wernercd

and more importantly... reader shows obvious bias against Walmart... I wonder if he works for Target?

(Lesson: Random idiots on the idiot yelling at each other about who can't be trusted pushing "conspiracy theories" about "The Wallsmart" pushing polls and people who don't believe the polls and etc etc etc. Yes... I'm one of those random idiots.)

Break the law? "Dictator" given mandates without scientific backing are "law" now?

Because everywhere you look... with or without lockdowns, COVID is spreading... California, New Jersey, Florida, Texas... all different approaches. All spreading in "2nd waves"...

Not everyone is okay with following "decree's from on high by a benevolent master" without end because "the war will never be over so give me more power"...

Why be humble when you're that successful?

What's your suggestion? Reparations? Who gets them? People who were never slaves? Do descendants of union members - white people who freed the slaves - get credit and exemption from paying for it? And where you going to get the money? Taxes that hit the poor the hardest?

My action points? Stop treating minorities as victims and idiots unable to take care of themselves. Its called being a decent human being. Everyone - minorities included - already have opportunities for college and starting businesses and all that. It's called American Privilege's.

made up words like "systemic racism" doesn't make those terms real.

Nor does a party voting for Biden and Harris - creators of "systemically racist" laws and corrupt DAs that used those laws to jail innocent black men - have any moral position to talk about such made up words and expect to be taken seriously.

TIL that I said something I never said...

(Hint: I never said Obama ended racism... in fact, I wouldn't say that because his policies and his party have made racism WORSE with their identity politics and making everything about race.)

and even with large swaths having resistances and a new flu vaccine each year? thousands still died "normally" every flu seasons.

Which is my point... it was normal. Colds, flu, etc.

COVID? not going anywhere... its out and mutating... we'll eventually get used to it.

or it'll turn into just another cold/flu that we get used too and ignore.

How many thousands die a year from the flu and it was all but ignored?

and, around the world, those groups repress others. It's almost as if it's a human condition not limited to "white".

As a white male, I live in a country where I'm surrounded by successful people of all stripes - color, race, ethnicity, sexuality, etc, etc, etc.

Do we have a perfect history as a country? no... but we also provide opportunity to all - and we have POC in EVERY level of society. From cops to Presidents.

"You do you" that's part of it... I live on a family farm so I can't "move to the city" and I can't bring the jobs to me - so I have a long commute for a good wage. It's a tradeoff. ("cheap housing" isn't an issue - we own the land... but at an "extreme" commuting range)

So for me, partial remote is perfect... I get "social interactions" that remote can't replace... while losing a large chunk of commute (hours a day).

If I wasn't "tied to the land", I'd move to the job in a heartbeat.

I'd be find with 4 out/1 in... or even 3 in/2 out - I'm pretty happy where I work and I enjoy like in the office... but I also enjoy it at home.

> Social interact has been nullified

That's why I'd prefer more than 1 day in the office. Its about a year out and I already miss my podcasts, the walk from parking to the office and meetings around the table.

I think managers want people in the office (generally) because that's easier to manage (traditionally). So once vaccines become The Norm, it'll be a move back towards that. I think that companies that have done remote can't go back 100% in office though (with exceptions) and won't stay 100% remote (again, with exceptions).

I don't see my company staying 100% remote but we have done real well with remote (and a switch to agile/scrum, coincidentally, at the same time).

It's sad that race is being blamed by those claiming to be against racism.

My benefits, as said before, are being American - and I embrace those benefits. Nothing to be ashamed of.

"life on the other side" I refuse to treat others as less because of their skin color. You might be racist but I'm not. I'm surrounded by successful people of all color (and sexs, religions, lifestyles, etc) who don't cry victimhood.

You will continue to be either a victim or treating "POC" as victims who aren't smart enough or good enough - IE treating people different based on their skin color. (IE: Liberals talk down to POC because they look down on them. You might want to check YOUR "priviledge" and how you treat others - https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/11/30/white-liber...)

I refuse to treat minorities as if they aren't good enough... society shows that is a lie and, as I was raised, treating people differently based on skin color is racism.

You may be okay being a racist... I refuse to be one.

