badestrand

Is there automated flying on the horizon? Seems to me that it should be a lot simpler than for cars and would make operating so much simpler and more cost effective.

Both countries (Switzerland and Japan) have a culture of a focus on quality, so they are very close in this trait.

The Dutch are IMO very pragmatic people that, while quality is important to them, are more willing to sacrifice it for other things that are of higher priority.

So it's not about a general sharing of culture but only about sharing the quality-focus aspect.

> I don't really understand how you define "argue" such that you can completely avoid it while still admitting differences of opinion...

I am not rconti, but for me there is a big difference as well between arguing and talking about a difference in opinion. Arguing for me is "fighting", being confrontative and aggressive, blaming and letting off steam. The other thing then would be a calm, collaborative and resolution-oriented talk about an issue. I personally had relationships with both kinds but can not really pin down why one relationship resulted in arguing and all others did not.

Yes, the fee has been there since the beginning, if you use their payment system.

I think the new and problematic policy is that they now

- forbid you to use other payment systems than their own

- forbid you to just add the 30% to your price on iOS compared to other platforms

- forbid you to mention to the user that they can pay on the company's website or through other channels

Also their own product's don't have to pay the fee. So Apple Music can charge 30% less than Spotify or Spotify can distribute significantly less of the revenue to the artists.

I was working remotely for a few years and in my opinion coworking spaces are the best of both worlds. I like to leave my apartment for work, I need a environment where I can concentrate and I like to see and talk to people, making friends. But I also like not having a boss around and being able to come and go whenever I want. You have all this in a coworking space and if you move to the opposite part of town (or change the city) you just change your space so that your commute never gets more than 10 minutes. Best of both worlds!

I think many people here (me included) just don't know what LinkedIn is doing. Apart from "having a website", that is.

This is objectively false as they have developed many of the most successful products on this planet. There are hundred of web mail products but gmail is the best. Google Maps is the best in class, other great products are Google Earth, Analytics, YouTube, Cloud, Android and many more.

Yes, you can find flaws in any of those but it's also hard to find better products in the same category. Google is not in any way "terrible at building products", they are one of the best companies in the whole world in building products.

> Ask them "What makes you think you could contribute around here?" and then listen to them.

I think the author didn't lead msny interviews and only imagines themselves as the applicant. I had so many people apply for programming positions who couldn't even type the most basic for loop. The reality is, you need to find out the "level" of the applicant - are they a complete beginner, can they contribute basics, can they design medium sized projects themselves or can they be solely responsible for a larger one. That quoted approach doesn't help with that at all because many people will just tell you what you want to hear. Live coding and whiteboarding can give you good insights.

> Endangering the lives of others has never been an inalienable right

That's simply wrong. I am allowed to drive a car, which is inherently dangerous to pedestrians (140,000 accidents per year in the US). I am allowed to have a lot of (or all?) contagious deseases in public, which is dangerous to the elderly and immune-compromised. I am sure there are many more examples. Small dangers are everywhere. I am all for wearing masks but let's not make up stuff.

> It's not that I love plastic, it's just the optimal choice for food packaging now. Saying "I don't use plastic spoons" while following current consumption standards makes no dent whatsoever.

IMO the value is not only in the concrete measures taken (e.g. using wooden spoons) but in the overall trend. We have the movement away from plastic right now and while some single actions or policies may only have a negligible effect there is a huge value in the big picture: Research for alternative materials, lots of companies and consumers trying to figure our ways to reduce waste and plastic usage. And boom, after a few years or decades we might have a plastic free future where everyone consumes less and close to 100% of materials are recycled.

Could we search for alternatives without banning single-use plastic bags? Probably yes but the workings of society are messy and not always rational so better take the path that actually works.

They can be, of course.

I worked in a food delivery company of the Just Eat group ~5 years ago, for 1.5 years. They take a comission of ~12% of the order price just by providing the platform to place orders. The technology is simple, then you have a sales team to acquire restaurants as partners and a customer service team to support when orders get lost or to update the menus.

Yes, there can be cut-throat competition in a market where a lot of money is sunk into marketing and the business is operating at a loss. But there are also consolidated markets where one platform captures >80% of all online orders and generates endless profits.

Just because a few VC-backed companies burn their many millions in a short time doesn't mean that there aren't large and very profitable food delivery services.

> Margins are terrible, if they’re ever positive. It’s just a bad business.

That's simply false. A lot of profit is made in the space and as soon as you have some significant market share it becomes a cash cow.

Yes, it might not always work to start up in a already saturated market, but that shouldn't be a surprise.

...or just use taxes because it's a super low amount anyway and the payment structure is already in place

Well, salaries are always relative to the local market so to attract the top 5% of talent they will need to offer maybe $180k/yr.

I think crime and especially violence in Mexico are much more unevenly distributed. That is, half the country is really safe and half is quite dangerous.

I stayed in various of the "safe parts" of Mexico for three months and felt much safer than in any of various cities in the US, both experienced as a European traveller.

> Work form "anywhere" makes way, way less sense; one must be hard-pressed by circumstances to choose it.

