> [...] there are zero specialized jobs in Pontevedra. Either you are a public state worker, for which you need to pass an exam to lock a lifelong job with no possibility of being fired regardless of how incompetent you are, or you work in hospitality.
Alas, this is basically how it works in most of southern Europe, including my home country Italy. I don't know how much a small-town mayor can do to reverse years of bad political choices at the national level.
They are not discounting the possibility that sociocultural factors play a role:
> What explains the GAP? While evolutionary frameworks have traditionally been the dominant lens through which the GAP has been viewed— assuming its existence without direct empirical evidence—these theories focus exclusively on opposite-sex attraction, mate selection, and reproductive success. Within these theoretical boundaries, explaining the variation in same-sex ratings and the cultural differences in the GAP becomes challenging, suggesting that factors beyond biological predispositions also play a role. Given these limitations, sociocultural factors and norms merit further consideration. As noted earlier, female beauty is idealized in many cultures and reinforced by media, advertising, and societal expectations. Internalized beauty standards may foster unconscious biases, leading to, or amplifying, the observed difference.
But the study is mainly concerned with verifying the existence of the gap.
Btw, a lot of animal hierarchies are also male-dominated.
I was initially puzzled by the title of this article because a "sycophant" in my native language (Italian) is a "snitch" or a "slanderer", usually one paid to be so. I am just finding out that the English meaning is different, interesting!
It is perhaps a narrow view, but not an incorrect one.
You mention state funded projects, but the funding has to come from somewhere else. What the author is saying is this: it takes money to run a gallery (or a museum, for that matter), therefore even if it is not the primary objective, we should strive to keep the money flowing so that we can make have better galleries/museums.
If you include enough opinion pieces on highly controversial subjects and always from the same perspective your readers will start noticing. Just because they are opinions it doesn't mean that people can't deem them ridiculous.
> Its not like I can take a holiday in europe and still collect.
Last year I was vacationing in Sicily and I met a French girl who was doing just that: traveling Europe while collecting unemployment from her home country. I am in favor of generous unemployment welfare, but there should be controls in place.
I don't know how it works in the US (and I assume it might be different state by state), but in many countries in Europe this is already the case.
For example: if you get fired today you are entitled to a benefit if you have worked at least X months out of the last Y months. X and Y must be chosen carefully of course.
To some extent, I imagine that moderate alcohol consumption is an almost necessary consequence of having an active social life. If a couple tells you that they both drink, it's likely that they do so together and with friends, which is a good thing. There are myriads of exceptions, I am sure.
They like money just like everyone else does. And you can't build AGI without a lot of money.
The board screwed up. They could have negotiated with MS on another CEO. Instead they went behind everyone's backs and thought themselves omnipotent. Well, guess what.
Now that they have started abusing it, it's even less defensible.