Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#181

Post by stretchwithme » Fri, Feb 18, 2011, 8:26 PM UTC

xiaoma wrote: post #96

ovi256 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brazil has a well-known tit-for-tat policy in foreign matters. They will apply to a country's citizens whatever policy that country applies to Brazilians. So Americans were singled out because they singled out Brazilians. It's called having balls.

It's not having balls. It's having a temper tantrum. Many, many countries have repricosity-based policies for these things, but the "repeicosity" is applied in a very one-sided way by all of them. Policy that pisses them off will be emulated and applied to foreigners unlucky enough to be from whatever country offends them, but unusually lax or inexpensive policies won't usually be up for reciprocal treatment. Conside…

reciprocity

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#182

Post by dailystatusrpt » Fri, Feb 18, 2011, 8:55 PM UTC

forinti wrote: post #118

yardie wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except they weren't singled out. Visa waiver program requires each member be at certain economic and political levels. Countries like Singapore met the requirement and are included, countries like Brazil, China, and India don't. This isn't elementary school anymore, you expect diplomats to act diplomats and get policies enacted, not come up with some stupid scheme even a 10 year old could see through. What the politi…

Americans weren't singled out either. Brazil's policy is the same for all countries: the same hurdles Brazilians have to go through in a given country, citizens of that country will have to go through in Brazil. EDIT: Would Florida prefer that half a million Brazilians hadn't visited in 2010? It works both ways, you see.

On one short trip to Brazil, entering at GIG, I was singled out, had my passport held and told I couldn't enter and would have to return to the US. The Federal Police told me specifically and precisely it was for reciprocity - some Brazilians had been turned away in the US and so they were doing the same for me. They had no legal reason to deny me entry, it was simply because I am American.

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#183

Post by ErrantX » Fri, Feb 18, 2011, 10:33 PM UTC

nhangen wrote: post #122

ErrantX wrote: post #18

I have to admit, as difficult as it is, he makes a good point here. I'm nowhere near as well travelled, but we do a lot of work in the middle east (some of the nastier parts too), which is a place you would imagine a white westerner would count seriously against you. But, frankly, I've never felt safer or more welcomed in my life (apart from the odd dicey moment). OK, the US is not terrible, unsafe or specifically un…

Have you ever been to Qatar? I'd have to disagree with you there.

Yep, I quite enjoyed it there. However, you do have to act appropriately to their (very different) customs or it gets awkward.

Helps if you are working there.

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#184

Post by HeyLaughingBoy » Fri, Feb 18, 2011, 10:41 PM UTC

dalore wrote: post #60

ErrantX wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The intriguing thing is that out of about 15 US trips only one had a bad border experience (and that was a work trip where we took our own equipment, which was understandable).

A group of us colleagues were heading into SFO for a work conference. This one guy who was a Sihk but no turban got asked what did he do for a living, so he said a C++ software engineer. The border guard then asked a few C++ questions like what is a virtual function.

I wonder how widespread programming hobbies are. Last weekend I was signing a credit card slip for the pizza delivery guy and he asked "Web developer?"

"No. But I do write software for a living, how did you know?" And he pointed to the "PHP Cookbook" I was using to write on.

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#185

Post by jdp23 » Sat, Feb 19, 2011, 12:04 AM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #180

jdp23 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We shall see. Looking elsewhere in the thread, most of it is international people having a really great discussion about the issue. And it seems to me that they're very interested in talking about the issue and agree with me that this and related topics as a big part of entrepreneurship. EDIT: downvoted. I wonder why?

You are getting downvoted for being so strident about something that comes pretty close to contradicting the site guidelines. It is not in fact true that popularity controls what stories are germane to HN. I think you may think this nerdy Glass Bead Game of connecting the dots between arbitrary subjects and "entrepreneurship" is a compelling argument, but some of us have been here for many years and have seen too man…

Thanks for the detailed response, Thomas. My perception is that the community here is very selective which rule violations result in downvoting -- there are some great examples throughout this thread.

In terms of on-topic, stories related to barriers that entrepreneurs face, and the difficult tradeoffs we have to make as part of working in this field certainly seem to be within scope of HN. Interesting new phenomena are explicitly within scope and there are some truly remarkable things happening at the social network level with the grassroots resistance to the TSA -- and with so many key players in the security and software engineering communities taking an active role.

> Next time you start feeling the outrage welling up in you about how people are bitching and sniping about stories that most people on HN seem to like, keep in mind: Paul Graham has been having to punch in manual filters to suppress some of the most "popular" stories on HN.

I'm not outraged ... depending on the day, it's a combination of bemused, disappointed, and entertained.

> It may interest you to know that fully half of the top 10 pages of your best-ranked comments here are political

Good to know! Sounds like there's even more support here than I realized for my political stories. Is the story about my significant other, AWK code, and Brian Kernighan still number one?

