Am I Disabled? • Hacker News Board

Re: Am I Disabled?

#171

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 4:41 PM UTC

kordlessagain wrote: post #163

kayodelycaon wrote: post #11

I think this is a pretty good writeup on how disabilities are dealt with in society. For myself, I'm bipolar. I've had significant difficult my entire life but I didn't know why until recently. Being bipolar has a severe impact on every aspect of my life. In relation to work, it's just painful. I need accommodations to handle a 40-hour work week. I need a regular schedule. I can't be on-call during the night because…

My suggestion is to determine how your brain works, whether it is visual in nature, auditory or other. The mind is the last frontier of health and medical professionals frequently mis-diagnose. Don't accept your "bipolar" label until you understand yourself how your mind works. See https://www.newscientist.com/article/2083706-my-minds-eye-is... .

[deleted]

Re: Am I Disabled?

#172

Post by comprev » Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 4:43 PM UTC

danparsonson wrote: post #161

comprev wrote: post #154

This might be controversial but here goes... On the other side of the coin I had an unforgettable interview experience for a role that really questioned my pro-viewpoint on disability in the workplace. Prior to this interview I was a firm believer that anybody should do the job they want and overcome obstacles. Afterwards, ths changed. Prior to the interview, the recruiter phoned me and said "Just a heads up, you mig…

You understand that by the same or similar logic, you would have written off Stephen Hawking, yes?

He is the exception to the rule in many ways and had some of the best engineers helping with the communication aspect. It's not really comparing apples to apples.

Re: Am I Disabled?

#173

Post by Red_Leaves_Flyy » Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 4:43 PM UTC

kilbuz wrote: post #166

jyriand wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4 hours seems like a lot. Do you still have to commute, even amid the pandemic situation?

Four hours seems like a realistic estimate for daily commute time for a SF SV round-trip pre-COVID, especially on public transit. I did the same, it was 3-3.5 hours by car, and 4 by MUNI/Caltrain/Shuttle. If I lived closer to Caltrain in the city, it would have helped a lot.

I had a 3-4 hour commute on public to my minimum wage job that was a 5 minute drive away. I can't imagine wasting that much time even if I made 2-500k or more a year. What's money without the time to enjoy it?

Re: Am I Disabled?

#174

Post by toast0 » Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 4:44 PM UTC

jyriand wrote: post #69

dagmx wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a current epileptic (spinal injury, recovered partial paralysis) I still have to deal with the fact that I'm in fact, disabled. Working at a FAANG in silicon valley really highlights that. My commute is 4 hours a day because I have to take public transit, and working late hours is a bigger burden than unaffected people in similar life situations. I'm completely dependent on others to take me places, even for groce…

4 hours seems like a lot. Do you still have to commute, even amid the pandemic situation?

4 hours a day, 2 hours each way is probably a bus to caltrain, a decent length caltrain ride, and then a bus to the office. Plus idle time at the caltrain stations waiting for the next leg. Plus walking time.

Sometimes you're lucky and the bus and train schedules align, but in my experience, the bus schedule will come out, aligning to caltrain, then three weeks later, caltrain adjusts their schedule, and you've got 20 minutes between drop off and pickup again. It's better if you get a corporate shuttle to pick you up from caltrain, but still. Also, if you need to stay later than normal, bus and train service drops in frequency a lot, so you might be waiting even longer.

I was just avoiding traffic, so I drove to caltrain, which avoided the waiting on one end.

Re: Am I Disabled?

#175

Post by anodyne33 » Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 4:45 PM UTC

dagmx wrote: post #27

anodyne33 wrote: post #7

This came up for me a few years ago when I was filling out a job application. At the voluntary self disclosure stage it listed epilepsy among the list and it stopped me in my tracks. A few brain surgeries later and I'm no longer epileptic, but it did make me ask this exact question. For several years, my onset with in 2012 at age 36, I considered it more of a bummer and inconvenience and never thought about it any ot…

As a current epileptic (spinal injury, recovered partial paralysis) I still have to deal with the fact that I'm in fact, disabled. Working at a FAANG in silicon valley really highlights that. My commute is 4 hours a day because I have to take public transit, and working late hours is a bigger burden than unaffected people in similar life situations. I'm completely dependent on others to take me places, even for groce…

At the time I was a sound guy and was regularly out 'till 2:00am+, drinking the whole time and back up for work at ~8:00. You clearly know how that changed. I still went out, both of my local spots had good N/A beers (try Kaliber if you have the desire) but that was another complete lifestyle change for me. I wasn't photostrobic sensitive so I lucked out there.

