I never got this argument and I now where this point devolves into - I see this take a lot from Chinese on Weibo, locally here in Asia, and by Chinese people in the States. I’m Taiwanese-American for background.
If China were to interfere domestically into U.S affairs covertly and somehow convince Texas into secession - I would find it difficult to believe the United States would go to war with Texas. If it was democratically voted, most Americans would be fine with it. It would be extremely unpopular to go to war over this. Just reverse it, if California were to leave the Union, most conservative states would say good riddance. Now bomb SF? Not even the most deranged Americans would want that.
My parents are from Taiwan with my moms side hardline KMT govt officials, and Dad is Green Party/DPP - grew up listening about Taiwanese politics my entire life around friends and family.
I’ve never heard of this stance. I’ve only heard of your stance on Reddit and Twitter within the past two years.
> The CCP authorities believe "One China" to be the "People's Republic of China"..., we believe "One China" should refer to the Republic of China, founded in 1912 and persisting to this day.
and its affirmation in 2012 by the then KMT administration:
> 兩岸確已達成「一中各表」的共識，這是客觀的事實，我們主張的「一中」當然是中華民國。
> The two coasts have already reached a mutual understanding on "One China, Said Differently," of course the "One China" we support is the Republic of China.
It's very much the idea that the ROC should control everything.
Now as other comments point out, public perception among KMT detractors is that this is a sham, and even among KMT supporters there's not a clear message on how this situation would ever come about (and the main criticism in Taiwan against the KMT is that the only way that the KMT could ever hope to make this happen and indeed is/was doing in effect is by essentially capitulating to the PRC), but this is what the KMT puts out on official channels on what "reunification" means for the ROC.
My wife is from Taiwan, so I’m kinda clued into this even if once removed. Doesn’t trump your inside source though. My understanding is that in the last few decades the KMT had been following (in practice at least) a more business-friendly economic and regulatory unification with the mainland. The deals negotiated by the KMT with the PRC that led to the sunflower movement and the rise of the DPP were very much pro-status quo, pro-stability rejection of the historical KMT policy.
The KMT has never officially given up the reconquest position, but it has been decades since that that was anymore than lip service to the one China idea. In practice KMT policies have been pro-unification in the EU or HK sense.
In residential solar, panels are largely subsidized by federal ITC or financed by banks claiming the tax equity which covers the maintenance, upfront costs, etc; hence the zero upfront residential solar model. Will this be similar?
I’ve seen a bunch of people talking about how you need to install solar this year because the subsidies are going away. The whole goal of the subsidy is to get enough of an installed base to get costs down so you don’t need the subsidy. Even if the midterms give us a better Congress, you can’t count on these forever.
Wait a few years and panel prices will drop by more than the subsidies you are receiving now on the existing ones. Even without subsidies, it might be worth it for some people to do right now. It depends on your situation.
The trick is having a well integrated system that doesn't waste power but instead works with batteries, grid, and EVs to make sure you waste as little as possible of the free energy your panels generate when they are producing rather than just serving excess power to your neighbors via the grid at some token value that your power supplier sets. There are some nice solutions emerging in this space.
There’s a company making water heaters that store about 4x the heat per liter of water, and heat the water on demand. I can’t recall if the storage material is solid or liquid so I hesitate to call it a “tankless” system if it has a tank of hot sludge.
Those units are supposed to be quite good as a dump for excess solar power.
Ah. I can’t believe this still happens in this day of age. About a decade ago, I was working for a startup and we were getting dominated in our growing space by a much larger, well funded rival. Our competitive intelligence team browsed through their git, and the rival actually exposed access to their customer, pricing and sales agent database by leaving their credentials in one of their branches. The team went to our legal department asking if they can be protected by the company, and if they can use this intel. The team then worked with the product team to integrate all their pricing engines to our POS to undercut their pricing and sent marketing blasts to their leads with targeted marketing campaigns. Long story short that company is now defunct, and it definitely undermined their growth.
If you're in the US, that's 100% a crime. If they were responding to an unauthenticated API or web request that's one thing, but using a leaked password on a database is not legal at all.
My parents post-retirement after not working for 10+ years both found roles at an Amazon Fulfillment Center - one at the ship dock and the other in returns. They are both in their 70s and built a nice nest for themselves, neither need it for the money. In fact, my dad was a machine learning professor, multiple publications, and they ran a small medium sized business for 20+ years (at their peak they were running 80M USD annual revenue). They both do it for the mental health and for the physical exercise. They meet a lot of people just like them, some of the workers are living in 3M+ USD homes - although most are not, it’s mostly kids that went to state schools and climb the FC ladder.
But then why enable such a shitty company actively working at eroding human dignity at work and make a billionaire asshole even richer instead if doing actual good like working at, say, a food bank or ant other charity?
