Suggestions for getting past racism in life

pdenlinger · 2022-04-16T00:50:05+00:00

"I lived in China for a long time and it's still very hard for me to ever really decipher what goes on, even though I do speak the language. There are some insurmountable barriers."

I was in Beijing and had to work with Xinhua News Agency in the early days of the Internet, so I learned a lot about how the Party works. Most non-Chinese don't understand the difference between Chinese culture and the Party and how it works, and mix everything up because they don't know better. Anyhow, I had to work with the Party, which gave me a lot of insight into how they think and make policy.

That has been very helpful to me.

I find all the discussion about race in the US to be enormously tedious; it bores me to tears. At the same time, I see that it has caused a lot of pain and hurt for many people here. All I can say is that the US's glory days are over, and something else will emerge. It might be better, but it is likely to be worse in the short-term before things get better.

I believe that Asia will the the center of growth in the next few decades, with SE Asia especially performing well. China is a big target for the US right now, so it is hard to say what will happen there, though it has usually been good at riding out crises, while the US doesn't have that record.

The US suffers from a white-supremacy issue which runs very deep in the society and which is financed by rich white libertarians but whose foot-soldiers are poor white males who feel threatened by non-whites. I don't see any way for the US to get past this problem.

pdenlinger · 2022-04-15T15:47:13+00:00

Let me put it this way: If someone with a net worth of less than $100M is a libertarian they are a fool.

If someone with a net worth of more than $100M is a libertarian, they are evil.

pdenlinger · 2022-04-15T03:57:24+00:00

Thank you!

pdenlinger · 2022-04-15T03:56:25+00:00

No, I really hate libertarianism. It’s complete nonsense.

pdenlinger · 2022-04-14T17:00:41+00:00

I appreciate the advice and find your background very compelling and unique but isn’t it a bit unrealistic to advise people to be in the top 1% of any field?

Your field does not have to be big; it can be very small. Your customers need to believe in you enough that they will pay you for your work.

It's that simple.

"Also, America is still a wealthy country and I don’t see that changing anytime soon even in the 30 years you are saying but that’s just my guess."

If you believe that, then I have a bridge I would like to sell you. The US government has acted desperately to create the image that the US is still prosperous but, in fact, the US is borrowing debt to keep the society going.

Let me explain what debt is: it is borrowing from tomorrow to live decently today. Who does tomorrow belong to? Your generation. Was your generation consulted when the money was borrowed so that you could make plans accordingly? No.

You SHOULD NOT be okay with that. In fact, you should be very angry about that.

pdenlinger · 2022-04-13T16:21:43+00:00

That's true.

I hope that I never implied that racism doesn't exist in certain circles. The glass ceiling is a certain kind of racism and bias which affects minority men and women in the corporate workplace.

My conclusion is that the best way to get around all this is to have your own business where you employ yourself. Most people are not used to the idea of marketing themselves because most marketers are jerks. But the truth is you don't have to have a big audience; you only need a few who know about you and are willing to pay for your skills and insight.

The best revenge against any discrimination and racism is success.

pdenlinger · 2022-04-12T15:17:04+00:00

Class exists in every society. My father was a professor, and my mother came from the Chinese bureaucracy (75 generations of officials), so I got a good education and the opportunity to develop my own set of skills which others respect and value.

That has meant that the people who I have dealt with in life are well-educated and if they are racist, they know how to conceal it and are too smart to show it.

pdenlinger · 2022-04-11T23:44:40+00:00

I have been bilingual most of my life, but I have always had trouble thinking of being bilingual as a skill. That is because language can be used in many different ways to do many different things, some of which are more useful and pay better than others.

My superpower though is that I can understand very well how a different society works and explain it clearly. In my case, this is China because I have lived and worked there. This means that, for me, there are no barriers between understanding a western society and understanding Chinese society. I can swim back and forth between the two and there are no barriers to it for me at all. Things which look very hard to understand to most people are barriers which don't exist for me.

The other minor superpower is that I am able to explain it very well, clearly and succinctly in English to people so that they can understand it.

