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Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

venturebeat.com

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Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#41

Post by inferiorhuman »

cybersnowflake wrote: post #39
inferiorhuman wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we're both Christian if you're wondering why someone would do this on a first date What does both of you identifying as christian have to do with anything? Are non-christians less likely to do empathetic things?

Well, according to some statistics yes... https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/oct/30/religious-p... but saying christians visit the elderly for a first date does not necessarily imply nobody but christians are generous in any way.

Well, according to some statistics yes...

And there it is.

While I'm sure a study conducted by the "Institute on Faith & Giving" and published by a Moonie paper is objective it misses quite a bit by assuming that donating to charity is the only measure of empathy or generosity.

https://www.philanthropy.com/article/America-s-Generosity-Di...

Take a look a the states that rank towards the bottom of the list (mostly New England) and those that rank at the top (e.g. Alabama). Or take a look at how empathy is framed as a McCain vs Obama thing. What's missing from that sort of narrative is that Obama pushed government welfare where McCain fought it, that Massachusetts will have far more mature safety nets than Alabama. Supporting universal access to health care is no less empathetic than donating to a religious charity, the only difference is in who you trust to dole out the resources.

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#42

Post by skookumchuck »

ilamont wrote: post #31

The AARP said in “2019 Tech Trends and the 50+” that 115 million Americans over 50 represent an enormous market for technology and that by the end of the next decade this group is projected to spend $84 billion on tech products. Yet major technology companies continue to make it difficult for seniors to do simple things, even though they think they're making things easier. The tech hipsters handling design for FAANG…

A short list:

1. fonts too small

2. buttons that do different things depending on how long the button is held down

3. chording - needing to hold down more than one button simultaneously to do something

4. blink speed - slow blink means one thing, fast blink means another. Is that LED blinking "slow" or "fast"?

5. labeling buttons with icons that have no deducible meaning

6. modes

7. having to do the next step within a certain number of seconds or it fails and you have to start all over again

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#43

Post by cybersnowflake »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #41
cybersnowflake wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, according to some statistics yes... https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/oct/30/religious-p... but saying christians visit the elderly for a first date does not necessarily imply nobody but christians are generous in any way.

Well, according to some statistics yes... And there it is. While I'm sure a study conducted by the "Institute on Faith & Giving" and published by a Moonie paper is objective it misses quite a bit by assuming that donating to charity is the only measure of empathy or generosity. https://www.philanthropy.com/article/America-s-Generosity-Di... Take a look a the states that rank towards the bottom of the list (mostly New…

Another difference would be that the kind of redistribution Obama favors is compelled for one side of the equation while charity is more or less voluntary depending upon your vision of what the divine requires.

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#44

Post by el_benhameen »

ceceshao1 wrote: post #2

Was a bit surprised to see this piece from VentureBeat (guess that's why they called it OffBeat). My family has been taking care of my grandmother who has Alzheimers and Parkinsons and it's taken a tremendous toll on everyone, especially my father who is the main caretaker. As someone in tech, it's stories and experiences like this that make me wonder if we're working towards something that will help those in need or…

I apologize for offering totally unsolicited commentary, especially if it's unhelpful, but your grandmother's condition sounds similar to what my grandmother suffered from. We thought she had Alzheimers and Parkinsons, but a postmortem analysis by the folks at UC Davis showed that she had dementia with lewy bodies [0], which shares symptoms with both of those diseases but is treated somewhat differently. I mention it only because the treatment for some of her symptoms ended up making things worse and are contraindicated for DLB patients.

I'm sorry for what your family is going through. It took a profound toll on our family, too.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dementia_with_Lewy_bodies

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#45

Post by inferiorhuman »

cybersnowflake wrote: post #43
inferiorhuman wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, according to some statistics yes... And there it is. While I'm sure a study conducted by the "Institute on Faith & Giving" and published by a Moonie paper is objective it misses quite a bit by assuming that donating to charity is the only measure of empathy or generosity. https://www.philanthropy.com/article/America-s-Generosity-Di... Take a look a the states that rank towards the bottom of the list (mostly New…

Another difference would be that the kind of redistribution Obama favors is compelled for one side of the equation while charity is more or less voluntary depending upon your vision of what the divine requires.

