I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018) • Hacker News Board

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#211

Post by sunshineforever » Sun, May 02, 2021, 9:25 PM UTC

xwdv wrote: post #140

lazyant wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems convoluted and unfair to condemn all people using a term for what you think are their reasons. Simpler explanation is that "Latinx" doesn't carry a gender so it's more inclusive than "Latinos" and shorter than "Latinas and Latinos". I'm not saying it was a good idea but I don't get all the negativity towards it; at worst seems a misguided attempt by well-intentioned people, big deal, just let people call themse…

The negativity is because Latinos did not call themselves Latinx, white people called them that because they didn’t understand and were intimidated by gendered languages, seeing them as a threat to “inclusivity” rather than just a different way of speaking. So then any “progressive thinking” Latino was forced to adopt the term for themselves as a result of peer pressure to fit in. I know I’m being hit with downvotes…

I am transgender and I feel similarly about the language that has been adopted by our community in recent years. The difference is that the terminology seems to have originated from the trans community itself. But there are many modern correct terms that I don't feel comfortable using for myself but if I don't use them I am instantly seen as regressive. It's even so bad that one of the terms I used to enjoy casually calling myself among friends is now regarded as an outright slur and saying it is akin to cursing in a problematic manner. And yet it's something that I used to enjoy saying with no ill intent or bad feelings whatsoever. It's a sad situation. When I use the socially correct terms I feel as though I'm being forced to speak a certain way and it doesn't feel empowering, in fact it makes me feel vulnerable in a way that I don't necessarily want to be with every stranger that I come across.

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#212

Post by bane » Sun, May 02, 2021, 9:29 PM UTC

I listen to a lot of retrogaming and retrocomputing podcasts, ANTIC and Retronauts are my favorites.

It turns out ANTIC interviews quite a few people from the old computer magazine and book industry, and retronauts is mostly made up of struggling video game journalists who cycle between the same magazines and being jobless or freelance. A few of them, especially the more senior folks basically have thrown in the towel and now work for other companies entirely within the video games industry.

What's really interesting about the ANTIC interviews is how close those folks were to the thing that basically displaced them (computers and ubiquitous networking), and yet none of them seems to have predicted it happening. To them the publishing and periodical industries had always been there and always will be. Their own employer going out of business was more due to local market forces affecting them or mergers between companies.

For the record, it didn't occur to me either. In the mid 90s I was sitting next to an incoming T-1 line at a startup ISP sending off physical envelopes with job applications to gaming and computer magazines I enjoyed hoping to become a journalist myself. One of the magazines that did reply (by mail btw) went out of business itself about 6 years later.

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#213

Post by woobar » Sun, May 02, 2021, 9:34 PM UTC

chmod600 wrote: post #190

Larrikin wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally think it's ridiculous that people find it amazing that 15 an hour is considered amazing pay for anyone that isn't a teenager working their first job, but Amazon gets high praise for doing it. Most people on here would laugh at a job that pays 600 a week, 2400 a month or 28800 a year before taxes.

How much is 28800 a year after taxes?

Depends on state. ~$24K-$25K

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#214

Post by FineTralfazz » Sun, May 02, 2021, 9:35 PM UTC

UweSchmidt wrote: post #192

pydry wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jobs like what? The only ones I can think of are ones which suddenly started paying a lot due to some market quirk (e.g. miners in Australia in the 2010s). Class expectations just take a while to catch up (or never do if the market quirk doesn't persist).

Software jobs are low status. We live in a bubble and respect good hackers but normies don't like nerds. Hollywood portrays us between weirdo and pervert, while glorifying lawyers and doctors.

That has a lot more to do with personality than career. If you’re an irritating know-it-all weirdo, people aren’t going to like you regardless of your job. I’ve known engineers like that that, but most people I know and work with are normal people and are respected.

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#215

Post by usbline » Sun, May 02, 2021, 9:39 PM UTC

goatinaboat wrote: post #199

usbline wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't aware that journalists prescribed medicine. Don't be disingenuous!

It’s called an analogy, it’s illustrating a situation where a professional’s interests are misaligned with the users of their services.

It's not a very good analogy!

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#216

Post by usbline » Sun, May 02, 2021, 9:41 PM UTC

jsrcout wrote: post #197

usbline wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know where I can find these agreed upon standards for journalists?

Start here, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism_ethics_and_standard...

Ah, good. These don't appear to be legally binding at all. That's good news honestly!

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#217

Post by syshum » Sun, May 02, 2021, 9:42 PM UTC

AcerbicZero wrote: post #178

The world has more than enough journalists and exceptionally few reporters.

The world has more than enough activists, opinion writers, and propagandists that call themselves "journalists" but exceptionally few actual journalists.

Lets not degrade the word Journalists like Apple has degraded the word Genius....

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#218

Post by skystarman » Sun, May 02, 2021, 9:43 PM UTC

throwawayboise wrote: post #177

skystarman wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how that refutes my point that there are millions of people south of the border willing to work these backbreaking jobs for low pay if only our government could come up with some sensible immigration bill. That these same people also exploit undocumented people is a separate issue. Give them papers and you'll have no problem finding jobs!

Relatively few people object to sensible immigration policies. What they object to is undocumented hoards of people flooding across the borders.

Literally no Democrat in leadership has ever proposed "undocumented hordes of people flooding across the borders". And like maybe 3-4 of hundreds of elected democrats have ever proposed anything close to "open borders"

This is what people whose brains have been melted by MAGA twitter and Fox News believe the "other side" wants.

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#219

Post by skystarman » Sun, May 02, 2021, 9:45 PM UTC

Larrikin wrote: post #142

skystarman wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And for all the shrieking about Amazon destroying "mom and pop" shops these people never admit that Amazon pays their employees much more, often 2x what the mom and pop's did. Or did you really think mom and pop were paying the teens running their bookstore $17/hr? You think they had great health insurance and other benefits?

I personally think it's ridiculous that people find it amazing that 15 an hour is considered amazing pay for anyone that isn't a teenager working their first job, but Amazon gets high praise for doing it. Most people on here would laugh at a job that pays 600 a week, 2400 a month or 28800 a year before taxes.

No one is here saying it's "amazing"

I am here saying that, yes that paltry $15 an hour you scold Amazon for paying? Well mom and pop they drove out of business was paying about HALF of that.

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#220

Post by dkarras » Sun, May 02, 2021, 9:52 PM UTC

capableweb wrote: post #203

gkoberger wrote: post #163

For anyone curious, it seems he now has a full-time job as a journalist at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Happy he's being paid for his words again. https://twitter.com/ausmurph88/status/1096838031804227584

Article linked from the submission was from December 25, 2018, and the tweet from Feb 16, 2019. Seems likely that writing this article (and first having the experience of delivering for Amazon) got him hired. Good for him!

Exactly, good for him. Some people just know how to write. I rarely read more than a couple paragraphs in pieces like this, but he grabbed me until the end.