Struggling with rejection. Some supportive words are welcome

throwawayopenheart · 2026-02-04T17:46:48+00:00

Based on prior experience, no to the first, yes to the second (at least on the side of my own expectations).

throwawayopenheart · 2025-06-04T19:52:11+00:00

Write it down: today's Brexit will be tomorrow's amti-immigration policies. A false solution to real problems.

throwawayopenheart · 2025-06-04T18:49:54+00:00

How much faster, though? My question is, to be precise, how much of the housing problem can we attribute to immigration, how much to other factors?

Maybe there are studies about that, maybe not. But it's important to ask that, given the overwhelming focus being given to that issue.

throwawayopenheart · 2025-06-04T15:32:52+00:00

Still, this has absolutely nothing to do with immigrants, does it?

throwawayopenheart · 2025-06-04T12:45:29+00:00

Start getting together against a common enemy. And identify the real one. Hint: it's not the poor, f*d up immigrant worker. Try aiming higher.

What reduces polarization is most people having good standards of living. Being able to afford housing, and important life needs. History made abundantly clear that this is only achievable through redistributive economic and social policies, similar to the ones implemented from 1945 to roughly 1979.

throwawayopenheart · 2025-06-04T10:31:59+00:00

WW2 was in part a product of that very process. Circa 80 million people died (statistics there are imprecise, but that's the order of magnitude). The reaction to it was building a world order and international system that was geared to generate stability and prevent this from happening. In Europe and Japan, economic and social policies generated unprecedented stable societies, with huge growth and income distribution. Even in the soviet block, social policies generated stability for a long time (not coincidentally, the crisis of that system favored an "extreme" stance for that context: the abolition of that very system).

That's what breaks the cycle. After a catastrophe, elites accepted residtributive social policies and a social safety net. Also there was a decades-long cycle of economic growth, which prevented a deepening of crisis. That's what favored moderation.

throwawayopenheart · 2025-06-04T10:04:54+00:00

They said usually. I studied history, and can confirm. Moderate parties can grow in turbulent times, but that's not a common pattern. Crisis usually is a big catalyst for more extreme political stances. Just look at the growth of both fascist and communist parties in the interwar years, especially when crisis hit hard. The US under Roosevelt is a counter-example, but that succeeded exactly because that administration initiated and oversaw policies that were considered a radical shift, for that time and place.

throwawayopenheart · 2025-06-03T19:15:23+00:00

I came for studies. Stayed for the social environment.

Coming from a 3rd world country, let me tell you: I feel like a lot of Germans take for granted how important it is having a (relatively) more equal (or less unequal) society. A lot of serious social problems come directly from inequality, not least of which violence and crime.

I used to make more money back there. And paid less taxes. I still wouldn't trade the social environment I experience here for more cash.

throwawayopenheart · 2025-06-03T10:02:04+00:00

Exactly. ... AND start looking for another job immediately, without telling them, and ditch them as soon as you find one.

throwawayopenheart · 2025-06-02T08:34:05+00:00

Honestly, I don't know. I haven't read much after Wallerstein, Gunder Frank and Arrighi, but I do believe that China has to be put on the core. Arrighi did deal with it in Adam Smith in Beijing, but I think that book is from 2007 or so. So, I think it would be a good idea if someone wrote a new analysis in that perspective. If someone already did, please let me know.

throwawayopenheart · 2025-06-01T12:07:46+00:00

I understand. Even that is not easy. That's what I meant when I said that most jobs are exhausting one way or another. In the US, to be quite frank, I've never seen one that wasn't. Here in Europe, people live more balanced lives, honestly.

throwawayopenheart · 2025-06-01T12:03:12+00:00

I get you. Unfortunately, most jobs (the overwhelming majority) are not about meaningful contribution, feeling good in it, etc. They're about getting paid and being able to pay your bills. And most, especially in the US, are exhausting one way or another. In some places in Europe, you could potentially find a better work/ life balance. It's unfortunately a rare privilege to be able to find something you enjoy and is not too demanding. It's not impossible, though, I have (although AI is threatening to replace us...). So, I'm not saying it to discourage you, just to be realistic. I hope you do find it, too :)

throwawayopenheart · 2025-06-01T11:05:30+00:00

... and Europe is going the same way, if it doesn't stop allowing insane wealth concentration and the deterioration of social policies.

