programmertote

Not anymore although I have my mom and most of my relatives there. I was thinking of retiring back there and teaching computer science and English to kids from poor backgrounds. But given the political situation today, that dream is put on hold...

> A team of scientists from Ohio University, Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Illinois-Chicago, and others, led by Ohio University Professor of Physics, and Argonne National Laboratory scientist, Saw Wai Hla, have taken the world's first X-ray SIGNAL (or SIGNATURE) of just one atom.

Tangential, but the lead scientist's name, Saw Wai Hla, sounds like he is from Myanmar (Burma). As a citizen of Myanmar, I'm proud that one of my fellow country people contributed to science.

I have worked with (managed) 6 colleagues from Colombia while I working for a multi-national corporation (one of the big 4 advertising firms). In the same company, I also worked with 12+ coworkers from India. I have to say that I found my colleagues in Colombia just as talented and motivated as the ones in India. In fact, because the coworkers from Colombia are direct hires, I have an easier time managing them as opposed to the coworkers in India, who are from a contract firm.

Like others have said here, the timezone difference makes things easier too. I still am in contact with 4 of my ex-coworkers in Colombia because I knew that one day, I might want to have my own business and I would hire them all without hesitation.

Monopoly increases the risk of greed-fueled inflation for sure. I am of the opinion that the inflation that we are seeing now started off with fundamental issues with the economy (oil production and prices; COVID-related government programs; too many years of cheap money provided by the government), but it sticks around because of greed.

I have been consciously trying to cut down on the expenditure on snacks, food (like eggs) and other items like laundry detergent that obviously have gone up significantly in price (more so than inflation rate) and/or have been shrinkflating noticeably. It is not easy, but that's the best I can do to send a message (I know, me doing alone is inconsequential) to some of these producers that they have a limit on how much they can raise. I am also 100% aware that a lot of people (esp. the ones with families) don't have the luxury to reduce consumption like myself though.

> "My cap is 15 patients in one day," Nuila says. "That's compared to some of my colleagues in the private world, who I've heard admit up to 24 patients in one night, or don't carry a cap."

Learning from my spouse who is a current medical resident -- some attendings admit and discharge more patients than the capacity because their bonuses are tied to that. That is a twisted incentive and it is in conflict with ACGME's guidelines of not letting residents handle more than 10 patients at a time. The attending/hospitalist at my wife's hospital makes $420K/year + bonus (it's near Miami, FL). They work 8-hours shift for 7 days and then rest 7 days. If one chooses to, s/he can moonlight at another place (a senior friend of my wife works for a hospital in Palmdale, CA and another one nearby for 7 days each; she easily bags $600K/year; she is raking in money when she can work this much while buying houses, and she plans to work half as much in a few years).

I also wonder if hospitals like "The People's Hospital" make patients sign waiver to not sue them. At my wife's hospital, some of the patients (and/or their families) are obviously angling for lawsuit and are always looking for excuses to do that. That legal/liability burden (among may other things like doctor's salaries; bloated administration; etc.) is part of the reasons why hospital bills are exorbitant.

You're very welcome! Just wanted to let you know that almost everyone hits rock bottom(s) in their lives. It can be very painful, but time always heal and you'll end up wiser as you get through that. :)

I have hit rock bottom about three times in life. One was losing my dad when I was 11-12 years old. I couldn't do much to get out of the slump because I was too young. It was my mom who led the family and took on the role of breadwinner+emotional support for her three kids. I genuinely owe her a lot for her resilience in such a different time for our family.

Second time was when my first girlfriend whom, like in your case, I thought was the love of my life and would marry. Back then, I was young; a bit arrogant (tend to think my thoughts/beliefs are the correct way to do things); thought honesty==saying things the way I see them without filter (not censoring things before I say with empathy) and worse, thought my then gf will put up with it. I was wrong. After a couple of years of putting up with my stubborn ways, she told me she's breaking up with me. It came as an absolute surprise to me and despite my pleas to her that I'd try to change my ways, she didn't buy them (she believes that people can never change). Since the apartment we lived was under my gf's name, I had to find a room in a city (San Francisco), which I just moved 4-5 months ago to follow my gf (she got a job in SF before I found mine). I knew no one in that city and didn't have a car. Because I graduated from college recently, I was relatively poor as well. My gf gave me 2 weeks to move out. I remember walking in the rainy, cold/misty weather of SF after work every day to look for relatively cheap apartments in SF, Daly City and Oakland (saw a couple of shady apartments). I even got flu and lingering cough in that period. Eventually, I found a room in SF and moved my stuff using Cal train (only took 3 trips total because I didn't have much). After moving into my new apartment, it took me six months to recover from the heartbreak. It took me a couple of years to completely get rid of her from my mind. It helps a little that during the break-up period, I was preparing for grad school applications (GRE prep, for example) and work, so I was able to divert my attention and energy to there.

