As a dev I don't mind coming into the office, infact I probably would never want a 100% WFH situation because I know I would get too comfortable to be productive when I need to be. But I'd like more days of WFH to break up the mundane office culture and burnout.
Readit Newsnewsgremlin commented on Quarantine will normalize WFH and recession will denormalize full-time jobs abe-winter.github.io/2020... · Posted by u/awinter-py
Some work is more valuable than other work.
But by margins of billions? Figures like this are thrown around a lot but it's hard to grasp how much just one billion, even 1/1000 of that can make an individuals life unrecognizable before having that wealth.
newsgremlin commented on Love Zombies? Thank the Public Domain blog.archive.org/2020/02/... · Posted by u/betamaxthetape
Then you kick off an arms race where regulators are constantly fighting to keep up with increasingly sophisticated money laundering techniques to obscure how valuable an IP actually is. A lot of money would be siphoned off by lawyers just so they can fight back to a stalemate.
Why make it complicated? Just let works fall into the public domain after a couple decades.
Indeed, the one thing that can't be manipulated by dubious actors is time.
newsgremlin commented on Disney CEO Bob Iger immediately steps down from CEO position techcrunch.com/2020/02/25... · Posted by u/smaili
I thought it was the memes, seriously quotable movies though.
As someone born in the 90s I actually enjoyed the prequel movies, being a kid and all. They are terribly campy but it has been the source of many in-jokes.
The original idea was that by having a separate funding path, the BBC was at less risk of government control.
The funding isn't controlled by the government but it may aswell be given how the BBC board is selected and their approval of the non-executives and the director of the BBC. The Queen (i.e. Ministers on her behalf) appoints all of them.
Those appointed from outside the BBC tend not to have any background in NGO or non-profits. Bit strange for a not for profit public broadcaster.
It's a very hairy arrangement and I don't think most of the public are aware of it.
newsgremlin commented on No visas for low-skilled workers, UK government says bbc.com/news/uk-politics-... · Posted by u/absqueued
The FPTP system is designed to result in strong goverments with working majorities.
I'm not so sure the system would really work if we had proportional representation, each government would have a questionable mandate and every decision would end up a compromise between coalition partners.
In the EU you can't really argue it has worked out, the lions share of the budget and regulations goes towards agricultural policies biased towards industrial french farmers and crops that operate in a much different environment than the countryside found in other nations. France and Germany bully the commission, and if the EU wants to take big decisions or persue a different direction it needs the consent of all 27 members, impossible!
I know this is changing with the loss of vetos and qualified majority voting, but don't kid yourselves that it's democracy. Your vote is meaningless. It would be better in my mind to enrich a benevolent dictator than to pin your hopes on a commission and parliament susceptible to lobbying and corruption. It is already clear to many they do not act in the interests of the European populace.
Hopefully it will die, and something better will form from its ashes.
But if you represent part of the society that is entirely against said strong governments policies which directly affects you, relations, or your morals and ideals - you don't want strong governments to have unmitigated power.
But instead people end up voting for a party just because its the only one that can beat "the other", not because it actually represents their ideology. All the talk of freedom and sovereignty goes out the window when we concede that our only practical options are limited by the ruling system and not stifled by a foreign entity.
A meaningless vote to me is one that only counts for one and only one possible option in a vast sea of them. That's what PR and STV address better than FPTP in a democracy.
Bigger unions in the world are forming not dying and the UK will get eaten up by one of them or remain a secluded island of funneling suspect finances, it won't be the one pushing its weight around other big unions, it's the empire mentality that hasn't been shaken off and the sooner it fades the better decision making by the national government and people.
newsgremlin commented on No visas for low-skilled workers, UK government says bbc.com/news/uk-politics-... · Posted by u/absqueued
> The British had something precious until not long ago: a working welfare state, a welcoming society, and an influx of enthusiastic citizens from all across the EU. It’s sad that they are throwing it all away.
