I wonder if this reduction in videos on screen is a result of an experiment due to "The Paradox of Choice" / "Choice Overload"?
https://thedecisionlab.com/reference-guide/economics/the-par...
Readit Newsdebunn commented on Someone at YouTube needs glasses jayd.ml/2025/04/30/someon... · Posted by u/jaydenmilne
Great. Show me examples of teams who took that bet and how it paid off.
The following is my personal experience being part of a collective bargaining union (OPSEU local 598), which encompassed a few hundred workers for Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, in Toronto Ontario, from 2007-2017. I worked in IT for the duration of my employment (although not all union members were IT - but a lot were.)
The good:
- An elected collective bargaining team negotiated for us every ~5 years, and came up with a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). This allowed the members to express their desires for what they wanted (although not all requests were brought up in bargaining, and had to be agreed to to be ratified), which were generally listened to
- On-call compensation was set out as part of that agreement, and was the most generous I've experienced in my 25+ year career.
- Members could file grievances with the union regarding work conditions, or unfair treatment of the workers (I don't recall hearing of this ever happening, but there were processes in place for it)
- Health benefits were good, if not the best I've seen
- You could get two pay bumps per year, one that all union members got that was set aside in the CBA, and another moving you up a spot in your pay band (but only if you were not at the top of your salary band)
The bad:
- Union dues, while not huge, were yet another noticeable deduction from each pay
- When at the top of your salary band, you only got the one cost of living adjustment per year. There was no automatic way of moving to the next salary band
- Getting promoted means applying for internally posted positions (which all employees can apply for), and successfully being hired in to that position. This is the only way to move up salary bands, and you could only move up one pay slot in the new band (as they overlapped between bands). This really limited upwards career growth, and meant that leaving the company was the only way to get double-digit pay increases (or move in to management, which was outside the union)
- Our CBA strangely didn't cover / prevent layoffs of staff (although other union CBAs certainly do - so this is just my own experience), so I was one of the 100+ members that were laid off when a new VP decided to outsource a bunch of our roles to Tata Consultancy Services in India. There were provisions in place given my seniority that would have made a more junior union members have to be laid off in place of me (so I could take over their role instead), however I opted to take my severance package as I was ready to move on.
So to summarize - unions are definitely a mixed bag in my experience. I can appreciate the good they can do (and different CBAs will result in wildly different experiences), but from what I've personally seen, they generally function to treat all workers in a similar way: not rewarding the best, and not really punishing the worst.
I'll be hanging out here - happy to answer any questions you have!
Any ideas what the screen refresh rate is going to be at this point? All the screenshots don't have time that includes seconds, and having a watch face that can update at least every second would be a requirement for me.
(I know e-ink displays can have fast refresh rates, like the 60Hz / fps Daylight computer - but that may not be cost effective / battery efficient here?)
debunn commented on Students invent quieter leaf blower hub.jhu.edu/2024/05/14/qu... · Posted by u/namanyayg
They are made. Of course a hand-held blower that has enough air velocity to do its job is going to make some noise, but I walked by a landscape maintenance guy outside work yesterday, he had a battery-electric blower and it was much quieter than the old two-stroke gas blowers they were using last year. I didn't note the brand but the casing was green. Maybe Deere, but it wasn't quite the Deere shade of green so I don't know. You know what's quieter than any blower? A broom. But not as fast.
Greenworks offers battery powered leaf blowers - might have been one of these?
https://www.greenworkstools.com/collections/leaf-blowers
debunn commented on My coffee maker just makes coffee bt.ht/one-thing/... · Posted by u/bradley_taunt
If you want a simple drip machine that makes really good coffee, I can highly recommend a Moccamaster. It's probably the closest you're going to get to a pour over with a machine, and it has only two buttons - one to turn the machine on, and another to to adjust how long the plate stays hot.
I came here to recommend the same! Mine's the thermal carafe version (so it doesn't have a hot plate) - so it's even more straightforward. Some selling points you didn't mention though:
- It has a 5 year warranty
- It's handmade in the Netherlands
- Replacement parts are available without too much effort
Educational games. Hear me out. The way we teach us basically how we did it 500 years ago. This is stupid, boring and not scalable. We dont have enough teachers, attention span is short, education is costly. So we need something that scales, is fun and involves all types of media plus gamifies education. Think Skyrim or GTA meets MS Encarta
I work for an EdTech company called Prodigy Game ( https://www.prodigygame.com ) - we have Math and English adventure games that help students in grades 1 - 8 learn at school or at home. While I don't think this is a good substitute for teachers / is going to disrupt the entire education space, I think it is an excellent supplement to what is currently in place, and can really help kids want to learn outside of schools. I'd be happy to see more products grow in this space for sure!
debunn commented on The cheap pen that changed writing forever bbc.com/future/article/20... · Posted by u/pseudolus
>>pentel energel 0.7mm.
Thanks for mentioning this
I am currently on the lookout for new pen to make my standard usage pen.
My prime requirement is that it should be 1.0mm, or at a minimal 0.7mm, since I love the thickness. Secondary requirement is that it should be smooth.
I bought Baoke gel from Amazon and while I loved it a lot, was greatly disappointed to find it was of Chinese make.
Am now searching for something that’s of non-Chinese origin. So far, I have zeroed in on Uni-ball impact 1.0mm gel pen, and am shortlisting their 0.7mm gel pens as well. I would also give uni-ball 1.0mm and 0.7mm ballpoint pens a try as well in case I feel gel pens get used up faster, since always carrying a backup refill can be an inconvenience.Also, TCO with gel pens is always more than ballpoint pens.
Does anyone have any suggestions in mind?
Please proffer
I really like the Pilot G2 pens - they use a nice flowing ink and are available in larger 1.0mm and 0.7mm sizes. They are also pretty easy to find (Amazon has them, I'm sure other stores would as well), so you shouldn't have troubles picking a pack up!
debunn commented on What Working At Stripe Has Been Like kalzumeus.com/2020/10/09/... · Posted by u/yarapavan
I've heard several times about the Stripe "Library" and "written culture", both in previous patio11 posts [1] and elsewhere. I understand part of that comes from the top and screening for writers. But I'm also curious about the basic mechanics of the library; wordpress? big ol' mediawiki? git repo of markdown docs? custom software?
How has the library process (if any) itself changed over time?
I've worked at non-startup BigCo/healthcare with formalized procedural docs, (technical) writers, change management, etc., and often they were minimal, boring, impersonal, frequently outdated -- and rarely read. I'm imagining (for better or worse) this is something a little more like a shared internal blog archive?
[1] https://www.kalzumeus.com/2019/3/18/two-years-at-stripe/
I may be mistaken here, but I think Patrick may be referring to the library of Stripe Press published books, which are available internally (and externally, if purchased)?
My daughter is a second grader. If every 5 minutes of tablet use 'cost' her 5 correct arithmetic answers she would be working at space x right now.
While this isn't a "do math to be able to unlock your device" type of game, it is fun to play and can be used as an earned screen-time requirement (or a "free screen-time" option!)
Disclaimer: I work for Prodigy as a Site Reliability Engineer, but my son (10) also enjoys playing the game!