The third time was when my second gf, the one I met in grad school, cheated on me in my fourth year of PhD. She took a job in PA; our relationship became long-distance for about a year; and she found a boyfriend at her new job, but didn't have the guts to tell me for (I think) about three months until I slowly figured it out. That happened in November and I had a terrible Christmas and New Year. I asked for a break from my PhD supervisor and he let me (because he knows that I am not going into academia and thus, I could graduate with just 3 papers to my name as the first author. This means, I just need to finish 2 chapters in my thesis summarizing previous research and can defend that). I was also financially supporting my two siblings for their college and I literally had ~$2000 in my bank account left. So I promised my PhD advisor that I'll come back and defend my thesis. Then I left the University town and took an internship in NYC, which turns into a full-time job. Because my ex-gf cheated on me, it was easy to get over her. I think it took maybe 3 months after starting my internship to get back to normal. I was afraid to get back to the dating scene for a year or a year and a half.

All of this to say that time will heal you. Hang in there. It's not the end of the world. In fact, nothing in life is until maybe we are in our dying bed or an asteroid is about to hit the earth. Take the lessons from your previous experiences and try to become a better person (e.g., don't repeat the mistakes you made in your previous relationships). There are more than one person in the world who can be your soulmate (since break-up with my first gf, I met at least 6 girls--I am not the kind of person who actively date/go on hook-ups--who I was able to connect emotionally (I only ended up dating two of them and the last of them has been my wife of four years). Relationship aside, I'd say that PhD is not that of a big deal. In the end though, we have to make money. It's nice to have a PhD at the tail of your name (I never use it to be honest because I dislike formalities/showing-off), but in the worst case scenario that you don't have it, it's totally fine. You got quite a bit of experience from doing research in grad school and you take the knowledge with you in your life, which can become quite handy in your career.

Know what is in your control and what is not. Focus on what you can control and try to achieve better outcome in what you can. Try to stay connected friends/family consistently if you have good relationship with them (if not, it's still okay; I didn't have any, but I survived, so can you). That will keep you from feeling too lonely sometimes. Also, feel free to do some exercise/establish workout routines for self improvement. I was able to do 100+ push-ups after the first break-up with my gf because I exercised and also took long walks in SF (around Golden Gate bridge park) while listening to music; these really helped. Most of all, please remember that this is not the end of the world. New (some good, some not-so-good) experiences await you and you just need to take whatever positive you can from this experience, and use it as a base to do better in the future. Stay strong and try to do the best in what you can control.

Not related to headshot per se, but I also noticed that when the C-level folks are talking on camera or on stage, they do this weird hand pose in which their fingers are touching in almost dove-tail fashion (e.g., https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/107010033-166673005906...). I wonder if it's taught to them by professional public speaking trainers.

> As new investments contract, demand shrinks for services across the industry. As demand shrinks, fewer employees are needed and companies need to reduce headcount to avoid overspending relative to revenues.

As someone who has only taken Econ 101 in college, can you explain

1) why the demand shrinks when there's not enough new investments? Shouldn't demand at least be the same overall (I mean I can see that fewer new houses are built, so the demand for timber might shrink. But that only explains the housing sector. I'd imagine the demand might stay constant for some industry such as transportation)?

2) Related to #2, if demand does not shrink by much, shouldn't the same number of workers be kept employed to fulfill the demand for goods?

If it's true that the contraction of new investments causes shrinkage of demand, it means the economy is heavily reliant on industries/sectors which relies on new investments (aka growth)?

Thank you in advance for elaborating your answer!

