I think this is also due to cars becoming more aerodynamic for fuel efficiency. My newer cars will get bugs on the flatter areas of the front, but rarely the windshield anymore, unless it's a particularly large one that the slipstream can't get out of the way fast enough.

So if no one hires entry-level coders, then in 10 years, there won't be any experienced programmers, either.

We'll either be totally dependent on AI, or software quality will go (more) into the toilet. Probably both.

"Normal" is just the average of everyone's individual crazy...

I'm mildly autistic, with an official diagnosis. This is considered a disability under the ADA, and thus employers must provide reasonable accommodation.

My employer recently started requiring everyone within 50 miles of an office to come in 2x/week, but the offices are all high-density shared workspaces - a nightmare for anyone on the spectrum. I talked to my manager, he talked to HR, and surprise, surprise, the most logical accommodation was to continue to work from home full time.

If there's one thing HR is terrified of, it's exposing themselves to lawsuits stemming from discrimination or disabilities, so use that to your advantage!

The thing is, in a global economy, you can't just look at two parties and call it a trade imbalance. It's like Trump has forgotten why currency was invented.
I want to buy WidgetA from Mr. A, but I don't have the WidgetB he's looking for, which only Mr. B has. Mr. B doesn't want WidgetA - he wants WidgetC. And so on around the world until you get to Mr. Zed, who wants my widget, but doesn't have the WidgetA that I want.

So either every transaction requires orchestrating a complex, multi-party barter, or I just give Mr A 10 clams for his widget, he uses them to get Mr B's widget, and so on until I get the 10 clams backs from Mr. Zed. No trade imbalance at all, unless you're so shortsighted as to only look at Mr. A and Zed.

Or the cards for people with low credit will just charge annual fees instead. Which is actually worse - at least you can normally avoid the interest by keeping it paid off, but you can't avoid the fees.

The only thing that we know for sure is that the companies won't accept at hit to their profits.

The problem with this is that it doesn't pass the "what if everyone did it" test (or what happens when everyone has an electric car). No restaurant is going to install enough charging stations that a significant percentage (assuming it's along a heavily-traveled-by-long-distance-trippers route) of its patrons can charge at the same time. So what are you going to do? Jump up and dash outside to try to get a charger every time you see someone leave? Leave the car at a charger somewhere else and taxi/uber to your restaurant? Go through a drive-through and eat in your car while camping the chargers until someone leaves?

Well, it's China, so it's possible that they could be infested by the digital equivalent of rats. Cheap hosting for state sponsored hackers and malware.

is so that you can't use your purchase until you've agreed to some kind of one-sided contract that says you can't sue them, etc.

Appliance companies have tried putting that sort of thing on the boxes, stickers, etc. before, but since they tend to be professionally installed, it's too easy for the end users to claim they never saw/agreed to anything. So enter mandatory phone app/cloud connectivity.

Seems like this would be a case of "it's great for one person, but won't work if everyone does it."

Did some searching, and found that utilities start thinking about dedicated substations for customers drawing more than 10-12MW. So basically, anywhere that wants to charge more than a few cars at a time will need insanely expensive electric service. At the 4.5MW standard, that's only 2-3 cars.

When I had to go to the office, I'd have to wake up around 0630 to get there around 0830.

Now, WFH, I get an extra hour of sleep AND log in 45 min earlier. Waking up at a more natural time (for me) could probably explain 2% extra productivity by itself.

Starting earlier naturally leads to quitting earlier. I'm guessing there's more than enough people like me these days to move the average.

We've gotten to the point that we're having two data centers talk to each other via a less-than-modem-speed link? :P

Use the tones to exchange API endpoints and session IDs, then hang up the phone.

They'd probably have more luck getting together with employees from companies all over the municipalities where they're located, and pushing for ordinances that basically stipulate that in order to alleviate traffic/pollution/whatever, companies located there must allow employees to work from home if their job duties make it possible.

The annoying thing is, if it weren't for the "this is why we can't have nice things" crowd abusing the system, the government could buy back people's penny jars for 2c each to put them back into circulation, and still save money.

You'd think it would average out for the consumer, but they're also required to include VAT (sales tax) in the marked prices, and they'll usually then round each item to 5c. You can bet they're always rounding in their favor. When you get to the register, everything already adds up to a multiple of 5c, so no further rounding is needed.

So now instead of averaging out, you're actually paying an average of 2-3c more per item.