Cbus has been designated as the "Silicon Valley of the Midwest" in recent years, and the prices have reflected. Fortunately, you can make FAANG or coastal money if you have the right skills, even though our fellow "real" Silicon Valley devs might not want to admit it.
Almost every conversation I've had over the years goes two ways:
"Why do you care so much about <Flock, Ring Cameras, big tech name>? If you have nothing to hide, why are you so concerned?"
Or:
"Why do you care so much about <Flock, Ring Cameras, big tech name>? We already walk around with cell phones in our pockets 24/7."
I used to be more passionate about persuading people about privacy, but I've pretty much given up. I've come to the conclusion that the majority of the population doesn't care what is happening around them as long as they have internet access and their iPhone.
My response is typically, "I have literally everything to hide. I don't want you to know my middle name. I don't want you to know what I had for breakfast. It's none of anyone's business."
And weirdly, the response I get is, "Oh yeah, fair."
I know this is anecdotal, but my engineering graduate program at a well known private university in the NE had roughly 300 graduates, more than half of them on student visas. I feel it's more popular than ever to act as though one has ideals, but there is an endless supply of talent waiting for a spot at these prestigious American universities.
I competed at a professional level in motorsports and had a lot of momentum in my 20s. It felt as though I was headed to the top of the sport, but it came to an abrupt end from a rare medical condition. I struggled for several years to come to terms with not knowing what could of been and probably had some minor depression because of it. It took a lot of self reflection and time to realize that I was extremely lucky to experience what I had, and I had so much to be happy about in the present.
That being said, there is a Limitless episode with Chris Hemsworth that might resonate with you, especially regarding martial arts. Watch season 1, episode 6, called "Acceptance". I had never watched any other episode of this show, but late one night when the whole house was asleep I was browsing and came across this episode and thought "hmm, looks like a good bedtime show". Ended up watching it and you'd have thought someone was cutting a thousand onions in my house. In fact, our Golden Retriever turned into a service dog that night hah!
I went from big tech to a team of four at a small org. To work uninhibited and with close to zero speed bumps from management has been life changing for me and my stress levels. We all have each other's backs and there is none of that "West Coast Nice" stuff going on.
I worked manufacturing in my younger days and also spent some time in the Marines, so I feel ya on the cushy tech jobs... But I'd just about rather go back to Iraq before I go back to corporate culture.
I volunteered down there for a week when that happened. I think the only thing we used our phones for was a picture here and there. Otherwise, complete darkness. Despite the obvious of it being a disaster zone and homes destroyed everywhere, it was a positive experience.
When I first heard of Starlink and the possibility to have internet everywhere, I was a little sad inside. It is now impossible to escape in this world, even in the most remote mountains on earth. People always look at me sideways when I say this, but I truly think the power/internet needs shutoff for 6 months to a year every so often to give us a little bit of a reset.
I would agree that the insights provided are little to none. I think this is some sort of fallacy that being being PR'd by tech bros with a lot of skin in the game attempting to come up with some kind of positive reason to sell to people. It's fairly easy to see right through it though.
Full disclosure, I've written performant market making algorithms for Polymarket. I'm actually a fan of these markets and enjoy the statistics and engineering challenges they present, but see it as a net negative on society. I'd gladly give up my PnL if it was a net positive on the American psych.
> One of my projects was a vibe-coded implementation of JavaScript in Python—a loose port of MicroQuickJS—which I called micro-javascript. You can try it out in your browser in this playground.
I'd like to remind everyone here that people on this forum used to actually code truly remarkable and pointless stuff like this, with zero LLMs, using nothing but their brains and motivation from who the heck knows where from.
I'm guessing the reason is probably the sex allegations. I don't see a graduating class that probably used an LLM for every single homework assignment boo'ing a speech because of AI alone. When it comes to sex allegations in the US, you are guilty until proven innocent, even more so as a powerful and/or rich individual. Of course shame on him if it's true, but in this day and age it doesn't matter whether it's true or not.
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