I'm an upper middle class white guy. I have no "privilege's" except being blamed for stuff by my skin color by those who claim to be fighting racism.

I have what's called "results" of hard work, good decisions and a healthy dose of luck to go from the poor kid of a single mother on government cheese and living on family couches to making a good salary at a good job. I earned my place - I wasn't "privileged" into it.

The only REAL privilege I have is being an American - and that's color blind. The top 1% globally make 30k/year and that's the vast majority of Americans. And I'm not ashamed of that... I'm proud of it - as I should be.

Any attempts to place race as a factor is done by what we love to call... racists.

I mean, at a conceptual level, knowing history is important in the "ignorance of history will lead to repeated history" line of thinking - and I don't disagree. ... and knowing why decisions were made can help determine which tools to use (IE: Why use static typing or duck typing and when to use the other... or when to use procedural programming, async, functional, etc...)

Maybe it's a combination of you "projecting" and me not being clear. And trying to discuss what could be deep conversations in a little more than a twitter tag of 140 chars.

I'm personally a .Net Developer and while I do stick with the latest versions (IE: .Net Core), I also have enough experience to know the past (IE: ADO vs Entity Frameworks). I was trained in school on a mainframe (IBM DB2 with RPG and SQL). I'm not trying to stick with the latest "hotness" as most of MY work is actually done via Windows Services, API interactions and moving files around - definitely not the latest fad. With that said, I am working on using good tools to get my job done faster/better - IE: CI/CD pipelines to automate builds, testing, deployment, etc. Tools that didn't exist 5 years ago could be the latest fad but I don't think that's what you are suggesting.

I'm more worried about learning different things (IE: Functional, procedural, async, parallel, etc) than I am worried about "history" of those. When I pick up a programming book, I'm less worried about the "Microsoft created version 1 in 2000 and version 2 in 2005 and..." and more concerned about do's, do not's, best practices, etc.

Maybe it's my personality and the way I "deemphasize" history... it's not that I think it's unimportant... I just think that it's more important to focus on other things. Learning some history along the way is good and fun but it's never been my focus and I've never used what I consider "history" in an interview or a job on a day to day. Maybe that's rubbing people the wrong way lol

> Coming to enjoy remote over pandemic

I enjoy remote but I miss the office. I think I'm part of the majority that would love 2 days in, 3 days out of the office (or some mix close to that).

I can definitely see a single remote worker of a bunch is a recipe for a bad experience as you are just out of the loop and in a company that probably hasn't or won't adopt the things needed for it to be successful.

I've not shown any disdain for history or an inability to code wordpress... in fact, I've said the opposite: I like history and simply don't need it to code.

I don't need to know history to code html, php, javascript, etc. I've a very successful programmer without using the "history' of programming in any shape or form.

"expressing your ignorance" or... I'm simply expressing that I'm a successful programmer who's never used "history" in a decade+ of programming...

You may want to reevaluate "ignorance" as you make claims that you can't support (IE: "disdain" for history and "can't code wordpress" - again, neither statements I've made). Reread my comments.

recap of them: I like history. I don't need history to code wordpress or windows services.

none of my statements goes against learning history.

I probably don't do as much as I could/should... but I am a successful programmer who has never needed "history" to understand basic programming principles.

I seem to consider history and good engineering to be different topics while everyone else seems to think you can't understand Big O, YAGNI, SOLID, the difference between Functional Programming and Procedural programing, etc, etc, etc without understanding the history of how assembly turned into c...

Because History is interesting... but not needed to be a good engineer and a good programmer.

cyclomatic complexity and computer science isn't history.

Not sure where the disconnect is because at no point have I said you shouldn't learn how to do your job correctly - and understanding Big O, SOLID, YANGI, etc are all important to know... but have nothing to do with history.

So again... history isn't needed to be a good engineer. And being a good engineer and KISS programming is possible without understanding 100 years of history.

Accounting has been around for hundreds of years. The reason it doesn't change? Because it's not a "new" field.

Same for stuff like construction and cooking... stuff that's been around a very long time has become rather stable and of course it isn't going to be "reinvented every five years".

> when it would be better engineering

again... I don't need to understand history to understand Big O and which algorithm to use in the right circumstances or when procedural programming is proffered to functional.

