"After all, technology is social before it is technical."
That is quite possibly one of the stupidest comments I have ever read...
Come here and work on hard problems – except the ones on our doorstep
301–310 of 387 posts
Re: Come here and work on hard problems – except the ones on our doorstep
#302Earlier quoted context omitted.
How old are you? I used to have the same existential feelings as well when I moved in SF, but over time you just get used to it and don't care anymore. It is part of the maturation process and realize that the world is not a fair place, and no not everybody is equal and will live equally. One thing you realize is that a lot of the people on the streets have major mental conditions (usually schizophrenia, and major dr…
"but over time you just get used to it and don't care anymore. It is part of the maturation process and realize that the world is not a fair place, and no not everybody is equal and will live equally." This is depressing. "This is part of life." feels like a common cop-out and downplays the fact that, if some of us put our minds to it, we could successfully make it not so much a part of life (I'm not saying we'd have…
I love the optimism inherent in this reply. But when you read about this type of behavior http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n03/rebecca-solnit/diary , you realize that the tech world has a long way to go. I've seen too many people who just don't seem to care about, well, other people. We have become a selfish, entitled lot, and these kinds of developments tend to result in people going to the barricades.
Twitter negotiated to pay less than its share of the employee tax in SF. More and more startups are doing the same. Yet those shuttle buses run on city streets, park at city bus stops, and pay no additional fees to do so.
Many people here won't stay, won't volunteer in the community, won't get involved with the city and fight for better Muni and safer streets. Donations at charities are way down. Newly minted millionaires aren't donating to the arts or to charity, they're throwing lavish parties and buying over priced real estate. With people like Peter Thiel insisting that Libertarianism is the way all tech people should believe, precious few actually seem to get that we are all interconnected, and that a social safety net makes the world a better, safer place.
When I made my first money in this town, and it wasn't a lot, but it was enough to change my life, I wept, because I knew at its heart it was violently unfair that I should be safe and the people on the street not. I haven't stopped feeling that way. I hope you don't, either. It was nice to see someone actually care.
I hope that everyone here can show as much faith and heart as you do and insist on voting for taxes, policies, and politicians who will work to change things, for real.
Re: Come here and work on hard problems – except the ones on our doorstep
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
i'm 27 now - this was when i was 25. i've since moved to the south bay to work at google, and things have improved significantly after a lot of meditation. i honestly have a more 'adversarial' mindset towards the homeless - i think a lot of the people in sf begging for change simply don't want to work, and because they can make a living preying on the guilt of people like me, they do so. as for the schizophrenics out…
The kids on Haight street just want to bum around – there was that article* that found they could make almost as much money begging as they could at a minimum wage job. Other parts of the city I think have more people that really are drug-addicted or borderline insane * http://blog.priceonomics.com/post/43085729257/the-street-kid...
One of the reasons things are probably better for you is that you take a shuttle no doubt, and are isolated from the day to day reality of life here. True? http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n03/rebecca-solnit/diary
Re: Come here and work on hard problems – except the ones on our doorstep
#304The guy's Scottish, he thinks it's about San Fran specifically, it's really about AMERICA. Maybe San Fran puts it even more in your face. But compared to most any other country even half as rich as America, the lack of social safety net in the U.S. is kind of shocking. People in Europe don't really realize the extent of it.
I'm French living in Jersey. I have been to San Francisco, even though it's blatant when you walk here, everywhere in the US I have that feeling that the poor are really forgotten. And they live in third-world country conditions. In France, the average rich is not as rich, and it's probably a lot harder to become successful and wealthy than here; but the poor are not left behind as much. It feels more like a society…
"it's probably a lot harder to become successful and wealthy than here"
One thing that is often forgotten is that in Europe it's generally much easier (or less burdening) to become successful in something that doesn't necessarily make a lot of money in the beginning or ever. It can also be a lot easier to feel rich. If you make three times the average income on consulting, you can pretty much take half the year of and still increase your living standard quite a bit if you wanted to.
