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Poor in Tech

megelison.com

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Re: Poor in Tech

#711

Post by webmaven »

UncleMeat wrote: post #235
est31 wrote: post #10

> I knew I was the only poor person at my tech startup because I was the only person who would say hello to the cleaning lady as she meekly made her rounds around us when we worked late. Everyone else had a long habit of ignoring anyone like her. That's IMO the worst behaviour of the rich listed in this article. I've heard stories that at Google, the non-engineering workers at campus may not socialize with engineers…

> I've heard stories that at Google, the non-engineering workers at campus may not socialize with engineers at all. Googler for many years here. I've never heard of this kind of thing. One of the most prolific and loved content creators on the internal meme board is in sales. The closest thing I've ever heard like this in the entire valley is that at Apple they don't pay for the lunch bill of non-engineers, so having…

> > I've heard stories that at Google, the non-engineering workers at campus may not socialize with engineers at all.

> Googler for many years here. I've never heard of this kind of thing.

Not a Googler myself, but from what I heard the divide isn't between engineering and non-engineering roles, but between Google employees and contractors (and that you can tell who is which by their badges).

Re: Poor in Tech

#712

Post by coldtea »

isomorph wrote: post #116

Many of the comments on this article are so cold. I can’t believe it. When I read the original article I was imagining all the constructive ways HN readers would interpret it and hold a mirror up to their own behaviour. Some commenters are doing this. But it surprises and depresses me how many people are commenting saying “no, this list isn’t what it says it is, it’s a list showing the author has a negative mindset /…

>Many of the comments on this article are so cold. I can’t believe it. When I read the original article I was imagining all the constructive ways HN readers would interpret it and hold a mirror up to their own behaviour.

Why expect that though? Many of the HN readers are exactly the out-of-touch persons criticized in the article.

Re: Poor in Tech

#713

Post by coldtea »

strken wrote: post #176
isomorph wrote: post #116

Many of the comments on this article are so cold. I can’t believe it. When I read the original article I was imagining all the constructive ways HN readers would interpret it and hold a mirror up to their own behaviour. Some commenters are doing this. But it surprises and depresses me how many people are commenting saying “no, this list isn’t what it says it is, it’s a list showing the author has a negative mindset /…

In some ways it's a laundry list of ways rich people in the Bay Area act like wankers, which is interesting, but also quite irritatingly stereotypical. There are plenty who don't refuse to talk to the cleaning staff, lecture others on their choice of tampon, or snob fat people at the gym. I don't want people from outside the bubble (e.g. me, three years ago) to read this and think they'll be surrounded by wall-to-wal…

>In some ways it's a laundry list of ways rich people in the Bay Area act like wankers, which is interesting, but also quite irritatingly stereotypical.

People have a tendency to act irritatingly stereotypical too.

Re: Poor in Tech

#714

Post by webmaven »

username90 wrote: post #258
strken wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paying her less than the interns was not a very nice thing to do.

She is a writer and not a software engineer. Comparing her salary to software engineer interns therefore isn't fair.

> She is a writer and not a software engineer. Comparing her salary to software engineer interns therefore isn't fair.

I'm going to call BS on that. Written communication is a high-leverage activity that if you are going to the trouble of having a dedicated position for it, paying that person well is a pretty good idea. Perhaps not as well as an engineering role of similar seniority, but about as well as a design or QA role (and for similar reasons).

Paying that person less than an intern is both shortsighted and insulting.

Re: Poor in Tech

#715

Post by tomtheelder »

SkipperCat wrote: post #206
scandox wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I meant that wealthy people should not be too defensive about it.

But wealthy people should be defensive about it. Or at least acknowledge the fact that we have severe and increasing income disparity in America and a lot of people are suffering with anxiety and other ills because we let so many people expose themselves to massive risk by being poor. In Europe, you don't go bankrupt when you get sick. Health care is one of the top causes of bankruptcy in America. In more socialized…

"Being defensive about it," would be getting offended and denying that others have these sorts of experiences. That is what the other commenter was suggesting wealthy people should not do.

