If you look at it from a cultural perspective, many African American boys/men in extremely dangerous and poor areas use marijuana as a way to NOT develop mental issues. Considering how little mental help or even how little routine healthcare these men/boys receive, it makes sense to find SOMETHING to cope. Dependence on alcohol has clear bad-examples of the "wino", or street drunk. Same with the use of crack cocaine (the "crack" head/ the "fiend"). So many black men smoke lots of marijuana, but don't drink and don't do any other drugs.
Also, the environments they need to navigate requires understanding tattoos, colors, signs and tons of other subtle social cues in order to not become a target or deemed to be weak. There may be an under-reporting of instances of schizophrenia, but on a whole these brothers aren't showing signs of schizophrenia due to over use of marijuana.
And really, our current laws are just used to arrest someone, who might be an overall good person, besides the social stigma of "weed smoker". I really do beg anyone who is conservative on this issue due to the POSSIBILITY of someone developing schizophrenia, to maybe consider this as magnitudes less harmful than the use of marijuana policy to target black men; specifically black boys; and putting them in jail and ruining their future. You have to understand the environments they are coming from; so just saying "stay off the dope" is very callous and uninformed. Your life experience isn't the template for everyone.
I know this is a touchy topic on HN, but I really do hope we are able to open our circle of trust to people we wouldn't normally think about.
Don't use the meeting as a forum to emote. We all make mistakes, we don't need a 5 minute monologue to explain it. We all hate meetings, we don't need to spend time on the actual meeting complaining about it. Have your information ready to go. Know how to use the mute button and be ready to respond right away. So much time is wasted by "I couldn't find the mute button" or whatever. Don't be passive aggressive. Just answer the question. If you don't know, say you will get back right after the meeting. If you aren't proficient at JIRA, make the ticket AFTER the meeting. This applies to all technology. If you can't do it in under 15 seconds, write it down and do it right later. Stop holding the meeting hostage cause you have to do your process, your way, in your time. "Hold on let me add it to my calender". No, write it down and do it after the meeting. Unless this is an actual deployment or something, don't waste time going through all the technical details; unless everyone on the call is very technical. Make the conversation accessible to all members of the call; or else they shouldn't be on the call. I can go on...
India has a caste system. That's more comparable to African American and White American relations than the British rule of Indian. No one is asking Britain for anything. When your own country has put in you in a caste system; then all of a sudden end the caste system via the law; but don't do anything to fix the damage done; that's a problem.
And the real issue is, you can't have a fair society if we have different castes of people. This is not about class; because if it were you would see different results in the wealths of even first generation immigrants to America compared to African Americans. People who have been in America for 200 years or more have as much wealth as people immigrate illegally. You forget, that people who are able to LEGALLY immigrate to America are people who have the money to do it. Even Africans (NOT African Americans) come to American with more money than African Americans. And Africans don't see themselves as "black". Another reason it's not about skin color, many people from India can be much darker than your average African American. We are talking about a specific group of people that has been caste on the bottom. This is about lineage.
People aren't living in the hoods because they statistically fall on the part of a bell curve that makes them dumber than most; which is why they can't succeed. You can't draw a direct line between IQ tests and how much money someone makes; so that point doesn't matter.
Also, I don't think it's about blaming white women or saying they are doing a "bad" job; especially when you see that many of the black boys are coming from single mother households. This starts to get into uncomfortable territory; but let's just say this isn't about putting the blame on "white people" or "women" or any particular group of people. This is about shame on the American Government for not finding the will to make this right. This is an investment into a large portion of untapped potential in America.
In terms of Asians being able to learn from white teachers; anecdotally many of the Asian Americans I grew up with were forced to learn English very well and were very respectable. Furthermore, they had parents that made sure they excelled in school. It wasn't about them being smarter; it was about them having a disciplined environment. I think cultural, specifically Chinese and Japanese cultures, fitting in is more favored. African American culture is based on attention and being unique. Not understanding the culture will make it hard to understand the person.
Finally, as a side note, I respect where you are from and all; but your country has literally very little rule of law. I'm not saying every single place, but we aren't going to use India as any measuring stick for democracy or restorative justice. Most people I know from India would concur. America has so many flaws, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Having been to many countries, I love them all, but there is a reason the world is being "westernized"; for good or for bad. Cheers mate!
