sometimes_all

I agree on the part of people criticizing when convenient; I had the same thought when watching "The Social Dilemma" on Netflix.

I read Careless People, and if I was in the author's shoes and if what she says was accurate, I would've run away screaming within my first two years. The fact that she portrays herself as morally upstanding, and yet stayed so long even after seeing some truly reprehensible stuff is difficult to digest, and I do think that there were many signs that she knew she had neither the power or the means to actually make the changes she says she was seeking. She also makes excuses that she wasn't paid as much in her initial days because she didn't know about stock compensation and she just took the first offer they gave, but that rings a bit hollow to me, because that difference would've been amended within a few years, once she got promoted and figured out the general compensation range at Meta. Also it's not like she didn't have career options outside of Meta.

While the hypocrisy grinds me, I still feel that getting these stories out is important; morally upstanding people who quit early will not likely see and experience the full extent of the bad stuff companies do, and people who participate but stay quiet will not bring the bad stuff out in the open.

I was introduced to Poe via "The Cask of Amontillado". After that, I binge-watched The Fall of the House of Usher when it released, which is a mash-up of a lot of Poe's stories (the show didn't have the subtlety of the original work, but was a lot of fun). Now I'm reading all his short stories.

His work is really cool, and I wish I read him earlier.

I've been aware of the ZIRP phenomenon and potential things that might happen when it ends since 2017. I prepared myself to slowly add more skills (finance, writing, management, etc). All this was while I continued to be a full-time dev.

The problem for me has been that nobody outside of myself is OK with me taking any other role, either within the company I work for, or as someone looking for a fresh new role. When I ask why, it's always been a variant of "oh, you're more valuable to us as an engineer".

Now with the advent of LLMs and bullshit experts talking about AI taking over everyone's roles, neither do people want me to remain an engineer (I quit in frustration a few months ago), nor do they want me to be anything else (even when I have skills directly relevant for other types of jobs). It's frustrating to keep on trying to switch when nobody's taking the bait.

They could, but its unlikely other people in their network will.

WhatsApp in India is inescapable, but also quite useful, primarily because of network effects. But you really have to be careful and sparing with it, else it becomes a nuisance. Thankfully they've done some work to that effect.

Example, adding an option to have to seek your permission to join a particular group is a godsend, since family members are all too happy to add you to their group where every post is a nonsensical forward, or random people add you to their "investments" group (pump and dump schemes). Also, considering the scale of WhatsApp, I get far fewer spam than I get in direct phone/SMS communication. Also I can block businesses permanently if they start abusing their messaging privileges.

I just wish they had kept it a more chat-focused platform rather than adding other stuff (channels, status, AI agents, etc). It's a pain that I can't disable features I don't need (eg. I don't want to use Meta AI, but I still have to see that annoying icon). But it's Meta, and they don't necessarily respect people not wanting something, so don't think you can do much about it.

Many Indians also want to visit the EU/US for short days and tourism, or for other very valid and legitimate reasons. These can be with a long history of not breaking visa norms of other countries, and yet face delays of 2+ years. It's not that these delays cannot be reduced; there's just no will to do that.

It makes my blood boil that I have to endure a disproportionate burden of proof on myself:

- demonstrate good financial status, have already booked tickets and accommodation (which might end up becoming a sunk cost because a bad visa result came too near to my travel date, making refunds impossible) even though visa isn't guaranteed

- a very long list of paperwork to complete and sort

- wait for multiple years to boot for an appointment where my application can get rejected, sometimes for really frivolous reasons

just to ensure I am there for, say, my brother's graduation, a moment which will come only once in my lifetime. Meanwhile, people from other countries and with a way worse profile than mine can walk into the same country, no questions asked. They don't have to demonstrate that they're really great people with absolutely no intention of staying there for ever. In fact they can even make that decision on a whim; what's there to stop them from staying permanently in the other country even if it's not for a "good" cause?

Don't treat people as criminals/paragons of virtue solely based on the country they come from.

When I was in the US, certain companies (like Discover) had customer service which were a joy to interact with. An almost immediate connect with a human, who had the permissions to make a relatively large chunk of problems go away / actually have the right information at hand without having to transfer or hold the call. I would not hesitate to do business with them again if I could.

Good customer service inspires loyalty to a company in a way discounts/advertising cannot. Their topline might not be the best, but they'll never go out of business.

