That’s wonderful you are a data engineer, but in a normal business setting most people are not. I’m the only one at my company who knows SQL exists. But everyone knows what Excel is, everyone knows at least the basics of using it. Even if I got my coworkers familiar with and writing SQL (which is a laughable thought) there are still clients.

Data is everywhere, and Excel has been the default program for light data analysis for decades. I hate it as much as the next person, but right now it’s inescapable and irreplaceable.

Excel/Access is literally the only reason I ever boot to Windows anymore.

Power Query

Generations of conservative politicians have sold Americans the idea that government can and should be run like a business. That if it were run like a business it would be sunshine and rainbows with low taxes, and high quality services. Many people do genuinely believe this.

I do! My religious mother said it was certain because her church Facebook group said there was an upcoming blood moon and quoted some ambiguous bible verses. She wanted me to go buy a dozen cheap tents at K-mart’s store closing sale. I refused and she bore witness to me that it was the end of days.

I reminded her about the “prophesies” she spouted to me on inauguration day and she rolled her eyes and asked why I was holding onto the past.

That is the end game of AI. They are free now as they are in disruption and growth phase with lots of competition. But in a few years most will have gone bust or been acquired until only 2-3 remain. Society will become dependent on them, and then they will roll out expensive subscriptions.

Speed running us towards the Dune timeline, nice

“Affirmative action” is literally just recording metrics. It’s wild to me how many Americans think it’s a quota or DEI hiring program or something.

Basically if a company receives over x dollars per year in federal contract money (there are different thresholds for veterans, disability, and race) they have to keep some voluntary data (applicants, interviewees, offers given, accepted, promotions) on file for 5 years. If your business doesn’t take enough federal money you do nothing. This data is not reported to any government agency or anything, it sits in a dusty binder in HR. If nobody ever files a discrimination lawsuit, it just gets shredded.

If somebody does sue claiming discrimination the dusty binder is retrieved so the judge can look at it. The plaintiff still has to prove their discrimination case in court, and the AA data could just as easily exonerate the company in court too. This benefits veterans, people with disabilities, as well as racial minorites.

This is honestly a pretty weak program, people being discriminated against usually can’t afford to sue a company, which is why some states took it a bit further. The extreme hate right wingers have for these few data points is also interesting to me. They have done a good job marketing their talking points to the left too.

Source: former corporate AA/EEOC compliance specialist, apparently you all hate that this job exists.

Think of other topics and questions than work, Americans care too much about work outside of work.

Switch your phone apps to celsius and start your brain switching ASAP.

Knowing what country or region you’re going to would help

When I last visited Argentina Uber was using the official exchange rates which were just fantasy numbers. As soon as you match with a driver they’d message you and you’d negotiate the cash price. Then the ride in the app would be cancelled.

Uber didn’t mind because they were still getting the ~$1 or so cancel fee for basically being a messaging app.

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