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Poor in Tech

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Re: Poor in Tech

#681

Post by GuB-42 »

I started to sympathize and even being admirative at times, then it got darker.

One word: theft.

Taking advantage of free snacks, fine, it is what they are for. Taking stuff back home is borderline but ok. Not handing back the $350 headphones because no one is looking, definitely not ok. The way she described the situation as "everyone is rich so no need to lock thing up and check everything" instead of "people trust each other". The way she got her meal stolen 3 times in a previous job and didn't report it even though it is significant to her, as if theft was normal.

It is the attitude I noticed from someone who just got out of prison. A nice guy, but he got caught in gangs and drug trafficking. It took a while for him to get back into a world where people just trust each other, where "take it" means exactly that. He has a job is living a honest life now.

I hope that the author is fine now, that she managed to learn the lesson of poverty, keep the frugal attitude and respect for low paid workers while dropping the quasi-criminal thinking that goes with poverty.

Also, that she goes back to the gym, show these assholes who think she "doesn't belong" the finger and lost that fat that seems to weight her down in more way than one.

Also, how did we get to a situation where obesity and poverty are correlated? Really a paradox of the first world.

Re: Poor in Tech

#682

Post by [deleted] »

lovegoblin wrote: post #479
kingsuper20 wrote: post #473

"I knew I was the only poor person at my tech startup because nobody else ate the Hot Cheetos that were stocked in our free snack kitchen. Seaweed snacks were always empty. Nobody had those telltale red stains on their fingers but me." https://i2.wp.com/writingtheother.com/wp-content/uploads/202...

You should be a better person than you are being here.

[deleted]

Re: Poor in Tech

#683

Post by rkk3 »

watwut wrote: post #567
dcx wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No need to go for the throat there. And especially not when you're not totally correct. Paul Fussell's Class documents the exact phenomenon OP describes. Wealth is not class [1]; class is much more complex. For example, poor academics are higher class than rich blue-collar workers. Donald Trump is crazy rich but affects many of the working-class behaviours described in said book (technically "high prole"). Barack Oba…

Donald Trump is as high class as it gets. From upbringing to the way his career developed. To the people he socializes with. > Being rich and well-connected for long periods ... which can persist even when the wealth doesn't, and continue to confer benefits. Preferring golf or tennis to say, bowling, doesn't necessarily come with a major difference in affordability. But being good at golf might help your career more…

Since when has a reality-tv career been considered high class.

Re: Poor in Tech

#684

Post by MattRix »

proxyon wrote: post #457
MattRix wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you grow up poor, as she did? If not, then you are missing the important context of what it’s like to grow up in a food scarce environment.

> Did you grow up poor, as she did? If not, then you are missing the important context of what it’s like to grow up in a food scarce environment. Yes I did and I'm still not obese.

Statistically it’s much more likely that you are.

Re: Poor in Tech

#685

Post by [deleted] »

kingsuper20 wrote: post #473

"I knew I was the only poor person at my tech startup because nobody else ate the Hot Cheetos that were stocked in our free snack kitchen. Seaweed snacks were always empty. Nobody had those telltale red stains on their fingers but me." https://i2.wp.com/writingtheother.com/wp-content/uploads/202...

[deleted]

Re: Poor in Tech

#686

Post by MattRix »

FriedrichN wrote: post #217
MattRix wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you grow up poor, as she did? If not, then you are missing the important context of what it’s like to grow up in a food scarce environment.

We never had much money, but we ate well. And I ate a lot, but I was also very active. Being active is free. I know this will upset people, but if poor people are fat, food is not scarce. The quality of food may be low, but low food quality does not make one fat, a surplus of calories does. To be absolutely clear, I know there is a strong correlation between socioeconomic status and obesity. It's much more complicate…

Low quality food absolutely can make you fat because it makes it harder to eat properly. Unhealthy food isn’t just “easier to overeat” but also messes with insulin to make you feel more hungry than you actually are.

Re: Poor in Tech

#687

Post by [deleted] »

ryandrake wrote: post #484
sokoloff wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people wildly over-estimate the costs of driving an older (say 5-15 years old) car and so are prone to over-pay for a new or newer car, believing they're making a good choice based on flawed data. (They remember the time they had to dump $1200 into repairs into some old heap that isn't even shiny anymore. They don't remember that for the last 24 months in a row, they saved $450 in payments, $200 in depreciati…

Thank you! The days of those stereotypical used cars that fall apart at 100,000 miles are pretty much over. A 10 year old economy car, maintained basically (not obsessively), will probably outlast your need for it. Yes, a 1980s turbo Porsche or 1990s M3 will eat $10K+ a year due to constantly breaking. Not nearly the same as a 2010 Toyota Matrix, which you can probably get for $5000 and drive forever.

[deleted]

Re: Poor in Tech

#688

Post by dang »

kevinskii wrote: post #678
dang wrote: post #689

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Replies are welcome, but I've collapsed this subthread to prevent the page from going too far off topic. Sorry—I know that my comment is just as off topic. But it has an educational function (at least under optimistic assumptions) and that requires people seeing it.

Many of the "initial" comments here are at least as deliberate and thoughtful as the ensuing "objection" comments, including the one you replied to. I agree that such a contrarian dynamic likely exists on HN, but you're not quite being fair in this illustration of it.

That's possible. I haven't read the whole thread, and am taking the GP's word for how they perceived it, since it's the perception that creates the reaction anyhow.

Re: Poor in Tech

#689

Post by dang »

dang wrote: post #630
isomorph wrote: post #116

Many of the comments on this article are so cold. I can’t believe it. When I read the original article I was imagining all the constructive ways HN readers would interpret it and hold a mirror up to their own behaviour. Some commenters are doing this. But it surprises and depresses me how many people are commenting saying “no, this list isn’t what it says it is, it’s a list showing the author has a negative mindset /…

This is a case of the contrarian dynamic: an initial wave of objections to the article, followed by a wave of objections to the objections. The latter get upvoted, and so we end up with a top comment saying "I can't believe the comments in this thread" or (as in the current example) "the comments here are so $bad_somehow". Recent explanation here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27145616 . More: https://hn.algol…

Replies are welcome, but I've collapsed this subthread to prevent the page from going too far off topic. Sorry—I know that my comment is just as off topic. But it has an educational function (at least under optimistic assumptions) and that requires people seeing it.

Re: Poor in Tech

#690

Post by UncleMeat »

xenadu02 wrote: post #585
UncleMeat wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've heard stories that at Google, the non-engineering workers at campus may not socialize with engineers at all. Googler for many years here. I've never heard of this kind of thing. One of the most prolific and loved content creators on the internal meme board is in sales. The closest thing I've ever heard like this in the entire valley is that at Apple they don't pay for the lunch bill of non-engineers, so having…

Apple's campus cafeteria is not a free perk for anyone, including engineers.

Last time I was there (which was admittedly like six years ago) the person I was visiting said they got some stipend to be used at the cafeteria. Entirely possible I've misremembered.
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