One issue that I didn't see mentioned in the article or any of the comments so far, is that all these kids who got into Ivy league schools saw themselves as overachievers / received lots of praise relative to their peers while in high school. But once you get into a top school, everyone there is like that and you are no longer special, you are just average compared to your peers.
You might have been then top student in your city/state, but when you are suddenly surrounded by top students from your _entire country_ it is statistically unlikely that you would be the best. That ought to be demoralizing to a lot of young adults whose entire sense of self-worth has been riding on being the best at academia/sports/whatever.
Like somebody else has noted, the trolley problem exemplifies that people assign different weight multipliers to proactive action vs inaction, instead of strictly comparing the direct expectation of both outcomes. Two real life applications of this that I find interesting are:
* Tech company employees who choose not to sell their vested RSUs (inaction) as opposed to selling them and diversifying into other investments such as index funds (action) even though the latter is economically more correct.
* Members of the general public who refused to receive the COVID vaccine (inaction) as opposed to getting vaccinated (action). In their minds, the risk of getting injured due to vaccine side effects is incorrectly weighted more than the risk of developing complications from COVID, because the former would be a consequence of a conscious action (i.e. "pulling the lever") as opposed to doing nothing (letting the trolley go down the default path of getting sick).
If anybody is interested in exploring this line in a virtual 3D environment, there is a standalone simulator game for the U7 line that was released by TML-Studios 10-ish years ago, and it's available on steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/283600/World_of_Subways_2...
You can drive the entire line in the game and get out and walk around each station in a first person view. IIRC the individual architectural details of each stop are pretty well modelled, and keeping the train on schedule and stopping at the right stop at each platform is a fun challenge.
Actually, it does work well! In my local Buy Nothing group, and I assume in others as well, people just leave stuff out on their porch at the arranged time, so that no physical contact is made except through the item. In that sense it's no more or less risky than delivery services or curbside pick-up at stores.
This is amusing because having waitstaff bring over a terminal for you to pay with your card is pretty much ubiquitous in a lot of countries, such as Canada and Russia.
So I've had an interesting experience recently. Like you, I've used Tinder and other dating apps fairly unsuccessfully in the past (close to zero matches, those who match don't respond, yadda yadda). I live in the US (West Coast), but I'm originally from Russia, and I finally got to go back home (a major Russian city) this summer for a few weeks' vacation. On a suggestion of a longtime friend I've met with there, I've created a Tinder profile. Just put up some mediocre photos of myself and listed my hobbies, mentioned I am visiting for a few weeks.
The difference from the US was quite startling. I got literally hundreds of likes and dozens of matches. (my like counter showed 99+ after a week). The matches weren't bots either. They were actual women, and a decent number of them responded to my messages. I've actually ended up meeting four different women in person during a time span of two weeks. We've had some good in person conversations and I still keep in touch with at least one of them. They didn't seem like they just wanted me so that I can bring them to the US, either, as that never came up in conversations and they seemed fairly happy where they currently are. I was honestly quite sad to leave and come home to the USA because it felt like I'm returning to a social wasteland.
Later, I've on a whim set my Tinder location to Philippines one night (might be going there for work this winter), and got a decent number of matches instantly, and the ones I've talked to responded willingly. I've also gotten a ton of matches when I was on vacation in Dominican Republic last winter.
Of course, if I use my actual location (Seattle) I still get basically zero matches. I've had similar low success in Western Europe.
So, your dating app status as a dude is really location dependent.
I've never worked (as a software engineer) at a company that expects their employees to show up at 9am. Now, at the place I where I work currently, most people _do_ tend to show up between 8-9am and leave by 5-5:30, so working at 6pm I often find myself among a single-digit number of people still at the office, but I think such schedules are usually driven by people's life obligations (having kids, mostly) and personal preferences (naturally early risers) rather than company requirements. I myself routinely wake up around 9am, and come in the office between 10:30-11:15am. I've been here for 5+ years, gotten a substantial raise each year since I've started, and recently gotten promoted. In talking with my manager, my working hours have never ever been brought up as a negative (in fact, my current boss tends to get in around 10:30am himself, mostly to avoid rush hour traffic).
I believe that one of the primary causes is the overprescription of opiods by doctors in the USA, who were pressured by a patients (a generation of consumerism and instant gratification who expect doctors to provide instant treatment/remedy) on one side, and drug companies (who saw prescription painkillers as a sudden new cash cow) on the other. An article I've recently read in the Atlantic provides a perspective on this subject:
Tangentially related, but for some reason many Americans that I've talked to here in the US (I'm originally from Europe, and have lived in Germany for several years) have a collective misconception that "The Autobahn" is a particular designated, semi-mythical piece of highway somewhere in Germany that doesn't have speed limits. They don't understand that lack of speed limits is the default on any limited-access highway in the country (unless explicitly restricted).
Anecdotally, I find phenylephrine to be definitely effective as a topical decongestant (nasal spray); especially more so than its alternative (oxymetazoline), so it's not a placebo effect. But I agree that it doesn't do a thing as an oral drug.
I've started seeing ads disguised as emails (similar to promotional reddit "posts") in the "new" Gmail app I've switched to after being forced off Inbox. I think the ads only show up on free accounts. I have another Google account through my employer (for work email) and I don't see ads there.
Discrimination is only illegal in certain contexts, mostly related to employment and essential services, as well as when interacting with the government (see First Amendment). For example, if I allow Girl Scouts to sell cookies on my business premises, it doesn't mean that I am also obligated to allow Jehovah's Witnesses to set up a stand as well.
You might have been then top student in your city/state, but when you are suddenly surrounded by top students from your _entire country_ it is statistically unlikely that you would be the best. That ought to be demoralizing to a lot of young adults whose entire sense of self-worth has been riding on being the best at academia/sports/whatever.