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

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

#171

Post by ScottFree »

snovv_crash wrote: post #169
ScottFree wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know an American or Canadian who was hired this way? Or is this speculation?

Me, twice (I changed jobs). However what I do is fairly specialized, so I'm not surprised they weren't able to find someone qualified in 3 months. The other part of making it hard is so that the employer doesn't undertake the effort unless they really need the person and can't do with a local. I know the company made an exception for me, as they did for one other employee, but for the most part their policy is not to…

Thanks for setting me straight! I'll give it another shot after I've chosen a handle for my T-shape. I'm probably a bit too generalized to pull this off right now.

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

#172

Post by elamje »

cpursley wrote: post #78
fastball wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't think US cities have mass transit? The NYC subway[0] is 30 years older than the Moscow Metro[1], if you want to talk about "having things for a century". The US has train lines that cross the entire country as well. No HSR, which is what is needed, but then again neither does Russia. Here is a map of transcontinental railroads in the US in 1887[2]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Subway [1]…

> You don't think US cities have mass transit? No, they are a hilarious joke. NYC metro is a dirty cesspool that can't build anything within budget. Marta in ATL doesen't go anywhere and hasn't added a new line in decades. Everyone knows how bad BART is. Also, it's generally more expensive to take Amtrak than fly. And Amtrak goes nowhere vs the Russian train systems. Just pull up a map to compare. And Russia does hav…

Possibly has good coverage for SPB, Moscow....how about the other large cities?

I will say for the cost of living in both countries Russia has a good ratio of infra to cost, but still not convinced it’s higher quality than US.

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

#173

Post by pjmlp »

Reedx wrote: post #89
pjmlp wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what? How does the average American profit from their existence on their daily lives?

You probably typed that question using the fruits of one or more of these companies. Maybe you Google'd something just before that. You've probably saved time and money with Amazon. Everyone benefits from Tesla advancing electric vehicles and sustainable energy. It goes on and on.

Using Firefox here.

Google is not the first search engine, nor it will be the last.

Plenty of other options available.

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

#174

Post by fizzledbits »

wool_gather wrote: post #130
fizzledbits wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of us admire artists and musicians who have totally devoted themselves to their craft, and we don’t condescendingly pity their “unhealthy work life balance”. My hero growing up was Feynman, who was doing physics every waking hour (or so I’ve read). It’s not like his estate is going to reap the economic benefits of his work; so was Feynman a pitiful sucker, abused by his university employers? Is it my responsibil…

Here's one possible take on the difference of perspective. There's a distinction to be made in the nature of the output . Feynman's physics work was investigating nature on behalf of humanity. What artists produce is spiritually/intellectually/emotionally edifying for other people. Contrast this with OP's [killing themselves to make a rich banker richer][0], or, say, working on the next addictive mobile game. This is…

To my mind that isn’t a meaningful distinction. If an artist is doing no harm, and is meanwhile enthralled by his work and his individual notions of beauty or truth or excellence, then I admire his vitality. I don’t know what OP does, but I similarly appreciate his passion.

I do believe that much of the heat he’s taking is from people projecting their own insecurity and lack of fulfillment, or some other form of jealousy. I suspect that, because I used to be ashamed to feel that sickly, condescending impulse in myself, before I had found a purpose (I.e. a domain of application) for my engineering work that I believe in. I used to have the usual bifurcation of work versus life, and y’know what? Turns out it can get a lot fking better! If OP isn’t hurting anyone, more power to him.

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

#175

Post by fizzledbits »

wool_gather wrote: post #130
fizzledbits wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of us admire artists and musicians who have totally devoted themselves to their craft, and we don’t condescendingly pity their “unhealthy work life balance”. My hero growing up was Feynman, who was doing physics every waking hour (or so I’ve read). It’s not like his estate is going to reap the economic benefits of his work; so was Feynman a pitiful sucker, abused by his university employers? Is it my responsibil…

Here's one possible take on the difference of perspective. There's a distinction to be made in the nature of the output . Feynman's physics work was investigating nature on behalf of humanity. What artists produce is spiritually/intellectually/emotionally edifying for other people. Contrast this with OP's [killing themselves to make a rich banker richer][0], or, say, working on the next addictive mobile game. This is…

I’ve said this before in another thread, that it baffles me how so many people in this community, who I presume are terribly rigorous about their degrees of certainty with various technical matters at work, nevertheless know exactly what everyone else should do in some barely specified life situation.

