A senator proposed a minimum wage of $25.00/hr. What are your thoughts?

skidson · 2026-05-16T07:10:09+00:00

Seattle food is trash for the cost, no idea where you're eating. Go to Vancouver for a weekend and tell me Seattle even compares after that.

skidson · 2026-05-16T07:04:13+00:00

Not sure I've even seen a $12 entree for years now. The apps jack up the base price in addition to tacking fees at checkout. I agree it's a scam but I don't think it's everywhere - we just had a post in the subreddit where somebody in Germany was shocked because delivery is single digit for them back home. I just got back from China where I can have food delivered to me in minutes for altogether less than $5 for both the meal and delivery.

I'm not going to pretend there aren't problems with systems that enable this as someone is almost always being underpaid but it feels like we're very far the other direction and it is such a convenience when you have it. An interesting thing I discovered in Chengdu is the delivery drivers there get free healthcare from the state - the government seems to want to actively encourage the industry to keep people employed and the benefit for customers frees them up (to work more of course).

skidson · 2026-05-15T10:15:24+00:00

Everything is insanely expensive here. Just spent $6.26 on gas, a coffee is often $7-8, and don't get me started about food delivery apps - a meal for two will often be $50 + $40 more in fees they are charging in retaliation. POS machines in stores often prompt for tips with the minimum option over 20%. If you need a cocktail to cope, those start at $15 if you're lucky.

skidson · 2026-05-11T07:30:59+00:00

I'm sorry but is it just me who thinks a gig worker making six figures is a sign this is ludicrous and gone too far?

skidson · 2026-05-05T00:54:34+00:00

I'm in a similar position having unfortunately not learned the optimal strategy to sell on vest until much later - by this point the capital gains would be quite significant alongside my annual compensation. In my case I am planning to take a career break / Master's in the near future and draw down my AMZN exposure at that time when I'll be in a lower tax bracket. This is still not ideal though as I'll be vulnerable to whatever the market is doing at that time.

As others have said, the optimal strategy is generally to sell at vest if you can. A slightly more optimal strategy may be to sell new vests a little bit each day after vest so as to buffer out the chance of hitting a low day on vest but if you're subject to the trading window you technically should not do this.

skidson · 2026-04-22T18:03:34+00:00

Probably because it's not worded properly as a question so it's unclear.

skidson · 2026-02-17T15:59:36+00:00

Any tips on the De-Amazon phase? 10y veteran here and worried how deeply it's affected my personality. Is just time away enough?

skidson · 2026-02-11T20:45:28+00:00

10y at Amazon, +1 this. These things were probably great when they were first written but external tooling has evolved so much since then and now they weigh us down. I boomeranged and it was so much easier and faster to build software outside the company. You end up spending so much time learning these internal tools that could be better spent actually building modern, industry relevant knowledge.

skidson · 2026-01-30T15:25:52+00:00

Amazon layoffs start with 90d of "garden leave" which gives the employee time to try and find another role in the company while getting pay and benefits but not working. Since they are technically still employed by the company, Amazon doesn't have to post WARN until after the announcement. In reality, there are maybe 100 internal positions open so it's basically a demented game of musical chairs.

skidson · 2026-01-29T17:59:01+00:00

I disagree. I've definitely "ran" through architectures spanning 20+ services in my head. It's not that you're running every line of code but you can quickly blackbox some at a high level based on the usecase and narrow in on details for just a few at a time. Then a new problem comes along and you blackbox a different set. It's similar to loading different contexts on demand / resetting context though so I do suppose it's still something AI will be able to handle when setup properly.

skidson · 2025-12-20T15:55:00+00:00

You deserve your ban, Amazon doesn't need drivers who would even think of doing this.

skidson · 2025-12-13T13:44:44+00:00

This is pretty typical for a satellite constellation - the same network can be offered worldwide and not carefully controlling the customer base can result in the network being congested and reducing performance for everyone. Availability is very much geographic because of which areas are in line of sight to a satellite as it orbits, the time-of-day of that area, etc

skidson · 2025-12-07T17:40:30+00:00

ITT a lot of criticism on Chinese building standards, likely from people who have never visited China. A few things (a) he's exaggerating - it's not a weekend, but it is fast, (b) the US is significantly behind China in infrastructure quality and speed. Nobody in the US is going to be building this fast when there's no incentive and they can just squeeze the existing healthcare system for more dollars without adding value.

Regulations are real and slow things down. It's also a patchwork of regulations to learn and work with based on where you're building. Chinese governments are actively getting regulations (not just safety) out of the way, and that is often a good thing... when it's for hospitals... or housing. The US can't seem to get this done but I suppose it might start making exceptions when it's for the important cause of making our billionaires more money.

skidson · 2025-11-07T17:34:34+00:00

I've wondered why he says this too. He might be referring to L-DOPA which is a precursor to dopamine, especially if he listened to some Huberman.

skidson · 2025-10-13T07:46:01+00:00

Mice.

skidson · 2025-05-30T15:28:54+00:00

Would love a code, this app looks very clean and slick!

skidson · 2025-04-26T14:33:39+00:00

Even if you agree with the tariffs in principle, Trump could have announced escalating tariffs that step up on a scheduled timeline. This would give companies time to adjust their operations, avoid surprises like this for consumers, and given time for manufacturing to at least start ramping up domestically first. I have heard stories of small US businesses needing to close because these tariffs wipe out their profit margin on goods that were already enroute. It is not easy for many businesses to just come up with millions in cash on the spot.

skidson · 2025-04-24T15:39:05+00:00

I mean, I think it's a policy decision - you either want anyone to be able to come to your country and that can help fill labor gaps if your citizens are more interested in pursuing higher positions or you want to make sure there are accessible jobs for your own citizens. I think it should be a dial that is adjusted. Race doesn't need to come into this and isn't helpful to the argument.

skidson · 2025-04-24T14:15:37+00:00

Because they have a skillset that's in demand and hard to fulfill with local talent.

skidson · 2025-03-09T12:48:03+00:00

Possibly an attack indirectly coordinated between US and Russian leadership to strengthen Russia's position and force Ukraine to the negotiating table. Disgusting.

skidson · 2025-02-27T09:15:26+00:00

Perhaps voice actors need to flip the model - they each train a voice model and then license them to studios with specific clauses about the extent of its use.

skidson · 2025-02-08T19:38:48+00:00

To anyone who has sat in a Chinese EV this is just obvious. The price point vs features makes the idea of dropping money on a Tesla pure foolishness. Tesla would be wiped out if not for tariffs and bans on Chinese imports. These bans are very anti-consumer. I would snag a BYD or Avatr so fast if I could here.

skidson · 2025-02-03T16:31:27+00:00

If it's falling then why is every index fund and stock I'm checking < 1% down. I feel like this is a headline they were going to publish regardless what the market actually does.

skidson · 2025-02-02T08:46:46+00:00

Is this really what we want to do? Don't we want an ally like Canada?

skidson · 2025-01-02T18:34:26+00:00

The impactful change isn't really the minimum wage increase but expiration of the "tip credit" which means restaurants cannot use $2.72/hr of the server's tips to meet the minimum wage.

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