At no point in my career have I ever NEEDED history to decide which library to use, which sorting algorithm is suitable and how to create functional apis or windows services.

History is nice to know... but still 100% not needed at any stage of the process.

I'm not sure where the disconnect is because I like history... I like learning about American history, world history, programming history... but none of that has ever been relevant in any of my jobs when it comes to day to day decisions and projects.

"don't reinvent the wheel" is a separate topic and while I can agree that many things get reinvented - computers are still a very young industry compared to stuff like accounting and architecture.

Researchers might have more use for history... but day to day, in the field, programmers? not so much. I would think it's the difference between math researchers and accountants... You don't need to know history to balance a check book.

  > Step 1. Show 10+ years of experience
  > Step 2. Never talk about history because I don't need history to solve business problems with programming
  > Step 3. Make 6 figures.

An anecdotal example made up about talking at some conference with big words won't provide business value and isn't useful in day to day problem solving.

So again... 99% of programmers won't ever use the history of DARPA and the birth of the internet to land a job.

Well like I said... I enjoy history. but. I've never used history to solve business problems.

They are related and good to know... but I don't need to know history to flip burgers, run a business or plan my next sprint.

I'm not arguing history is unimportant or good to know or even possibly useful just to have ideas of what to do - or what not to do... I'm just arguing it's importance is over-emphasized.

I don't need history to know algorithms... so "that was solved 50 years ago" doesn't teach me how to build a balanced node tree or actually matter if I simply know to use sort library method A instead of B.

> good reasons to learn

Of course... but none of that needs HISTORY to use effectively.

Knowing functional programing, procedural, async, etc, etc, etc... I can know all of that without needing to know history.

One doesn't need the other.

> Global collapse by 2030

Al Gore... is that you? https://cei.org/blog/wrong-again-50-years-of-failed-eco-poca...

I like history but how is history going to get me a functional game released or land a job interview?

I don't need to know about DARPA to create a wordpress page or a C# Windows Service...

> where is the hysteria

The hysteria is literally facing HARM from opinions.

Why is death threats and intolerance noteworthy? Maybe because intolerance, hate, bigotry and threats of violence should always be noteworthy? especially when concerned with those who claim to be tolerant?

and yet states that didn't - and aren't - locking down - like Florida - are doing fine. Or better than states that have extensive lockdowns like New York, New Jersey and California...

> Political reasons ... aggressive lockdowns in Australia

Locking down a small country like Australia is much different than locking down a country like the US. Australia is only 20% smaller than the US yet has 10% of the population. The layout is different. Temperature. Density. etc.

https://www.indexmundi.com/factbook/compare/united-states.au...

Locking down Australia would be like locking down one of our less densely populated states - not only does the President not have the ability to do it - he's a President not a King... but locking down the country make zero sense for a virus with a 99%+ survival rate.

again... we can take precautions to protect our hospitals and to "flatten the curve" (which we are loooooong past) and to protect the vulnerable (old, existing conditions, etc)... but locking down America? Coast to coast? No chance this side of turning the President into a Dictator - which was never on the table for Trump and definitely not for Biden.

Except other western countries haven't "gotten it under control"... they are all having second waves and resurgences with or without large lockdowns and with or without draconian processes.

> fairly simple

Until you start looking at how many lives are saved vs the second and third tier effects. Higher suicide rates from losing jobs and stress? People in third world countries dying from a cratered world economy? etc.

COVID needs to be handled and those more affected by it need protected. More hospital prep and masks around grandma... but the "fascist" and unproven shutdowns which by any measurements not only don't work but - as mentioned - causes more damage than it prevents?

nowhere near as simple as you proclaim it to be.

> there's strains

And? The world doesn't end when new strains of the cold or the flu happen. Every year. As it's happened for as long as there have been humans.

Humans have "eradicated"... Polio? Because it's rather serious? What else have we eradicated?

COVID is here to stay.

I work at a bank and they had remote tools in place that were very flexible... but it was still "be in the office" 5 days a week. The pay and perks are too good to pass up and I didn't have "remote experience" before - which I have a year of now.

I'm still enjoying the job so we'll see how things go over the next, say, year.