141–150 of 288 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
USD 150k is roughly JPY 16M, which is 2-3x an entry-level salary here. Google might be laying that down for new graduates, but they'd be the only ones that are.
Ah, thanks. Will check levels.fyi to get a better estimate.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So they have an archaic system that requires comparing a signature? I'm pretty sure I couldn't match my credit card unless I were trying to do it while looking at the card signature. I hardly consider that a benefit. And I've been through Zurich. I don't consider it anything special better or worse than going through most major European or American airports. [Oh. I take that back. I had my luggage lost on the way the…
No the archaic part of the system is actually the American Credit Cards And to add about Zurich airport, it is indeed very nice but the price of things isn't.
(A german doctor once told me a salient difference he noted between germany and switzerland is that if you run into an acquaintance in Aldi in germany, they don't immediately offer an excuse for why they happen to be shopping there that day.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Feels like the Khan Academy apps do something like this. You progress through a tree of knowledge and can’t move to any next node until you master the one you’re on, demonstrated by solving problems. It also gives you all the help you need to achieve that mastery.
Not sure if I'd agree. Khan Academy is firmly rooted in the American tradition, it teaches facts, but it's like Feynman in Brazil, it does not integrate the concepts. For that you need problems tailored to your level. A good tutor can do that.
I hadn’t heard that reference before. Here’s the story: http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/46/2/LatinAmerica.htm
Is Bloom's "Two Sigma" phenomenon real? If so, what do we do about it? "the average tutored student was above 98% of the students in the control class"[1] As a tutor, my goal was to identify gaps and misunderstandings. Consider: how can you give a driver helpful directions if you don't know where they are? As a student, I noticed that teachers are routinely ambiguous in ways they cannot understand. And mostly, these…
There has been considerable philosophical work on this topic. Contemporary scientific studies (such as the ones in the link) are not particularly useful here, as they are too trapped in the current societal context to understand deeper cultural trends. Religion as a word is so broad as to basically be meaningless. Separating religion from culture or history is a modern legacy of academic and industrial specialization.
In any case, some reading suggestions, if you're interested in this topic.
- Max Weber. Pretty much the founder of modern social science, particularly with regards to religion. He originated the idea of “The Protestant Work Ethic” and argues that specific features of Protestantism lead to market capitalism arising in Northern Europe, rather than in India or China.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protestant_Ethic_and_the_S...
- Charles Taylor, A Secular Age. This book really changed the way I think about the modern world and what I'll call "the preference for scientistic, humanistic atheism". Taylor essentially argues that modern secularity is not merely the subtraction of religious belief, but a new historical situation where religious beliefs are co-existent both with each other and with immanent beliefs (entirely focused in the world.) This book is huge, so I recommend starting with How Not to Be Secular by James K. A. Smith, as it's a condensed summary of Taylor's book.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Secular_Age
https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Be-Secular-Reading/dp/0802867...
- Friedrich Nietzsche. A philosopher quite interested in this problem. His main goal was to trace the development of moral ideas and subsequently create new, healthier (to him) ones. Too many books to list, but I recommend The Genealogy of Morality and Beyond Good and Evil.
"Why are so many things so much nicer in Switzerland and Japan?" Figuring out why this is without fully attributing it to culture has been of great fascination to me. It really is mindblowing just how _good_ things are in Japan, perhaps they're just highly optimized for tourism? The cleanliness, the service, the great care people place in doing things and in their work is just amazing. Anyone here have more insights…
> What are the non-cultural factors which contribute to this phenomenon It's simply impossible to detach Japan from their culture. The main thing that stands out to me is their selflessness. One anectdata: Tokyo feels pretty much the opposite of NYC. In NYC it feels like people are obstacles to avoid on the way to where you are going. Nobody waits for anybody. At first it seems rude, then you realize "it's not person…
This exact same thing happened to me. Two anecdotes don't make a pattern, but...Japan does have a magnificent culture of service.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Few questions, would be glad if anyone can answer these: - Would you know of good companies which have a good work life balance in Japan? - I know among the big tech, Microsoft and Google have offices there. Both seem to pay well as well. Do they have similar WLB as their US offices? - I have heard of racism, like certain apartments being off limits for non Japanese people. Some clubs only allowing white caucasians a…
Of course. :) I'm not sure "work-life balance" is even the right concept in Japan. Japanese companies are structured around the idea that you devote your life to the organization. Overtime and weekend work are common. In exchange, the company will take care of you: you will never be fired, you will be provided with access to a broad social network, a group of friends, a spouse should you desire, and enough salary for…
> Plan a few years of total immersion.
I'd say this is true (although closer to "a couple") even going between european languages and english.
On the other hand, anyone emigrating for cultural reasons might appreciate that learning a language in their host country will be an order of magnitude more rapid than raising and educating a generation or three[1] in their home country.
[1] Has the american character has changed significantly since the publication of The Canterville Ghost in 1887?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cars and Cellphone service sectors are heavily regulated. Textbooks are not regulated. There is more to it than just "more regulations". Also regulation doesn't necessarily have to come from the government, for example, the Apple App Store is heavily regulated, and yet they have some of the lowest software prices compared to other platforms. In my opinion, competition through trade may have a stronger effect on price…
Textbooks aren't regulated in the governmental sense (though they are somewhat at the middle/high school level), but there's certainly been more "regulation" in the sense of schools trying to enforce what books are used for what class for their own enrichment.
That has little bearing on the prices of textbooks. Also a school can't function without textbook standardization. That's hardly the same thing as regulation.
"Why are certain things getting so much more expensive?" That list is pretty much rank ordered by the amount of non-substitutable human labor involved per unit. Everything in red is a pretty universal need (health, education, child care, housing, food), while the blues are mostly wants. So we want medical care, but that requires a lot of labor, and each of those workers requires housing, but that's supply constrained…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
why can’t you just attribute it to culture? it’s clearly that
You can, but it looks like everyone else in this thread is lazer focused on Japan (likely due to the prestige of Japanese culture). But that doesn't explain Switzerland. Is Switzerland closer to Japanese in culture than they are to Dutch? I think obviously not, but from the thread you would assume otherwsie.