mmarq

45 ms·

511.
by mmarq 5y ago
We usually ignore that a child learns to say simple sentences at 3, can express simple original thoughts at 6 and is able to have a quasi-adult conversation at 15. An adult doesn't have 15 years to become half-fluent in French.
512.
by mmarq 5y ago
In my experience, a company that pays 400-500£ per day for a contractor, will pay 80-90K£ per annum for a permanent employee. Once you account for VAT and corporation tax, the only difference comes from not paying NI and income tax. Inside
513.
by mmarq 5y ago
Contractors in the UK earn more or less the same as other employees (once you account for benefits and paid holidays and sick leave), but do not pay taxes because of a loophole that hopefully will be fixed by IR35.
514.
by mmarq 5y ago
I wouldn't generalize to the whole first world, obesity is mainly a problem in English speaking countries and in northern and eastern Europe, ie places with a subpar (eg Germany) or non-existent (eg UK, US) cuisine.
515.
by mmarq 5y ago
> Now you don’t have to worry about installing good appliances or even nice carpet. The air condition doesn’t work well? Too bad, as long as it meets regulations (if any) then that’s good enough. Why would you if your tenants aren’t choo
516.
Why Big Nations Lose Small Wars: The Politics of Asymmetric Conflict(researchgate.net)
2 points by mmarq 5y ago|0 comments
517.
by mmarq 5y ago
Nobody thinks that all brexiters are xenophobes and nothing as such has been written or said in any respectable media outlet (say the FT, Guardian, BBC, etc…), but denying that xenophobia played a significant role in the referendum campaign
518.
by mmarq 5y ago
Regardless of class considerations, my point is that the education rat-race is prevalent in places where an average job doesn’t guarantee a good standard of living and/or where there are strong winner-takes-all dynamics, so everybody h
519.
by mmarq 5y ago
Wikipedia says ~28% attended a gymnasium in 2010: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnasium_(Germany)
520.
by mmarq 5y ago
It seems as if the author is convinced that in the German system children are assigned to different high schools based on their skills/intelligence/talent/whatever. But the fact is that you will hardly find an upper class kid
521.
by mmarq 5y ago
At least in the UK, we may see an improvement if government stopped inflating real estate prices with new schemes every year (help-to-buy or the latest stamp duty suspension) and if investing in property to rent it, attracted as much tax as
522.
by mmarq 5y ago
> Firstly, GDP is a bad measure of productivity. A pill that replaced all healthcare would reduce GDP by 15%, but I doubt anyone (even economists) would call that a catastrophe. This is only true in vacuum. In the real world, if this pil
523.
by mmarq 5y ago
The snippet looks made up. It requires a programmer skilled enough to understand iterators and compose them in a rather complex operation, but not skilled enough to know about shifts or look for “bitwise operators rust” on Google.
524.
by mmarq 5y ago
Unfortunately rent regulations in the UK are designed to protect landlords from tenants, contracts are renewed yearly and you are always at risk of eviction. So maintenance is almost non-existent and if you protest, you will likely end up e
525.
by mmarq 5y ago
> With the NHS you need to "play" the system a bit unfortunately. The key is finding a great GP and asking for him/her by name when getting an appointment. There are a lot of terrible GPs out there and if you just listen
526.
by mmarq 5y ago
Yes, the NHS is weirdly worshipped in the UK, but is much worse than the Italian or the German healthcare systems (to name the 2 I experienced personally). The emergency service is good, but prevention is borderline non-existent and getting
527.
by mmarq 5y ago
A senior dev in a hedge fund may make more than 200K£ and I was well into 6 digits before becoming a manager, but a senior dev at non-FAANG wouldn’t usually make more than 80K and I know several good senior devs who make less than 70K£.
528.
by mmarq 5y ago
The quality of service of the NHS is extremely low compared to its European counterparts. It’s not my problem, because I have a very comprehensive healthcare insurance from my employer, which costs more than 300£ per month per person. Just
529.
by mmarq 5y ago
> Yes, once we had a mouse in the flatshare While everybody I know who rented in London had to deal with mice or bed-bugs (and I don’t fully understand what these are, because before coming to London I never heard of them), at least thos
530.
by mmarq 5y ago
A senior dev in London makes 60-80K, so it’s almost the same without cost of life adjustments. Outside of London, economy-wise, you are likely to find places more similar to eastern Europe than to Bavaria. 80K€ in Munich is a good salary, c
531.
by mmarq 5y ago
In the past few years IT salaries in continental Europe have increased significantly and, adjusted for the cost of life, German salaries are significantly higher. French and Spanish are almost on par. If you make less than 40K£ in London, y
532.
by mmarq 5y ago
No.
533.
by mmarq 5y ago
Actually working more than the bare minimum in an environment where hard work is not rewarded, is the second most sensible thing to do, after leaving. Should you work hard so some shareholders can buy a yacht? It is the job of management to
534.
by mmarq 5y ago
I’m wondering what have we gained from all the recent chattering on blocking immigration. For the questionable gain of making it impossible for an African or for an Asian to move to a western country legally, we have created overpowered bor
535.
by mmarq 5y ago
Same in London, everybody I know got a 20-25K£ rise in the past 12 months.
536.
by mmarq 5y ago
I didn't know about that, but it doesn't surprise me, given the shit show Italian courts are. Thank you
537.
by mmarq 5y ago
She was definitely accused of being a "whore", as in a woman who is not, say, as chaste as people expect her to be. All Italian media informed us that Knox's motive was sex, whatever that is supposed to mean, because she was
538.
by mmarq 5y ago
While Amanda Knox is not guilty of Meredith Kercher's murder, she is guilty of accusing a random guy of being the murderer. I think she was sentenced to 2-3 years for this false accusation.
539.
by mmarq 5y ago
You said: > Totally, counterculture nowadays does not belong to the far left anymore and after oppress popular culture with its ideas (else you are cancelled) now they are making a major effort trying to cancell oppositors from the insti
540.
by mmarq 5y ago
Given that the president of the EU commission and the largest coalition in the EU parliament are conservatives and that the EU is evidently not an extreme left institution, I don’t understand why they should care about the extreme left havi

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