Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture (2016)

Post by amedvednikov » Sun, Jun 16, 2019, 4:28 PM UTC

cpursley wrote: post #33

elamje wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you been there? I really don’t think Russia has it figured out better than the US. Russia’s infrastructure is certainly not close to the level of Europe/Japan or China.

> Have you been there? I really don’t think Russia has it figured out better than the US. Yes, I live here. Russian transportation absolutely blows anything in the US away, and I've traveled extensively in both countries. Transportation is embarrassing and frustrating for me when I come back to the US. The US is absolutely car-dependent. Russia has everything from Rail transport (trans-Siberian, etc), city subways (M…

Post by falsedan » Sun, Jun 16, 2019, 4:29 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #70

H8crilA wrote: post #50

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What's the deal with people putting 120% efforts at work. It's clear that this is not necessary (for example - Switzerland is just fine). Put a steady 60-80% and bump it up to 100% when things get rough. I truly don't get it, sometimes it feels like people simply want to spend lives at work rather than do something else.

Why do so many technology breakthroughs and successful companies get founded in the US, compared to Europe, then? Why do so many Europeans go off to work for US companies? There must be something beneficial about the US approach.

Post by xster » Sun, Jun 16, 2019, 4:30 PM UTC

Tomte wrote: post #12

mruts wrote: post #7

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Many people (including myself), don't want a laid back work culture. I want to kill myself for the firm, and work as hard as humanly possible. I think I just derive the most happiness from working (though I do like drinking as well). I know a lot of other people like this. Maybe you can call us brainwashed or whatever, but this is how myself and most of my co-workers are. I don't think it's an accident that America i…

> I don't think it's an accident that America is the most rich and powerful country in the world. Or that American Tech dominant the world (except for China) You were the winners of a World War that left your competitors in scorched ruins, while you hadn't suffered much physical damage. In the multi-stranded bundle of reasons for American dominance, this is the big one.

Post by opportune » Sun, Jun 16, 2019, 4:31 PM UTC

izacus wrote: post #27

S_A_P wrote: post #8

Transportation is the biggest difference between the us and a lot of the rest of the world. Switzerland is the size of a small New England state. Mass transit is a tough thing to scale. That said I’ve noticed that a lot of the jobs in the us that would be considered “glamorous” are by and large the lowest paying jobs with the longest hours. Looking past the status of a company and career and looking into the practica…

I never understood that argument - Bay Area, the (arguably) richest place on this planet is smaller then Switzerland and it's transit system is catastrophic in comparison to SBB still. I get that you can't cover Alabama with Swiss railways, but why the heck is traveling from Zurich a Swiss mountain top in the middle of nowhere still faster and more convenient than getting from SF to Mountain View?

Post by opportune » Sun, Jun 16, 2019, 4:34 PM UTC

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #57

bhaak wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Transportation is the biggest difference between the us and a lot of the rest of the world. Switzerland is the size of a small New England state. Mass transit is a tough thing to scale. I don't buy this argument. "We are much bigger than $OTHER_COUNTRY therefore we can't have comparable public transport". I concur that for the whole country this might be a viable argument but it doesn't explain why the public trans…

I wonder how many people that don’t buy that argument have driven across the USA a few times?