Re: Come here and work on hard problems – except the ones on our doorstep
#305You want to see income disparity at work, travel to Mumbai and live there for a day. I've lived in Mumbai vicariously through VICE, and that was an eye opener on the income inequality issue.
...vice.
Re: Come here and work on hard problems – except the ones on our doorstep
#306Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is no Europe. I can only speak for my country, the Netherlands, and there is no such thing as people not having the personal funds to buy or rent housing. That's why we have minimum wages, social security, rent subsidies and regulated rent. The homeless here are people mostly people with mental health issues that reject or don't respond to treatment. It's by far not a perfect utopian system, but to have people…
I originally come from Spain, where the weather is nicer than in the Netherlands, and there certainly are homeless people living and sleeping in the streets, or in cold occasions during winter, they can also be seen under the roof provided by an atm / bank branch. However, having been in SFO multiple times, the number of poor/homeless people with no resources is much more evident there. My take is that generally the…
From what I understand, SFO has a bit of an epidemic because of their policies. The city is extremely supporting of the homeless compared to other cities in the USA, so the nation's homeless tend to migrate to SFO.
Also, weather in California is pretty nice year-round. I know I'd prefer California to Arizona or Michigan if I was homeless.
Re: Come here and work on hard problems – except the ones on our doorstep
#307Earlier quoted context omitted.
You need a great number of many to create a pool large enough to get those precious few that can advance humanity enough to do all of that providing by the few. Humanity could be two people living in a grass hut finding just enough berries to eat each day, but it wouldn't be much fun.
Those "precious few" will probably not come from unfit parents who already have six children. Broken families and lack of family planning lie at the heart of crime and poverty. (I can already see the "eugenictler" strawman being put up in the distance)
Crime and poverty lie at the heart of broken families and lack of family planning.
Re: Come here and work on hard problems – except the ones on our doorstep
#308Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had honestly never heard about this before, what does the U.S. pay to countries that have bases in them? Any references? I'm honestly curious
Never heard that there are for example over 50,000 US soldiers in Germany operating military equipment worth billions of USD courtesy of the US tax-payer? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Europe So, any attack on the German soil must result in dead American soldiers. Now, who sane would risk doing so? Yeah, very convenient preaching universal healthcare and welfare for the poor when somebody else pays…
For an extended essay-length version of this poster's viewpoint, read 'Of Paradise and Power' by Robert Kagan.
Re: Come here and work on hard problems – except the ones on our doorstep
#309I think that when people say "hard problems" they mean "problems that almost certainly have solutions if you are willing to put in the effort". Poverty on the other hand is a much, much harder problem than that. In fact, no one quite knows how to solve it in a general way (there are things that seem to work in certain contexts but not in others, many special case half-solutions). And on top of that, there probably is…
Poverty on the other hand is a much, much harder problem than that. In fact, no one quite knows how to solve it in a general way (there are things that seem to work in certain contexts but not in others, many special case half-solutions). Everyone keeps saying that, as if there were only two alternatives: 1) completely fix poverty in a general way or 2) keep the status quo (and allow it to get worse). There has to be…
Have a read of what pg has to say about wealth inequality here:
http://www.paulgraham.com/inequality.html
"So let's be clear what reducing economic inequality means. It is identical with taking money from the rich."
Re: Come here and work on hard problems – except the ones on our doorstep
#310With the exception of a very small sub group of people with serious mental issues, it's not a hard problem . Most of it has been solved already. It's just a matter of having the will to do it. That will is absent. Most developers in SF laugh at the amount of money their European counterparts get paid after taxes. The don't consider not having to step over homeless people a "benefit". That attitude is your problem rig…
> The don't consider not having to step over homeless people a "benefit".
My daughter really tries to stop us from visiting San Francisco, because there is nothing that she can do to help the homeless. So even though I like the city, I don't get to make much use of it (plus, on an not-unrelated note, the city is child unfriendly).
Making matters even more surreal, the Willows Market in Menlo Park now sells caviar at the checkout counter, nestled amongst the chocolate and other things targeted for impulse buys.