1,493 karma · joined March 16, 2017
Tangential, but I feel the same way about NYC. I have lived in SF for ~3 years and have now been in NYC for ~4 years. I guess cities, that are HCOL, tend to exacerbate the (low and high income) class disparities, and maybe also heighten residents' stress and reduce their patience levels?
If one can ignore these ugly aspects and one can be patient to wait for the books needed to show up on the shelf (I took a bus for 45 minutes one way to go to the embassy almost everyday and stay there from 9am-2pm every day to catch the book I want being returned), the embassy is still the best resource we had.
It took me ~1.5 years to prepare for these tests (English was the hardest; math, physics, bio and chemistry are fairly easy because I finished high school there and the curriculum there is much tougher than the ones in the states), but in the end it's 100% worth it because without the scholarships, I'd never have been able to study in the US and be able to support my family (siblings and widowed mom) back home. If the admission committee decides solely based on holistic view like volunteering and other extracurricular activities, how could I compete with other well-off kids in the US for admission?
Also, I wonder how you learn all these knowledge (that is, asking for recommendation on a few books/resources for learning) if you don't mind sharing. Thanks in advance!
I can't agree more with your last sentence. Why Blackrock? I really want to read their reasoning of using Blackrock as a broker other than it being the biggest fund manager. The Fed is big enough and why can't it buy the bonds directly. Maybe their weak excuse is that they can execute it via Blackrock ETFs quickly. But still...then why not spread it evenly over other institutions like Vanguard, Fidelity, etc.?
Is it imaginable that eventually, the US government owns the majority stake in these quasi-government-backed companies, moving the US economy further away from market-based capitalism?
Good: I have Echo and I can tell that the AI in Google Home (mini) is more advanced than that in Alexa.
Bad 1: Every time my wife (who uses Pixel phone) and I (I have an iPhone 6) connect via Bluetooth to our Google home minis, it drops after a few minutes consistently even when we are using YouTube, which is Google's own app. We tried all kinds of ways that we can find online to reset these Home minis, and still that connectivity issue still persists. That went on for about 8 months and now, both of these minis (bought separately 3-4 months apart) are no longer connectable through Bluetooth. I really wonder if other Google Home owners face the same issue.
Bad 2: Google Home app is very confusing to use. Another bad example is--I have the temperature metric set to Celcius (I grew up in a non-US country) and both of these minis no longer read temperature in Celcius (after reading it for about the first six months of use) despite how many times I attempt to reset it in the app connected to my Google account. I don't know if it has to do with the firmware upgrades or the app upgrades that has failed to update the parameters within, but even as a relatively tech-savvy person, I still have trouble understanding the UI and worse, how to get these minis do such simple thing as reading out temperature in the metric that I want to use.
Since the beginning of 2020, I submitted a couple of product reviews with detailed and factual explanation about why products in question aren't good enough. One of them was Amazon basic chair [https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Low-Back-Computer-Chair-...], which makes squeaky noises after 6 months of use (I'm a 135 lbs male), and another was Secura milk frother, which also make screechy noises after 1 month of light use (once or twice everyday). Turns out my review for their chair didn't get posted, so I tried again and finally wrote a question on the product page as to why my review isn't showing up. Then the review somehow showed up a week after. For Secura, they don't have a way to upload a video in product review (I see some people uploaded videos/images, but in my Amazon account UI for product review, there's no such feature), so I took a video and uploaded it to YouTube and shared the link as an example in my review. They wrote me a week later saying my review was not posted because of third-party links, so I went ahead and removed the YouTube link and only described the title of my YouTube video if anyone wants to search for it. No words from Amazon after two weeks of submitting that revised review. So I just checked the product review button (as seen in My Orders section) and the message I wrote there is still there. So I just clicked submit again. We'll see what happens.
In the past, when you write review, you get an email from Amazon telling you either that they are reviewing it or that it has been posted. Now, the experience is super confusing and subpar. In the worst interpretation, you even start to suspect if they post every review or they censor some based on their bias toward the seller (e.g., Amazon Basics products get less negative reviews)
Also, since COVID-19 made the shipping times are significantly slower on Amazon, I opened an account on AliExpress last week and started ordering some items. Unfortunately though, the effort it takes to sift through products on AliExpress is still much more challenging/tiring than that is on Amazon now. So some of the comments here are correct that although Amazon is not living up to our ideal vision of how an online retailer should be like, they are still ahead of their competition... I hope it changes some day and we see a decent competitor so that it is better for consumers (although I'm not sure if it'd be better for warehouse workers though...)
