What is a trend that is happening in the United States job sector that I can take advantage of right now?

Christopher Ordway, works at Rite Aid Pharmacy

Answered Jan 27

· Upvoted by

Isabella Newman

, Female President at The United States of America (2017-pres…

I’ll just tell you what I’m noticing as someone living in California.

Millennials want to go to college, pay a ton of money and get a degree, and get a cushy office job. If you try to compete with this kind of job, you might be ok, but you better be on your game and ready to compete. There are a lot of Asians coming in and are very competitive in this scenario. Over the next several decades it is estimated there will be a lot more Asians (more than any other demographic increase) and any professional/office job that looks attractive to you is probably going to look attractive to the 2 billion Asians in India/China/wherever that would like to come to the US. This might sound anti Asian or whatever, I’m just going by the facts and using common sense here.

On top of the increased Asian immigration over the coming decades, technology will make it easier all the time to outsource white collar work. If you can have someone work on a computer, why not have someone in India do it from their computer? Why not have your engineering team in Japan engineer it? It’s only been recently that the internet has been fast enough to offer telecommuting so we’ll see where this ends up when we have things like virtual reality enabling even more global interconnectedness over the coming decades.

The next thing to note is that we’ve had many technological revolutions in the last 100 years and most of them have begun in the US. The first telephone, alternating current leading to the electrification of the home, toilets, flight at Kittyhawk, Henry Ford’s assembly line and the ubiquitization of automobiles, the television, the interstate road system, personal computers, cell phones, the internet, etc. In fact there have been many innovations that improved productivity that people don’t even recognize for being as impactful as they are. Ok but what’s the next big thing? I have a theory that we’re pretty much out of low hanging fruit to create wealth. Will there be innovations that make people rich? Sure. But as far as innovations that make EVERYBODY richer? It’s not clear what that’ll be, or when. Apple seems to not have any more “one more things “as Steve Jobs would say. Maybe some super improvement in battery technology or fusion that enables a green revolution but I’ll believe it when I see it. 3D printing? Useful but it hasn’t seemed to live up to the hype so far. Moore’s Law is ending soon or already over depending on who you ask.

So how do you take advantage of this? Well I would steer clear of white collar jobs that are easily offshoreable, stay clear of jobs that require a lot of money to get into and might not be around in 5 or 10 years.

In the last couple of months I’ve paid $1,200 to fix something on my roof, $3000 to do some electrical wiring and piping in my kitchen, $550 to yank out old cabinets, $2,000 to lay down some tile. Some of these people are just doing it as a side job under the table tax free. They didn’t have to go to school or go into a lot of debt to learn to do these trades and they’re making good money. There’s no way to offshore these jobs and the more white collar people there are that don’t know how to do these themselves, the more they’ll be worth. If you ever want to get out of it, you can hire people to work for you and run a business doing it.

Why does it seem today that bands just can't recapture the magic that bands like: Zeppelin, The Doors, The Stones, Pink Floyd, etc. had?

Joe Becker, Former BMI/Cherry Ln Music Publishing affiliated songwriter. Music & Film Audio

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THERE’S A GOOD JOKE GOING AROUND
The music business has done a good job of discouraging pirating by releasing a lot of music nobody likes.

FORMULA
People use a formula to write songs. The Beatles wrote what they felt and had fun doing it. We wouldn’t have Eleanor Rigby or Yesterday if they wrote to formula. They didn’t fit the mold. Kids today are told what to do, sing, and how to sing it. Producers write the hooks and the arrangements. It’s all mechanical and predetermined. From choreography to

The Beatles innovated. It was all new. Something new on every album. This became even more pronounced with the release of Rubber Soul. Things got progressively newer with each new release after that. Sgt Pepper’s was a milestone. Magical Mystery Tour gave us more. Abbey Road was one of the most influential albums of its time. Let It Be brought us back to what the Beatles started as, a bunch of guys playing songs together in a band.

My friends and I talked about the weird idea that someday Beatles music would be old fashioned. It took 30 years for it to happen. But it did happen. It was so new and fresh that it stayed relevant for decades. It still is relevant, but it does sound old, because it is. it’s all been done before.