Re: Poor in Tech

#716

Post by webmaven »

ryanbrunner wrote: post #179
giantg2 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"if you live in a remote area or small town away from a large city, your access to fresh and non-processed foods is heavily reduced." This simply isn't true. Most food deserts are in the poorer areas of the cities because nobody is bringing fresh produce in there to sell. If you live in the country or small town, many of these places have farm stands, farmers markets, and local farmers providing seasonal produce to t…

Rural areas being chock full of farmers markets is mostly nostalgia, anyone I know who lives in the country is far more likely to shop exclusively at Walmart than anyone in the city, and likely to prefer more non-perishable food (i.e. processed) because daily or multiple times a week shopping trips are infeasible. The farms in rural areas are generally focused on growing a single thing (either one type of livestock,…

> The farms in rural areas are generally focused on growing a single thing (either one type of livestock, or all corn, etc.), entirely for wholesale,

And most of the farms are not only going to be growing just one thing, but the same one thing as other nearby farms (of which there won't be very many, since farms have been consolidating into ever larger operations for many decades).

Re: Poor in Tech

#717

Post by tomtheelder »

kingsuper20 wrote: post #468
ecshafer wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in a rural area and I think I can count on 1 hand how many times I saw a farm stand. People do not shop at farm stands and farmers markets in rural areas that often.

I'm in a very small town right now and it's a reasonable driving distance from farms. It looks to me like the average farm stand is simply some clever person buying crates of produce at the wholesaler. No shortage of healthy food at the local grocery stores of course. I expect that people who wave their arms about 'food deserts' could probably stand to visit either small towns or urban areas and form an opinion based…

Conjecture here because I don't honestly know, but I think some of what you're observing might just be that food deserts are very regional. If you look at this image [1] you can see that it's basically just the Southeast/Appalachia. Rural Midwest, West, etc don't seem to have this issue nearly as much.

[1] https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/assets/4565435/food_deserts_map.jpg

Re: Poor in Tech

#718

Post by xsmasher »

umeshunni wrote: post #694
avancemos wrote: post #7

Instead of seeing the bright side of life, in which this person clearly vastly improved their situation in life, all they can see is what they don’t have. “I knew I was the only poor person at my tech startup because I had the only fat body in the building.” I’m sorry, but no, being poor doesn’t make you fat. Your eating choices make you fat. Poor people have agency too. Agency is not something you buy. This is comin…

Am I the only one who realizes that this is a work of fiction. This is the author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg_Elison

Some elements, like being fat and going to Berkeley match up; what makes you conclude it is a work of fiction?

Re: Poor in Tech

#719

Post by sidlls »

6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #620
sidlls wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you didn't and don't have to just to survive, and neither do those with generational wealth. The context certainly matters.

I thought your point was the psychology: you don't have to anymore but you still do.

Yes, but the person I responded to never had to, except perhaps to consider how often rather than whether. Those with generational wealth never had to for any reason. Those are important differences in context.

Re: Poor in Tech

#720

Post by throwaway5153 »

gonehome wrote: post #163
isomorph wrote: post #116

Many of the comments on this article are so cold. I can’t believe it. When I read the original article I was imagining all the constructive ways HN readers would interpret it and hold a mirror up to their own behaviour. Some commenters are doing this. But it surprises and depresses me how many people are commenting saying “no, this list isn’t what it says it is, it’s a list showing the author has a negative mindset /…

Even without the race element - there’s definitely a class thing. I noticed it when I moved to the Bay Area after growing up in western New York. The types of foods people ate or didn’t eat, the restaurants people would or would not go to. The shows people would or would not watch, even the way people talked. I think I hadn’t really seen the difference in class behavior before in America. Now it’s easy to see it. A l…

Class[0] by Paul Fussell is a great book on this topic. The back of the book has a test to identify your class.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class:_A_Guide_Through_the_Ame...

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