Hacker News Reader

>For this reason they don't plan ahead at work, they don't save money and they waste a lot of resources thinking that there will always be something provided to them. This was her hardest problem in working in those cultures.

It would be good to know in which country your friend went to and what she was doing there. I was born an raised in Colombia (you can tell it by my far from perfect English), been living in Europe for more than five years now, and I've had the opportunity to travel to more than a dozen different countries. I completely disagree about the conclusion your friend jumped into from her experience near the Equator.

It was 1986, if I remember correctly, when our country was hit by El Niño[1]. We barely had rain for months, so the government decided for the first time ever, to implement day-light saving time and electricity rationing. Most of our energy is hydropower, so it was very important for us to make a very conservative use of electricity. Schools and offices changed their schedules and everyone was very conscious about the situation. I was just a child, but I realized how important our natural resources were and that there is a really big difference between using them and wasting them.

I speak for myself, but believe me when I tell you this was a generalized sentiment. I lived in a big city, but there are small villages (even Today) that only have running water for a couple of hours a day, because there's not enough money to keep the water treatment plant turned on 24/7.

Now, living in the first world, I can tell that people here in general tend to be less conscious about those facts. I see it everyday at my office, at parties, public events, etc.

I don't think this has to do with geography, it's something cultural and it's not like that in the place where I come from. Is people in Hawaii living day by day and wasting resources because they are closer to the equator? I don't think so.

I recommend you to travel more, don't let your friends tell you, experience it first hand, get to know different people, different places. It makes you a better person and changes your perspective on certain things.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Ni%C3%B1o%E2%80%93Southern_O...

My friend worked in NGOs in Asia, mainly in Indonesia because her mother is from there (but she was born and raised in Europe). I'm pretty sure that it's not the same everywhere in the world, but there they probably didn't experience the sort of things. She has been there for a long time and the prevalent culture is what I described.

Definitely that's not the entire world. But what you are explaining is what I was saying, only in the reverse. In your country you had situations where you really had to plan and rationalize to go through extreme climate problems. Then again, every country and culture is different.

I was raised in California but have spent considerable time in areas of the US with 4 seasons (such as Chicago). I have come to love the 4 seasons for this exact reason. Sure, hot/humid summers are tough, and winters can get chilly, but I would keep them for the cyclical nature they produce. They make it so life continually changes, but more importantly, they make the passage of time explicit in everything (what you see in the city, what you do, how you dress, etc.).

> There, the culture is to live by the day, because winter never comes and they don't need to prepare for hard seasons

You might find this video interesting. Philip Zimbardo on Time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3oIiH7BLmg

> ...countries close to the equator, where seasons and cycles don't exist.

Sure they do. In central Africa at least, the year is divided into the dry and rainy seasons.