I’ve always thought that in future we are going to have 4h work days. I thought it is a logical direction to go. However, it seems we are now proud of longer working hours and we are heading to wrong direction.
If we act based on this logic, then we should not use internet today, because it started as a military project. Well the telephone was created as a tool to talk each other not to browse on the internet. We can add many examples that initial usage changed significantly.
Facebook is very valuable in countries where press freedom is not good (if facebook is not blocked yet). My country (Azerbaijan) is one of the worst countries in terms of press freedom. The only “free press” we have is a facebook. There are many goverment’s trolls, but everybody understands when trolls write something (trolls get average salary). On the other hand, goverment follows oppositions’ discussions on facebook and responds accordingly. That is the only platform we have now goverment and oppositions speak with each other.
It is interesting to see how the title effect number of upvotes and comments. I’ve submitted this other day and it did not get any upvotes. My submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17471476
I did my master in Germany and I work in German company now. Yes, I speak little German, but I am improving it. My friends also came to study in German universities. At least half of them stayed here and all of them speak at least some German. I think companies also benefit a lot from this. It is much easier to hire somebody who already lived and studied in Germany than who never been here. Me and my friends are here, because German universities are free. Otherwise, we would not neither here nor U.S. and U.K. Because they are very expensive, there is no way to come from third world country and afford all expenses.