There were bands who tried to sound like the Beatles, and some succeeded. Badfinger did a great job of making songs that sounded like new Beatles releases. But they were just songs. Great songs, but just songs. They didn’t try to innovate or be something new. They tried to be the same thing the Beatles has already done.

There were many experimental bands in those days. But experimentation led to unlistenable noise. The Beatles were an experimental band putting out hits. Listenability is the number one factor of any song. If it’s not listenable, it’s no good. If it’s listenable, lyrics don’t matter. People will listen. If it’s highly listenable, people will listen a lot.

Today, people are making music that has been done before. Some have rejected the highly produced and layered sound for just an acoustic guitar and vocals. Do you know how tired that sounds? Or a piano and vocals. If you can make your song stand out with just a guitar or piano, you’ve got a good song. But please, do something to make it better. The jinga jinga jinga of the guitar is a very tired sound. Time to move on.

Then there are those who really try. They’re writing nice lyrics with a good message, they’re writing clever tunes… but again, it’s all done on the same instruments and with the same beats… It’s all been done before. We need something new.

When the Beatles showed up they injected life into a tired pop music industry. When Zeppelin showed up, they injected life into a tired rock industry. Give us something new and exciting. That’s what keeps things moving.

No one is giving us anything real and new and exciting. They’re giving us plastic copies of same old with different colors of paint.

Autotune, choreography, producers writing your hooks… it’s all formulaic processed crap.

We need someone who is tired of baby steps to take a death-defying leap and land on their feet. Music is art. And that’s what it takes to make great art. But it has to be real. It has to come from the heart. Otherwise, it’s just another form of processed crap.

Why do some waiters squat when they serve a table?

Sam Radion

This is a psychological trick and once you have noticed it once you’ll start noticing it forever!

Squatting at the table puts yourself on the same level as the diners. It allows you to look them straight in the eye rather than looking down on them and humanises you as “Sam your server”. “I like Sam, he seems friendly, lets’s give him a bigger than normal tip”

And that’s what it’s all about in this instance - money.

It may be to get a bigger tip or it may be to ensure you feel comfortable at the restaurant and come back again and again to buy food, it’s a business after all.

Some servers are naturally good with people and will do this automatically, some are told to do it in training. The trouble is, now you’ve started noticing this behaviour, you’ll start noticing all the other psychological tricks that are used on you…

That’s sweet, the server drew a smiley face and wrote ‘thanks’ on my bill

The server touches your shoulder or upper arm

The server gave their name

The server repeats your order back to you (builds rapport)

The waitress is wearing a red t-shirt (only seems to work on waitresses serving men)

The server said that the dish you chose was their personal favourite too

The server told you they had a special offer for only one couple tonight and they chose you

The bill came with a small gift for you (a small free liqueur, a sweetie or chocolate) - receiving a gift means you should give a gift, i.e. tip.

And don’t start on all the psychological tricks employed on menus like boxing out the highest margin foods

Which is better, walking or running?

Misha Yurchenko (ユルチェンコ ミーシャ), Japan-based writer, entrepreneur, and avocado-eater

Research has found that walking directly affects the brain’s blood supply. Now, this isn’t news: we all know that exercise increases our blood-pressure/heart rate meaning that our entire body reaps the benefits of increased circulation.

What’s worth noting about this study is it shows that the effect that walking has on the brain is more direct. Specifically, the impact of one’s foot on the ground sends specific pressure waves rippling through the body?6?6—?6?6this acts on specific arteries by increasing the blood supply sent to the brain (which, naturally, improves brain function and cell growth in many ways).

Surprisingly, this benefit is specific to walking?6?6—?6?6although running creates a higher pressure impact, it does not have this same effect. There seems to be a mechanism related to the number of average heartbeats/minute and how syncing our steps close to that rhythm can “optimize brain perfusion, function, and overall sense of wellbeing during exercise.”

“There is an optimizing rhythm between brain blood flow and ambulating. Stride rates and their foot impacts are within the range of our normal heart rates (about 120/minute) when we are briskly moving along.”

Finally, 40 minutes of walking 3 times per week had benefits above other exercise forms (stretching, yoga, resistance training) and walking was shown to increase the size of the hippocampus, the brain’s center for memory.

