SkyNTP

Ditch Amazon and big tech. Consume less in general. Do more with what's on hand. Repair instead of replace.

Not everyone has the skills to do the above, so volunteering time to help others do this can help too.

Yes, there's that, but it's also just straight up gaslighting as a means to bully sovereign countries and further brainwash people into whatever reality the administration dictates. Next time, it'll be an executive order to have Greenland renamed, etc. The pen truely is mightier than the sword.

Controversial opinion time: no matter your stance on DEI, it was doomed from the start, because it's too easy to be perceived as unfair discrimination.

6, 7, 8, 9 is the golden age of the series. I have a favourite among those four, but let's leave it at that.

The electorate is the final check on power. The electorate failed their responsibility. The electorate now has to suffer the consequences of their actions.

Trump's power is not derived from a piece of paper. That was the Democrats mistake.

Trump's power comes directly from the people. In a democracy, ultimately the people get the last say.

The transactions are far from over. There are many more transactions to come. From as little as continuing to support Trump-freindly representatives, all the way up to not actively rebelling against his administration.

No one, either in comments, nor in article, actually touches on form factor. The fact is that sedans are only good for moving people, but there's better options for that: like cycling or train. The real benefit of an SUV's form factor (or pickup, or station wagon, or hatchback) is that you can move cargo with it, the kind of stuff that you can't move with efficient people movers.

Counter argument: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle

Not all jobs are measured by time spent on the clock, so no it doesn't have to be that way. Many jobs can and should be measured by simply meeting productivity requirements. A parking attendants job is being present on shift because that is a requirement of that job. But a programmer's job is to create software that performs a certain way. There is no time requirement of the product there.

Just cause you suffered your way through it doesn't mean you should encourage others to do the same.

You are not wrong about the lack of corporate culture. But at the end of the day, is that worth giving up family time, company of your pets, a corner office of your choosing, with access to your own fridge and amenities, being able to receive people at the door at reasonable hours, and not having to commute asinine hours?

Many people will reject that notion.

But here's the kicker: companies don't care about your well being. They only care about the bottom line. What incentive do they have to cater to your needs? None, other than the minimum for employee retention.

This idea of "team building" is just smoke and mirrors. An excuse to not have to admit the real reason: adapting away from buts-in-seats as a performance measure is hard.

problem seems to be [...] intertwined language with culture

You lost the argument right here. Language is as fundamental to culture as the sky is blue.

The rest of your post amounts to "communication is important to function" and you are not wrong on that front. But you put no weight on the importance of culture too.

Consider this your wakeup call, that just because you don't personally care about society having an identity doesn't mean the rest of us don't.

It's faster until you need the human operator to keep coming over because the anti-theft sensors keep getting tripped up by false positive readings. Or you need to find some vegetable code that a normal cashier has memorized.

Self checkout is great when it's done well, and total shit when poorly executed. And unfortunately, it's not always just a matter of technology (which normally keeps improving); it's often a matter of business model: sometimes customer convenience is really important, other times loss prevention (which creates frustration) is more important.

I've seen countless good self-checkout experiences backslide into crap experience because the business felt that a controlled client is more profitable than a convenienced client.