Everything you say is correct. There is one other significant cost that isn't mentioned here: liability insurance and legal counsel. If a little kid (sorry) loses an arm, or worse (don't ask me how I know) because of a ride, there is some serious $$$ involved. I may or may not know one of the most high-powered attorneys who ever represented (past tense) amusement park companies.
And no, this isn't going anywhere. I'm not going to contact anybody for an interview or write a blog. This is everyday life in the real world. So much stuff going on that no one ever thinks about...
Would just like to jump in and remind folks of the Therac-25 incident just a couple years before this (1985 and 1987), and the user interface was also identified as a contributing factor.
This is (unfortunately) very, very true. I don't have firsthand experience, thankfully, but 2x secondhand experience, and I cannot think about those two cases without getting tears in my eyes. It's not common, but uncommon things happen all the time in large populations.
I left a very good job 7 years in (digital design) to go out on my own. That was more than 2 decades ago. I could write paragraphs of the rookie mistakes (business-wise) and the financial ups & downs, but one thing has never changed...
The "temporal freedom" I have in my work (Gad Saad, if you don't know the name). I love being the master of my own day, of my own time. I don't sit in Zoom meetings or have daily standups. I can get up at 5am and work until 11am, and then go hike, play with my dog, get ice cream with my daughters, workout, etc. and then work again from 7pm until midnight or whatever.
Having (almost literally) full control over my daily schedule, week-in, week-out, year after year, is invaluable to me.
One disclosure: a few times a year I do very hard things where I have very little freedom, but they allow me to have lots of freedom the rest of the year.
Not to be a jerk, but I won't be elaborating. And I realize this life isn't for everyone!
Yes exactly. There is much more than just "benefits". Cost of office space, computer equipment, office supplies, electricity, janitorial costs, heating, security, servers, IT overhead, etc. When you take ALL these costs and spread them over the company, the loaded cost of an employee is not "mostly" salary.
Amen. I had a 10-email back-and-forth exchange with Ilfak maybe 10 years ago - multiple times I said "I'm literally begging you to take my money, you don't seem to want it." I am self-employed, we were on the phone with each other in real time, and when I placed with order (with my home address) he said, "Oh, nice home, according to the pictures on Zillow and Google Maps". He sounded like he was trying to startle me, ha ha nice try Ilfak.
Yes it sure is. Interesting, in California in 2020, there was an attempt (Proposition 16) to overturn Proposition 209. It went down in flames, almost 60% against / 40% for.
Prop 209, passed in 1996, "amended the state constitution to prohibit government institutions from considering race, sex, or ethnicity, specifically in the areas of public employment, public contracting, and public education."
If Prop 16 had passed, it would have allowed government agencies to deliberately and explicitly discriminate against people based on immutable characteristics.
The wording from Prop 16's advocates seems to embrace Kendi's punitive stance on using active discrimination to reach some kind of equity goal:
"Despite living in the most diverse state in the nation, white men are still overrepresented in positions of wealth and power in California. Although women, and especially women of color, are on the front lines of the COVID-19 response, they are not rewarded for their sacrifices. Women should have the same chance of success as men.
Today, nearly all public contracts, and the jobs that go with them, go to large companies run by older white men. White women make 80¢ on the dollar. The wage disparity is even worse for women of color and single moms. As a result, an elite few are able to hoard wealth instead of investing it back into communities. Prop. 16 opens up contracting opportunities for women and people of color. "
In 2020 I tried to find data and studies backing the laundry list of assertions but came up empty-handed. The wording seemed very slanted... "older white men"... "single moms"... Certainly there are disparities in society, but we must always consider, objectively, what are the root causes.
Where does it end? Does anybody want an NBA where the makeup of the teams is based on the racial percentages in society, or do people want the best players playing? Do you want the best surgeon or pilot? Absolutely I bet 99% of people on HN want everyone to have equal opportunity; in my experience, in the vast majority of American tech companies (I don't work in healthcare of finanace, etc. so I can't speak to them), if you had 2 equally qualified candidates, and one was a white man and one was a woman or a racial minority or perhaps even not-straight, the white man will usually be the one not getting the job.
You are definitely right about this (many of my green-card friends have multiple weapons), and of course you're right about state law.
I think what parent post was saying is that in Czech Republic (national not state level), foreigners can not only obtain firearms, but also carry (presumably concealed), which as I'm guessing you also know varies widely from state to state, and here in California from county to county.
Of course I'm mind-reading here, I could be totally wrong.
When my brother-in-law and his son come visit from Switzerland they love to go shooting. In fact they get bored with my stuff and rent things with more punch (e.g. .338 Lapua). We visited a friend of mine in TX, and the things you can rent there (e.g. .50 BMG), we've only heard myths of those in CA, no one's actually ever seen one.
And no, this isn't going anywhere. I'm not going to contact anybody for an interview or write a blog. This is everyday life in the real world. So much stuff going on that no one ever thinks about...