I can’t speak for their intent. It has less to do with the altruism or the “mission” and more on their personal well being. My dad survived multiple cancers and after he got his strength back, he wanted to build back up his strength. It’s the structure of the system that helps him. He was telling me about their productivity KPIs, and he sees them as fitness goals - as he builds pallets per hour, etc.
My mom spent the better part of her life as the “COO” of their business, so after being retired for so long, she seeks the mental stimulation of work. They’ve never worked in a corporate office, so seeing the structure and thinking behind Amazon amazes her. They’ve always had their own warehouses, distribution centers, trucking, etc. but they built that from the ground up and never scaled because they were “learning on the job”. Never seen what good looks like.
They both keep to themselves. No one in their section know about their backgrounds.
My parents had to close their jewelry store that they ran for 35 years during the pandemic. My mom has been working the night shift at an Amazon fulfillment center and she loves it.
This book should be geared for one of those introduction courses, like “Introduction to Engineering”, “AI 101”, etc. I do agree with the vision of the authors that the book is a holistic view of data science, as I personally believe data science is not all about maths, programming; but consider the principles that surround it as a science.
This is also quite practical for large consultancy firms. Most of the chapters, I’ve had clients discuss with me (such as Responsible AI). Personally, I think it could have went away from the applications as it was too high level.
I think about this quite a bit as my parents likely fit this category in the early 90s in Silicon Valley. At peak, they were bootstrapped a company from nothing to eventually at peak with ~40 employees at 100M USD annual revenue, no idea on income as it was a fairly large operation (distribution, warehousing, engineering team, sales team, operations, etc) They exited out of business within 6 years and retired in their 40s.
My family grew up relatively poor and extremely frugal. My dad was formerly a professor in machine learning, but decided to enter the private sector. He didn’t speak much English if at all, and entered the field when it was still immature.
After he was laid off, and with little options left, they decided to use their remaining savings and likely a loan from family & friends to bootstrap a company. My parents never wanted a business, but they had to out of survival.
They never discussed the business with us, so I don’t fully understand the operating model behind their company, but it involved with semiconductors/hardware, etc.
What I think about is was this simply a business or during that time a “startup”. It was in a hyper growth period on relatively emerging technology, they were learning as they went, and exited quickly.
Recently, though my dad unretired in his 70s working at a FANG… Amazon warehouse worker. He says he does it for the exercise and $20/hour.
I’ve been taking Zolpidem for about 13 years now and suffer from addiction. I’ve sought treatment for this but it doesn’t work as now I cannot sleep without taking something. If you haven’t taken Z-type sleeping aids, I would definitely suggest not to start, as from experience the consequences outweigh the benefits. I’ve lost a considerable amount of friends/reputation/etc. from the abuse. Every experience that you hear about from sleeping aids, I’ve been through it (from the loopy fun to binge eating to weird sex to psychosis to crashing my car)
Take this with all the weight a message board advice from a non-doctor is worth but have you tried Trazodone instead? It’s used widely for sleep issues and it’s effective for many. And have you looked at something like Ketamine for a possible long-lasting solution?
I had a good experience with Trazadone. Very easy to get to sleep, eliminated anxiety about going to sleep, and got restful sleep, with only a little grogginess in the morning. No withdrawal when I stopped cold turkey after 2 years. Nowadays I just have valerian tea or magnesium before bed.
I got a subscription for 1 package when I had major sleep issues as a young adult and i immediately wanted more. Best 2 weeks of sleep i ever had. Luckily the doctor did not allow another subscription
I really like zolpidem and other substances.
I almost never took them for more than 3 consecutive days.
I still have a lot of zolpidem laying around and don't take it, because I know the brain gets uses to them and the magic is gone. Amazing how people react differently to addicting substances.
Back when I used zolpidem, I found that it is best to use it as a reset button, not as a daily crutch.
I do take 300mcg melatonin but I found it has no diminishing returns and in fact it has a negative feedback -- after 3 days of melatonin, I don't need it for at least another week.
I keep the zolpidem for "recreational" usage, but I don't want to use it with my wife and daughter in the house in the remote possibility I get sleepwalking(never actually happened, I just get amazing auditory hallucinations before I fall asleep).
That bums me out. I’ve tried two different z-types for very occasional days where I need to get up early - maybe 4 days a year. Anyways, I feel like I’ve had 2 hours of sleep on them even when I get a full 8 or 9 hours. They must really disrupt my sleep patterns.
(Genuinely curious and not trying to downplay the seriousness at all)
What would happen if you took a month off work and all your obligations and stayed home and didn't take anything for a whole month? My understanding is the human body can't go more than about 10 days without sleep [1].
So I assume at that point you would fall asleep, and then over the coming ~20 days hopefully you could normalize it and get back to some kind of unassisted "regular" sleeping.... ?