One doesn't need to wait 6 years with H1B to apply for green card. S/he needs to get his/her employer to agree on sponsoring the green card and the process can start whenever. My employer agreed to apply for green card in the second year of my H1B. I fortunately am not from one of those countries (China and India) with long wait for green card, so I got mine in a little less than 4 years (in fact, my case took a bit longer than usual, but COVID-related delay was a factor and the lawfirm, Fragomen, messing up a step in my application process was another factor in such a delay).

When I was in grad school (University of Rochester), we had a new associate professor recruit who freshly graduated from MIT. The first thing he shared with us was how to promote/advocate your work. The slides (the materials he used) are obviously created at MIT (meaning, they are not his creation) and it seems like (again, I'm not sure) it (how to promote your work) was taught in MIT grad school (at least in their PhD programs). I wish I saved those slides. I'm not saying that promoting your work in this day and age of academia is inherently wrong (although I'd like to think if your work is really good and essential, it'll surface without needing to promote), but I am just surprised that it was taught.

I tried to use Costco Auto program when I bought a car in late May of this year (2022). Once the dealers heard I came from Costco Auto program, they acted disinterested even though they are part of Costco Auto program (e.g., Al Hendrickson Toyota). Plus, there is no Honda dealer that is part of Costco Auto program within 180 miles of where I live (I live in just a little north of Miami). I went to Mazda of North Miami which supposedly is part of Costco Auto Program, and guess what, they gave me $500 discount and they said that's all I get as part of Cost Auto (but the car was like $4000 above MSRP).

I hope that when I purchase my next car, I'll never have to deal with dealerships and can buy it off online. I'm happy to pay 6-10% commission for dealership as long as I don't have to deal with haggling and being pushed to buy shady insurance and other add-ons that I don't need.

Like you said, most of these clinics have 2 assistants who do pretty much everything (accepting calls, submitting prescriptions, etc.) Sometimes, the doctor will also bring in an aspiring resident (mostly international medical graduates who cannot find clinical experience in the US easily due to their visa status/restrictions) as a volunteer or a paid-under-the-table-for-$12-per-hour to do some miscellaneous stuff around the clinic. But that volunteer's hours are sometimes on a need-base planning (meaning, the doctor will call the volunteer a day or two before if the clinic needs extra help).

Malpractice insurance for internal medicine (general medicine that I'm referring to) is ~$33K-$34K in NY area based on the link you've provided.

Now let's do the math to readjust my estimates.

One full time staff with $30/hr * 2080 hours in a year = $62400 => let's just double that to cover everything like their health insurance and liability insurance so each full time staff costs = $125000/year

2 staff * $125000 = $250000 Rent = $60000 (the doctors sometimes own the practice, but let's just assume it's a rental) Malpractice = $35000 EMR system like eClinicalWorks = $10000 (amortized for upfront and yearly costs; software like eClinicalWorks costs ~$600/month on average)

The total expense of running a primary care (internal medicine) clinic = $250000 + $60000 + $35000 + $10000 = $360000 (let's just say $400K/year)

When I said these clinics on average make $1MM/year (of course, they are all near NYC/NJ metro areas), I truly am underestimating the income these doctors get from each patient visit. As an example, if I visit my physician at NYU Langone for my yearly check-up (at most a 10-mins encounter), the net reimbursement from my insurance they get for my visit (after the insurance company's discount/rate negotiation) is ~$250 without including the lab fees. Out of emergency and convenience, I happened to visit one of these primary care clinic doctors where my wife used to work at, and the doctor charged me $80 (that was back in 2019) in cash for an ear infection check (total of 5-minute encounter) and that's because I paid in cash and because my wife used to work for her. All of these doctors that my wife volunteered at or worked for (she got paid $15/hr max from some of these docs) are making a load of money from these clinics because we know a couple of them personally as well.

Again, I'm not saying you are understating the profit margins. You probably have been working with the clinics in some economically depressed or low-cost-of-living areas. I am only sharing what I know for truth in terms of the income of these primary care clinics in NY/NJ area.

Spouse of a third year resident here. My wife has volunteered at several primary care (i.e. generic doctor) clinics in Manhattan and nearby area (Queens, Astoria, Brooklyn and even in Boundbrook, NJ). These are all owned by the doctors. She worked in all kinds of operations of a clinic from billing, sending prescription, taking patient history, etc.

