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Poor in Tech

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Re: Poor in Tech

#121

Post by giantg2 »

DigitalSea wrote: post #46
avancemos wrote: post #7

Instead of seeing the bright side of life, in which this person clearly vastly improved their situation in life, all they can see is what they don’t have. “I knew I was the only poor person at my tech startup because I had the only fat body in the building.” I’m sorry, but no, being poor doesn’t make you fat. Your eating choices make you fat. Poor people have agency too. Agency is not something you buy. This is comin…

There are quite a few papers out there on the subject. As someone who has studied a little bit of sociology, I can tell you there are numerous sociological factors which basically determine that wealthier people have access to better food, better medical care and live healthier lives in comparison to lower-socioeconomic people. Where you live alone determines your health equity, if you live in a remote area or small…

"if you live in a remote area or small town away from a large city, your access to fresh and non-processed foods is heavily reduced."

This simply isn't true. Most food deserts are in the poorer areas of the cities because nobody is bringing fresh produce in there to sell. If you live in the country or small town, many of these places have farm stands, farmers markets, and local farmers providing seasonal produce to the local stores.

Not to mention, lower density housing generally means that there is enough land to have a veggie garden, depending on the specific circumstances.

Re: Poor in Tech

#122

Post by gadders »

est31 wrote: post #31
avancemos wrote: post #7

Instead of seeing the bright side of life, in which this person clearly vastly improved their situation in life, all they can see is what they don’t have. “I knew I was the only poor person at my tech startup because I had the only fat body in the building.” I’m sorry, but no, being poor doesn’t make you fat. Your eating choices make you fat. Poor people have agency too. Agency is not something you buy. This is comin…

There are food deserts in the USA, where you literally can't buy high quality food like vegetables in a large area, and have to resort to only eating the highly processed and highly unhealthy food. These food deserts usually are located in the poorer neighbourhoods. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert

Then eat less of it?

Re: Poor in Tech

#123

Post by [deleted] »

isomorph wrote: post #105
culturestate wrote: post #5

To me, this reads more as a list of "from outside the valley bubble" signifiers than it does as a list of things that people who've grown up in poverty might do, even if the former was a result of the latter. There are some exceptions - not noticing missed paychecks is the biggest - but most of it is just stuff that happens every day in other offices. Making your lunch at the office and not bringing Advil from home?…

But it IS a list of what someone who grew up in poverty did

[deleted]

Re: Poor in Tech

#124

Post by reader_mode »

culturestate wrote: post #5

To me, this reads more as a list of "from outside the valley bubble" signifiers than it does as a list of things that people who've grown up in poverty might do, even if the former was a result of the latter. There are some exceptions - not noticing missed paychecks is the biggest - but most of it is just stuff that happens every day in other offices. Making your lunch at the office and not bringing Advil from home?…

>not noticing missed paychecks is the biggest

I work as a consultant and I regularly forget to send invoices for a month (sometimes two). It's been years since I was living from paycheck to paycheck, I can afford to skip out on months of income and not notice for day-to-day expenses. And I'm lazy about creating invoices (I should automate this and keep a regular activity log instead of pulling stuff from git and emails but yeah).

More importantly I've worked with other consultants and I got the impression that people from finance are used to chasing them for invoices, so I don't think it's that rare.

Re: Poor in Tech

#125

Post by scandox »

rubyfan wrote: post #103
scandox wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up very wealthy and it is what it is. I read that list and some parts of it make me sad and some make me laugh. There's been times I've been that asshole, and times I've not been. Some of the things are very American - like the teeth thing which is basically the ultimate American neurosis. We were rich but I didn't want someone messing with my perfectly useful teeth. There's no point being overly defensive abo…

> There's no point being overly defensive about these things. People with all kinds of life experience can learn from each other. I don’t think this is the fault of the author. When you’ve never had the chance or experience or bank account to dream of doing something that many people take for granted it’s easy to sort of clam up or realize your different and that you have to try harder to fit in.

I meant that wealthy people should not be too defensive about it.

Re: Poor in Tech

#126

Post by oaiey »

mcherm wrote: post #2

I've seen this before. Not often, because the companies I have worked at have rarely hired someone from this social strata. But in the cases where we have, I have seen the alienation. Aside from the obvious "be genuinely friendly", does anyone have suggestions of what to do as a coworker to support someone suffering from this cultural barrier?

Be an ally.

Re: Poor in Tech

#127

Post by creshal »

stephencanon wrote: post #86
MattGaiser wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you fly business/first class. I know people who went to Macau for a weekend or Paris and that is how.

First/business class is not miserable, but it’s also not relaxing. For a three day trip, spending a whole day of it in airports or on a plane is not at all relaxing, no matter what class you’re flying. Personally, I draw the line at a week for non-business travel to Europe, and two weeks for Asia.

> Personally, I draw the line at a week for non-business travel to Europe, and two weeks for Asia.

Sounds about right, especially when you factor in jetlag.

Re: Poor in Tech

#128

Post by GlennS »

Some interesting culture differences in there.

For example, one of the reasons that soccer/football is popular worldwide is because it's very cheap. Is it not so in the US?

Also the assumption that everyone takes painkillers?

Re: Poor in Tech

#129

Post by shoo »

MattGaiser wrote: post #15

> > I knew I was the only poor person at my tech startup because I made more there than I’d ever made before; a daring amount I had been afraid to ask for during the offer process. I discovered through misadventure that I still made less than any of the executive assistants, or the receptionist. I was, in fact, the lowest-paid person in the building including the interns. I hadn’t known what was possible, so I couldn…

harder to negotiate a good deal for yourself when you are operating at an information disadvantage (e.g. not having friends/family/former classmates as peers in industry to give insider advice), if you don't have good alternative to employer lowball offer, or you are in poorer negotiating position due to having fewer resources (cash, time, higher expenses due to not having enough cash & stability to secure cheaper long term accommodation, etc).

Re: Poor in Tech

#130

Post by strken »

I ate the free "cheetos" (unfortunately, they were actually peatos), the free breakfast, used the occasional paracetamol tablet, got too drunk at parties and ate half the canapés, said hi to the cleaners, couldn't work out why everyone was so into snowboarding, failed horribly at networking, had an android, lived in the needles and shootings part of the Tenderloin, was just over the obese BMI when I left, and have never had my teeth whitened.

I think those things are markers of the upper or upper-middle classes in the US, and if you're not from the US or from any other class, you don't have them. I haven't had to worry about bounced paychecks for a decade. My parents, solidly middle class, could have handled emergencies like a missed paycheck by dipping into their savings.

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