I've actually decided to take some time off work because of my addiction issues. It's more so the cycle. I'll stop taking Zolpidem/Zopiclone for several weeks/month (the first several days -- terrible shakes, chills, nightmares, several days without sleeping etc. Zopiclone/Benzo withdrawal is far worse) After a while, I'll eventually adjust but I have insomnia/poor sleep so I'll eventually cave in due to sleep deprivation then I'll pick back up.
For the past year, I would roughly take 90mg of either Zolpidem/Zopiclone in a single night. On average, I roughly go through 100 pills a week (I have pharmacies that sell to me...I know sketch).
It wasn't always like this, when I first started taking medication after going to Stanford Sleep Clinic, I would just take a pill or two a night and have fantastic sleep. It was like this for several years but eventually my tolerance increased and my work stress/insomnia got worse with age.
I want to reiterate that I've destroyed/damaged every meaningful relationship in my life. I state this all out because I've realized that people have a strange fascination with Ambien.
I can understand the strange fascination with Ambien. My wife was prescribed it one time. She would take it and then soon after want to have sex. Mind blowing sex (for me) every time. She was insatiable and wanted to do things way outside her norm. But the next day she had absolutely no memory of any of it. That weirded me out and I encouraged her to stop taking them. Though to be honest I wouldn't mind one or two of the ambien fueled sex sessions a year. Absolutely mind blowing, but also exhausting.
I've been witness two sleepwalking events with different peopl. Both were fully conversant and aware of their surroundings, they just did odd things and we assumed they were drunk. Later we found out about the ambien and how neither had any recollection of the event.
If I were you (and I was) I'd seriously consider going to rehab. They'll have experience easing your withdrawal symptoms and getting you on a road to breaking the cycle.
According to Wikipedia, withdrawal symptoms can be severe including seizures, vomiting, etc. To do nothing of the discomfort from a lack of sleep. It would take incredible will power to overcome something like that.
It also sounds like there are some treatments that can help fight an auction, including other medications that bind to some of the same receptors. Or very slowly weaning someone off (but then you have to figure out something else for the insomnia.)
10 days without sleep is a great recipe for an epileptic seizure. Don't experiment with this kind of stuff without consulting a neurologist / sleep expert.
I periodically used to periodically take a day off work and sleep pretty much the entire day to refresh myself during periods when I was having trouble sleeping at night. I found getting yourself back to sleep when you never get to 100% awake is a lot easier than getting to your initial sleep, of course this was with rather mild sleep issues related to stress and anxiety.
This isn’t really an option anymore as a father of young kids
I've had some weird side effects from Zopiclone. They're effective, even when benzodiazepines haven't been, but the side-effects are concerning. On multiple occasions, I've woken up and the room appears to bathed in a yellow light (even though no lights were on and it was still dark outside), and on a few occasions I've been looking at the time on my phone, blinked, and it's suddenly four hours later. I've no idea whether I just fell back asleep and checked the time again, four hours passed and I did _something_, or it just made me misremember the first time. They're not drugs I would use lightly.
Benzodiazepines on the other hand I've had no issues with (no desire/need to increase the dose, no withdrawal even when I've been taking them for prolonged periods, no side effects), but I don't find them as effective. I have seen the destructive effects they can have though - a family member had to taper off them over six months, and at the end she was cutting the smallest dose tablets into quarters as she still couldn't quite get off them.
I had a week course of Zolpidem and it only worked first two nights. The rest was what some describe as the visit of a walrus. I thought I was sleeping but I was doing things.
Try getting prescribed seroquel instead. A lot more powerful, and will help you sleep. Less (known?) downsides as well. I guarantee you that you will be able to sleep with it.
I am happy that this works for you, but you can't really compare a Z-Drug with an atypical antipsychotic. That's some dangerous medical advice.
Also (from wikipedia) on Seroquel / Quetiapine:
"Despite being widely used as a sleep aid due its sedating effect, the benefits of such use do not appear to generally outweigh the side effects."
He's saying prescribed seroquel. That means he would have to consult with his physician beforehand.
This guy drove away his friends, crashed his car and had psychotic episodes. During a 13 year addiction to the zolpidem. That's way past the "there may be some side effects" phase.
This is a gross misunderstanding of what Seroquel is used for. It's one of those medications that several different side effects depending on the dosage.
Yes, it can be used as an anti-psychotic. However, in most of the cases I've heard, it's used as a sleep aid.
This was the case for me, too. I was on it for 10 years and ultimately went off because I grew out of my chronic insomnia. Aside from a muted personality and nightmares (the latter controlled by another medication), it was pretty fool proof and had very little consequence in my particular case.
As always, it depends on the person, but the blanket statement you quoted doesn't seem fair.
Seroquel is quetiapine. People are calling it an anti=psychotic because it is an anti-psychotic. That's its main use, and that's what it's licensed for.
