lolcopterpilot (u/lolcopterpilot)

lolcopterpilot commented on Seven years later, I bought a new MacBook. For the first time, I don't love it cfenollosa.com/blog/seven... · Posted by u/notRobot

lolcopterpilot · 5 years ago

I have a work Macbook Pro that I requested in anticipation of better quality compared to others. Ended up being disappointed, it's just as crap as my other laptops. Build quality is iffy, it has heat problems comparable to the lowest quality gaming laptops, the keyboard is garbage and the touchbar is the most useless piece of tech I've used in a long time. And this is probably even more subjective but OSX Catalina is quite slow and the free tooling I am used to now costs money. I also heard bad things about Applecare in my country but I have no personal experience.

Since I have other issues also with not having Nvidia GPU, I can't wait to dump this hardware.

lolcopterpilot commented on 74% of Startups Have Trimmed Staff, 65% Have Less Than 6 Months of Cash forbes.com/sites/johnkoet... · Posted by u/alephnan

elgenie · 5 years ago

“Founded a startup” is absolutely but trivially correct because every company is a startup by any definition in the immediate aftermath of its founding. The question is just about what criteria make sense for declaring that a company has graduated from a startup to an established company.

Criteria like “founded in the last Y years”, “has fewer than N employees”, “has market cap under $X”, “is in a fresh/hot industry” alone or in combination end up including dramatically different sets of companies.

lolcopterpilot · 5 years ago

I don't agree. Startup has a fairly specific task or operating style that is irrelevant to its size and age and number of employees. A startup is a company that is experimenting with ideas and its main goal is to validate a business model. If those business models can't be validated in a certain amount of time, the company should shut down. If a business model is validated it needs to be implemented and the company is no longer a startup.

You can be a 0-day 1-person company but if you have a business model and an operating structure, you're not a startup. Most companies are started on a specific business idea and planned to run for long term on that idea. Those are not startups.

lolcopterpilot commented on An average family in Tokyo can own a new house for $850/month curbed.com/2017/2/3/14496... · Posted by u/jseliger

soared · 5 years ago

The cultural differences make this comparison less meaningful than you’d expect. In Japan you absolutely never have friends over to your house or apartment. Everyone meets at bars or restaurants. Similar to nyc, many apartments in Tokyo are a few hundred square feet and literally only serve as a place to sleep and shower. That means houses aren’t such a major thing and so the Japanese invest way less time and energy (and place less importance on) their homes.

My parents lived in japan and I have a few friends there. I spoke with a friend who works in graphic design on the outskirts of Tokyo who doesn’t even own a fridge - all his meals are eaten outside of his home.

lolcopterpilot · 5 years ago

> absolutely never have friends over to your house or apartment

Absolute statements like that are just clearly not true. I've been to Japanese friends' apartments, even visited friends' family barbecue or wine tasting night.

Less common doesn't mean it never happens.

lolcopterpilot commented on An average family in Tokyo can own a new house for $850/month curbed.com/2017/2/3/14496... · Posted by u/jseliger

mikekchar · 5 years ago

Given your name, I guess you live in Japan, so I'll just give my opinion for others who have never lived here. I also think the title is misleading, though I wouldn't express it so dramatically.

One thing to consider is that Tokyo is a prefecture, not a city. There are rural areas of Tokyo (like really rural), though most of it is very suburban. Anybody who has lived in the suburbs in western countries would probably be fairly comfortable in most parts of Tokyo prefecture.

It is true that in quite a few areas of Tokyo it takes a long time to get to central Tokyo. 2 hours is at the extreme, though. I live in very rural Shizuoka prefecture and I can get to Tokyo station in 2 hours if I time the bus and shinkansen perfectly. If you are on the train line, most places are no more than an hour away. It's pretty comparable to living in satellite cities in London, but the train is much better :-)

If you are not on the train line, though, it can take quite a long time. Roads in Japan are very slow, especially in rural areas. It's not unusual for it to take me over an hour to drive 30 km or so if I need to go through several towns. So you definitely can find houses in Tokyo that will be 2 hours away from the city center, but I don't think anyone working in central Tokyo would buy those houses.

I honestly don't think the example picture is representative of houses you'll find in Tokyo prefecture. They definitely exist in areas that are desirable, though. I think saying that you're probably looking at either a 1 hour commute by train or your are going to get a house jammed in wherever it will fit is correct. But it's not both at the same time.

I don't often go to Tokyo, but I occasionally go to surrounding areas. Probably if I was looking at houses for commuting to central Tokyo, I would probably look at places in Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama as well as Tokyo. There is actually quite a lot of choice.

The video linked in the article is well worth watching (as is anything from "Life Where I'm From" if you are interested in Japan) and is extremely balanced IMHO. Compared to other big city centers around the world, Tokyo and the surrounding area is quite affordable. Compared to Silicon Valley it's almost comically so, but Silicon Valley is really right at the other extreme.

lolcopterpilot · 5 years ago

Yeah, a new house like that in an upscale or hip area like Hiroo or Azabu or something with 3 bedrooms will be well above 2million dollars.

On the other hand, rural (so cheap) areas are less packed so sunlight is less of an issue.

lolcopterpilot commented on An average family in Tokyo can own a new house for $850/month curbed.com/2017/2/3/14496... · Posted by u/jseliger

codesuki · 5 years ago

I think this headline is misleading in 2 ways.

1. yes you might get a house at this price but it's either 1-2 hours out of the city center (which is fine, just saying Tokyo is large.) Or alternatively it's in bad neighborhoods. (bad is relative if you are from the US)

2. your house will most likely look like this: https://www.ii-ie2.net/dat/5ba1164d.jpg

Sayonara sunlight, hello neighbor.

here are listings: https://www.homes.co.jp/smp/kodate/shinchiku/tokyo/list/

there are nice ones in the list. I am just saying that this is the eastern country side of Tokyo (check the map) when the title probably makes everyone think something different.

lolcopterpilot · 5 years ago

And I am willing to bet that picture was taken somewhere like Shinagawa or Meguro, maybe Setagaya. Where houses like that start at a price rather double of what's stated in the article, potentially triple.

lolcopterpilot commented on An average family in Tokyo can own a new house for $850/month curbed.com/2017/2/3/14496... · Posted by u/jseliger

lolcopterpilot · 5 years ago

An average family in Tokyo does not live in a detached house so the whole argument is false. About 27% of the units are detached houses and the ratio is decreasing a bit.

Plus Tokyo is almost 100km wide. That's a huge area and of course there are places where housing is dirt cheap because people are fleeing away.