I think the issue is where you draw the line between inputs and outputs. If you are judging being in the advanced class the outcome; then you are right to look at biological and social/cultural differences. But when you look at the wealth prospects of these kids beyond 5th and 6th grade, you see that an African-American with a college education has as much wealth as a "white" high school dropout. There has to be more going on here than just biologies and bell-curves.
You also have to ask, statistically, who is educating the children? Mainly white women. Who does the worst in school? Black boys. The 2 groups with the least amount of things in common. Being able to effectively communicate with someone who doesn't come from your culture seems to be important when it comes to education, right? You click on the article and you are looking at a big picture of a white lady. I didn't have a single male teacher (besides for gym) until my sophomore year (I think AP Trigonometry?). At the very least, we need a 50/50 mix of male and female teachers.
Trust me, though. I don't agree with them getting rid of gifted programs. I don't think you can deal with racism with feel good platitudes and policies. The issue is the wealth gap; that's it. If African-Americans had similar wealth prospects as other groups besides latinos, most of these issues would disappear. African Americans built the country and weren't paid for any of it. We are talking about a group who has been financially shackled for hundreds of years via federal laws; and now we are living in a hyper-capitalistic society. How can you "move out" the hood without money? Heck, can blacks from the hood even get jobs picking fruit on farms like "illegal" workers. Fighting racism against blacks is about a debt that is owed and has never been paid; not about reliving Jim Crow or throwing racists in jail or making white people feel bad about themselves. You can't legislate a man's heart (1st amendment and all).
Gamestop needs to focus on having tons of e-sports tournaments (with a buy in and/or membership fee). Create an esports league and have national/regional/local tournaments. Also they need to be live streaming on twitch from each location. As a rule, from corporate down to the local shop, they should be creating online content about video games. They should leverage their position with Microsoft to see if they can work with Game companies to get secrets/easter eggs in games and then be the streamers that are known for revealing game secrets. Make it about the gamer experience. Once the pandemic lifts, having physical locals can be a great strength if used well. Do e-sport lessons. Have retro nights. Do arcade pop ups. They need to focus on branding/cool factor. Be a safe space for YOUNG kids. There is tons of stuff they can try besides inventing some tech platform.
The best language is the one you can make money with or positively affect the world. Please grow up out of this old debate. You all sound like 3 year olds...
For me the the issue with upgrading is that when you buy a piece of hardware, specifically DJ gear (Serato), mixers/interfaces, etc; the latest and greatest often doesn't support it. Then you are hoping and wishing for the company to create drivers to support your expensive hardware on the latest Catalina OS upgrade. That's why when you see interviews with many musicians that have home studios, the computers aren't the newest. Once you have a stable situation that works, why change all the time?
Why don't we....
1. Allow pharmacies to test for COVID (currently illegal in California)
2. Make COVID testing mandatory every 2 weeks via a statewide digital system (like jury duty). California could then partner will pharmacies to allow wider spread testing. We could even create jobs by hiring and training those who are unemployed to administer the actual tests.
3. Make it mandatory that every business/person use the statewide system to scan people to ensure they have been tested recently. That, combined with temperature checks at the door will serve to catch any issues quickly; as well as providing REAL TIME feed back to the state about possible infections and outbreaks
It seems to me that pandemics are the new normal. We aren't going to have a vaccine ready for every virus within 1-2 years; so it seems prudent for us to invest in a good system now with a virus that isn't as deadly.
What does everyone else think? I really would like to create a thread and have some of the best minds (yes that's you) work on a real solution. Let's plan it and build it!
Break up your tasks into mini-pieces. Spend no more than 5 - 10 minutes on each micro-habit then move to the next. DON'T SPEND MORE TIME THAN 10 minutes. Do this for 1-2 months. Don't work toward any type of task completion; just work for 10 minutes. Actual work, moving at an easy pace, but still getting a few lines of usable code out(refactoring counts); doing a few pushups, situps, squats for your fitness. Immediately follow that 5-10 minutes of work with a reward (like playing video games, small candy, surfing the web, whatever YOU REALLY ENJOY. No judgement. It has to be something you look forward to; just timebox the reward to 25 minutes at most). Don't worry about diet; just try to go as long as you can in the morning/afternoon/evening without eating (if you can make it to 3 - 5 pm you can worry less about what you actually eat). After 1 - 2 months; add 5 minutes. Add 5 minutes every 30 days. It should be a year or more before you attempt to spend 45 minutes or more on a habit.
