Honestly, if you have no other skils, manger is a great title to have. About 20 years ago, I worked at a DME company and was considered by most to be one of the most knowlegable and resourceful people there. I loved my job.

Then layoffs came. They didn't effect me but I realized that all of my great knowledge was limited to that one company's systems and processes. I sacrified my social and family life and took an overnight shift to become a "Team Leader." The bar to get into that was low due to the horrid hours. After a year or so, I moved to lower middle management.

The title manager has guarenteed me a certain salary for the rest of my career. Even when I lost my job during covid, I was able to get a manager postion at a company mostly unrealted to my prior experience.

That said, I do well at most places because I use my title to get through the door then learn everything I can and become as skilled as possible. One of the hardest lessons I learned was waiting to suggest changes as well as how to make those suggestions in a way that didn't threaten or offend everyone set in their ways. (This lesson took a few jobs to learn - suprising no one like the guy who comes in and after a few months is looking for more work or figured out how to do something in 10 minutes that took 3 hours for years.)

Sounds good, how about a landscape slider phone? My F(x)tec Pro1 is getting a bit long in the tooth...

No it's not. You're not wrong about Instagram and other platforms but even the Gen Z'ers who think those platforms == the Internet still use Google. With the possible exception of Reddit (always a toxic place and now that it's public it seems highly probable they'll add 'enshittification' to the toxicity) what platform can you use to find recipes, instructions to repair a broken appliance, swap a part on your car, reviews on some product you're looking for, experiences people have had with credit cards, airlines, etc.?

Google is still highly relevant, for better or worse, and the erosion of their core product is so commonly known that it has been covered by the MSM. Google Search is objectively less useful than it ever has been. Google (err, Alphabet) as a company lost its way a long time ago, probably around the time "Don't be evil" was removed, and it has been run by the same MBA asshats that ruined everything for at least the last decade if not longer.

Yep. Mr. Raghavan isn't the illness, he's just a symptom of ordinary market forces that innovative tech startups can only resist for so long.

...not even China. Despite TikTok turning over "content moderation" (i.e. censorship) to the Feds in the US it's still not good enough for them. Either because they haven't completely merged with the deep state the way Google and Facebook have, because too many videos of Israeli atrocities are posted too quickly to nerf with the algorithmic hammer, or both.

This is a joke of a farce.

on the other hand, companies may be less willing to hire someone with no experience and train them knowing that investment can be lost at a whim to a larger company with greater financail resources.

I do see how this will benifit people with your experience, though.

Woksters? I see the proposal to take smartphones - and screens in general - from teenagers and adolescents as being a very progressive thing to do. I can see how some people might be opposed to it becoming any sort of law, but I see the suggestion as being solidly rooted in evidence. I'm reading "The Anxious Generation" right now myself, and the studies that the book is based on have exceptionally clear results.

Yeah, I tried their "combine your order, deliver on Amazon day, less deliveries!" option a few times when the date would be convenient. And had one too many times where they still sent separate boxes early. And, like you, had a box sitting out all day.

Change Healthcare is part of United HealthGroup. They are changing absolutely nothing, aside from of course increasing revenue for health care executives. The entire industry is morally bankrupt and deserves this and much worse. Unfortunately we the consumers are the ones who will ultimately pay the cost of this.

On my Firefox Nightly I have an extension to set Yandex as an allowed default search engine. Makes it easier to pop up another browser for a session.

Somebody fix that extension to work on mobile, eh?

They don't - something like this needs an Act or Congress.

SCOTUS made up some BS "Chevron Deference" in the 80's which has been abused like this since.

The current /Maine Fisheries/ case should dissolve Chevron deference.

We may like the FTC proposal on this one but with that kind of power and no representation it's only counting the days until they do something we absolutely detest. And then there's no effective recourse.

Weren't the founders and top management of Google citizens of Israel?

It dozen't seem all surprising from that perspective.

These protesters should have gone back to writing code to surveil Americans, I guess?

Sometimes a Good paperback at ThriftBooks is $1 less than a new one at Amazon so I just get the new one.

Weird market!

PS unless the recent printings have been Trust & Safety'ed.

Found the modded minecraft player.

There is ample evidence that we screwed up an entire generation of kids with constant exposure to screens and social media. The addictions we're seeing right now are just the tip of the iceberg, compared to what we're going to see as Gen Z grows up. Kids are growing up and missing out on very important developmental milestones because of what we're willingly exposing them to.

We can't sound these alarm bells loud enough. We have plenty of evidence of what kids who miss out on actual socialization end up as when they become legal adults, and it's not great.