Back-of-the-napkin calculation based on my wife's experience -- if you are a primary care (generic) doctor in a highly populated area and you see ~40 patients a day and each patient pays $100/visit.

$100 * 40 patients * 22 days per month of work * 12 months = $1056000 (about $1 million USD)

We are using $100/patient/visit and that's being very conservative. Most of these doctors would encourage the staff/volunteers who do the billing to put as many relevant billing codes as possible in the system (e.g., if someone comes in with a cough, they'll try to bill for anything related to cough symptom although they already knew it's just for seasonal allergy). This is necessary also because a lot (not all) of the patients are on medicare/aid and the reimbursement from medicare/aid is not as good as the ones from the private insurance companies. The cost of the labor is mostly just one assistant or at most two for ~$20-$30/hour max. Not sure about the insurance cost (but we assume that it would cost ~$20-$30K/year for malpractice insurance?) and renting the clinic (some docs do own the clinic). All in all, we believe that having your own practice can net you a lot more than what you'd make by working as an attending/hospitalist at a hospital (on average, hospitalists make between $250K-$300K/year, which is still commendable).

But if you live in a rural area, which tend to have smaller population density, then you are probably better off working for a hospital because as a hospitalist, you can make close or a little more than $300K/year as a general doctor. My wife knows a couple of doctors in Palmdale, CA, who work as hospitalists in two hospitals (6 days a week alternating between two hospitals; the days start at around 9am and ends around 3-4pm). They rake in ~$600K/year from salaries (not including bonuses). A friend of mine just completed his residency and got an offer from a hospital near Dyersburg (Tennessee) for $300K/year salary with $40K sign-on bonus. The specialists earn more of course: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/how-much-do-doctors-make/. A cardiologist friend of mine told me that he got an offer from a hospital in Montana that pays $800K+/year.

Just wanted to share what I know about how much the doctors can make in the United States.

When I saw "Kinopio", I thought it's about Toad character (my favorite) in Super Mario universe. :) But I'm still pleasantly surprised to see a site that looks very unique.

I wonder if the word "Kinopio" means something other than Toad in Japanese (maybe someone here who knows Japanese can answer?)

Tangentially related -- My wife recently had to provide her SSN, DoB and her fingerprint scanned by a third-party company [https://www.printscan.com/about-us/], which is "owned, and operated by active and retired Law Enforcement Officers". We both felt really uncomfortable providing such sensitive information to a third party company, but had no choice because Florida board of medicine [https://flboardofmedicine.gov/] uses PrintScan as a partner to do background checks. The fee was $125 for fingerprint scanning at one of their locations.

According to that company's 'About Us' page, "PrintScan’s certified fingerprint technicians undergo extensive background checks before being cleared with the FBI, NYS Department of Criminal Justice Services, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and Homeland Security."

I looked up on the FBI website to see if they provide similar background check service, and sure they do for $18! I have a hard time figuring out why FL board of medicine uses a third party service instead of FBI to do background checks, and also wondered why shouldn't FBI background check be enough/sufficient for criminal activity (i.e. don't states share their criminal records with FBI?). All of this is to say that the existence of companies like PrintScan--and the fact that one of the state governments uses it--is definitely concerning to me.

Disclaimer: I didn't downvote you.

I guess you can say that it really took me 6 years to get a green card via employer sponsorship (although those 6 years were anxiety-filled to say the least). However, if the startup (my first employer out of college) sponsored me work visa and then green card, I would not have gone for the PhD either. I hope it makes sense.

It took me also ~18 years to get my green card. I went through a very similar (almost identical) route as the blogger and I'm glad he documented this grueling experience. I went to college in the US; graduated in 4 years; worked with OPT for 2.5 years; went back to a PhD program because my then employer wouldn't sponsor me an H1B (according to them, they are a start-up and cannot put up with the legal burden and cost of sponsoring me, who is the only immigrant at the company); earned my PhD and went to work for a Fortune 100 company; got selected in the H1B lottery on the first attempt; waited 2 more years for my employer to decide that I'm worthy of their green card sponsorship; waited 4 years in the green card application process (thanks partly to COVID delays and thanks partly to the immigration law firm, Fragomen, which not only screwed up with my PERM filing once but also was very slow in preparing the application--probably intentionally because there was no one at my company who is holding Fragomen accountable back then; my company since then moved to PwC for immigration matters although I'm not sure if that improves things for the immigrant workers there) to finally get one.

