zlatiah
@zlatiah@lemmy.world
- Comment on If you were dropped into a pool of people's spit and prevented from getting out, would you melt to death? 3 days ago:
Physically, I don’t think so; the main enzyme in saliva mainly digests starch, which humans are not made of
More likely, you’d drown eventually due to not being let out, which would be one of the crazier ways to die I guess, up their with that time when some nobles drowned in fecal matter
- Comment on Is there a real, actually working way to earn money online without having a job? 1 week ago:
There are! Problem is that most of them seem to be either “jobs” that companies don’t want to pay a full-time employee for, or require lots of entrepreneurship skills that I don’t think fits most people… I don’t see how someone living in a developed country would benefit more from an online gig than getting a shitty minimum-wage job at the local grocery store, but there definitely are options
A few non-scummy ones (at least by my standard) I could think of:
- Most practical one I could think of is to teach English/foreign languages. The East Asian countries (especially China) have a huge demand for these types of roles, and I’d presume they have platforms where you can do it as a freelance tutor (at least that’s what my parents told me lol)
- If you have any in-demand skills, it is possible to become a self-proprietor to do contracts for businesses… ranging from the classic IT consultant to selling art commissions on Twitter/X
- If you are good at crafts, I believe it is possible to make a small but reasonable amount of money by selling crafts online on places like Etsy, some ppl are really into these and I think ppl generally have a very positive view of these type of careers. Bonus is you might even be able to do some in-person events at conventions/markets/etc
- If you have a fun personality (or if you are a complete train-wreck), content creation/streaming. Standard Twitch streaming, YouTube streaming, making edutainment like the funny bike guy, if you are willing to let go of some morals then Kick… Quite fun if you are into it, but competition is fierce and most people don’t make it; and a lot of people who “made-it” chose to relocate to low cost-of-living countries where they only need like $500 a month so…
- Extension of previous point, if you have any sex-appeal… lots of places to “sell your body” online and make decent profits. Not doable without good genetics though
- Comment on [deleted] 1 week ago:
Disclaimer: level 1 ASD, low support needs
Was it ableist for my ex-friend to say “[all] autistic people make her uncomfortable “?
… maybe? It is true that the majority of Autistic people (including those with subtle symptoms, maybe especially those since uncanny valley and everything) tend to make NT people uncomfortable whether we like it or not, so just having that thought alone might not say much. I would assume most reasonable people would prefer to keep thoughts like that behind closed curtains even if they have those
As for your ex-friend’s specific case… I think the bigger issue is that your ex-friend was an asshole more than anything else. My understanding is that talking behind someone’s back is a big no for most people. There are… some parts of Asian culture where this type of behavior is more accepted, but if your ex-friend is American then I’m not entirely sure
- Comment on It's quite impressive that most English speakers across the world understand each other, despite variations in accents/dialects 1 week ago:
That’s cool! For me Chinese (Mandarin), although it has something to do with language regulations: a lot of Chinese dialects really should be classified as different languages…
Speaking of that and Spanish… I was quite curious about Catalan actually, have a colleague that’s from that part of Spain. My understanding is that Catalan is considered a separate language but is quite similar to Spanish?
- Submitted 2 weeks ago to showerthoughts@lemmy.world | 104 comments
- Comment on Is gold investing a scam? 2 weeks ago:
Obligatory not an economist, only know some basics about investing (and quite lazy about it)
I always thought that gold is just a rather unique commodity that people can also have the option of holding physically (not that it’s advised to do so). Professional investors invest in just about anything as long as there is a potential return on investment, like typical stocks and bonds, gold and silver, housing/land, art, literal truckloads of food… frankly gold isn’t even remotely the weirdest or “scammiest” on this list
As for more regular people, I do have a suspicion a lot of con-artists and/or people with suspicious intents heavily promote gold investing though. Also some libertarian types have a weird… fantasy? of total societal collapse, which I do not quite understand, but I’d presume gold would be attractive to those types since gold has been used as a means of transaction for a long time in human history
- Comment on Who shops at small businesses? 3 weeks ago:
From personal experience. I am willing to assign a higher value to products made by local and/or small businesses, even if it doesn’t otherwise make any practical sense. But it is a very conscientious moral judgement on my end, so I don’t expect most people to behave this way… and I have a limit too, +100% is probably too much.
Although I guess the benefit of being a “small” business is that you also don’t need as many customers… There are also some types of small businesses that are competitive: I suppose most ethnic food stores or your local market stall won’t struggle with competing on price.
how is it that there are any little shops left at all?