Yeah I felt that way too. Initially I thought I wasn't sure what I was missing, since the only difference is that the order of the checks is switched, and the function will still return the same true/false in both cases. Then I thought about side effects and it felt icky.

It makes little sense to buy a new iphone in India for most of the mid-to-upper middle class folks. Not only are they more expensive than in the US (any maybe Europe), there is very little official support for iPhones outside of the metro cities; even there Apple only recently started providing support on even a smaller scale. There are very few carrier plans as in the US. Also, most people don't need the latest and greatest; older phones work just as good since Apple phones last longer.

In this light it is little surprise that the used market is booming.

Oof my bad; thanks for pointing it out. I got a bit confused about what you were referring to, since I believe that GP didn't think of New Yorker as highbrow, given the quotes on "liberal intellectual".

But yes, sorry about the mistake.

FYI: The New Yorker != The New York Review of Books, which your parent talks about.

NYRB is totally different:

https://www.nybooks.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Review_of_Books

Oh please. The comment was less about PayTM and more about tech companies being blasé about data privacy in general.

If I had a friend or family member who was an employee of such a publicly facing tech company, I’d be grilling them about their data security and privacy practices. I’ve been burned enough times by Indian companies so ridiculously free with their data sharing that I’ve stopped giving out my contact info to everything but the most essential of services.

Most Indians will lean towards believing the GP because they know how aggressively their personal data is being abused, unless Paytm comes out with concrete details of how they protect privacy inside and outside the firm.

Interesting, thanks.

The fact that PayTM doesn't guard sensitive personal data even when it's a local tech behemoth makes me not want to use digital payments and switch to cash.

Was this just Paytm's history, or all of your digital payments history (ie all transactions outside Paytm)?

I'm guessing it's the former, but I'm just too paranoid to not ask...

Here in India most of the VC funded startups and large international tech companies are laying off people left and right. Most VCs are funded from international clients, who are fleeing with their money for good reasons; the grow-at-all-costs model hasn't worked out yet, and time is up because interest rates.

Hiring also seems to have been paused. I used to get recruiter inmail at least three times a week, but have only received 2 in the past three months.

This has not impacted other sectors outside IT/tech/startups. If you are currently a developer in a decently sized company in a different sector, you're likely fine. Non-software firms will obviously use the opportunity to lowball you on further salary growth, but it's unlikely that you'll get laid off soon.

I just hope people didn't go end spend all of their massive salaries they earned in the last few years since it's going to get even more difficult in the near future.

Here in India we have to use horns twice a minute.

If they want to sell cars in the developing world, they better make their inputs tactile or people won’t buy them.

When I was young, I used to play the tabla (Indian percussion instrument). Loved playing it, but to continue learning I had to give multipe written exams for at least 5 years dealing with the history of Indian classical music in a language I wasn't comfortable with. The history was boring, and the textbooks were in a convoluted formal language.

What used to be a very enjoyable hobby turned into a chore, which I didn't have too much time for when the all-important tenth grade exams came nearer. So I stopped practicing altogether. Haven't missed it much.

I moved back to India almost 4 years ago. I haven’t regretted it one bit; I have sacrificed nothing except maybe relatively cleaner air.

Most of the smart folks (engineers or otherwise) who would’ve targeted the US don’t consider it any more. For software folks, Bangalore/Hyderabad/Gurgaon offer salaries which are objectively the best outside NY/CA/Seattle.

The current visa process is an insult to talented people. There is no need to go through that mental torture, there are way better options available.

For me, I can get all I want from LinkedIn (recruiter messages, contact lists, search for people/companies) and remove everything else from sight just by adding a few rules on uBlock Origin and making sure communication preferences are set to only incoming messages and nothing else. I don't see any feeds, I don't get engagement emails, and I don't have the app on phone.

I set communication settings to let only people who know me (ie are in my contact list) to contact me (Settings -> Communications -> Who can reach you). The contact list is culled mercilessly once a year (eg. recruiters who specialize in jobs no longer relevant to me are removed). The Email settings in the Communications section are also quite detailed and there are a bunch of preferences you can choose from; I don't get any emails from Linkedin except inmails.

LinkedIn is my only social network (HN doesn't count IMO), and unfortunately I can't get rid of it without impacting my career, so I have incentive to bend it to my requirements. It thankfully isn't too difficult.