This old thing - a Barmah Squashy hate, made from Kangaroo leather. I clearly don’t regularly treat it with leather conditioner like they tell you to.

This hat is my constant companion whenever I go camping. We’re literally tomorrow leaving for a three week trip through the Outback, so it’s about to get a lot of use.

Well, that’s probably because he’s hit the cap on base salary. After a certain point in Amazon, the majority of your income at Amazon is derived from shares.

That said, after the signing shares are yours after the first 4-5 years, you’re down to the yearly grants they hand out, which come the year after they were granted, in quarterly amounts.

Also, if your brother is high up, he probably got more shares this year than usual, as Amazon announced that only certain levels and below were getting salary increases. Higher up only got shares.

God, that’s bleak

How are they retaining staff?

They retain them for the 4-5 years it takes for signing cash and signing stock units to all run out, at which point many people start to get itchy feet.

Yeah - they call it URA, for “unregretted attrition”. Tell me that doesn’t sound like a shitty way to manage your people.

You know, at some point, you gotta assume they’ll eventually hire and fire/lose all the usable talent they have access to, and shit like this will prevent them finding new talent. Until some exec “invents” WFH as a perk…

A lot less VCDs and MP3s downloaded from FTP servers and BBSes.

Not sure if I’d bring it back, but I sure do miss the fun of playing Quake against my mates on public servers.

No judgement here, and my wife has always said she never judges how anyone gives birth.

Question was asked. I answered. That is all.

Watching her give birth to our daughter. No drugs. Just natural child birth (in a hospital).

Years later, discussing childbirth with her (now) 20yo daughter (my step daughter), when asked why she did it that way for all three of her kids, she simply said it was something she wanted go go through, to feel connected to the experience of having her kids.

Awe and pride don’t even begin to explain what I felt (and still feel) for my wife.

Not sure where you’re located,but we have https://www.productreview.com.au here in Australia. I’ve occasionally found it useful.

Absolutely nothing bad could ever come of this

Later in the same comment I mention how I think social media only benefits the corporations that run it.

It’s pretty clear what I meant.

Fucking hell. Where’s the incentive for responsible disclosure, if that’s the sort of (non) response you get?

My own belief is that all social media is a cancer, and to be avoided entirely. I’m able to do that for myself, but I’m also realistic about the chances of keeping my kids away from it. So, I focus my energy on trying to equip them with the mental skills to neutralise the toxic aspects of social media.

For my 9yo, that means teaching her to employ natural skepticism and critical thinking. I’m also trying to drum into her the understanding that social media is inherently untrustworthy and unreliable, and exists solely for the benefit of the corporations that run it.

That said, I’ve blocked Tik Tok on my home network, much to the older kids’ chagrin. They have to use mobile data if they want to access that shit on their phones.

Shit like this is why I intend to keep my (currently) 9yo as far away from social media as I can, for as long as I can. This fucking terrifies me, as it should any parent.

Here in Australia, it’s costing our family of five about $100k a year to live, excluding our mortgage. 4% return ($80K) is conservatively realistic here (for low risk investment), and still isn’t enough.

Like I said, while it would’ve set me up with a house and no debt, I’d still have to work to pay for the cost of living.

In my mind, rich means not having to work again. A couple million doesn’t even get close, sadly.

Well, at least where I live, phones are banned in schools. So that’s a good start.

This is odd advice, when you consider many kids in the same age group probably have access to (or own) a tablet device of some sort. The only difference with a smartphone is the ability to call and text, and portability while staying connected (assuming many tablets aren’t 4G/5G capable).

Or am I missing something here?

Nearly 30 years ago, I worked for a tiny li’l anti-virus software company that got acquired by one of the big boys, and everyone’s performance-based options they were holding were suddenly worth a lot. Being hungry for career growth at the time, I’d left the company and forfeited those options. Less than 6 months later, they announced the sale of the company.

My options woulda been worth a few million at the time, maybe double that in today’s money. Importantly, it would’ve set me up with a nice house, car, etc, without any debt, in my early 20s.

Not rich, but certainly comfortable.