Being completely car dependent is to me a fundamental problem in much of both countries, and the advantage USA has is that the cost of running a car (or often 2 especially for a family) takes a smaller part of a middle class salary. In UK , Europe, many countries outside of N America you're just not forced to own a car in the same way. That's not just extra costs when you've got a family, but a source of isolation for people that are old or disabled. (Not to discount the many other wonderful fantastic things about life in N America. :) )
If its any consolation, perhaps there might've been a few other highly intelligent capable sensible people in existence over the last few... shall we say, millennia, who, weren't really listened to either ? ;)
Cautionary tale from here in UK. We had a Neff (same company as Bosch and Siemens) dishwasher which we used heavily for 10 yrs then it started to leak because they'd used plastic in the base which got warped with heat. So, ditched a perfectly running machine due to a design flaw. Replaced it with a Miele in the hope that'd be better. So got a nice-and-simple base model, about £750 I think (as opposed to £400ish you can pay for another Neff). Turns out its made in Czech, not Germany. Although apparently Germans are cynical about their own factories these days, and it may be same quality. So far, it has a design fault that the drain detector is over sensitive. If bits of food fall on the base it interpets that as its still got water in and perpetually keeps trying to drain unless you pour a jug of water in to disperse food bits. Also depending how you close the door sometimes it seems to not engage, have to open and re-shut to make it work. One of the solenoids somewhere sounds a little rattly / not totally healthy, but that may be nothing. Quality of cleaning, and ease of stacking, appears less good than the Neff was. Suffice to say, I reserve judgement on whether paying extra for a Miele is worth it. They claim they're good for 20 yrs but if you read the small print that's at only 5 runs a week or something , not every day. So it may not actually be much better than the Neff in the end. But the Neffs now look cheaper and tackier than the ones from 10 yrs ago. Not an easy decision. Our best appliance purchase ever was a "Tesco value" microwave, which is Chinese cr*p that's still running fine almost 20 yrs later. ;) Good luck with your purchase ;)
This is something I wrestle with. Objectively, it'd seem true that say, a Henry Moore sculpture is of "better taste" than Disneyland. ;) But I 100% wouldn't wanna criticise anyone who preferred Disneyland. Its up to them, they don't have "poor taste" for preferring that... its arrogant indeed to make such a judgement, but then again... surely.. Henry Moore, Disneyland... there's no comparison? ;) so I go around in circles... ;)
+1 to limiting braggadocio. Maintaining code written by someone with humility, and consideration for the subsequent maintainer (including themself, as they don't assume they're super(wo)man and will understand their own code immediately after time away) is much easier than code written by someone with a large ego who likely thinks anyone who doesn't understand their code is "dumb" / "a wimp" etc
And the tragedy is that authors of such code often (usually?) don't receive recognition for saving time and effort on others' part by following KISS principles. For whatever reason its apparently opaque to others. And so there are entire jobs or even teams in the tech industry whose purpose is to work with and/or maintain systems that have needless complexity.
Some research on the subject here : https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20180905-how-genes-infl.... Personally I question how one can definitely prove to what extent genes are the factor as there are so many other factors in play, but those researchers know more than I.
To me, the whole Oxbridge education must be distorted by this fierce competition to improve one's "personal brand" by getting a prestigious school on your c.v /resume (or misperception that going to Oxbridge gets you in contact with the best people to learn the subject from, which is clearly untrue, as for starters many great academic staff stay away, unable to afford a family home in such areas). It just means your peers will be rather "type A" , pushing very hard. but does it mean they're actually brilliant minds with novel ideas? Some of them for sure but Oxbridge hardly has a monopoly on that. There must be people whose parents sent them to amazing private schools, and they got pushed towards Oxbridge and one day they wake up and say "I've no idea why I'm doing any of this, its not making me happy and I wish I could be around normal people" ;)
There's a stereotype, possibly unfair but somewhat amusing, that Durham attracts some people who are less clever/bright than they and their families believe, who failed to get into Oxbridge despite expensive private education, personal tutors, every other privilege under the sun. Sometimes known as "rahs" possibly? ;
Sure, tech is a relatively privileged career. Doesn't mean "Corporate hellhole" isn't a thing though ;). So don't feel guilty. :) The 50-60% pay cut far less stress jobs DO exist, but more in the public sector e:g government, academia. Even being a IT tech for a high school or something might be fine if you've nice people to work with and never get told "m'kay, yeah I'm gonna need you to come in on sunday, too". (or at least not without a day off in lieu in the week). Consider also, go be a ski bum in a McJob at a ski resort for a season or two. That's a break from tech, nice change of scene and fun times, but you still get paid something, so, maybe don't build up debts meanwhile. The Q then is can you get back into tech later after such a break, if you want. Which maybe depends on a few unpredictable factors. Back in the day I did that and many others here on HN have. Good luck :)
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