Another difference would be that the kind of redistribution Obama favors is compelled for one side of the equation

Sure, and there are plenty of welfare programs that predate Obama. Welfare programs that were, in large part, created by elected officials.

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#46

Post by yowlingcat »

skookumchuck wrote: post #42
ilamont wrote: post #31

The AARP said in “2019 Tech Trends and the 50+” that 115 million Americans over 50 represent an enormous market for technology and that by the end of the next decade this group is projected to spend $84 billion on tech products. Yet major technology companies continue to make it difficult for seniors to do simple things, even though they think they're making things easier. The tech hipsters handling design for FAANG…

A short list: 1. fonts too small 2. buttons that do different things depending on how long the button is held down 3. chording - needing to hold down more than one button simultaneously to do something 4. blink speed - slow blink means one thing, fast blink means another. Is that LED blinking "slow" or "fast"? 5. labeling buttons with icons that have no deducible meaning 6. modes 7. having to do the next step within…

Reading each one of these made me silently scream inside. I'm not elderly yet (on the outside, I suppose), but each one of these things is poor UX and makes me absolutely livid.

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#47

Post by yowlingcat »

I was having a conversation about this with friends last weekend. Compared to Asia and Europe, it's really hard to grow elderly in America. America is an atomized, individualistic society, for better and worse. Aging related loneliness hits much harder here than elsewhere. It seems that in both the NYC metro area and SV metro area, it's not great to be elderly, and people don't treat the elderly very well. This is not the case in Asia where my parents are from, nor was it the case in the countries in Europe I visited. I guess there are the notable exceptions in America IE Florida, but I'm not sure if there are any other places where becoming elderly is remotely pleasant or not isolating (and I'm making huge assumptions about parts of Florida here).

I don't know if there's an easy solution to this problem. It seems to be a very deep part of a trade-off made very early on in the development of America's cultural fabric. I'm not sure if (knock on wood that I ever get there) I'd want to retire in America. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if the grass is that much greener elsewhere.

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#48

Post by wwweston »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #40
wwweston wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's certainly worth knowing that Christianity, like most religious beliefs or philosophies, does not have a monopoly on empathy, kindness, or service, nor is its profession a guarantee that someone makes those things a studied part of their practice. But the commentor's claims seem limited to Christianity as a motivator for their behavior, which is hardly objectionable and a very different thing from your challenge-…

[flagged]

> Yeah, no.

No, yeah.

> There's a pernicious narrative the United States that christianity has a monopoly on positive, moral behavior /.../ it doesn't take long to find examples of christianity creating atrocious behavior

Sure. These are not the commenter's claims, though, so it's odd that they're what you're litigating.

"We did a charitable thing as an expression of / motivated by our faith" is orthogonal to whether some portion of US Christians are either parochial in their moral philosophy or even not particularly good people.

Claiming otherwise doesn't make it look like the they're the one with a hobby horse or over-evangelical approach.

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#49

Post by reddog »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #40
wwweston wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's certainly worth knowing that Christianity, like most religious beliefs or philosophies, does not have a monopoly on empathy, kindness, or service, nor is its profession a guarantee that someone makes those things a studied part of their practice. But the commentor's claims seem limited to Christianity as a motivator for their behavior, which is hardly objectionable and a very different thing from your challenge-…

[flagged]

Really? It's no longer OK to identify as a Christian? It seems to me that in 2019 the only group that believes it has a monopoly on positive moral behavior are the new church ladies of the far left.

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#50

Post by sandaemc »

yowlingcat wrote: post #47

I was having a conversation about this with friends last weekend. Compared to Asia and Europe, it's really hard to grow elderly in America. America is an atomized, individualistic society, for better and worse. Aging related loneliness hits much harder here than elsewhere. It seems that in both the NYC metro area and SV metro area, it's not great to be elderly, and people don't treat the elderly very well. This is no…

I'm a Filipino and I can say we do take care of our elderly. Culture and religion train us to do so.

Often times taking them in to our home. But it's not all colorful. The Philippines is a third-world country and such there would be conflict in financial matters but still, Filipinos can take a lot of beating and hardships before giving up.

I see a lot of Americans retire here with their Filipino wives. Their dollars are giving them a good buck i.e. nice houses, etc.

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