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Asian governments roll out 4-day weeks, WFH to solve fuel crisis caused by war

fortune.com

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Re: Asian governments roll out 4-day weeks, WFH to solve fuel crisis caused by war

#151

Post by Pay08 »

neaden wrote: post #34
niek_pas wrote: post #2

"Asia" didn't roll out anything. Thailand, Vietnam, The Philippines, and Pakistan rolled out independent measures.

The thing I feel like is really important to remember whenever thinking about the world and demographics is that most people are Asian. As in more people live in Asia then outside of it. Conversely when a headline or something mentions Asia, it is rare they actually mean the majority of the continent or people living there.

Not to mention that people tend to lump Oceania into it too.

Re: Asian governments roll out 4-day weeks, WFH to solve fuel crisis caused by war

#152

Post by _kblcuk_ »

ragazzina wrote: post #146
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #11

I've long said that WFH is an easy win climate change solution that costs nothing, is well loved by everyone who participates (except management). Turns out in times like this, it's also an energy security measure.

I love WFH but how is it a win climate change solution for anyone outside of the USA? If my office building WFH, instead of heating a building we need to heat 500 people homes all day. And most of the people commute by public transport.

So 500 people leave for office and turn off the heating at their homes, even if there are other people (kids, elderly) or animals (cats, dogs, birds) living there?

Re: Asian governments roll out 4-day weeks, WFH to solve fuel crisis caused by war

#153

Post by Muromec »

kubb wrote: post #96
jghn wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite is when people say they like "asian cuisine" or "asian food". China alone has several distinct cuisines. Why do we act like this is a monolithic concept?

It's similar to how people say "Europe does this or that". Basically the part of their thoughts dedicated to that part of the world is so small that all they can afford is a tiny box, and everything has to go in there, reality be damned.

Europe at the very least has one parliament that sometimes passes laws that apply to almost the whole continent

Re: Asian governments roll out 4-day weeks, WFH to solve fuel crisis caused by war

#154

Post by jama211 »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #102
neaden wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TBF the entire Western Hemisphere is about the population of China, so it's actually far far worse.

It is quite unclear how big China's population really is; see for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFbMWq-xvXU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymmaYswXm78

Youtube videos are always a poor quality source - the UN doesn’t accept China’s numbers exactly but they believe the total number is broadly correct due to cross referenced data, and expert independent demographers largely agree. The figure of 1.4 billion is likely within the ballpark and the idea that this is off by hundreds of millions is considered a fairly fringe theory, almost a conspiracy theory.

Re: Asian governments roll out 4-day weeks, WFH to solve fuel crisis caused by war

#155

Post by quesera »

esseph wrote: post #141
quesera wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no reason for Italy and Iran/Iraq to be pronounced similarly. (Cf Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Idaho?) But FWIW, the EYE-rack thing is because GWB (most prominently, but others before and after) intentionally mispronounced the name of the country, in a "real american" kind of way, and also to annoy SAD-dumb Hussein as a kind of "we're stupid but we're going to kill you anyway" kind of psyop. Or maybe just "we dis…

I've lived in over a dozen states and I've never heard either called anything other than EYE-(ran/raq) in conversation. The extremely, I mean extremely rare occasion when someone pronounces it differently on TV, it's almost like they get side-eyed by other people as trying to "talk fancy".

Well, I've lived in four states in the last 20 years.

Anecdotally, the pronunciation popularity has split neatly along statewide-prominent political lines. For my four example states, three were correct/respectful, and one wrong/disrespectful.

Correct pronunciation has also had an inverse correlation with the rates of active/former military employment, which might be more directly indicative. And a positive correlation with education levels. So the answer is in there somewhere, I suspect.

National TV "news" programming might have a style guide which dictates pandering to the audience by speaking in real american, no matter how well-educated the hosts might be.

Re: Asian governments roll out 4-day weeks, WFH to solve fuel crisis caused by war

#156

Post by alephnerd »

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #140
alephnerd wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also Vietnam, Thailand, and unofficially Pakistan. The reality is the bigger Asian nations like China, India, SK, and Japan that worked on building resilient alternatives after the 2022-23 ONG shock due to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine aren't as dramatically impacted. The others didn't or were hit by other crises at the same time. For example, in Pakistan's case, their government raised fuel taxes by around 33…

> eg. I've had my parents say the "taste" of food is worse on electric instead of gas stovetops If you are using the cooking technique of "bhunai" [1], which is quite common in South Asian cooking, there is a large difference in food quality you can make with an electric and with a gas stove. Gas stoves are able to provide higher heat at consistent levels, and you can tilt the pot to concentrate heat in one corner to…

My mom doesn't cook bhunai - she's pushed for a low oil household since I was a kid and is extremely health conscious verging on "crunchy".