I like your analytical approach and you are right: why go to a coworking space when there's not much difference to a real office anyway?

I think the answer for me lies in the flexibility: In a coworking space I can come in or leave at whatever time I want. When I have an unproductive day I can go home at noon and when I feel like working on Saturday I will do so. Offices just have this peer pressure for Mo-Fr 9-6 that you can't evade and coworkers or your manager will raise their brows if you deviate from it. Even in coworking spaces I actually work a very regular schedule, but I just dislike not having the possibility to break out of it.

Good points, but the plus sides of Bangkok:

+ incredible night life with some of the best bars and clubs I've ever seen

+ from downtown to the most beautiful beaches in just 3 hours by car

+ more dream islands and beaches just 1 hour by inland flight away

+ several national parks in range for weekend tours

+ super easy and cheap to hop to exciting neighboring countries (Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore) for a few days

+ actually there are many super nice coworking spaces for around $120/month and many cafès allow sitting for hours

+ probably the best dating scene in the world for white and black men

+ Thai people are probably the friendliest, relaxed and most easy-going people in the world

Can you recommend an area in Manila or elaborate what you like about it? When I was there for two weeks I experienced it as a suffocating concrete block. I love big, vibrant cities but couldn't really get the hang of Manila.

> that over-promotes stocks as an investment vehicle.

But what else is there? Holding cash is terrible because it even loses value and the real estate market feels grossly over-expensive. So if you earn more than you spend, where do you put your extra money? I don't think that bonds, p2p-lending or precious metals perform better in risk/reward.

In the article that section about the cruise ship talked about voluntary self-infecting and how that would be risky (1-2% death rate).

What this completely ignores is that obviously only young and healthy people would attend those "corona parties" and thus the CFR of the voluntaries would rather be around 0%. And obviously those people wouldn't immediately go see grandpa but instead self-isolate for three weeks.

I hate that so many are pretending that it's like russian roulette when in reality the odds are so highly skewed.

It's different because when you go for herd immunity you would try to infect low-risk groups first so the high risk groups would never get it at all. This would result in an overall minimal death rate, could be a tenth or less of the death rate if the infections were evenly distributed.

I share zackbloom's view that OP overly tried to be (financially) successful. Instead the ultra fast pace and high pressure of a VC backed startup he could have bootstrapped and instead of the soulcrushing corporate job he could have worked at a small company where there is no politics and people care about each other and their craft.

I don't know if OP deliberately chose to chase money, but he did and now complains that he lost his passion for technology. Yes, the other options leave you only with half or even less of the income but you will remain happy and can have a fulfilling work environment. With a software development job you will have a comfortable income no matter where you work so "i needed the money" is not an excuse.

> Unless I'm missing something it's like unavoidable to get droplets on your hand/spreayer for the manual types?

Yes, you use your hand along with the water to clean! It sounds disgusting but actually feels super clean and hygienic once you are used to it.

Your hand will not smell afterwards and it is heavenly for the butt, feels so nice and clean. Also IME feces will lose some of their disgustingness, just because everything around it is so much cleaner now. I lived "western style" until 30 y/o and with a "bum gun" since two years, one of the best life improvements for me.

I have never seen a proposal for UBI that is not limited to citizens. You obviously have to draw a line somewhere and obviously you would not give money to tourists. Maybe long term residents could be included though, e.g. those who live 5+ or 10+ years in the country.

You are confusing "cheapest option possible" with "cheapest option available". Maybe Amazon _could_ be cheapest and most efficient in everything but they aren't, that's why they make a lot of profit with their cloud services. Thus there can easily be a competitor with a cheaper offering, especially if they are cutting some corners as per the article, even if they have some inefficiencies in other areas.

> I want a place that's always Sunny but doesn't get too hot

I feel similar and for me elevated cities (at ~2000m) in sunny climates are perfect. For example Mexico City, Bogota or Arequipa (Peru). I know, the total list of suitable cities is probably narrow but it is by far my favorite climate.

You need to give that knowledge time to spread. The vast majority of living adults learned in school that the DNA is fixed and the surrounding stuff is just junk. Eventually everyone will know about epigenetics but how else would you spread the information if not with articles like these.

It's a business with a very low barrier of entry. Same like food order platforms, both will have new players enter the market. If anything, the cap is dangerous for Uber as they have very high fixed operating costs, compared to a startup.

> A bad idea, as long as it produces an asset of value, is okay. You can move your asset to a more viable market.

Sorry but it sounds to me that you are not speaking from experience but just from reading many "startup culture" posts. In reality there just are many startups that have ideas and build products that never get to profitability. Most even have users that love the product but that doesn't help you if you can't get enough money.

And ideas matter a lot. Some are just almost impossible to execute to profitability while others are a relatively easy win. I have seen both and no, you can not just "move the asset to a more viable market".

Same for me, I currently sit in an open floor with a lot of space and people are considerate of others (i.e. not chatting much/loud).

And I actually like it a lot. I don't want to sit in a separate room all day, I enjoy being around people and to interact from time to time.