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

#176

Post by whalabi »

Tomte wrote: post #12
mruts wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think a big reason America dominates is having a country with hundreds of millions of people speaking the same language on a massive, resource-rich continent.

If a competitor to Facebook started at the same time in Switzerland, Facebook would have spread dozens of times faster in the states, then given that the internet is global, the network effect would see it defeat competitors one by one.

(You could argue, also, that the immigration situation leads to the US' success, a big chunk of the world's best and brightest migrate to the US. From CNBC: Apple founder Steve Jobs is the son of a Syrian immigrant, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is a second generation Cuban immigrant, Google founder Sergey Brin was born in Russia, and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin is a Brazilian native.)

I think the VC situation is the other big reason American tech dominates. I don't know enough about how that all works too know why the US succeeds there, but I understand other countries don't have anywhere near the same amount of VC money

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

#177

Post by whalabi »

ryandrake wrote: post #155
Tomte wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I agree that’s why the USA was dominant in the late 20th century, but how long until that reason expires? Are we going to be in 2070 still blaming WW2 for holding Europe back? At some point it becomes less and less about WW2 and more about the USA’s relentless optimization for economic growth at all costs, often over other things that would make this country more civilized and humane.

I think as well there's a snowball effect when you're the world's only superpower - a rich get richer equivalent for countries.

For example, a brain drain to the states because it's seen as wealthy and powerful would only compound that wealth.

But also if you're starting with the best technology and a lot of money, you get ahead of others faster.

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

#178

Post by hollerith »

komali2 wrote: post #159
hollerith wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never claimed that America is the Best Country in the World™. In fact, I'm participating here because I'm living in the US and considering a move. Net income is a better measure than net worth, and net income is higher in the US than in Switzerland -- both in absolute terms and relative to the respective cost of living. Why is net income a better measure? Well, for one thing, if a country's economy is in danger of…

This is the first time I've heard that the reason Americans aren't saving money is because of their confidence in the USD. Typically the reasons are that they can't afford their healthcare or housing costs, or are just financially illiterate. If I wasn't confident in my currency, why would I save in it? The collapse of my government destroys my investment at the same time.

I refer not to confidence in the currency, but rather confidence in their ability to remain employed.

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

#180

Post by ryaniscool »

doubleunplussed wrote: post #138
jjcm wrote: post #28

I've experienced a lot of these things since leaving the bay area and moving to Australia. The thing that surprised me most was similar to point #3 - in Australia the less fortunate are taken care of. One big mental drain I had in America was when my friends were sick but could do nothing about it. I had a roommate in Seattle who had severe dental problems and chronic tooth pain, but could do nothing about it because…

Coming from Australia to the US I've had a similar experience, but have been tempted to discount it as just familiarity bias that I prefer Australia. But the more time goes on the more undeniable it seems that Australia is a better place to live regardless of any bias I have toward it. So I have begun to embrace that it's just true that Australia is a better place to live. There's just less day to day friction in lif…

i think you're a little biased. Best case the tax rate is about the same. I found it to be higher. It's all situational. For example, you can't file a joint tax return in Australia. You can't deduct mortgage interest.

I found pay to be comparable to USA metros while the cost of living (in Sydney at least) is much higher than most metros. The exception being SF/Bay area

There is no tipping but you end up paying the same or more because the wait staff is making a living wage.

With regard to the quality of goods and services. I found the quality of things like whole foods to be much better. Australian produced consumer goods on the other hand we're usually complete crap and overpriced. As for services, it was pretty much the same. Some people care about doing a good job, some people don't. The one notable difference is restaurants. Service was usually much worse.

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