It's an interesting discussion ... thanks again!

jon

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#186

Post by tptacek » Sat, Feb 19, 2011, 1:20 AM UTC

jdp23 wrote: post #185

tptacek wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are getting downvoted for being so strident about something that comes pretty close to contradicting the site guidelines. It is not in fact true that popularity controls what stories are germane to HN. I think you may think this nerdy Glass Bead Game of connecting the dots between arbitrary subjects and "entrepreneurship" is a compelling argument, but some of us have been here for many years and have seen too man…

Thanks for the detailed response, Thomas. My perception is that the community here is very selective which rule violations result in downvoting -- there are some great examples throughout this thread. In terms of on-topic, stories related to barriers that entrepreneurs face, and the difficult tradeoffs we have to make as part of working in this field certainly seem to be within scope of HN. Interesting new phenomena…

If the story had been written in terms of a barrier faced by entrepreneurs --- as a war story from someone actually operating a company, as many of us here do --- it wouldn't generate the same enmity.

Also, please keep in mind that there are two factors influencing our perceptions of stories: first, the story itself and how strongly it adheres to HN; and, second, the comment threads the stories have been shown to generate in the past.

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#187

Post by jdp23 » Sat, Feb 19, 2011, 2:01 AM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #186

jdp23 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the detailed response, Thomas. My perception is that the community here is very selective which rule violations result in downvoting -- there are some great examples throughout this thread. In terms of on-topic, stories related to barriers that entrepreneurs face, and the difficult tradeoffs we have to make as part of working in this field certainly seem to be within scope of HN. Interesting new phenomena…

If the story had been written in terms of a barrier faced by entrepreneurs --- as a war story from someone actually operating a company, as many of us here do --- it wouldn't generate the same enmity. Also, please keep in mind that there are two factors influencing our perceptions of stories: first, the story itself and how strongly it adheres to HN; and, second, the comment threads the stories have been shown to gen…

If somebody blogs about the challenges of being a Seattle-based entrepreneur who is boycotting flying (or getting harrassed at airports) because would you see that as on topic?

> the comment threads the stories have been shown to generate in the past.

Stories about the TSA have been shown to generate a lot of antipathy from you and your friends in the past. So is your argument that this should give you veto power in the future?

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#188

Post by groby_b » Sat, Feb 19, 2011, 2:22 AM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #98

edw519 wrote: post #80

everyone is utterly paranoid Everyone? I have bit my tongue for a long time about this great community's slipping quality, but honestly, how does shit like this make it to the top of Hacker News. Flagged. Any suggestions for how to get back to having hacker news on Hacker News? (And please spare us the lame "situational logic" response of how is hacker news.)

Working in the tech field often means travelling to the States. More importantly, since many hacker newsers are American, you should be aware that setting up shop in the States makes it more difficult for you to do business internationally, that travelling to visit clients/customers/suppliers is easier for you than it is for them to visit you. So yes, this is relevant. And flagging an article because of a little easi…

Hm. Working in the tech field also means eating pretty much every day. I shall post cooking recipes....

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#189

Post by bugsy » Sat, Feb 19, 2011, 2:35 AM UTC

wisty wrote: post #67

jrockway wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By the law of averages, all insurance is a waste of money. Insurance companies make money. They do this by collecting more fees than they pay out. In aggregate, they win and you lose. The real question to ask is, "can I afford this insurance" and "is it worth it to me". If you buy a $250 mp3 player and the "insurance" is $300 and lasts for 6 months, it's a waste of money, because you aren't going to break your mp3 pl…

No, medical insurance isn't a waste, because the cost of not having it can be extremely high, not just in dollar terms. Happiness (100% x losing $1000 + 1% x having a free necessary operation) > Happiness (1% x not being able to afford a necessary operation).

In the US routine medical care costs less than the cost of insurance.

When you get a serious illness like cancer, the insurance company rescinds your policy and then you become uninsurable and die.

Insurance does cover the odd accident though, but they will fight tooth and nail over whether you need therapy to learn to walk again.

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#190

Post by tptacek » Sat, Feb 19, 2011, 3:10 AM UTC

jdp23 wrote: post #187

tptacek wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the story had been written in terms of a barrier faced by entrepreneurs --- as a war story from someone actually operating a company, as many of us here do --- it wouldn't generate the same enmity. Also, please keep in mind that there are two factors influencing our perceptions of stories: first, the story itself and how strongly it adheres to HN; and, second, the comment threads the stories have been shown to gen…

If somebody blogs about the challenges of being a Seattle-based entrepreneur who is boycotting flying (or getting harrassed at airports) because would you see that as on topic? > the comment threads the stories have been shown to generate in the past. Stories about the TSA have been shown to generate a lot of antipathy from you and your friends in the past. So is your argument that this should give you veto power in…

It's ironic you'd say that, because the opposite is true about me and the TSA threads; I'm the first to admit, I too took the opportunity to bay at the moon about the TSA on HN. I wish someone had called me out for doing so then.

I don't know what "veto power" you think I have here, but if you click around the site, you'll find a document that pretty well spells out what is and isn't on-topic for the site. The person who really does have "veto power" here is Paul Graham, and he's been having to use it lately; he buried Egypt, and he buried the TSA.