I am curious (a serious question) what better system you have in mind to replace juries.
First, start estimating how many calories you need per day on credible sites like [1]. Then, buy a scale, measure it twice everyday--first, in morning when you wake up (and peed) and second, right before you sleep. The subtract these two and get an approximate drop in weight (for me, it's usually 1-1.2 lbs over night for average type of food that I eat). Use that to approximate how much food you should eat in the evening and what type of food you should eat so that you can reach your weight goal.
Keep adjusting your portion of food (start from the portion size that will fill you up until your next meal) over the next 10 days to see which one keeps your weight under check or make it go lower.
I have lost 20 lbs between Dec '19 and end of Feb '20 just by doing this. In summary, measuring your weight diligently (just twice a day or even once a day in the morning if you want) is a good enough start to lose weight.
[1] https://health.gov/our-work/food-nutrition/2015-2020-dietary...
The quickest and most effective way to transform an authoritarian country for the better is to let the rich, the poor and the middle class have a taste of what quality living (to some extent, the capitalism) is like. Then their children will get proper education and things will automatically change for the better in a generation at most. I have seen that with the children of the rich and military/ruling class people in my home country; these younger generations are the ones who, using their parents' accumulated enormous wealth and influence, to make changes (some bad, some pretty decent) to copy what they've tasted in other, more developed countries.
The normal day folks like us bear the biggest (by a large margin) brunt of the sanctions whereas the rich and ruling class go about their day merrily. Sure they'll encounter some inconvenience like not being able to travel to certain countries or being able to expand their businesses as much as they wish to, but they live in secluded districts with 24-hour electricity while us plebes get 12 hour electricity every day (This is just to mention the least annoying effect of artificial scarcity created by sanctions; the government couldn't get parts nor get training on technical know-how to fix/upgrade the hydro generators because of the sanctions).
A lot of people starves and the education system suffer, which sets the entire generation backward by at least 3 decades (while the rich and ruling class send their kids to international schools and then at institutions in nearby neighboring countries; some even went as far as faking their children's identities and sent them to places like Australia, Canada and even US to study).
Sanctions aren't that effective and they only hurt (and kill) the people at the bottom of the society.
The guy that I mentioned above who asked for one whole month of vacation also encouraged another Indian guy to do the same and they both took off last December to India while some team members from other projects were asked to cover for their absence by the ex-managing director. Worse, that guy also somehow convinced our management to hire his then-fiance in mid 2019 directly from India as a manager. I just can't believe how he pulled these off, but I have to give it to him for being really good at getting things done the way he wants them.
As a fellow foreigner and as an Asian, I can tell that more often than not Indian people are bolder and more aggressive in asking for what they want (e.g., one of my Indian colleague asked for salary raise and the permission to go back to India in December for a month every year as part of his negotiation when he applied and got offer from another company; what he told me was simple, "It's my responsibility to ask. It's my boss' task to refuse or accept.") On top of that, some (not everyone; some are meek/introvert like myself). Because of their boldness, Indian people seem to be more successful at making themselves more visible, which is very important in corporate culture to get ahead. On top of that, some of them are pretty clever at courting favor of their superiors and/or playing office politics. I have seen quite a few of my peers/acquaintances from India who climbed corporate ladder pretty fast, so I'm not surprised they are doing well in terms of representation in C-level roles.
Given that experience, I'd not be surprised if pharma spend a ton of money on direct-to-doctor marketing.
True to his roots, the guy was pretty good at promoting his work (although, having worked on the system he was developing at that time for a bit, I highly doubt the outcome of his project is as good as he made them look like) and he always made sure to get his work featured one way or another in media (be it University publication, local newspapers and through non-profit media channels).
Experiencing that dinner and seeing my host family mom (a practicing psychiatrist in the US for a private psychiatry hospital) getting food every week from pharma reps, makes me feel disgusted about the connection between doctors and pharma companies in the US.
