donw

55 ms·

571.
by donw 6y ago
You are correct, but maybe I should rephrase? I have never gotten the sense that Tokyo people think that Japan would be better off if everybody living in rural areas were to drop dead tomorrow. Rather, in grocery stores, foods and fruit pro
572.
by donw 6y ago
Corn is an example of subsidized supply . Government money increases the supply of corn, and drives the price down. Hence, corn, and products derived from it -- high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), corn-fed beef, Nu Metal bands, etc -- are che
573.
by donw 6y ago
If you are genuinely looking for a gig in Tokyo, feel free to ping me directly. Email in profile.
574.
by donw 6y ago
USD 150k is roughly JPY 16M, which is 2-3x an entry-level salary here. Google might be laying that down for new graduates, but they'd be the only ones that are.
575.
by donw 6y ago
Of course. :) I'm not sure "work-life balance" is even the right concept in Japan. Japanese companies are structured around the idea that you devote your life to the organization. Overtime and weekend work are common. In exch
576.
by donw 6y ago
I live in Japan, and have for about a decade. You're bang-on when it comes to culture, but it has nothing to do with being optimized for tourism. Japan is a very conservative country. Change happens slowly here, and Japan does a lot
577.
by donw 6y ago
It is interesting that the real cost of medical care and hospital services didn't see any sort of inflection change with the introduction of the ACA. One the key reasons for implementing the ACA -- which I supported, mind you -- was to
578.
by donw 6y ago
You know, that’s a fair point that I hadn’t thought about. I naïvely assumed that regulatory frameworks would take care of this, and I’m curious what legal precedent there is?
579.
by donw 6y ago
Payments in Japan are complicated. Picture an iPad Pro screen full of nothing but different payment types -- all from competing vendors! -- and that's what the payment screen looks like at my local combini. Some places will accept a NF
580.
by donw 6y ago
People in US cities do have cars. They're parked everywhere in San Francisco, the streets of New York are filled with them. And not just wealthy people -- if you live in Oakland, Queens, whatever, you likely know somebody with a car. T
581.
by donw 6y ago
Really good points, and really calls into focus the need to empower individual counties to define their own fire policies (I think that's the right scale).
582.
by donw 6y ago
Interesting! That's changed in the past three years, then, but I'm glad to hear it.
583.
by donw 6y ago
> This type of framing of this problem is alarmist, but it can then backfire due to seeming unrealistic and out of touch with reality, making science's reputation even worse. That damage was done long ago. Read the "other side&
584.
by donw 6y ago
Bingo. The Green Revolution massively increased Earth's carrying capacity, but at the cost of total dependence on artificial fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and machinery, with the alternative being "half of the human populat
585.
by donw 6y ago
True! Forty-five percent, in point of fact. That land is still jointly managed with the state[1], though. [1] https://www.blm.gov/programs/public-safety-and-fire/fire-and... (Also, I learned something new today --
586.
by donw 6y ago
I don't think that's the problem. People, especially as they get older, tend to want more space. Being close to nature -- and California, in those rare moments when it isn't on fire, has beautiful nature -- is also a big dr
587.
by donw 6y ago
Nah, you have a valid point. :) Sometimes companies just don't invest to expand into the market, or they aren't there yet -- it's not always just ignorance of the culture. But I've seen the latter a lot, and particularly
588.
by donw 6y ago
The federal policy stopped in 1968. Enthusiasts of subtraction of real numbers will note that was 52 years ago. I'm a California native, and a quick look at past wildfires[1] confirms my hunch, that the vast majority -- 82% -- of Calif
589.
by donw 6y ago
When Uber came to Japan, they pushed heavily on their three main points: - Uber is convenient. - Uber is safe. - Uber is clean. Japanese taxis are (a) everywhere; (b) probably about the safest form of transport that doesn't have armor
590.
by donw 6y ago
Central Tokyo -- Meguro, Ebisu, Roppongi -- are where all of us foreigners live. It's like living in Manhattan, Nob Hill, or Los Gatos. You're pretty insulated from... everybody else. I live on the edge of Tokyo. Uber eats was her
591.
by donw 6y ago
I'll do you one better -- I have a blue Handspring. :) Mercedes created the first motor vehicle. Ford created the first one that people actually bought and used in real numbers. WindowsCE and Palm did not create the smartphone market
592.
by donw 6y ago
True! I would still argue that, in many cases, SV companies actively resist understanding the local culture -- Uber and AirBnB fit into that category. AirBnB fixed this -- after something like four years -- and Uber would be dead here witho
593.
by donw 6y ago
Agreed, unless prefaced with the phrase "We don't have a". When Uber came to Japan, they pushed heavily on their three main points: - Uber is convenient. - Uber is safe. - Uber is clean. Japanese taxis are (a) everywhere; (b)
594.
by donw 6y ago
Context shifts at different speeds for different markets. For teens, keeping up is tough. Fashion moves fast. Nobody is in fisticuffs over Beanie Babies in 2020. For chefs? Professional and commercial kitchens have evolved they way they hav
595.
by donw 6y ago
Sure! Apple is a bit of an exception because they created a completely new market -- the smartphone. Japanese companies move slowly , and are hobbled by design-by-committee, so their response to new market entrants is... leisurely. I'
596.
by donw 6y ago
There's a lot of great lessons here. (1) Billion-dollar companies are often built on products that consumers don't know what they want, until they see and experience it. Plenty of MP3 players pre-dated the iPod. But the iPod chang
597.
by donw 6y ago
> Now... how well does that translate to building software? Well, let's dig on on what the Air Force ended up doing, overall. First, they studied and improved the ergonomics. Specifically, making things like seats adjustable. The to
598.
by donw 6y ago
The late Randy Pausch, in his Last Lecture[1] at Carnegie Mellon University, offered up... well, a lot of great advice, but the piece that jumped into my mind was: "It’s very important to know when you’re in a pissing match. And it’s v
599.
by donw 6y ago
I think you underestimate American willingness to tell authority figures to go fuck themselves. I don't have a better way of phrasing that. This is, perhaps, both the best and worst part of our culture. On the one hand, it gives you re
600.
by donw 6y ago
It is if you scale the fine based on their income. Also, an idea: rather than handing fines and fees to the government -- which incentivizes all kinds of bad behavior, from civil forfeiture to crazy permitting laws -- you stick it in a gene

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