Maybe this depends on the area? I don’t know if it is just me, but it seems to me that these days small businesses do better in larger cities… maybe larger cities have more “ethical shoppers”
- Submitted 4 weeks ago to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world | 31 comments
- Comment on Where do you typically leave/read reviews 1 month ago:
Yes they are… the reason I think that way is that I like to look at relative rankings; as in, it’s not accurate to just look at how many stars a place got, but rather compare it with other places around it
If I recall… at least in Chicago where good restaurants easily get 500+ ratings. I have never had a “miss” at a place 4.7 stars or above on Google, and the local “cult classic” was at like 4.9; 4.5-4.6 can be hit-or-miss; any fine dining below 4.5 is almost always a miss. Obviously since almost none of those establishments got below 4, just looking at the number of stars isn’t useful… but if I have a comparison it’s actually quite useful
Sadly I have no clue whether it translates to other places. Fairly certain ppl in my current city are a lot more critical (so maybe a 4.7 in Chicago would be… 4.4 here, or something like that)
- Comment on Where do you typically leave/read reviews 1 month ago:
Now that OP mentioned it, I just realized how few alternatives to Google Maps…
For reading reviews, sadly I think Google is still by far the best review aggregator especially for restaurants, in big cities especially the star ratings are scarily accurate. I guess expert reviews (such as all of Michelin’s ratings) are good too but they are limited
For writing reviews, I sometimes use apps (recently using Too Good To Go) so I’d still leave comprehensive reviews on those. If the place is not on OpenStreetMaps I’d add it. Other times sadly I just don’t, I don’t really have a functional Google account at this point
- Comment on That moment when you graduated from MEME 2 months ago:
What? At least their whole career isn’t defined by a Suite of MEMEs
(William Stafford Noble is a very famous computational biologist)
- Comment on "United States" in French (États-Unis) would have made a very confusing acronym 2 months ago:
I thought it would be so funny if any of the EU employees would go to a bar in Brussels (majority French-speaking) and have an aneurysm explaining what they do to a local in broken French. Not that it would ever happen… but it would be funny
- Submitted 2 months ago to showerthoughts@lemmy.world | 65 comments
- Comment on Does anyone else notice an up tick in hostility on Lemmy lately? 2 months ago:
Yes, but sometimes I wonder if it is just the nature of what happens when a social media network grows large. I did observe how some subreddits instantly get more toxic as they grow bigger too
… On the other hand though, coincidentally I did see some very recent comments that are decidedly more right-wing than the general Lemmy userbase. I personally try not to judge ppl’s political orientation but I do wonder if there’s something weird going on
- Comment on Mary E. Brunkow, one of this year's Nobel Prize winners in Medicine, has only 34 published papers and an H-index of 21. 2 months ago:
Important additional context on this… TLDR is that the post is only a “feel-good” post and misrepresented reality; real life is a lot more nuanced and fucked up
Mary E Brunkow solely worked in industry (a.k.a. the scientific slang for working in something like a pharmaceuticals cpmpany) after her PhD, instead of in academia like most Nobel Prize laureates. Industry researchers rarely publish. And 34 published papers may seem low by Nobel standards but is a lot. I don’t think I personally know any industry researchers that are this prolific; some full professors even don’t have this many papers
The bigger takeaway from this story is not “anyone can make it” if they have a good idea… Brunkow was extremely prolific as a researcher. If anything, her old company (Celltech) went defunct in 2004 and Brunkow was allegedly laid off (and no one at the time realized the importance of her discovery) which is probably a better take home message
Her Wikipedia page as reference: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_E._Brunkow
- Comment on I landed in another toxic workplace after quitting a previous one. What would you do in this scenario? (Open to all suggestions) 2 months ago:
Currently none; the country is known for having a very high union participation rate, but I don’t know what’s the situation is for researchers specifically… As in, I don’t even know if there ks a union for PhD students/postdocs. I’m convinced to do something about this though, we’ll see. Thanks!
- Comment on I landed in another toxic workplace after quitting a previous one. What would you do in this scenario? (Open to all suggestions) 2 months ago:
I… learned something new today about Lemmy I guess
No that’s definitely not me, my workplaces may have asshole bosses but actually all have surprisingly little drama all things considered (and I hope I don’t jinx it)
- Comment on I landed in another toxic workplace after quitting a previous one. What would you do in this scenario? (Open to all suggestions) 2 months ago:
… Thanks, is there an in joke that I didn’t quite get somewhere??
- Comment on I landed in another toxic workplace after quitting a previous one. What would you do in this scenario? (Open to all suggestions) 2 months ago:
I did unironically tell my old mentor that I’d quit academia if my next job doesn’t work out, so there’s that… I have seriously introspected for the last position and didn’t resort to blaming my boss until like 6-8 months in and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t at fault. But rest assured I do introspect a lot. Maybe too much sometimes but that’s a separate discussion…
- Comment on I landed in another toxic workplace after quitting a previous one. What would you do in this scenario? (Open to all suggestions) 2 months ago:
Frankly it helps… your experience tracks with mine as well. I did hear from one colleague that they adopted the Dutch explicit/super-direct communication style and I think it worked for them, so I will give it a shot too. My coworkers are nice so thankfully I believe I will have some ppl to talk to, I’ll make sure to do that
Seems most are on the autism spectrum, and that makes it hard to interact with
Funny you mentioned that… I’m Autistic and somehow the worst boss I’ve had so far was extremely ASD-coded, while the best one I’ve had was not on the spectrum but super understanding. And yes there are lots of assholes in academia
- Comment on I landed in another toxic workplace after quitting a previous one. What would you do in this scenario? (Open to all suggestions) 2 months ago:
Thanks, that helps a lot… I definitely had an issue with just detaching from my work emotionally for the last job, hence why I literally got sick despite the job being really, really favorable on paper. I will try to do this more for the current job for now; the job is also quite favorable on paper after all. I did mention in another comment that it is unlikely I will get fired, so if I really want to stay I will try to adapt these concepts to the best of my abilities. Thanks!