I went back home twice in that 18 years because I was always afraid that I might not be allowed back in the US when I renew my visa (F-1 student visa or H1B work visa) at the local embassy in my home country.

If I could turn back in time, I'd have gone to Canada to not have to deal with this. Or I should have married a US citizen to make my path to green card easier, or even applied for asylum using my country's political situation as a cover (I didn't do either because I thought these are dishonest *for my situation*; there are a lot of people from my country who do either of these things). Legal immigration (including work visa and green card) is very difficult in the US.

Agree with the part about doctors being overpaid in the states. My wife is a 3rd year resident of a fairly well-known hospital system in one of the biggest metro areas of the US. We always feel lucky that she is a doctor because we know that she will make $250K+ (more like $300K/year if she choose a hospital in a rural area) as an internal medicine doctor (hospitalist/attending). My wife might go for oncology fellowship and that might put her earnings close to $400K+/year after 3 years of fellowship training (during the fellowship, she will make ~$80-90K/year). We get very good health insurance from her hospital since she started her residency there. I myself quit medical school after 2 years because I hated the way I had to study to get good grades there (a lot of rote memorization). But looking back, I regret quitting.

Both my wife and I agree that if we ever have a kid, we'd encourage him/her to at least consider medicine as his/her profession (assuming that the US healthcare system stays the relatively same). We are NOT the only ones. There are so many doctor friends of ours whose parent(s) are doctors. Our friends also think the same as us (that they'd encourage their kids to consider medicine as a profession).

Coincidentally, I have a friend who is in the second cycle of this IVF procedure to select an embryo that does not carry the genes associated with polycystic kidney disease (PKD). When I heard it last week for the first time, I thought it is already an established procedure. Here, I'm learning that it is a relatively cutting-edge approach and I am now looking forward to asking my friend more about this next time we meet.

Just making sure, the site will NOT save the data that I entered in the PDF? Thank you for sharing your side-project!

I highly recommend you to visit third world countries and sample food from there. I grew up in Burma and have been living in the US for almost 20 years. Every time I went back to Burma, I buy milk, egg and chicken from local markets. I boil the milk and egg, and make curry out of the chicken. The milk is super creamy and if you boil it for 2-3 times, you get like 1-cm creamy foam on top. I tried the same with Costco whole milk, and didn't get as much cream/richness. The chickens are usually smaller, but they don't have "fishy" (for the lack of better way to describe it; but you can notice if you have lived in Burma for a while and came back to the US to eat factory-farmed chicken) smell before/after cooking. The chicken bone is a bit thicker and there is more bone marrow (I like chewing on bones and eating the marrow). Maybe it's the breed difference, but certainly there's no smell.

I'd also recommend you to try different kinds of fresh water fish that are available in places like Burma and Thailand. These fish are more and more difficult (expensive) to buy thanks to overfishing, but the variety and the flavor will just amazes you.

In general, I believe that factory farming has reduced the variety of available food in the US. Whether that impacts the long term health/flavor of the food is something we probably should conduct a long-term scientific study to confirm.

My wife and mom (from the same country) both told me that they cannot eat the chicken from US markets because of the smell, and it took me a while (15 years) to get that distinct scent that they mention and once I starts cooking more and more, I learned to distinguish that myself.

Having owned a couple of Samsung TVs and done quite a bit of research, I'd say LG is the brand that I'd go for when I buy my next TV. My Samsung TV's infrared remote signal receiver broke after ~1.5 years. I had to call several times to arrange a repair person to come to my house. Guess what, the contractor they hired to send the repair person has poor organization skills--they double-booked me for appointments and yet failed to send anyone to my house. After calling Samsung customer support and chatting with their reps many times, they finally said they'll refund me the money, which I naively agreed to (they had me sign an online PDF or something). Guess what, when I bought that TV, it was ~$350 (including tax) and they issued ~$328 for me even though my Costco receipt clearly shows that it was ~$328 total (they only issued refund of the base TV price--not including the tax and such). The rep was smart in not telling me that I could have told them that I want another TV as replacement, but I was naive and after calling and speaking with them for so many times, I just wanted this ordeal to be over. The whole ordeal took ~2 months and after that, I swear myself to never buy Samsung product again.

