Recent submissions

Comment · 3 months ago
Comment · 4 months ago
If it's the same woman I'm thinking of Office365 is underselling it a bit - she's fully sanctioned by the US. She can't use debit/credit cards, any Apple/Google device or service, Amazon/eBay, etc. She's completely digitally crippled by sanctions. And she's one of several people.

As a European I really hope we create an entirely separate homegrown tech sector, and fast.

Comment · 4 months ago
Adding TS types to Nix would make it so much easier to write Nix code. Which string do I need here? Oh the type system knows, the language server shows it inline - I don't have to look at the source. I've used NixOS since 2018 and written nixpkgs derivations and it would've saved me so much time.

I'm glad that TypeNix exists but it really should just be officially supported or even the default.

Comment · 5 months ago
Wero is a private effort, the digital euro is closer to Pix but it keeps being stalled (given the article in question, one could make some guesses as to why).
Comment · 3 years ago
Comment · 3 years ago
Comment · 3 years ago
Depending on what type of video you're watching (pay depend on variables), your one view is probably worth a whopping $0.01. At that point you might be better off asking nicely for Patreon subs, considering about 0.5-2% of your followers convert to Patreon subs (and tiers usually start at or above $2), instead of annoying your viewers with horrible ads. Even creator-made shoutouts to products are more pleasant than the jarring built-in YouTube adverts, and that's before you consider that they're immediately skippable. And when you consider all the awful things advertisers are forcing YouTube to do in order to make the platform better for themselves and worse for users, it gets even more spicy.
Comment · 3 years ago
Comment · 3 years ago
Comment · 3 years ago
True, but coops are also more selective about firing and hiring. So if you're a bad fit, you're less likely to end up in a coop, and if you do end up there, you will have more stable employment because coops generally don't fire people during crises, they collectively cut their salaries by a certain percentage, or give up yearly bonuses, and when things get good again, they reinstate their old salaries or bonuses.
Comment · 3 years ago
Cooperatives aren't nonprofit entities – they can be, sure, but many of them are profit-driven.

The claim that cooperatives act irrationally (and the implication that they're less efficient) requires some factual data to back that claim up, otherwise it's just that – an anecdotal claim. Here's academic data to dismiss those claims:

> Labor-managed firms are as productive as conventional firms, or more productive, in all industries, and use their inputs efficiently; but in several industries conventional firms would produce more with their current input levels if they organized production like labor-managed firms. On average overall, firms would produce more using the labor-managed firms’ industry-specific technologies. Labor-managed firms do not produce at inefficiently low scales

Source: Fakhfakh, F., Pérotin, V., & Gago, Mó. (2012). Productivity, Capital, and Labor in Labor-Managed and Conventional Firms: An Investigation on French Data. ILR Review, 65(4), 847–879. doi:10.1177/001979391206500404

Similar results were also found to hold in an older study by Craig and Pencavel in 1995.

Comment · 3 years ago
That's an odd critique considering coops exist to solve the friction between unions and businesses by building the democratic control into the business itself, avoiding the need for a union.

Especially when you consider all the union busting tactics used by leadership at traditional businesses – how are you even supposed to form a union when they won't let you? Coops come at that from a different angle: you get democratic control, straight up. Don't like your leadership if you choose to structure the business that way? You can actually vote them out of their role.

Comment · 3 years ago
> Plenty of companies offer product samples or free services upfront

Sure, but a startup using VC money to offer you something for free is very different from "I will personally volunteer to help you".

Also the entire point of sharing articles is that they're being read, so there isn't any way to avoid implying they're doing "self-promotion" – should people just stop writing and sharing articles?

Sometimes people aren't after some self-serving goal, and I think it's a little dangerous to think everyone is – charities exist. Cooperatives are more ethical businesses because they build democracy into their structure unlike traditional businesses, why would I assume whoever is talking about them isn't just hoping to see more of that in the world? Or do we reduce that to "that's just the author being selfish again"?

Comment · 3 years ago
> I got the distinct feeling I was being sold something while reading it, and the last paragraph confirmed it.

You mean the last paragraph where they _volunteer_ to have coaching sessions with people? "Selling" usually implies an exchange of money or an expectation of something in return, but there's no product here – the author is offering their time for free to help others start or join cooperatives. Is it fair to dismiss that as "being sold" something?

Comment · 4 years ago

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