Don't write any of this down. Don't try to "quantify your self". Do your best to remember where you are at. If you forget, drop it down 5 - 10 minutes/ 1-3 reps/ etc. below what you think you can do currently (almost like take a few steps backward). We don't want to make a big deal about any of this. We want to be in the habit of examining how you are feeling and adjusting the process based on that; while staying in alignment with our long term goals. Real long terms goals are very hard to pin down to specifics and milestones. You are better of moving consistently toward that goal; while managing your emotional state on a day to day basis. The goal is never more important than how you are feeling right now in this moment.
Have no definitive fitness goals for 1 - 2 years (as this is about how long it takes to get the body to respond permanently to any fitness goals). Don't even think about it; just work out in short spans throughout the day. Progressively add 1 - 2 reps to each exercise every 30 days. After a year, attempt to just go to the gym for 10 minutes once a week. NO MORE THAN 10 MINUTES (even if you really want to stay). After 1 months, add another day to the gym (only 10 minutes each session). After another month, add another day (3 days total at 10 minutes only each day). From 4 months onward, add 5 minutes for every session every 30 days.
For code project, do very small projects you can complete within 30 days easily. Having a habit of completing smaller projects will pay dividends in the long run. Make the projects modular so you can easily reuse things in the future. Only build things YOU are interested. Don't worry about what language, framework, topic is popular or lucrative. Only focus on what you care about in the most selfish way possible.
To sum it all up, don't think about it anymore; just do it. And only do it for 5-10 minutes at the beginning. Follow with a reward. Progressively add more time and effort over the course of months. For the first 3 months, don't stress and move easily. Don't strive for any goal; DON'T MOVE QUICKLY. Just do it with ease. Do it as if you could forget about it in 15 minutes it was so easy. Make sure the process is getting done; and not worry about tangible results. Just make sure you are really getting stuff done in the time you are working; but moving easily, without haste or stress.
So insightful! It took me a while to get a "feel" for what you are saying; but you put it into words perfectly. This is especially difficult in situations like baristas or service workers of places I frequent.
One day I might be gregarious and have a conversation with the person, but most of the time I just want to get my coffee and be on my way. I've already planned my next couple steps; and stopping to chat wasn't one of them.
Then, every time I go to this place, it's a weird interaction with the service worker because I didn't pick the conversation up where we last left it, or I didn't show a keen interest in them that day. It leads to them avoiding eye-contact or "going on break" when your next in line.
So I try extra hard now to just keep to my own and not talk to anyone for the most part. Not out of being anti-social, but just knowing that I most likely won't benefit from the interaction in the long run.
The wealth disparity between African Americans and the rest of America is growing. Mentorship is fine, but what most African Americans need is access to resources and stable community (which was destroyed through many years of Social Engineering).
This is similar to the argument for promoting people who enjoy violence and murder into the military (people who haven't committed crimes, but get an adrenaline rush around these topics). Don't you want people who are good at it and enjoy it? Won't they get it done most effectively? If you have to do a job that involves "bad" things, do you get more moral points if you don't like it?
Start with Bootstrap. Build as many sites as you can just using Bootstrap and then study what the classes are actually doing. Then replicate the classes and make changes to them. Bootstrap has enough that if you go through each thing it has, you will have a decent appreciation for the look and how the CSS/HTML/JS fits together to make a site. Then start using jQuery heavily. Find jQuery modules and use them. Play with the options. Then start playing with the code. Those 2 things will be good enough to then move on to something more complicated; which ultimately is just abstracting these basics and attempt to make them easier. But you have to already know what is happening if you don't want to get confused as to why you are using the tool and what your other options are besides this tool.
Also, the environments they need to navigate requires understanding tattoos, colors, signs and tons of other subtle social cues in order to not become a target or deemed to be weak. There may be an under-reporting of instances of schizophrenia, but on a whole these brothers aren't showing signs of schizophrenia due to over use of marijuana.
And really, our current laws are just used to arrest someone, who might be an overall good person, besides the social stigma of "weed smoker". I really do beg anyone who is conservative on this issue due to the POSSIBILITY of someone developing schizophrenia, to maybe consider this as magnitudes less harmful than the use of marijuana policy to target black men; specifically black boys; and putting them in jail and ruining their future. You have to understand the environments they are coming from; so just saying "stay off the dope" is very callous and uninformed. Your life experience isn't the template for everyone.
I know this is a touchy topic on HN, but I really do hope we are able to open our circle of trust to people we wouldn't normally think about.