Re: Am I Disabled?

#176

Post by comprev » Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 4:46 PM UTC

leetcrew wrote: post #162

comprev wrote: post #154

This might be controversial but here goes... On the other side of the coin I had an unforgettable interview experience for a role that really questioned my pro-viewpoint on disability in the workplace. Prior to this interview I was a firm believer that anybody should do the job they want and overcome obstacles. Afterwards, ths changed. Prior to the interview, the recruiter phoned me and said "Just a heads up, you mig…

I don't think this is terribly controversial. this is where the "reasonable" part of "reasonable accommodations" comes into play. you need to find a way for wheelchair users to navigate your office building. you don't need to find a way for blind people to fly airplanes. in bob's case, he has ten years worth of company technical/product knowledge in his head. he probably still has a lot to contribute to the company,…

"Reasonable" is a perfectly good word for it - unfortunately I found it impossible to efficiently communicate with Bob. You raise a good point about others adapting to his needs. Apart from one other person, everyone in the engineering team had been there >5yrs.

Re: Am I Disabled?

#177

Post by bobthechef » Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 4:51 PM UTC

Ultimately, "disability" (the word irks me because it's a weasel word) is ultimately normative and teleological. That is, someone is disabled when they lack something they ought to. Pace Hume about is/ought, human nature is your reference point about what ought to be the case. Despite what teleophobic biologists claim, biology could not function without telos. Indeed, no science could because there would be no explanation for why a particular effect results from a particular cause.

In a mechanistic universe, no such teleology exists and nothing truly makes sense anymore. But for the most part, mechanists, like skepticists, exist only in highly rarefied environments like graduate seminars, or deployed selectively to rationalize some perverse desire. And when this mechanism does enter daily life, it does so to their detriment.

Re: Am I Disabled?

#178

Post by haneefmubarak » Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 4:57 PM UTC

pessimizer wrote: post #109

rurban wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bought my top quality titanium Shiluette "forks" in China for €4 per pair and also bought the repair tools in China for €30. With these low prices there's not even customs tax. I have several backups now. And the quality is even better. You are doing something wrong.

It might be that they insisted on lenses. Glasses are a lot more expensive if you opt for the lenses.

Are there glasses that don't use lenses...?

Re: Am I Disabled?

#179

Post by Galaxity » Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 5:03 PM UTC

majewsky wrote: post #96

rurban wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't you just live in the parking lot? 4 hours is insane

I know you're probably suggesting this in good faith, but this being among the first solutions to be suggested might be one of the most Silicon-Valley things I've ever seen.

That's true, but I think they're clearly joking here.

Re: Am I Disabled?

#180

Post by danparsonson » Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 5:10 PM UTC

comprev wrote: post #172

danparsonson wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You understand that by the same or similar logic, you would have written off Stephen Hawking, yes?

He is the exception to the rule in many ways and had some of the best engineers helping with the communication aspect. It's not really comparing apples to apples.

Did you ever see Stephen communicating in real time? Not a prepared speech, but a live conversation? It took him a great deal of time and effort even to form a single sentence. Yes he had a lot of help, but you would still have had to wait while he spoke; two minutes for a sentence is probably not far off.

From your original comment:

> It was impossible to verbally communicate with Bob wihtout Alice present to translate. It took 2 very long minutes to ask "how are you today?" at the interview start. 120 seconds. How was anybody going to effectively communicate with this person on a daily basis or have technical verbal discussions!? If they said communication would be written text only with the CTO I doubt I would have accepted the interview. > To me engineering is all about communication. You communicate ideas in varying degrees of technical depth to cater for your audience, who in turn communicate their ideas to other parties - be it board level, juniors, external parties or even the accounting department. Communication was totally broken here. > What was most concerning was Bob didn't seem feel his disability was serious enough to step down from such a role (or management didn't want to suggest he step down... maybe through fear of law suit?). His inability to verbally communicate anything would have a bit impact on their product development.

> ... It's not really comparing apples to apples.

I disagree, it's an apt comparison. Bob obviously had sufficient technical experience to do his job, that's why he still had it, in spite of the communication problem. Stephen Hawking likewise had valuable contributions to make in his own field and had to communicate those ideas widely, so people helped him to communicate and looked past the difficulties; they didn't find it concerning that he wouldn't step down because he couldn't speak.

The fact that you couldn't work with Bob's speech issues is, frankly, your problem, not his.