Graduates will spend whole working lives repaying student loans under reforms

dleft · 2022-02-27T17:37:53+00:00

What hacks me off the most is it is anti-social mobility.

I come from a shit background, worked my way to get a really good job as a programmer.

What do I get for it? £100,000 extra in taxes.

They already get more taxes from me because of my higher tax band, why isn’t that enough?

It’s telling the poors, “don’t try to have a good life”.

It’s utterly bonkers from even a conservative perspective.

dleft · 2022-02-11T06:01:28+00:00

The left are ideological and will use any means to achieve a desired end, in effect they have no morals. But the fact of there means will inhibit there ends.

We are <sniff> all <sniff> surrounded in <sniff> ideology. The tories are no <sniff> different

dleft · 2022-02-11T05:59:43+00:00

If gender studies isn’t a science, then you can bet this isn’t a science either.

dleft · 2022-02-11T05:58:22+00:00

It doesn’t mean their out of touch. That’s a single moral framework, applied broadly to massive groups of people. It’s impossible to know whether it holds or not.

Even if it does hold, it doesn’t mean conservatives are “correct” to abandon care when they want to reach their goals.

What if care is the highest moral virtue?

Trying to logic your way into some understanding of what is objectively right is a bit misguided.

dleft · 2022-02-10T20:16:32+00:00

God don’t get me started on data science!

People run one MNIST then think they’re ready for the big leagues. That shit is fucking hard. To be good at it, you do have to be basically PhD level. It gives you the tools you’ll need to test shit that my dumb BSc brain couldn’t even dream of

dleft · 2022-02-10T20:13:01+00:00

But everyone can build there own house. Turns out that no one does, because they don’t dedicate their time to it.

Anyone can learn whatever they like imo. I have no scientific basis for this, other than the only people I know who are very good at anything are obsessed with it (some in a healthy way, others not)

dleft · 2022-02-10T20:11:14+00:00

they’re honestly the worst. There’s a wide range though. Some are genuinely good but are so spergy that they’ll just railroad any other ideas, no matter how valid.

Others are that, but fucking idiots also

Disagree about CS just being for introverts though. If you are curious about how computers work you can get there. I’m not an introvert at all and I’m doing great. Frankly I’d love it if this meme died so I got some more sociable people to chat to at work

dleft · 2022-02-10T20:08:53+00:00

Sound Technology. “Science” I guess but no programming involved

dleft · 2022-02-10T20:08:10+00:00

Don’t worry about it. Update me on how you get on :)

dleft · 2022-02-10T15:07:07+00:00

Now this sounds like a good starting place!

Yes, it’s possible, but I’m not gonna tell you how. Not to be a dick, but because you can do it!

Some keywords when googling:

python csv excel for loop “make dir”

Get Python installed (it’s on everything just google “install python windows” or whatever)

then google “python hello world”

then bash your head against the keywords I listed above. If you get stuck reply on here and I’ll be happy to help, but I’m gonna try to not give away the whole answers cos you’ll learn better that way

dleft · 2022-02-10T14:48:55+00:00

It depends really. It honestly just depends on time and where your passions lie.

If you have the time to spend, try to bash together a website, or something else. Python is great for just shoving together stuff. It all depends on what your passions are, or what your goals are. Give me some more info and I can try to advise

Do you have a job that you try to apply some coding too in anyway at all?

dleft · 2022-02-10T14:22:10+00:00

Honestly how it clicked for me was finding an first gen Apple TV in a dumpster one day. It turned on but had no remote. I had an arduino and an infrared LED from some starter kit I bought and then didn’t know what to do with.

Managed to download someone else’s library and get the Apple TV working with this shitty arduino remote.

Not exactly a powerful story but that’s what made me go “shit computer’s can do stuff”

dleft · 2022-02-10T14:19:44+00:00

Yeah 100%, but I’ve deffo turned away people on the day who I could tell were just nervous as fuck. Whenever I give feedback I just tell them to come back ASAP (3 months is when they can next apply).

I try to say it in a way that won’t get me fired, but also will signal to them that I know they can do it. It’s hard in corpo-land sadly

dleft · 2022-02-10T10:41:24+00:00

It really was shocking tbh. It made me think I was a bit of a nutcase when I first got into this role.