- Comment on I landed in another toxic workplace after quitting a previous one. What would you do in this scenario? (Open to all suggestions) 2 months ago:
Nice! I was on the unionization effort with my last employer too; I’d make a terrible leader but I have the skills for helping out. I am trying to get to know my coworkers better, so that is definitely not off the table
- Comment on I landed in another toxic workplace after quitting a previous one. What would you do in this scenario? (Open to all suggestions) 2 months ago:
It’s the supervisor. I’d say it may be more close to the second one than the first: bossman was trained in German academia and it shows; they are from what I’ve gathered a micromanaging person with really bad management skills that also has pretty blatant favoritism, also heard from coworkers that bossman disallowed vacations previously. Not the worst thing in the world but does appear to be pretty nasty; if I don’t want to get fired there are ways I can adapt. My coworkers are honestly quite nice atm. I suppose I will try to do both then, apply for other things while use my… currently strong arsenal tool of dealing with ppl to get through things for now
I’d also be looking for an EU sugar mama as much as possible on the side
I eh will get on Hinge again and visit Luxembourg in the future 💀
- Comment on I landed in another toxic workplace after quitting a previous one. What would you do in this scenario? (Open to all suggestions) 2 months ago:
Thanks. One of my colleague did suggest that, I suppose I’ll start being selfish & start applying now. The problem itself will only get worse unless my entire institution unionizes or something similar… but it’s unlikely that I will get fired (my skills are very in demand) so there’s that; I am also trying to get independent funding which would mitigate the problem a lot
- Submitted 2 months ago to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world | 30 comments
- Comment on Why do companies always need to grow? 2 months ago:
Disclaimer that I’m not an economist
I believe I have heard a discussion about this before… that the “always grow bigger” model is not only not a necessity under capitalism, it wasn’t even the predominant economic model in the US for a while. Post war, FDR’s New Deal followed the Keynesian model, which from my understanding led to the type of regulated capitalism with a much heavier emphasis on shareholder/employee satisfaction… and also when the extremely high progressive income tax brackets happened. The always need to grow bigger idea may or may not have come from Milton Friedman of the UChicago school: one of the core assumptions of the Neoclassical model is that companies maximize profits.
Also this is definitely not just a US megacorp thing. Other countries have megacorps too. Case in point South Korea…
- Comment on When a person gains weight and keeps the weight on for a long time, is that old fat in your body, or does the fat get replaced over time? 2 months ago:
From what I remember from nutrition science research… our body fat are literally living, breathing cells. As in, fat cells which specialize into fat storage, which can grow/shrink, and are in fact very metabolically active. So not only do they get replaced over time, they are biologically quite relevant and probably more “active” than, say, the nearby muscle cells
- Comment on Is anyone NOT steaming their Music? 2 months ago:
Well of course not. I don’t have physical discs or a steamer so steaming them is a bit difficult
Jokes aside, I have literally never used music streaming… First of all I don’t listen to that much music. Even when I did, I tried Soundcloud for a bit but then quickly switched over to Bandcamp. I’m not that big on having to listen to the latest music and I don’t like mainstream stuff, so YouTube is sufficient for discovery for now
I’m not very big on audio quality so I mostly just do yt-dlp these days on songs that I listen a lot… I could go back to Bandcamp (or pirate and leave personal donations) if I ever become an audiophile, but realistically a lot of musicians I listen to are financially stable if not wealthier than me (most of them probably have stable contracts from large gaming companies) so I don’t see a lot of point…
- Comment on What's the most offensive word I can use that isn't a slur? 2 months ago:
In a professional setting: disappointment is the strongest word I’ve ever said to someone
Outside that? I don’t know if there is a good cutoff between slur/not slur… The one I vividly remember was old Chinese social media users (before the blockage) calling some people “Wumao” (translates to 50 cents). This is implying that the person is being a troll, and they did it because they were so pathetic that they accepted a 50-cent commission from the government to say good/bad things on the internet. Probably still the worst insult I could imagine till this day
- Comment on whatever happened to in-store coffee grinders? 2 months ago:
Sooo I guess since others mentioned this, I would like to clarify a few things…
TJ is indeed marketed as a “boutique” grocery store, and I think I heard somewhere that their founder made the store in a way where their ideal customer would be a rich kid who graduated from Harvard (not kidding). But they have been bought by Aldi a few decades back and follow a similar business model. Because of this, their prices are quite reasonably especially for how “high-class” they feel. Drawback is that TJs tend to have incomplete offerings, but are really well-stocked and reasonably priced on essentials and some trendy stuff (for example, vegan food: I’m not kidding they had more tofu than the nearby mainstream grocery chains)
I thought folks here would hate TJ not because the price, but because of their union busting practices (I won’t judge anyone for shopping there, but it’s just a good thing to know)