Not to take away from your comment, but I wanted to highlight another sport that requires similar sacrifice at an early age, which is the male dominated sport of F1 racing. Many top drivers are the result of training and competing at 7-8 years of age in kart racing. I would say they "peak" later than a ballerina/gymnast but require the same early sacrifice to be a top athlete.
> So many here hate it because it’s form over function.
I think that is the general point GP is trying to get at. As a consumer, you consider many factors to base your purchase on and if a product doesn't meet your needs, then you don't buy it - that doesn't warrant that you have to "hate" it or tell others how stupid their decision is for buying something, especially when interacting with strangers on the internet.
Hate is a strong emotion that consumes a lot of energy, so why waste it on a product? To me, this is part of the overall cultural landscape of tribalism and in-groups. Just as there are product evangelist, there seems to be a good number of anti-evangelist (I see it among my own peer group). People like to be seen as "knowledgeable" about this tech vs that tech - in their minds, they feel as if they are doing a public service by bashing... sorry "critiquing" products for YOUR benefit so that you make the right purchasing decision.
I've played this game myself when I was younger and always advocating building your own PC, explaining why this is better than that, etc. As I get older, I don't have time to evangelize - I just choose the product I want to use based on my needs and I understand that other people have different needs, so I don't let their choices affect me. I notice that others feel "hurt" and "anger" when you make a decision that they wouldn't have made themselves, with many people getting too emotional about a consumer purchase.
Your proposed approach could very well be the right way to distribute opportunity, but on some level it’s hard for me to fully buy in to it. To me, it would come down to using data to decide who gets a helping hand and even though it’s the logical/practical approach, it just feels a bit icky (personal opinion of course). And does that mean we ignore a group of individuals because the data points tell us so? We would miss out on outliers or late bloomers.
So yes, you’re right that it’s painstainking, and just an outright difficult problem to solve.
Going off on your point about "morality is subtlely guided by the structures of society...", the division that's created where people are put into morality buckets of "good people" and "bad people" have a lot to do with past government propaganda. What I mean by that is drug commerce in the early days happened through p2p cash exchanges, there was little govt oversight and thus govt couldn't extract taxes from these transactions.
So if govt can't extract taxes directly, they do it indirectly by criminalizing the act, then funnel even minor drug offenders through the prison system where they can finally get their piece of the pie.
Now that state govt's have figured out how to benefit from marijuana sales, they've become more receptive of "drug dealing" as long as you play by their rules and they get a share of every transaction that occurs.
There's also the issue of religion playing a big role in demonizing drugs. I do not want to make a statement in saying religious groups are "right" or "wrong" on the topic of drugs, but I will say they have a large voice in what the U.S. deems as moral.
Just adding a few thoughts/discussion points to your insightful commentary on current society.
These are two really good points, but #2 seems so obvious yet has never occurred to me.
I believe a property of the "good at math" persona is that the individual can just "magically" solve a math problem _quickly_ in there heads, or more precisely, this individual already possesses the answer, but just needs to recall it, akin to recalling a history fact.
Yes, by practicing maths, you will eventually develop some "muscle memory" for certain types of problems, but understanding or solving a math equation does not inherently have time constraints associated with it, yet we somehow believe that to be part of what it means to be proficient in maths.
This false belief has held me back from believing I could achieve more in mathematics - the idea that if I can't find the solution to a problem in under 10 seconds, I obviously don't know or can't figure out the answer.
Thank you for making this point that is quite obvious, but has enlightened me.
It's true that this trend is ingrained in the Asian immigrant community. To expand on your point that the pressures are due to narrow views when determining success, most people and especially Asians, measure success either by how much they have acquired or the status they possess.
Well if you don't have either, then you base your success on what your child/ren has accomplished. It's a competition within the community to see who has the more accomplished offspring - I see it every time my parents gather with friends or family - it's sad but it's all they know to do.
Anecdotal perspectives:
So I grew up poor, but I would say I am quite successful now by most standards - yet I still feel the pressure to achieve much more than I currently have (just from wanting to be the best I can be, but also I feel indebted to my parents and want to give them the world). They never pressured me to be a $high_status_title, but I felt to pressure to be someone that could support them into their old age since I saw how hard they worked to provide for me. In a sense, I understood the world of my parents and because of that, I created pressure for myself to achieve greater success (by their standards).
I had a friend in HS, who was extremely smart, and both his parents were doctors, living in a wealthy neighborhood, etc. I constantly saw how much pressure his parents were creating for him, PSAT prep and SAT prep and all that, which I felt he didn't need. Whenever we weren't playing CS, he would be studying to make sure he got into the right colleges, then the right medical schools, though I never really asked him if that's what he wanted out of life. I felt bad for him because I did fine in HS and felt fine just coasting (I didn't begin trying as hard as I should have till junior year of college, but in the end I think I did okay with much luck involved, of course). Well he is now finishing up his medical residency (looks like his studies paid off) and I really hope he feels fulfilled in his career path.