Edits: There still remains to be a lot of research done on walking and the studies I mentioned above have not been replicated. Ultimately what we know about cardiovascular exercise shows that running is better for you if you’re looking at lowering blood pressure as well as overall longevity. That said, if you’re too lazy to run, don’t be scared to get on your feet — it’s still pretty good for you :)

What's a deeply unsettling fact?

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Gabriela Ilinca, A Flawsome Teenager

Updated Dec 27, 2017

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·       There are over 200 corpses on MountEverest, and they are used as way points for climbers.[1]

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·       You are six minutes away from death.Breathing resets the clock. [2]

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·       There are more vacant homes than homelesspeople. [3]

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·       There are 2,368 species of bacteria livingin your belly button. [4]

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·       15% of the air you breathe in on anaverage Metro Station is human skin. [5]

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·       We pass our pre-death anniversary everyyear. [6]

What has been the biggest wasteof your money over your lifetime?

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Jeff Sturm, Amateur economist

Answered Jan 6

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Thank you for the A2A! That’s easy toanswer—when my family was young we bought a large home on a 30-year mortgage.At the time we considered only monthly payments to determine whether a car orhome was affordable along with our other bills and monthly income.

We were naive. The home was mortgaged forabout $250,000, but if we’d kept the mortgage for 30 years we would have paidover $750,000—three times the value of the home!

I had bought into advice from family andfriends that buying a home was the path to wealth—it was an appreciating assetand would serve as a long-term investment. Although once the recession hit,home values dropped, my payments increased (on an adjustable rate) while myincome dropped. I realized I certainly wasn’t getting rich, but someone elsemust be.

Eventually we could no longer meet ourmonthly bills. We tried to renegotiate debt. We scheduled bills for laterpayment, often past due. We wanted to make sure we could still meet our monthlymortgage obligation, above all.

At our lowest point the gas to our home wasshut off, and we used a camp stove to heat water for cooking and bathing.Eventually we were also late on a mortgage payment. We tried every tactic tonegotiate with the company servicing our loan but they would not budge.Eventually the bank took back our home too.

That’s how we almost ended up homeless. Wemoved into a very small home and make land contract payments to the owner.Today we own the new home outright.

In hindsight I realize we were house poor. Wesacrificed our lifestyle and savings for a home we could not afford. After thatexperience, I would probably never again accept another mortgage with anadjustable rate. I would also apply for a 15-year loan instead of a 30-yearmortgage, even if that meant a smaller home.

And besides the unfavorable mortgage terms,the house was large, cost far more to heat (up to $600/month in winters!),property taxes were high, and insurance was higher. I now wonder why we wantedsuch a large home at all.

What are the three best habits for an exciting life?

Daniel Karan, Strategist and Entrepreneur @DeclareWarWithin.com

Answered Nov 7

Habits for an exciting life:

Be systematically crazy. A mentor once told me that. He said when you identify as crazy, you are now free. When you do something outside of the norm people will just say “oh him? he’s crazy”. Every now and then do something ‘weird’ and begin labeling yourself as ‘crazy’ to others.

Say yes. Want to check out that new restaurant? Yes. Want to travel to South America? Yes. Do you want to stay up all night and watch the sunrise? Yes. Want to try this weird food? Yes. Just say yes to things you want to say no to.

Approach strangers. When you have the ability to come to a stranger and spark a conversation everywhere you go turns into a playground.

Why would a successful person feel insecure?

Mohieddine Shebaro, B.S Computer Science, Beirut Arab University (2020)

Bill Gates: “I feel pretty stupid that I don't know any foreign languages.”

Kim Kardashian: “If you Google 2008 and 2007, I had the craziest, hairiest hairline, so I did laser it. Everyone would just Photoshop it every time I did a photo shoot [anyway]. I didn't really change the shape, I just got rid of all the baby hairs.”

Ryan Reynolds: “I feel like an overweight, pimply faced kid a lot of the time.”

Katy Perry: “I was insecure about my skin.”

Rihanna: “I do pick on my body. It's a thing that women do. We walk in front of the mirror and we look at our butt. Is it getting bigger today? Ew. It's still flat.”

