You didn’t ask me, but (aside from the effects of tech and social media) my #1 hypothesis is the rise in single parenthood. Parenting is so hard that I doubt pretty much everyone’s ability to do it well on their own.
I think it is a mistake not to celebrate the holidays. You don’t have to pretend that everything is okay in order to celebrate each other.
I am similar to your daughter in some ways but much older. Lately, I have felt that I have reached a dead-end in my career (though I am still employed).
I have a few thoughts that might be useful. One is the concept of ikigai: finding the intersection of what you enjoy, what you are good at, and what the world needs. For a long time, it seemed like building software hit all three marks for me, but in the last couple of years, it no longer seems to hit the last one very well.
When I was younger, my reaction to difficult things was to simply try harder. I’d throw myself at the problem repeatedly until it yielded. That can be the right thing to do, but with age I have gained enough wisdom to realize that sometimes it’s better to go after the lower-hanging fruit.
I am not suggesting that your daughter give up, but if I were you, I would help her identify a back-up plan. Help her get excited about the possibilities in case plan A does not work out. If she feels that she has other options, she may regain her confidence regardless of what happens.
Oh, and make sure that she knows how much you love and respect her no matter her job situation.
Merry Christmas.
P.S. Cold applying is probably a waste of time. Too many people are applying using AI bots. Find ways to network with real people if possible. Maybe contact career services at MIT?
It comes down to who is liable for the edge cases, I suspect. Adobe will compensate the end user if they get sued for using a Firefly-generated image (probably up to some limit).
Getting sued occasionally is a cost of doing business in some industries. It’s about risk mitigation rather than risk elimination.
What about requiring new employees to sign non-disparagement agreements? Maybe companies are getting “smarter” and requiring employees to agree to not say anything negative about their employer from day 1 … not sure about the legality here.
The ad load isn’t heavy to convince you to subscribe. It’s heavy because many readers use ad blockers, and the publisher wants to stay in business somehow.
Hijacking the back button, on the other hand, is just rude.
No, it’s not. Yes, we have Medicaid in the U.S., which makes everything free for the poor, but GP is saying that effectively everybody (including the not-so-poor) can get this level of care in Hong Kong. Definitely not true in the U.S.!
Pricing transparency also does not exist here as GP is claiming it does in Hong Kong. I am supposed to get certain imaging tests done every year, and I never know how much those will cost me until after I have already done them (in the U.S.). Maybe there is some way to get a non-binding estimate ahead of time, but I have never received such a thing and am not even sure it is possible. So I can’t easily “shop around”—or if can, tell me how because I (and I think most people) don’t know how.
I most certainly cannot pay $300 to see a specialist the same day in the U.S. I would have to pay that much to see my GP after waiting 6 weeks despite my employer paying more than $20k/year to insure my family. To see a specialist, I would have to wait a few months and probably pay $1-2k for one visit, not counting any tests or imaging that is ordered.
The description of Hong Kong’s system sounds amazing if true.
I grew up in a blue collar family. One thing that Dems tend to overlook, I think, is that most people do not want to receive charity. They want to be able to afford things on their own through their own hard work. It hurts their pride to receive anything that could be construed as "welfare." It makes them feel like they, and their country, are failing. So I'm not sure if the Medicaid/ACA approach to healthcare is a particularly good one from a purely psychological standpoint. (Some folks are scared to accept Medicaid because of estate recovery, too.)
In my state, a full 1/3 of the population is on Medicaid ... which seems extremely high for a program originally intended for the poor.
From a financial standpoint, it doesn't seem like either party has succeeded at significantly slowing the growth in healthcare costs overall. How much more can it grow without breaking? The Dems haven't proposed a solution either.
“Difficulty accessing healthcare” brings to mind doctors and hospitals being too far away—a real concern for lots of rural Americans, especially the ones who cannot drive. Or perhaps doctors are nearby, but wait times are too long. This is also a real issue. I have seen wait times for primary care doctors creep up to 4+ months in my area.
So I just wanted to highlight that even if those problems don’t exist, you still have the scary unknown cost question that might be the largest impediment of all.
I’m not sure if “difficulty accessing healthcare” captures the whole problem. Even if you live next door to a hospital, you still don’t know how much it will cost you if you check yourself in. Sure, there is some theoretical maximum out of pocket, but are you certain that the hospital is in network with your insurance? Are you sure that every provider you will see and every test or scan you have done will be treated as in network?
I once had a doctor order a test at a hospital that he assured me was in network. The hospital got pre-authorization from my insurance company for me to have the test done. I had the test done. My insurance company then denied me any benefit because they said afterward that I went out of network … and there are millions of stories like mine.
Not to mention that even if you manage to stay in network, lots of people cannot afford even the max out of pocket that creeps up faster than inflation every year.
I have had some family members decide that they will just accept that they are going to die in an emergency situation because “if it’s my time, it’s my time” and they don’t want their life savings to get vacuumed up by some hospital administrators. This is not merely theoretical… one person in my life is dead now who probably would have lived if he had felt comfortable seeking medical care.
Children kind of are scarce, though? Most countries aren’t reproducing at replacement levels. Were that to continue forever, the human population would go to zero.
School districts around me are closing schools because there aren’t enough kids to fill them.