Just wanted show that pressure to succeed can come from external factors or pressures we create for ourselves, but I feel things are only getting worse as now we have parents competing to get their kids into particular preschools and all the extracurricular activities that just consume what little childhoods we have to begin with.
You can be aware of the circumstances, and do your best to "opt out" of the race, but others will just see that as an opportunity to move ahead, continually fueling these unnecessary pressures.
I wanted to add my own experience regarding your situation since it is very similar to mine - I liked my company for the most part, I liked what I was working on, and I liked my co-workers. However, my company was going through some rough patches and our raises/bonuses were dependent on the company performing well. I had already missed a raise opportunity so it would mean I would have to put in a total of 2 years before I had the chance to get ~3% raise (adjusted for inflation) when I could get a 20K bump in salary by switching - well that is exactly what I got when I went to another company.
Based on how everything happened, here is my personal take-away:
- In the current economic landscape, most big companies looks at all employees as being replaceable (my company did not even ask if they could offer anything to make me stay, even though I was hired specifically for a new role they created).
- I do not believe a company deserves your loyalty as much as one would think because they would just as quickly let you go regardless of years put in. In the end, both parties are involved in a business relationship and nothing more.
- Money is not the only driving force in life, but as a person that is just starting to build their career, you have to think about how much you will be losing out 10 years from now. We are want financial security later in life, so you have to take the steps to insure that.
Points regarding the article specifically:
- I was recruited while still at my current job and I believe that was an advantage for me just as the author states.
- I am in my 3rd month and for the most part I am still learning the systems and routines of this company - so low workload/stress-free for the most part.
If you're young and want a wide range of experiences, I do not think it hurts to at least see what the job market is like outside of your current company.
Again, this is my personal experience and everyone's situations will vary especially in bigcorp vs startup.
Wanted to add some other ones I did not see suggested:
Freakonomics Radio - by the authors of the book of the same name
Travel with Rick Steves - podcast by famous travel guide Rick Steves
Dinner Part Download - nice way to learn about interesting facts/random trivia/pop-culture regarding all sorts of subjects which can make for interesting conversation at your next social gathering
edit: meant to post this as a response to the question asking about other podcasts
Kind of off topic, but I just purchased a used Mac Mini (2012 model i5 2.5Ghz) that the previous owner upgraded to 16GB for $575.
When I first heard they announced the new Mac Mini today I was worried that I should have waited, but it looks like in the end I got a great deal since there doesn't seem to be a huge performance boost. I only plan to use it for iOS development purposes.
I agree that parts of this tactic were beneficial in helping the people of Cuba to gain increase freedoms, but the article also mentions that these communications were being monitored and stored by the US as well.
So obviously the US gains a lot of data on citizens of Cuba that could be used for other purposes.
I also like working with music but can become unfocused. What seems to work for me is to listen to music in a foreign language because that way I can focus on my work and not the lyrics.
It's only relevant because in today's startup environment, "single female, non-tech, no-team" is considered an outlier regarding the characteristics of a successful (subjective) founder.
I work for a big company where there is a lot of down time. It may sound appealing - good pay with minimal to no work, along with minimal supervision - but it get boring real fast and can be demoralizing.
I would rather be actively working on something that challenges me, than have my brain rot away.
I've even tried working on side projects while at my day job and it doesn't work out because it's difficult to really devote focus to something that isn't related to your job.
A variation of intermittent fasting that is geared towards those that workout/weightlift is called leangains which you can learn about at leangains.com and r/leangains. I have been doing it for over 2 years and I lift fasted. You may feel light headed the first few times you do it (so go lighter on weights) but you get used to it. I do squats and deadlifts fasted no problem.
How about a third scenario that may be closer to the situation we have been facing in the US:
Imagine you are stranded on a desert island with 3 other persons and the only source of food is coconuts for which you must climb trees. The 4 persons are you (adult 1), who is worse at climbing trees than your fellow cast away (adult 2). There is also child 1 who adult 1 is responsible for, and child 2 who adult 2 is responsible for. Both child 1 and child 2 have zero experience climbing trees and must depend on the adults. Adult 2 climbs the trees before you, takes most of the coconuts, and hoards them. When you ask him for some coconuts for both you and your child, he says you should have practiced climbing more as a child.
Whether his actions are considered fair or unfair, should your child have to suffer for your own lack of tree climbing experience?
Additionally, if you look at this in terms of evolution, is it okay for adult 1 and child 1 to die off, while adult 2 and child 2 to prosper, effectively moving towards a less diverse population?
This sounds interesting to me as I have been doing leangains for a little over 2 years now (although not strict). I would love to hear more about your project and maybe I could even provide assistance in some form.
Just threw on my headphones and listened to it 5 times.