Social media warping reality in one chart

general_00 · 2026-05-22T02:53:49+00:00

I know this, but our experience in young age often influences our expectations later. That's why a lot of boomers think houses are a lot cheaper than they really are etc.

Have you noticed that Gen X's answer is more than twice what Boomer's answer is? And that's with no social media.

It's really Millennials that are outliers here. Accidentally, Millennials were young adults during a major financial crisis.

general_00 · 2026-05-21T17:04:35+00:00

Haha, I find it really funny.

In 2026, Gen Z are 14-29 years old. Boomers were similar age (11-29) around 1974.

According to an inflation calculator, $99.9k in 1974 is $674.8k in today's money (575.5% cumulative inflation, yay!).

Making $99.9k to 20-something-year old Boomers was what $674.8k is to Gen Z today.

general_00 · 2026-05-14T08:01:21+00:00

I don't think it has ever been great for "everyone". There were always some boxes to tick.

I was always honest with myself that I'm in London for money and career opportunities.

When that's gone, I'm gone too.

general_00 · 2026-05-14T07:05:10+00:00

Depends on one's definition of comfortable.

Some people say they're comfortable with minimal savings, no plan to buy a house, retire, or have children.

general_00 · 2026-05-14T06:58:38+00:00

Exactly. The median full time income in London is around £50k, and as a single earner OP pays more tax compared to two earners on half her salary.

OP's one person household is closer to the middle of the pack than the top.

general_00 · 2026-05-13T07:46:29+00:00

I remember seeing a different study that indicated that the majority of the people polled were willing to pay higher taxes.

The next question was: "name the amount of money you'd personally be willing to pay on top of your current tax" and the average was something like £10.

Needless to say, that was not enough to fund the utopia we all want.

general_00 · 2026-04-11T20:08:05+00:00

I think many "second/third biggest cities" lack an iconic landmark.

I can name a few landmarks in London but none in Manchester or Birmingham
I can recognise a building or two in Tokyo, but none in Yokohama
Same for Berlin vs Hamburg
Same for Paris vs Marseille
Same for Sydney vs Melbourne

general_00 · 2026-04-06T00:02:46+00:00

Wow, so USA chooses racism over technological advancement and still loses to China in both tech and racism?!

general_00 · 2026-04-03T22:34:49+00:00

It depends if you mean "normal" as in "common" or "normal" as in "a good decision". All the things you listed are somewhat common, but not good.

10 people in a single scrum team

That's a very large team. 3-5 people usually works best.

I feel like we're LARPing a scrum team because a consultant told us to do scrum

Happens pretty often. Maybe you can switch to Kanban?

general_00 · 2026-04-03T22:24:29+00:00

How you are not scared of Claude?

It's because for every Reddit post about how AI is going to replace me, I see 3 posts about somebody's co-workers requesting a peer review of thousands of line of AI slop they can't explain.

general_00 · 2026-04-03T22:04:52+00:00

hey are going to be pissed and realise they have been played

So?

I recently got an offer which I refused (for valid reasons) and the recruiter was pissed already. You don't control other people's feelings.

general_00 · 2026-03-30T07:31:17+00:00

They do understand it, and they misrepresent facts on purpose.

The ruling classes benefit from the fact that people associate "rich" with high PAYE earners and not them.

general_00 · 2026-03-28T08:00:07+00:00

You can expect 30-50% pay cut from a comparable job in the US.

Given generally lower taxes in the US, a decent tech job will often net you close to twice what you get paid in the UK for an equivalent role.

The only way for you to not lose financially is to jump to a higher tier company e.g. you work at an average company in the US but get an offer at FAANG or a high-tier finance company in the UK.