I look into other TV brands and either they have very suspicious privacy practices (Roku and TCL) or they are made with items sourced in just one country (e.g., TCL and Hisense, which are both based in China).

That leaves me with either Sony (too pricey) or LG and LG seems like the most non-smart TV with sources all over the world (Vietnam and sometimes Mexico), as opposed to mostly from one country.

I'm afraid that after the supply chain issues are resolved (in next year or a bit later), I suspect that the prices will come down. I'd wager that there is always psychological aspect to inflation. This is not to mention that if we don't see prices increased noticeably because inflation gets cool in the next year or so, we'd still be stuck with shrinkflation (the amount of goods you receive per $1 spent would be lesser). I work with a Fortune 200 CPG company and they are already planning to keep prices stable in various ways (including shrinkflation).

How does one add OTP to her/his Google account? Is there a guide/instruction that you could share? Thanks in advance!

For someone who is at the beginner level of financial trading knowledge, what does it mean for a particular stock to have high short interest? Does that mean there are so many people who are betting against AMD of late (meaning, that the market thinks the company is going to underperform in the near future)? Thanks in advance for your explanation!

I didn't downvote you and in fact, I agreed with the fact that a significant portion of the exorbitant healthcare prices in the US can be traced back to administrative bloat, MBAs who are in the management and to a degree, the significantly-higher-than-OECD-average salaries of the doctors in the US.

Having said that, your belief that many hospitals are non-profit might not be as simple as it looks from the outside. I recently read an insider writing something about it on Reddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/SelfAwarewolves/comments/pruk4x/the...

Hope that gives you an additional viewpoint regarding the "non-profit" label of the hospitals.

Partly true. It's because my wife is an international medical graduate (IMG), so she had to do a lot more work than local (US) grads to show that she is qualified. Having said that, the local grads don't have it easier if you read the comments in this post. I have a few US friends who were pre-meds and are now professional doctors. I know that they had to put a lot of effort to signal to the programs (e.g., research publications, volunteering at big-name clinics/hospitals, etc.) that they are worthy of the residency training (at competitive programs of course).

What I meant was that for specialties that require more hands-on, emergency (life or death situation) practice such as cardiac/neuro/ortho surgeons (including anesthesiologists because they are part of the surgical teams), we should not allow anyone to easily get licenses (I will not be the judge of whether the current amount of training required for these specialists is enough or not to folks with better knowledge).

Most of all, I believe that we can train capable internal medicine/primary care doctors in just 5-6 years instead of 8+3 years that is required now.

I have not read the PDF report, but I agree with the title that the residency matching system in the US needs to be fixed.

My wife is a current resident in the US and she graduated from a medical school in SE Asia. She spent tens of thousands of dollars on exams, observerships (yeah, one has to pay to observe at the hospitals and there are only a handful of them that accept observers; there are a few clinics that take money for observerships), unpaid volunteering, unpaid research, and travels. All of that to make her resume stronger so that she can have a better chance at *residency lottery*. Worse, the residency spots are sometimes decided by internal contacts/introductions--just like a regular job. If one's year of graduation is higher than 5, it becomes much harder to get a residency match. Every year, we are leaving behind some perfectly qualified medical doctor candidates in the convoluted, costly and unnecessarily-restrictive system.

No wonder doctors in the US expect to make way above what doctors in other developed countries make because of the artificially tough road they have to traverse to become professional doctors in the US. This, in turn, affects (increases) the health care cost that we have to pay when we go see doctors.

In summary, it should not be that difficult to become a general (internal medicine) doctor in the US. Actually, I'd go as far as to say that it should not be that difficult to become a doctor of any specialty except a handful like (neuro/orthopedic/opthalmic/cardiac/general) surgeons. A lot of other developed countries (or countries like India, which produces very capable medical doctors) do away with residency bullshit. There must be something that the US can do to make hopeful residents' lives easier.