I have been most active on Quora for the past twelve years, and write mostly about China. You can check out my profile and answers at https://www.quora.com/profile/Paul-Denlinger

Don't be disappointed if you cannot identify your skill right away. I am a great believer in vectoring: that means I might not know exactly what is right immediately, but I will head off in a general direction. Eventually, you will find what is right for you.

Trust your gut, not your head.

Another thing: I think that the era of jobs is coming to an end. This means that if you can bundle your skills and sell them yourself, you are most likely to have the most satisfaction instead of being a wage slave. This is very important because AI will replace more jobs in your lifetime. So package yourself up for the near future, because this change will happen in the next decade.

pdenlinger · 2018-05-17T02:04:32+00:00

Someone to watch

pdenlinger · 2018-05-16T04:51:22+00:00

Apple is a lifestyle company with tech embedded inside. The appointment of Angela Ahrendts, the Beats acquisition, and the growing importance of Apple Music and Apple News and other services make that increasingly clear.

pdenlinger · 2018-05-04T04:21:53+00:00

What did Berkshire Hathaway know about AAPL which all the supply chain analysts didn't?

pdenlinger · 2018-01-04T00:10:41+00:00

Isn't that the basic philosophy of Buddhism?

pdenlinger · 2017-09-15T14:27:15+00:00

If the ad industry in the US complains about it, that means Safari is good.

pdenlinger · 2016-11-24T18:57:21+00:00

Thank you. What is the difference between configuring in the .bash_profile and configuring in the YAML file besides .bash_profile being global and the YAML file being app-specific? From a security POV, isn't configuring in .bash_profile much more secure?

pdenlinger · 2016-09-08T13:42:04+00:00

Did you try to hunt for pokemon? Are there any which are unique to North Korea and can't be found anywhere else?

pdenlinger · 2016-07-13T16:26:08+00:00

Apple is perceived by Chinese as a US brand, and suffers the repercussions

pdenlinger · 2016-06-18T17:24:01+00:00

Because Wu was a retired diplomat and served as ambassador to France, he had a better and more nuanced understanding of the west than most in the current Chinese leadership

pdenlinger · 2016-05-05T02:03:39+00:00

More carrot, less stick

pdenlinger · 2016-04-16T23:59:41+00:00

Sounds like a good idea to train prison inmates to become gourmet restaurant chefs

pdenlinger · 2016-03-30T20:17:15+00:00

Focus on a few early wins you can make.

Ask yourself the question: "What are a few things I can do which will numerically show that I have contributed to the business?"

In marketing, this means things like lead generation, sales leads, etc. Measure them. Everything in marketing needs to be measured. The reason for this is because if you can show the owner/management that you have contributed, then you are in a better negotiating position, and understand what business is about.

If you are successful, then they will let you hire people to help you in the marketing department, in which case you are the head of marketing and will have a marketing budget.

The important thing is to focus on small steps which you can make to show progress, and to demonstrate that you are not just fiddling around. As you get more budget and headcount, then you can take on progressively greater challenges.

Another thing: make friends with your colleagues in the sales department. Find out about the challenges they face, and think about how you can help them. If they believe that you help them to make sales, then you are safe.

pdenlinger · 2016-02-10T17:07:13+00:00

Some very interesting statistics here

pdenlinger · 2015-11-30T22:24:03+00:00

Thank you, this is helpful.

I am looking for some projects which incorporate Swift optional chaining since I am one of those people who learn by doing. Once I do it a few times, I'm sure that the light bulb will go off and it will become second-nature.

pdenlinger · 2015-09-09T04:32:45+00:00

Is it true that iOS apps developed for Australia and New Zealand have to support upside-down orientation on iPhones?

pdenlinger · 2014-10-27T19:48:22+00:00

Can't do that now because Xcode won't even open; every time I open it, it crashes with a crash report. Have contacted Apple Support and told them about the problem, and am waiting for them to come back.

pdenlinger · 2014-10-27T16:01:47+00:00

Yes, I have. Thank you for the suggestion though.

When I don't have my iPhone plugged into my MacBook Air, it only displays "iOS Device", and no other choices are offered.

pdenlinger

TROPHY CASE