Both my wife and I were very much surprised at how much it costs and how many more hurdles one has to overcome to become a doctor in the US. Sure, we would like our brain surgeons and orthopedics to be trained extremely well. But we really don't need 8 years of schooling, 3-8 years of residency+fellowship training on top of many, many exams (Step 1, 2 CK, 2 CS, 3, state licenses) to become a competent doctor. After all, the doctors in the US have to follow the code/guidance set mostly by insurance companies to avoid being sued (meaning, they don't have a lot of leeway to use their intelligence in treating patients; they simply try to not get sued, so they would tell you to get tested on everything possible in order to avoid malpractice lawsuits later, which actually do happen much much higher than in other countries that I know of). The trust between doctors and patients is very, how do I say it, much impersonal and money based.
AMA, test prep companies (Kaplan, UWorld, AMBOSS), residency programs and everyone in the field are (either intentionally or unintentionally) making the bar to entry as high as possible (higher than necessary) to keep the number of doctors available low (my sister who lives in Rochester, NY cannot book a physician for annual check-up until May). India produces plenty of qualified doctors. So does my country (I'd say my country has produced so many doctors for Singapore, Australia and the US; they, like my wife, came to the US and AUS because they can make so much more money here). The field of medicine in the US is paved with money and has become very transactional (I pay you a lot, you'd better treat me and not mess up or else I'll sue you) and impersonal.
About the long wait time - I waited from 11pm until 8:30am (discharge) in the morning in ER of Strong Memorial hospital one day for falling and bleeding from my nose (I thought I broke my nose, but luckily, I didn't). I should have answered my pain level was 10 instead of being truthful about it and responding 3. This is not to mention that I got charged $250 from deductibles despite having the insurance.
My sister, who lives in Rochester, NY, is waiting until May 2020 to get an appointment for yearly physical checkup. There's a significant shortage of doctors in rural areas (Rochester isn't even that rural to be honest). And yet, AMA is happily restricting the supply of new doctors by putting up multiple hurdles including exam fees (not to mention the amount of money they charge for each USMLE exam is ridiculous) and requirement to go through 8 years of education when that could have been easily reduced to just 4 for any IM (internal medicine) physician.
I wonder which medical residency is she at? My wife is a resident at a pretty busy hospital in NY metro area. She is in her first year as well and doesn't do more than two night floats a week and no more than 60-65 hours a week. I also know so many other doctors (friends/acquaintances of my wife and via my ex-landlord who owns multiple family houses which he rents out these up-and-coming/current medical residents in NY metro area) and NO ONE works even close to 80 hours a week.
This is not to mention that it gets much better after the first year, and by the third year, you're only supervising most of the first years and simply studying for Step 3 (board) exam (if you haven't taken it by then).
I wonder if people tend to exaggerate when it comes tho how much time they spend for work because it makes them feel good/justifiable to the amount of income that they (eventually) receive. Having quit medical school after second year in my home country (SE Asia) and having seen my wife (then fiance) studying for Step 2 and 3 exams, I personally believe that medical studies mostly requires memorization (a LOT of it) and we would be surprised how little critical thinking skills and scientific knowledge (not recent ones they've memorized off the books, but I'm talking about things like physics, math and even chemistry) your average doctor has. They forget it all in a year or two after med school for sure (I can't possibly recall more than 206 bones that I learned in Anatomy in 2nd year!)
For example, when it comes to events we read in the news (esp. the ones published by western-based media) about other regions have heavy bias that born out of both western values and limited (very, very often one sided) info they obtained from the people they hang out with. Even reputable publications like NYTimes and BBC, have obvious biases if you have been to the places they are reporting about. That's why I stopped believing everything I see on mainstream media and start to ignore it mostly for almost a decade now. I also avoid social media (Facebook and to an extent Reddit) because what we see there mostly represent people's fleeting reactions and emotions to things that really doesn't matter to my life for the most part. Doing that really makes my mind free of a lot of bad karma.
That's why there's the saying in my country that roughly translates to something like "Woman is key of the household (because she keeps all the money)". One of the traditional duties (there are five of them) of a wife is to control and distribute money in the way that is fair (among family, her parents and in-laws).