> 2021 was not too kind to me. I discovered that I not only have OCD but OCPD, a personality disorder.
Then later...
> I simply have to accept that there is nothing out there for me. That I will be miserable as long as I continue to work in tech, and that nothing will ever bring me joy in this space ever again. And I have the C++ committee to thank for this.
It sounds like the author has made a self-diagnosis, and is not currently seeking treatment with a licensed therapist. There is no language around addressing the disorder, and plenty of blaming external forces.
If so, it might be worth exploring the option of therapy.
> Bondholders of $19.2 billion in Evergrande dollar notes face deep haircuts as the company overhauls its mammoth balance sheet without a government bailout -- a process that promises to be long, contentious and potentially risky for Asia’s largest economy.
It might seem odd that a Chinese company would have taken out dollar loans, but the practice is common around the world. One reason is that the borrower can get lower interest rates because they assume the exchange rate risk themselves. If that bet goes sour, though, the borrower faces higher costs to service the debt.
Of course the thing about dollar bonds is that even if the national government were to intervene, those dollars can't be printed by Beijing.
The only way to service a dollar debt is to raise dollars. One path to doing that is to sell dollar-denominated assets. US Stocks and bonds in other words. So the pressures in China can spill over into the US economy through forced asset sales of dollar-denominated assets.
This is another angle to the contagion idea. Organizations around the world have taken big short position on the US dollar. As those loans come due, dollar assets are sold. Which drives the dollar higher. Which makes the dollar loans even more unsustainable. And so on.
It has been called the global dollar short squeeze:
And if you're really adventurous, there's something called the "dollar milkshake theory" which predicts the uncontrollable rise of the dollar as (maybe counterintuitively) a wrecking ball for the world economy:
These are new developments enabled by the dollar standard (1971), payment technologies (2000-), and the ever expanding power of government (particularly US, post-9/11). The advent of the hydrogen bomb (1952) means that countries can no longer contemplate direct warfare and have been turning toward economic warfare increasingly in the last several decades.
Then you're listening to the wrong people. The world's currencies are being weaponized against other countries and against citizens. It's a project decades in the making. You may not feel part of that yet, but if you express any opinion in public you may.
Centralization of money is "evil" because it sooner or later you're going to find yourself on the list of undesirables. When you do, centralization (and the technology that goes with it) makes it as easy as flicking a switch to economically banish you.
> Everyone seems to have an increasingly horrifically misguided idea of how distributed systems work.
> There is of course the most obvious horrifically misguided recently-popular "decentralized" system, whose name shall not be spoken in this essay. Instead let's back up to something older and better understood: markets. The fundamental mechanism of the capitalist model.
This article would benefit from being more specific. Take on that un-named "decentralized" system directly rather than side-swiping it as is done here. It's a cop-out.
It looks like the author is thinking while writing, which is fine. But that alone is not going to change people's minds. I'd look forward to an article where the author, after having gotten thoughts in order, comes back to write an article talking about something specific.
> Here are some tips for converting interview into the discussion as an interviewer ...
Two ideas follow. I don't think they'll work very well.
Here's the #1 thing you can do as a candidate to turn the interview into a discussion: Come prepared with some interrogative-led questions. These usually begin with the words "who"; "where"; "what"; "when"; and "why". Then ask your questions at appropriate times. A good time might be, for example, right after you answer a question on a topic related to the question you're about to ask. Another good time might be when the interviewer asks "Do you have any questions for me?" Having been on the other side of the interviewing table a lot, it's quite surprising how few candidates have anything to ask about one of the biggest decisions they'll ever make.
The quality of your questions will determine what you get out of the interview. To prepare good question, you'll need to understand the following at more than just surface level:
- the position
- the company/group/pod
- the interviewer
Research these three things before the interview. The questions you bring to the interview should be designed to gather relevant and missing information on these points.
What's "relevant information"? You'll need some goals to figure that out. Don't set foot in the interview until you have some goals that make sense for you.
Reversing the above into a process for preparing for an interview:
1. figure out why you're interviewing at all, and interviewing at that company in particular
2. research the position, the company/group/pod, and your interviewers
3. draft questions you'll ask during the interview
4. ask your questions at appropriate times during the interview
Then later...
> I simply have to accept that there is nothing out there for me. That I will be miserable as long as I continue to work in tech, and that nothing will ever bring me joy in this space ever again. And I have the C++ committee to thank for this.
It sounds like the author has made a self-diagnosis, and is not currently seeking treatment with a licensed therapist. There is no language around addressing the disorder, and plenty of blaming external forces.
If so, it might be worth exploring the option of therapy.