and put a sticker/tally mark for every week that you successfully log. It's an easy visual reminder of your progress, and it can bug you if you don't log for a week.
3. This may not be the advice you want, but not logging for a week isn't the worst thing - it's okay to have a week now and then where nothing of note really happens.
The example for maps is not a "hyper specific use case":
"The process you WANT: pick your start and end. now start searching for places in between. Your start and end are saved.
When you find someplace interesting, add it to your list. Keep doing that, keep searching and adding."
That's a common use case. The problem with Google maps (and the problem with a lot of modern software) is, as you say, it makes a lot of guesses.
The definition of a good user interface is "to meet the exact needs of the customer, without fuss or bother"*
Google Maps is great for finding directions to a very specific place. But after mapping those directions, doing almost anything else destroys that route. If I have to (and I do) open multiple map tabs, or repeatedly enter the same route info after making a search (if I'm on a phone) it is not a good UI.
So that long paragraph was essentially saying... protesters should ask more nicely? You should have saved your words.
Quiet, non-offensive protests do not work. Large-scale, massive protests that disrupt society have a chance of working.
I also don't think it's reasonable to expect that police tear gas protesters and shoot them in the face with rubber pullets and expect zero acts in return - especially since one of the HK demands is an investigation into ongoing Police Brutality.
Sorry if this sounds rude, but why does it matter if HK was more or less democratic before 1991? The protesters are not asking for a return to British rule.
In the same vein, the United States is vastly more democratic than it was a 100 years ago. That does not mean the democratic process does not need additional improvement; there are critical things worth protesting today.
Part of the reason libraries are quiet is you have fewer people and a lot of sound absorbing materials (that also happen to hold really important information for the right people). Removing books and replacing them with more seats will just make it an open office.
A library is supposed to house knowledge and make it accessible, not primarily to give everyone a study spot. You can always check out a library book and take it somewhere with more seats.
And you assume that people are not outraged when protesters die in the US? Did you even read the very article you quoted?
"There was a significant national response to the shootings: hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools closed throughout the United States due to a student strike of 4 million students,[10] and the event further affected public opinion, at an already socially contentious time, over the role of the United States in the Vietnam War."
Yes, America has serious, serious problems with police violence. But pointing out injustice does not necessitate bringing up every other similar instance of injustice. It is not helpful, and distracts from the issue at hand.
When the vehicle was pulled from the water, skeletal remains were found inside. One week later the remains were positively identified as belonging to Mr Moldt.
That part stood out to me too, because I have the opposite social groups, and I have never felt excluded for liking those things. It's highly, highly worth making the effort to connect to people with somewhat similar interests, even if you're introverted by nature.
There's a community for nearly everything, and having people you can talk to about your passions goes a long way in making people feel less lonely, and has a significant impact on your lifespan itself: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/relationships-boo...
When AWS has gone down in the past, it's severely impacted massive tech companies like Netflix and Spotify.
Why would there be an expectation that a 2-man shop have "another cloud offering" as a contingency plan when some of the biggest and best tech companies do not?
People use services like AWS or DO because they are the contingency plan - they have the size and scale that smaller companies cannot afford or implement.