The British have many more precious things that that.
They also have a rule of law determined by the BRITISH (NOT Brussels), responsive and accountable government (even though of course trade offs must always be made), and still have enthusiastic citizens from around the world banging at the door wanting to get in. As well as a dynamic and capable population of natives willing to bear the costs and risks of really changing their society in the 21st century. And they are still a welcoming society, them feeling they are in control again will make them more welcoming, not less.
People counting out the UK yet are being very premature. There will certainly be economic pain from this and likely other costs, but there are potential big benefits too. Brexit is a story that will play out over the next 10-20-50-100 years, not just the next 5-10. Would not surprise me at all to find the UK a wealthy more developed nation than Germany by 2050.
Even when you look at the Boris Johnson Cabinet, the ideas and intent that is emanating from there is very promising. No more "we can't do this because Brussels" or "nothing can be done". Real thought into how to make the UK remain relevant in the 21st century on its own terms, real efforts into how to improve the country.
This isn't the End of History. This is the end of the insular old folks home the EU is at danger of becoming.
I don't know where this idea that brexit has fundamentally changed british society, it hasn't, all it has shown is that the entire country is still polarized by class and political leaning. The two party state still exists, or perhaps one party state by the current looks of things, a broken FPTP voting system still in use. The undemocratic house of lords still lives and monarchy that uses celebrity style PR to justify their existence by attributing all tourism revenue to their existence. The welfare of this welfare state slowly decaying away.
Leaving the EU won't stop the twilight years for a generation of people that want things the way they never will be the same again.
newsgremlin commented on Why has progress stalled? (2014) aeon.co/essays/has-progre... · Posted by u/scottlocklin
I haven't read that book but I wonder if he overlooks the power of mobile information technology to make people work smarter together and smarter in general with online information always accessible, and help from AI for finding the relevant needed advice for each task or part of task.
In general it has been predicted that the next level of automation is intellectual automation driven by AI. The work of lawyers and doctors and even computer programmers can be done by AI they predict. Or at least AI becomes a powerful helper for them. Does this mean there will be mass unemployment? Well I think it is just fine if work-week is reduced to one day. The only issue is financial inequality but that is easily taken care of with progressive taxation.
Methinks AI will be used like google is used today. Humans still need to make the decisions but AI will provide us with the information and conclusion of what should be done. Then it will definitely feel like AI is nearly ready to take over jobs completely around the next corner.
We'll really progress when AI cannot be tricked by politicians double speak.
They may have given it a new name but I'll still call it "Wuhan Fever" regardless of wether thats politically correct.
I do wonder if sales of Corona beer took a hit from this disease though.
COVID-19 is certainly not catchy. But I find there's been a lot of casual discrimination towards east Asians living in western society.
A case I noticed last week that was local to me where a Taiwanese market trader was confronted by other traders and told to leave [1]. There's a lot of ignorance around it, people have given themselves a bit of leeway to presume they are infectious. Recent cases in Brighton, UK won't bare the same cautious response towards residents there.
newsgremlin commented on Britain’s Productivity Decline Is the Worst in 250 Years bloomberg.com/news/articl... · Posted by u/adventured
I’m a Scot living “Oop North” for over a decade, and very much aware of the attitudes round here.
Believe me, I was never a fan of provincialist Scotland and utterly despise the huge separatist chip on its shoulder and everything that stands for, so to see the English fall for the very same scam really jams in my craw.
Honestly, the sooner that Brits get to experience the same standard of living that Chinese factory workers now enjoy†, the sooner they’ll drink a big cup of STFU and realize just how unfairly blessed before now they really were.
No sympathies for them that got us into it; I only feel bad for t’kids.
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† And, having come from grinding rural poverty, is still a step up for them.
You don't have to be dirt poor to have a cause for national sovereignty. The difference is Scotland has no sovereignty, the British/English do, inside the EU.