I've also done bhunai with electric stovetops and ceramic cookware like Dutch ovens and green pans and gotten close enough to an authentic taste - the marginal differences that exist are due to differences in ingredients in the US (eg. lower milkfat percentages, onions instead of shallots, different cultivars of vegetables, etc) and some inexperience of non-Westerners with Western cookware.

It's a very solvable problem. For example, the Indian restaurants my parents like and feel taste "authentic" use electric stovetops as well in the back, but discriminate on ingredients and masalas.

Re: Asian governments roll out 4-day weeks, WFH to solve fuel crisis caused by war

#157

Post by cucumber3732842 »

evilduck wrote: post #126
jghn wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite is when people say they like "asian cuisine" or "asian food". China alone has several distinct cuisines. Why do we act like this is a monolithic concept?

Globally, everyone does this. When someone outside of America thinks of American food, do you think they will think of Cajun gumbo, TexMex, Clam Chowder, or something you'd find on the menu at McDonalds?

>When someone outside of America thinks of American food, do you think they will think of Cajun gumbo, TexMex, Clam Chowder, or something you'd find on the menu at McDonalds?

Statistically this random non-american is some sort of Asian. Therefore the answer is finger lickin good.

Re: Asian governments roll out 4-day weeks, WFH to solve fuel crisis caused by war

#158

Post by cmrdporcupine »

darknavi wrote: post #134
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #11

I've long said that WFH is an easy win climate change solution that costs nothing, is well loved by everyone who participates (except management). Turns out in times like this, it's also an energy security measure.

I know it's a meme on HN to say everyone likes WFH, but I (and many but not ICs around me) thrive more in person. I am 100% more effective in person where I can dev and my desk and bounce ideas off if team mates around me verbally. This can be recreated in a remote environment by having things like a team Discord that folks sit on, but it can feel forced at times (just like communiting to the office I suppose). My ta…

I pretty much dislike WFH and for many of the reasons you mention and more, so took a local in-office job last year after being at home since COVID. I was excited to return to a more social environment until I found that "the office" itself was itself entirely problematic. Cheapass flatpack desks all rammed in together. No noise or sound proofing, giant sweatshop room. Sub-par monitors and equipment generally. Grumpy coworkers complaining constantly about the very conversations (both on-topic and off-topic/non-work) that I came in to have a chance to experience again.

And half the staff was just WFH anyways, or remote, so the collaboration opportunities... diminished.

I even saw this happening at Google before I left there, which had formerly been a ... luxury office. Packing people in like sardines, forcing people to "reserve" desks. Bad parking and/or transit situations.

I get it when employers face financial or real estate crunches. But in the last 10-15 years (I've been working for 30) -- even pre-COVID -- I feel like some switch went off in tech industry leadership brains that is just outright disrespectful. Paying high salaries to engineers and then providing them with uncomfortable accommodations. Makes little sense to me.

I'm back to WFH and the isolation that comes with it. In part because the office environment was actually not what I was hoping for. Because the industry ruined it.

Re: Asian governments roll out 4-day weeks, WFH to solve fuel crisis caused by war

#159

Post by mrguyorama »

bloppe wrote: post #21
scottious wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and if you're talking to somebody who doesn't care about climate change just substitute "climate change" with "traffic"

In my experience, everybody cares about climate change. A lot of people just don't like the idea of caring about climate change. But ya, probably best to just call it "traffic" then, and they might be more receptive.

Absolutely not. There are tens of millions of Americans who have jumped full speed onto the "It's not even happening" train, let alone the "It's actually a good thing because plants" or "It's not our fault" or "We can't fix it so we shouldn't try" or "It's too expensive to fix and I can't do long term math" trains.

And this is a massive reversion too. In the mid 2000s republicans were openly advocating that we needed to do something about climate change and that it was a serious problem and then we opened the cash floodgates to American federal politics and would you look at that, oil companies have a lot of cash.

Keep in mind that the real cost of transitioning is very likely to be less than what we spent on the stupid oil wars of the 2000s. We can literally afford it now, let alone if we hadn't burned all that cash bombing the desert because of oil politics.

Oil companies themselves are fine to be "Energy" companies and invest in Solar and other renewables. They will be profitable just fine. Our country is tearing itself apart over a lie to ensure they remain more profitable.

Re: Asian governments roll out 4-day weeks, WFH to solve fuel crisis caused by war

#160

Post by Obscurity4340 »

ragazzina wrote: post #146
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #11

I've long said that WFH is an easy win climate change solution that costs nothing, is well loved by everyone who participates (except management). Turns out in times like this, it's also an energy security measure.

I love WFH but how is it a win climate change solution for anyone outside of the USA? If my office building WFH, instead of heating a building we need to heat 500 people homes all day. And most of the people commute by public transport.

How is their commute relevant? If they are WFH, theres less people needing to commute. Thats less fuel or more efficient fuel economy for public transport to use
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