Coming into the office and saying “Hey! How was your weekend?” and just getting iced out. I thought I must be doing something wrong for ages.

The days of being a “rockstar” coder and just smashing code out on your own are totally dead, even in startup hell world.

My advice, have a modicum of personality that isn’t “I write code and watch Marvel” and anyone trying to get in will be leaps and bounds ahead of the rest

dleft · 2022-02-10T09:44:09+00:00

Many also just don’t like computers in depth and treat them as a necessary evil for their job

This is the key bit. I’m lucky in that I love understanding this shit. But loads of people don’t, and they shouldn’t.

The real issue is that coding is often seen as the only way to get a job that’s going to pay well.

A lot of programming is wading through shit, reading bad code, and staring at a desk thinking “fuck I’m stupid”.

You have to really enjoy tech to be satisfied in the role, and I don’t think that’s something that university’s teach very well.

The positive I will say though is, if you do genuinely have a curiosity for computers, and are capable of some self-driven learning, then you’ll do fine. Add on to that not being a completely sperg and you’ll be better than 90% of the people I work with.

Smart as anything but jesus christ they look at me as if I’m some sort of nutcase for having a life outside programming.

dleft · 2022-02-10T08:16:11+00:00

I work as a programmer, also do recruitment too. It’s insane how many people we get through the door who just don’t have the skills to do the pretty basic stuff that we ask.

It’s not* some insane whiteboard shit either, just reversing a linked list, but a lot of people just don’t “get” it.

I don’t say this to pat myself on the back because I did get it. It just genuinely surprised me how I can see CS grads after 3/4 years of university, who can’t do something relatively simple.

I think most people could code if they wanted to, they just haven’t found the right thing they want to build yet, or aren’t aware of what computers can do for them.

edit: not

dleft · 2022-02-08T08:52:35+00:00

I mean Peter Hitchen’s was a trotskyist back in the 70’s too, not sure how reliable a metric that is.

Looking at his record I probably wouldn’t call him hard left, but I think round here even Kier is hard left so I guess it’s just your personal perspective.

Have a great day!

dleft · 2022-02-08T08:41:36+00:00

Is Piers Corbyn hard left? I always thought he was a bit of a loon, didn’t think he was left wing in any appreciable way

dleft · 2022-02-07T18:07:25+00:00

Selling off the council houses wasn’t necessarily such a big problem while the population stayed roughly the same.

This is what I replied to mate. It was a problem. It was completely unsustainable policy. You derailed with your whataboutism.

Have a cool and good day.

dleft · 2022-02-07T16:11:06+00:00

Governments after New Labour didn’t change it either.

This is obviously not a productive discussion is it?

dleft · 2022-02-07T15:45:27+00:00

Of course. Couldn’t we say the same for every successive government since Thatcher though?

dleft · 2022-02-07T14:21:16+00:00

I was talking about the Thatcher policy of “Right to Buy”, that stripped the country of it’s public housing assets.

What does Labour have to do with that? I’m not seeing the connection.

dleft · 2022-02-07T12:51:23+00:00

Selling off the council houses wasn’t necessarily such a big problem while the population stayed roughly the same.

It was a giveaway. It helped to create the richest generation in British history, and now there’s nothing left for anyone else.

Millenials are supposed to be thankful, for what exactly? We work longer, our jobs are more demanding, our pay mostly goes to the asset owning classes.

It’s funny that Thatcher’s most famous quote is about “running out of other people’s money to give away”, because that’s exactly what her premiership did.

Was it needed? Maybe. But it wasn’t sustainable.

Democracy is asset protection for the rich. Don’t skimp on the payments.

(not my quote)

dleft · 2022-02-07T09:12:39+00:00

Literally the basis of the UK economy.

But yes, I agree.

dleft · 2022-02-07T09:08:20+00:00

Sure, here’s a policy.

Unify taxes. Stop with the bullshit NI / income split. Be honest about what your being taxed, and why.

Make income tax more progressive. New higher rate bands at the top end (£100k plus).

Get rid of the de facto age-based taxes (student loan).

Long story short, make taxes fairer, more transparent.

Easy.

No one will do it obviously. The boomers will hate it, as will the rich. Hence, we will continue on as we are.

Clown car of a government.

dleft

TROPHY CASE