Recent submissions

Comment · 6 years ago
I would be fucked on my first expense report. "Why did you fly out of Charlotte, NC if you live in Seattle, WA?"
Comment · 7 years ago
That is true, but ending sentences with prepositions still makes you sound like you don't know how to English. "Where are you at?" Just no. Why add the extra word that doesn't clarify anything? "Where are you going to?" Even writing it makes me cringe. Granted, if doing otherwise would make the sentence sound awkward, go for it. e.g. "Ending sentences with prepositions? That is something up with which I will not put!" I am such a pedantic nerd that I still write that way and try to find a way to make it sound less awkward.
Comment · 7 years ago
When I was in academia, it was considered acceptable for one to alternate between his and her when the gender of the subject is unknown. Using his or her every time does sound stilted, but proper grammar often sounds "weird". My highschool English teacher's favorite phrase was "things that 'sound right' are often wrong". That's the beauty of this fucked up language. I refuse to believe that masculine pronouns being the default gender neutral is some conspiracy by the patriarchy, but that's just me.
Comment · 7 years ago
A couple of years ago I was walking around downtown SF, and I noticed someone had drawn a chalk outline on the sidewalk and labeled it "techie fuck". I had a good chuckle. We are not loved there.
Comment · 7 years ago
And yet it still grates on my ears every time someone uses it in the singular. But the same things happens when someone ends a sentence with a preposition or splits an infinitive, and neither are those consider grammatical faux pas anymore.
Comment · 7 years ago
More power to you! Everyone should find his own preferences and strengths and lean into them, imo.
Comment · 7 years ago
I am a very extroverted person and require social interaction to not become depressed. My job is a little different in that I'm customer-facing and have to travel to customer sites from time to time. I also have a family (wife and 2 young daughters), and I enjoy the opportunity to interact with them throughout the day. I have a separate area of the house that is mine, and they know not to disturb me while I'm working (which is often, but on my own schedule). To clarify: Wife is a SAHM. I also work for a Bay Area startup, which has perks in terms of flexible schedule and unlimited PTO.
Comment · 7 years ago
I would never go back to commuting to the same place every day. It's cool that he does the coworking thing, but I've been working remotely for 6+ years fulltime (and I have other periods of 2-3 years at a time working remotely interspersed through my 20+ year career in software), and I would not give it up for anything less than a C-level role at this point. Most of the benefit to me is the lack of routine. Routine stifles my creativity. I don't want to go to the same place or do the same thing every day.
Comment · 7 years ago
We chatted last week and I was sorry to hear you went with another contractor for frontend dev. The bait and switch wasn't my intention, UpWork doesn't really let you present yourself as a team. Best of luck.
Comment · 7 years ago
That's not how option valuation works. They're worth the difference of their strike price to the price of the underlying intrinsically. So if his strike is $110 (which it's not for reasons others have pointed out - he was issued options on common stock), he gets the appreciation of the stock after IPO once he exercises. If the stock plummets after IPO, his options will expire worthless. Though they are probably LEAPs, and it's weird to denominate options per-share like that. Normally contracts are for 100 shares and it always confuses me the way companies award options.
Comment · 7 years ago
So go work from a coffee shop or take a walk. I'm not sure if anyone has told you, but it's not been normal for humans to go to an office five days a week for 8 hours a day for most of human history.
Comment · 7 years ago
If you were individual 1099, then no there is no advantage really. And you have to pay self-employment tax. If you were B2B 1099, there are ENORMOUS advantages. My average effective federal tax rate on ~$250k/yr is right around 1.8-2.2% because I'm 1099 B2B and have a great tax attorney and accountant. Obviously on paper I make like $30k a year or something stupid like that, I don't know. My attorney adjust things monthly or quarterly as necessary, starts new LLCs or whatever is required.
Comment · 7 years ago
Yes, if he's married filing jointly the standard deduction is $24k. Meaning he pays zero taxes. If he's unmarried his standard deduction is still most of his salary (~$12k), and the remaining amount would fall into the 10% tax bracket. But he would qualify for tax credits with income that low. Also very likely social services and safety nets. His effective income tax rate should be negative.

Reading these comments, it's apparent most people have no idea how this shit works. I thought here of all places, I wouldn't see people falling into the "I don't understand how progressive tax brackets work" trap.

Comment · 7 years ago
So you don't apply VAT to inelastic commodities. We have in fact figured this shit out. Austrian or Keynesian are not the only two choices available to us, despite what some would try to lead you to believe.
Comment · 7 years ago
Most people would hold that offering a bribe is not the unethical action, accepting the bribe is the unethical side. So if you're implying that the companies acted unethically by bribing politicians, I beg to differ. That is like blaming a lion for killing gazelles. Corporations are in competition with one another. It's a winner-take-all world, and they will always seek every edge they can get. If you want to hold someone accountable, vote the bastards out and elect someone with a spine.

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