That's Cory's whole schtick - he critiques big corps. I follow him a bit and most times his analysis is good and other times he dismisses things that don't fit in his ideological viewpoint.
As someone from India, "tor-toys" is what you would hear from most Indians. For most words of the kind, in india they would be pronounced in exactly the way that would make you remember the spelling of the word (since you are graded on that). I would bet that's the case with most non native speakers.
Overall I like yuval noah harrari's point about our systems, that liberal democracies and free market are based on the assumption that we have rational individuals making decisions in their self-interest. Which is not true at all, in today's day and age where misinformation and propaganda run rampant. You cannot rely on individual judgement to get us out of a pandemic. Same can be stated about climate change. I would say it's more alarming with climate change, since the consequences of our actions are stretched out in the far future (atleast when compared to covid). How the heck are we going to get people/companies/govt to get in line with what's needed for the survival of our species?
You make a good point. In a state of pandemic, the population IS in some sense similar to livestock, bodies to be managed, since the virus has weaponized our bodies. Wouldn't you say?
Anyone interested in declining birth rates, just take a look at the statistics in South Korea. 42% of the women in their 30s are unmarried (https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/pxotg9/over_42_o...). That's almost half! Our infinite growth systems will collapse, unless countries make it easier for women to raise a family.
Now that you can sit in inside spaces without a mask, I feel libraries and cafes are a real alternative for me! And this is me typing from a desk at a public library 10 minutes from my apartment. Can't express the amount of relief and joy I feel right now
I don't think those are the defining factors of why they got famous or successful out of all the highly intelligent and hard working people out there. The fact that they got famous brings light to their ideas, which makes you think there's something special about them.
You'd be surprised to find many many many highly intelligent people out there with clever way of doing things, and I'd argue no less intelligent than elon musk or jobs or any other famous person. Our culture right now worships successfuly entrepreneurs as Gods with amazing brains who cracked the problem, but really it's more of luck and being at the right place at the right time.
If I understand, we are talking about a very narrow definition of success and failure here, professional success which is recognition, fame and riches? That seems to be a rare product of being lucky; where what you like doing and what you have an aptitude for, is exactly what's needed by the society in the field you're working in. Then you need to know the right people and be in the right place to get the recognition for it. All these things need to align, so it doesn't surprise me that these are rare events. And if you do happen to be one of the successful people it often deludes you to think it had something to do with YOU, rather than it mostly being a product of all the circumstantial things beyond you.
I'm surprised, personally I would put software engineer akin to a new-age factory worker, but worse for multiple reasons. This is taking into account how many new software engineers are joining and where the field is going in general, sure some are doing novel work but most are definitely not.
Cool project! Love the autocomplete feature. Just my 2 cents about the custom commands, hiding the complexity of git commands is not something I'd like personally (not accounting for alias, aliases are cool). In most cases you'd much rather know which exact git command did/does what to debug/fix, so it's better to invest that time learning early on..
Drawing a parallel to Nassim Taleb's "don't hide the risk" (or atleast what I understood from his talks), working for a big corp hides risk (and reward). If you or the team do a shitty job, the feedback and the results are often not immediate, and absorbed by the bigness of the corp. I have seen fair share of disinterest and mediocrity in my place of work and I think it's a leadership problem partly, where they've pretty much failed to motivate or incentivize people to improve/move around the company and you have people working for years in the same role and project doing the same work, creating very little new value.
Also great point that it might be a characteristic of somebody choosing to work for a big corp vs something else. In today's climate that seems a very safe decision for a new grad. Ultimately it's a job that you do to earn money, it's naive to think everybody wants the same thing from their job.
I get the sense of "relax", but I'm trying to get the essence of it. Is it to be more mindful, stop obsessing/stressing about the thing that you are doing while still putting action in? I still struggle sometime because the only way I think I can do something is to focus fully on it, I'm in my head tracking all of the different perspectives, and tasks that can offshoot from the current thing I am doing. Also another thing, is if you primarily "think" for a living (any knowledge work) won't you get into a habit of overanalyzing/overthinking? I've found exercise and doing something physical as the best way to get out of your head.
Well said! I agree and I'll say there's a whole world of difference when moving from programming to software engg. IMO working an average software engineering job, things are messy and the problem domain is not exact. In my experience things are mostly guided by instincts of people involved rather than rigorous modeling. The requirements often change, the stakeholders rarely give you a straight answer and ultimately the acceptance criteria (what you need to build) is generally negotiable. All these extra skills is what makes the job un-automatable.
Speaking as a young, single and lives in an apartment person. As an introvert I've often relied on being present among people to kind of substitute for my social life. With that not being present, it really puts focus on the presence or lack of social network. I'm actually grateful in a way that it has forced me to reach out to people in my network, that I otherwise wouldn't have..