470 karma · joined February 26, 2015
Politically I think they originally justified it as covering expenses for people living in a new country (without having to declare e.g. trips home), but practically it’s a tool to help employers attract internationals and make it cheaper to offer internationally competitive salaries for professionals.
My pocket device needs these features: (a touch short of absolute requirements, but who’s counting)
a nice camera; cellular connection for data, sms, and voice calls; receive notifications from various apps (email, school, daycare, whatsapp), actually open the apps that don’t put all the relevant information in the notification; and play spotify and libro.fm with a speaker and bluetooth headphones.
While reducing excess usage in ways that are not too complex to configure, and also not too easy to disable.
Maybe I could get close with a wifi camera + a cellular watch?
After a few days, my head was clearer. I was sleeping better. My relationship felt better than ever, because we wouldn’t both lay next to each other on our phones before sleeping. My time with my kids was more focused, and I was more patient and fun.
In week 2, I commented to my wife that I don’t know what changed, but I felt better than ever. At the time I attributed it to a new therapy lamp.
After a few weeks, I finally acknowledged that due to my responsibilities I do need a working phone 100% of the time and I replaced it with a newer, modestly fancier one. In the month since, nothing else has changed: same therapy light (and now longer daylight hours); no dietary or outside well-being changes or adverse events. But that positivity isn’t there anymore. I don’t think I fully acknowledged that until this moment. And I’m still not sure what do do about it.
In the end, it turned out that I had undiagnosed ADHD that had been accommodated by an almost perfect office environment. At home, the glaring lack of focus became a huge issue.
I don’t know if you may have the same, but to my understanding this is how many people have first discovered symptoms.