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Comment by rjzzleep | Hacker News Reader

Very interesting. Yeah labour is cheap in Taiwan. Even highly qualified, specialized labour. That's why talent leaves to China, USA and Israel.

But about the factory itself, American Factory was quite interesting[1]. Chinese company, but similar culture clash.

It is interesting however that from what I have seen Europeans that wouldn't lift a finger on a weekend would expect Taiwanese to have results on Monday morning, when they themselves only send information about their requests on Friday end of day. So in the middle of the Friday night for the Taiwanese.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Factory

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Talent generally doesn't leave for China from Taiwan, conditions in China are even worse. The Taiwanese computer chip talent that worked in China were almost all working for Taiwanese firms. There are a lot of programs where they try to lure in foreigners who're ignorant about China with high wages, from what I see Taiwanese do not tend to fall for this for obvious reasons. In recent years there have been lots of less qualified folks leaving Taiwan though and China is one of the destinations. With China's rapidly growing economy there was a lot of opportunity there for basically anyone, you could make quite a bit of cash if you were hustling and stayed out of "trouble". But those years seem to be coming to an end.

I don't see any contradictions. There are day jobs, and there are 24/7 jobs. Someone working 9 to 5, 5 days a week isn't supposed to answer the phone after the work hours, that constitutes employer abuse. If the employer want to have someone always available, then they should hire people for 24/7 and pay accordingly.

> It is distributed by Netflix and is the first film acquired by Barack and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground Productions

So... I'm betting there's a political angle there.

> from what I have seen Europeans that wouldn't lift a finger on a weekend would expect Taiwanese to have results on Monday morning

Many fabs and factories work around the clock or 4-3 shifts. It's less common in the white collar space, so perhaps that's culturally different. However, I've personally done those shifts before.

Americans, tend to work a lot of hours -- https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/average-working-time-by-...

I don't know the methodology, but it really depends on job and region. Even by state it'll vary by 20%

https://www.bls.gov/sae/tables/annual-average/table-3-averag...

> So... I'm betting there's a political angle there.

If there is, it's that Americans are lazy. Maybe even so lazy that instead of reading the synopsis they just read Wikipedia intro paragraphs to confirm their own biases.

> Europeans that wouldn't lift a finger on a weekend would expect Taiwanese to have results on Monday morning

My Monday morning is Taiwan’s end of business day. I would expect the message is acknowledged and that at least simple questions be answered by then. OTOH, they can sure expect me to act on their requests while they are off for the evening.

The level of entitlement from Westerners is unreal. "You can't have your cake and eat it too"

Yes we can ;)

What's the point of a cake if they can't eat it?

You can eat it, but then you don't have it.

Why would I want even more cake after I just ate some? That just seems unhealthy.

That saying is generally for people who wish to keep cake as a trophy, but cant wait to enjoy eating it too.

In this case the point being brutal working hours and affluence don't go hand in hand.

True enlightenment: realizing that the cake is a lie.

There is no cake. Or spoon.

These kind of threads make me feel like the old secret society handshakes have been replaced by mystic level mastery of memes.

So say we all.

Think of it as evolution in action.

Make a bigger cake.

Heh, you're forgetting how well it went last time someone said "let them eat cake"

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