Justin Timberlake: “I was very shy as a kid but when I found out I could perform and have people’s attention everything changed for me, my mom likes to joke that until I was eight or nine I only knew what my sneakers looked like because I constantly walked around with my head down.”

Dwayne Johnson: “I found that with depression one of the most important things you could realize is that you’re not alone.”

Howie Mandel: “If I’m triggered and I get some sort of weird thought in my head that can’t go, then my day is, is stopped. My life stops.”

As you can see being successful does not mean that you are perfect simply because you are a human being just like the person who is begging for food in the streets. It just means that you have successfully conquered those imperfections by thriving despite them holding you back.

Why does Netflix pursue such an aggressive wage policy by paying its computer programmers almost twice as much as Google or Facebook?

Linchuan Zhang, Software Engineer at Google (2018-present)

Answered Jan 13 · Upvoted by Marc Bodnick, Former institutional investor in Facebook and Jeremy Miles, Data Scientist at Google (2015-present)

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Netflix only hires Senior Software Engineers. As far as I could tell, this isn’t title inflation [1], but descriptively accurate. That is, engineers at Netflix are usually at skill levels comparable to Senior Software Engineers at other top tier tech companies.

At that level, the difference in pay is much less than a factor of 2. Netflix allegedly pays ~400K for senior software engineers. Keep in mind that Netflix has relatively few benefits, and basically no monetary compensation other than base salary. I can’t find reliable and public total compensation numbers for Senior Software Engineers at Google/Facebook, but rest assured that it’s considerably higher than 200K. Still on average less than 400K, probably.

As for why Netflix probably pays more, here are the possible reasons:

Because they can. My impression is that just as ads at Facebook/Google makes money fall from the sky, Netflix subscriptions basically print money, aka it’s a highly scalable way to make lots of money with high gross margins. Unlike Facebook or especially Google however, which hires a lot of people on ancillary projects in the hopes of funding the next moonshot, Netflix seems laser-focused on their core product. So they both make a lot of money and don’t need to hire a lot of people. If tech is the center of your business and you’re only planning to hire a few engineers, why not pay a lot to hire the best?

Work at Netflix is more stressful. I don’t know how true this is, but the reputation in the Valley is definitely that Netflix is much more stressful than Facebook which is more stressful than Google.

Netflix has a reputation of firing people early and often. Sid Reddy's answer to Does the Netflix work culture create a culture of fear amongst its employees?

If this is true (and arguably even if it isn’t, as long as enough people believe it), then Netflix has to pay more to compensate.

(more speculative) Poorer hiring/training pipeline. Google, Facebook, and basically every other large tech company hire generally smart people and then train them at every stage in their careers, usually from college internships onwards. The career trajectory is usually something like college intern -> junior engineer/graduate intern -> mid-level engineer -> senior engineer -> staff+ (most people never reach this level). This process engenders a surprising amount of both name recognition and company loyalty for engineers. Netflix tries to skip past all of that, and only start hiring at the senior engineer level [2]. If they only poach senior people from other companies and don’t have a native hiring bench, is it any surprise that they have to pay more to compensate?

[1] Unlike at, say, LinkedIn.

[2] If you look for “internship jobs” at Work at Netflix, there’s only a single hiring team, and they only look for graduate students with very specific academic experience.

If a manager says "you're fired" and you reply back, "no I quit!" Can you legally say you quit your last job?

Derreck Frost, Aspiring Novelist with dozens of works being made.

“If a manager says "you're fired" and you reply back, "no I quit!" Can you legally say you quit your last job?”

Yes, because a business is likely going to state that “You quit” on their end, why? It makes it so they don’t have to pay any severance pay, if entitled to it, and moreover, makes you less eligible for Unemployment benefits.

My friend, who is a manager states it is common practice to try and make a worker quit over firing them or letting them go as it will only cost the business if they fire someone without full, just cause. So they will just literally start cutting your hours back and back and back until you quit and then they are clean of having to pay any severance or EI.

So you can legally say you quit all you want, hell, most business will support your right to say you quit, they will bolster your pride if it means they don’t have to pay you afterwards, that is a trade most business will take any day of the week.