I think you overestimate the currently available storage technologies. Batteries are very limited in capacity and super expensive in large scale. Hydrogen or synthetic methane might work, but those are gases, if you were opposed to them.
I'm just a regular web dev outside the gaming industry, but crunch is a concept that's occasionally present in any project work; I'm sure many HN readers are familiar with it from their own work too.
When you have a deadline to meet, sometimes you need to go into crunch mode to get things done. Of course the crunch mode should last no more than a week or maybe two, otherwise you risk burning out. After crunch mode there should be a slow period where you take some time off or work on something not urgent at all.
I'm interested in learning more about this! As a Finn I love Poland and have been there multiple times (most recently just two weeks ago). I don't know the language, but details like honorifics reveal interesting tidbits of the culture and society. I guess I should prompt an LLM about it.
At least some of the anti-nuclear movement back then was directed against old and unsafe nuclear plants, and for good reason. These activists achieved their goal, as modern plants are very safe.
AFAICT, modern day anti-nuclear movement is a bit different to that.
Finland tried teaching maths to children using Group Theory in the 70s [1], but the results weren't that good; it proved to be too abstract for young kids.
Ultimately, I believe basic algebra and geometry are the most important takeaways from math classes for most people.
It's about the separation of powers. Law-making, adjudication, and execution should be separate branches so that no one branch gets too much power, as that will lead to dictatorship. When Trump and Musk are ignoring judges' orders and going ahead with their sledgehammering, it sets a dangerous precedent for what the POTUS can get away with.
Ofc there's more to this story than just DOGE too.
It depends on what you want to build. If you want to build impressive B2C software, this sounds like a recipe for disaster. I've worked with many backend engineers masquerading as full stack engineers who couldn't carbon copy a simple mockup design into a working UI if their life depended on it. Yet they never seem to notice how bad their implementation is, sometimes not even if you point it out to them even if the end users would notice; I think these engs are so enamored with their work they're in some kind of denial about the shortcomings. And that's just the visual parts. There's also skill required to take accessibility and conformance with web standards into account (HTML/CSS/JS stack is devious in that it lets you do things in ways that are "wrong"), which you can't easily fix later on by tweaking a bit here and there. So without this understanding, you end up with a crappy UI that's overengineered for what it is. Of course that all won't be an issue if you're building software you can sell even if the UI makes its users depressed.
Not saying your typical frontend engineer is flawless either. It's probably true that they're, on average, not as skilled sw architects as backend engineers, simply because a lot of their work focuses on details instead of architecting, and, again, the HTML/CSS/JS stack is incredibly flexible, in good and bad.
Fair point about the importance of storytelling, but I wouldn't say "engineering rarely matters" in the tech industry. Compelling vision can mask those problems for a long while, but at some point the wheels will fall off if engineers can't deliver.
As a remote worker, 1:1s have been a great way for me to get to know my managers and make friends with them (well, friends who have the power to fire you, but anyhow). I've loved picking their brain on various topics, not limited to things related to work.
Then again, if you dislike your manager, the meetings can be pretty jarring. Sometimes you just don't have that chemistry with them. And some managers try too hard to make 1:1s "useful" according to their taste, which really makes them just another reporting session you want to avoid.
Are you seriously asking why? If you've paid any attention to the news in the past few weeks, you couldn't have missed the daily efforts by Trump and his cabinet to isolate the USA from its allies. In the past, European countries have trusted that the common values shared by the Western countries will ensure mutual cooperation now and in the future. Now this thinking has proven naive, as Trump has threatened Europe with, e.g., shutting down technological services if it's in his interest to do so. It doesn't seem to matter whether Europe pays for these services or not. Therefore, it's paramount for Europe to not vendor-lock themselves in American companies, as they can't be trusted anymore. It's sad and shocking, but Europe has been backed into the corner with this one.
It's not only about the money either. The even bigger blow is the whole 180 the US government has made, now actively aiding Russia instead of Europe. If it was just about the money, it would be a bit easier to understand (though still a big blow to the mutual understanding of what is worth defending in the world). If it was about the money, the US would happily _sell_ equipment to Ukraine and let the EU foot the bill. That doesn't seem to be the case though.
Imagine if Russia decided it wanted Alaska, and there'd be a stalemate meat grinder conflict in that area, and your European allies, who've been your closest supporters, were like "just give Putin what he wants bro. Who even cares about a little bit of Alaska? We're tired of supporting you and just want you to make peace, and will coordinate with Russia to knock some sense in you. All this talk of you wanting to 'defeat Russia' is just silly, gl with that"
It's really hard to look away when the collective West is crumbling right in front of our eyes. USAs new regime pulling its support of Europe and making friends with Russia is the biggest existential crisis Europe has faced in my lifetime.