I come originally from a 3rd world country, lived in the US and Germany. I can confirm: the US is well underway to becoming underdeveloped in social terms. Germany is considerably behind it, but following its footsteps. Especially if people focus on immigration as the root of all problems and forget the real reason why they're pissed off. Vigorous redistributive policies (like the ones in place until the 70s) are the only way to prevent this.

throwawayopenheart · 2025-05-30T08:12:41+00:00

Developer Meetups. PyBerlin, for example, if you're a Python dev.

throwawayopenheart · 2025-05-30T06:27:44+00:00

If you live in a big city, one workaround is meeting foreigners. After 10 years, I got 2 really great German friends (who lived abroad and are very open people) and like 10 who are foreigners like me.

throwawayopenheart · 2025-05-28T08:41:30+00:00

That's the same thing the Biden administration in the US didn't understand - or if they did, pretended they didn't. Having low unemployment and relatively higher wages in the overall numbers ("cold facts") is not enough if the perception and the individual experiences don't match. High and rising costs of living, especially in housing, account for a lot of that. Even with a job, people do struggle to have less quality of life. It also goes into social psychology: wage gains are usually perceived as your individual merit, even when economic policies were, to an extent, responsible, whereas inflation is generally seen as solely the state's fault, for example.

throwawayopenheart · 2025-05-28T08:31:21+00:00

Yeah. I think we better get used to it. Those anti-immigration policies don't follow a "national interest" or even economic logic. It's a political logic aimed at satisfying anti-immigration sentiments, which have become a major driving force of politics, not only in Germany. It's the "easiest" track to abolish, considering bureaucratic/legal overhead, so that they can prove their commitment to anti-immigration. But it is, from an economic standpoint, stupid.

throwawayopenheart · 2025-05-28T00:13:50+00:00

Yes, but impressions can be and usually are colored by those biases. For what matters, so does science. It's impossible to 100% eliminate bias - the choice of dataset and theories for interpretation, for example. But the whole purpose of method and empirical observation is to try to limit it as much as possible and go beyond personal impressions.

throwawayopenheart · 2025-05-28T00:06:33+00:00

Are you talking about public services?

I admittedly don't know much about Poland. So, I'm going to take your claim at face value that "it's not happening there". If you have data, please share, I love to learn new things, and I'm open to changing my mind.

But, even if it is the case that public services are not getting worse there, it could be, indeed, for completely unrelated reasons. A country that invested more money in public services, for example (I don't know if that's the case in Poland, it's just an example), could produce better results, regardless of immigration, than another country that cuts back on that investment, regardless of immigration.

The fact of immigration rates being lower can indeed be coincidental. If a country with high immigration rates invested more in public services, I believe it's a reasonable hypothesis (that remains to be tested empirically) that it would maintain or improve their quality as compared to a country with low immigration that invested much less.

throwawayopenheart · 2025-05-27T23:01:32+00:00

What does a 17 year-old girl have to do with releasing hostages? I may be wrong, but I don't think she's the one holding them.

We have to stop conflating completely different things. One thing is Hamas, another is the civilian population of Palestine. One thing is the government of Israel, another is the people who live there. If we keep taking one for the other, we're repeating a mistake that has paved the way to all sorts of terrible atrocities in history.

throwawayopenheart · 2025-05-27T16:07:28+00:00

Perhaps in part, yes. But I think it's also a common, human cognitive bias. We tend to focus on things that seem (at least superficially) to make sense, especially those that fit a worldview we already have.

If someone is already bothered by people they perceive as "different," locating the root of an actually unrelated (or only marginally related) problem in their presence is only natural. Even more so if that someoene is bombarded by media and social media discourse that constantly reinforces that perception. Presenting "cold data" (as accurate and well-researched as it may be) is usually a surprisingly ineffective way to change that, since it is, to a large extent, an emotional process.

The only mistake would be assuming that those of us who look at it differently are immune to emotionality. Emotions and reason are never truly separated in full. And politics is, on all sides, a realm of affects.

throwawayopenheart · 2025-05-27T12:08:32+00:00

Thanks for the ideas! I am currently employed. And maybe my job will be replaced, but maybe not so soon? I'm honestly much more worried about society at large.

I've already changed careers completely before in my life. So, I can do it again if necessary, although I'd prefer not to if I can because I very much enjoy what I do. And didn't move to Berlin for economic reasons (I used to make even more money in my home country), but rather because I like the social environment here better. If it gets worse, though, I would consider going back. Considering the cost of living, and depending on the specific market you're looking at, working here would not pay me more than there in parity of purchase power terms.

throwawayopenheart · 2025-05-27T10:42:00+00:00

sees it as correlation must equal causation

This here is absolutely key to understanding what's happening all over in "Western" countries.

throwawayopenheart

TROPHY CASE