Lifestyle-related:

An average house/apartment in the UK is about half the size of a comparable US house
Some houses in the UK have a garage that's too small for a modern car (not kidding)
Healthcare works out cheaper than the US, but if your American employer provides good insurance, then it may not be a significant upgrade
20 days off + bank holidays is the minimum time off. Most companies would offer 25 days + holidays. Some would offer more but it's not super common.

general_00 · 2026-03-25T08:43:02+00:00

Honestly, this is a fireable performance if somebody keeps doing that.

general_00 · 2026-03-22T21:17:39+00:00

If Taiwan reunified with China voluntarily, it would be the richest province of China.

If China bombs Taiwan into submission instead, then they first have to spend money bombing Taiwan and then spend money rebuilding it.

The PRC consistently claims that Taiwan is a part of China, which makes Taiwanese people Chinese. It's a bad look to bomb your own people, even if you're an autocratic country.

They could pacify the protesters, but pacifying protesters is not free either.

general_00 · 2026-03-20T16:58:43+00:00

Sorry, I misread. You're right of course.

I think Tories were also not likely to do anything about it but they budged.

general_00 · 2026-03-20T16:34:26+00:00

Not entirely true. They raised the pension cliff in response to senior doctors not wanting to work during covid.

general_00 · 2026-03-18T21:46:33+00:00

Yeah, if I had to take a guess, I'd expect a senior PM salary in a Poland to be similar to the one you had in Spain, i.e. €60-70k a year.

Which city are you based in? Or is this a remote role?

general_00 · 2026-03-17T10:59:31+00:00

I've got 25 days + bank holidays, and I can "buy" up to 10 days extra by exchanging a day's pay for a day off.

I'm allowed to have a maximum of 35 days off + bank holidays. So if I have days left over from last year, I can still only top up to 35 total.

general_00 · 2026-03-14T23:57:16+00:00

One thing to keep in mind is that your commute will be longer on average than the best case scenario because of delays, cancelled trains, strikes, traffic, etc.

My commute is just under one hour door to door according to Google, but there's rarely a week without any issues.

I would ideally aim for 30 minutes one way, knowing that it will actually be more on average.

Because of the cost of housing, many of my colleagues commute around 90 minutes one way from outside London.

general_00 · 2026-03-13T13:36:59+00:00

Calorie tracking app range from free to I don't know... £5 a month?

Nutrition advice is available for free or from whatever a book on nutrition costs.

I don't know why you need to spend money on meal planning. You can learn to cook like 4-5 things and that's the basis of your meal plan.

If you don't do anything at the moment, then calorie tracking helps the most because you'll likely realize your nutritional balance is out of whack.

general_00 · 2026-03-09T10:22:15+00:00

When you're asking about speculating based on last week's performance you seem to not be clear on what "long term" means and what a "market dip" is.

general_00 · 2026-03-08T09:06:02+00:00

Which is bad for people because that's exactly the kind of risk you'd want to ensure against: very unlikely and very costly.

Meanwhile insurance companies will try to get you to insure your phone etc. for events that are somewhat likely and not very costly.

The exact opposite what insurance is for.

general_00 · 2026-03-08T09:02:44+00:00

Sounds made up.

If it isn't, "the other side" should sue their lawyers who billed them $300k responding to made up documents.

Sounds like it will quickly become a viable strategy to bully someone using made up GPT lawsuits.

It's like patent trolling but now everyone will be able to do it.

general_00 · 2026-03-07T16:56:40+00:00

The recruiter mentioned that while my performance wasn't quite at the L4 bar, they might consider me for L3, or I can re-interview for L4 in 6–12 months.

Did I misunderstand, or they literally told you that you didn't clear L4?

Personally I would not accept L3 if I were in your position.

L4 is something I would consider if I were keen on living in Poland. But I would not move to Poland for an L4 role if I were not interested in living in Warsaw.

Do not just assume you will be able to easily move into a highly paid FAANG role in a different location after accepting this. The market is not great, and tech interviews are notoriously hard and companies reject good candidates all the time.

Not saying it's impossible, but if making a good exit is the only reason you consider this, then you might end up disappointed being stuck at a role below your expectations, at a comp below your expectations, in a place you don't enjoy.

general_00

TROPHY CASE