> Quetiapine is a medication that works in the brain to treat schizophrenia. It is also known as a second generation antipsychotic (SGA) or atypical antipsychotic.
If doctors are prescribing seroquel for sleep problems i) that's pretty scary and ii) it's an off label use.
Quetiapine is labaled an anti-psychotic yes, but its pharmacological characteristics are not that straight forward. It has a much higher affinity for H1 (histamine) receptors than for D2 (dopamine) receptors. Meaning that in low doses it acts like an anti-histaminergic drug, having a very limited effect on dopaminergic systems. Around 60% of D2-receptors need to be blocked for a typical anti-psychotic effect, and that is nowhere near what is happening with say 50mg of quetiapine, which is a normal dose for sleeping aid. In those low doses it mainly acts on H1, alpha-1, M3, M1, and some 5HT type receptors. At a minimum of 300mg per day, it pharmacologically starts to act as an anti psychotic.
There is a nice brief summary of this in Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology.
To be clear, I am very much against prescribing anti-psychotics as sleeping aids. But I don't think there is a strong case for calling quetiapine anti-psychotic in low doses.
> Yes, it can be used as an anti-psychotic. However, in most of the cases I've heard, it's used as a sleep aid.
I've never taken anti-psychotics. I've asked my doctor for anti-depressants a few times (usually during relationship issues) and they are not my thing.
You're not a medical doctor, right? Obviously, or you wouldn't be giving out such frivolous advice. Dude... it's an anti-psychotic drug.
If you're referring to anti-pyschotic drugs, then no, I don't - at all. I meant no offense, I was just suggesting caution that's all.
Edit: I just wanted to acknowledge that there are probably a lot of beautiful people who find this drug helpful. I didn't mean to get down on you, I struggle too. I'm sorry if I jumped the gun with my statement.
Looks like that poster is in a completely different category from the general population. It says so in your quote as well: "does not appear to _generally_ outweigh the side effects".
That's a rather common mistake and I'd guess many doctors do it as well. Treatment risk depends only on alternatives. A pill that gives your a 0.01% chance of sudden death is an absolute no-go for genpop, but may be heaven-sent for a particular patient.
I've taken it for over 10 years and am better than ever. Hasn't suffered any harmful side-effects either. Of course, side-effects differ from person to person. But it's worth a try. Z-drugs and benzos are way worse.
Moreover, if you're severely addicted to Z-drugs like OP, the benefits probably do outweigh the side-effects. Not every person is the same, and the cost benefit analysis differs accordingly.
Could you expound? It's always been in the back of my mind and I take a fairly low does, but would love to hear more about how it started, symptoms, and how it's affected your life.
I'm really sorry, that sucks. There is some new medication that is supposed to treat it (I think I saw an ad on TV for it).
I took olanzapine 5mg for a while, but my doctor kept increasing the dose as I was "non-compliant" up to 10mg, then more to 20mg as I kept getting hospitalized for compulsive suicide attempts because the medication completely axed my judgement.
I gained about 40 pounds on it, developed dyskinesia after about 6-8 months and ended up cold turkeying off of it, but 5 years later, the movement problems still stay... Unfortunately it also destroyed my executive function too; I can barely even string together coherent thoughts and perform programming work without being overly medicated on ADHD drugs.
I know there's valbenazine and other Parkinson's drugs (selegiline works decently enough on a daily dose, but MAOIs can become dangerous in certain circumstances), but they don't solve the root problem.
Now I can barely even control my hands, legs or face and it's mildly disfiguring, but it's not like I care anymore...
Same. I’ve been on Zolipdem for about 5 years now ya amazing not to take 2 or 3 hours to fall asleep.
I’ve never had any meaningful side effects. No sleep walking, binge eating, or anything.
I am certainly, in the clinical sense, addicted - eg if I miss a dose I certainly notice, and there is some degree of tolerance, but I’m still better off than before I went on it.
> I am certainly, in the clinical sense, addicted - eg if I miss a dose I certainly notice, and there is some degree of tolerance
I believe the correct term is "dependent".
There is a lot of misinformation and stigma out there, so I think it's really important to distinguish between addiction (e.g. insatiable cravings), medical dependence (e.g. someone taking anti-psychotics because they will otherwise have psychotic episodes, or someone taking antidepressants because they otherwise have manic depressive episodes), and physiological dependence, where your body's receptors have up/down-regulated to adjust to a "new normal", and withdrawal symptoms may occur if treatment is stopped.
I've been here too! Took zopiclone for a bout of insomnia but after two weeks I was dependent, either I wasn't sleeping without it or the quality of sleep was terrible if I tried going natural. Got prescribed Quetiapine at 25mg, which at that dose is not for psychosis but sleep (or an adjunct for people with bipolar, which is not my case either)
Only needed 3-4 days of it and I could reset myself, back to normal sleep. Was already scared that I'd become dependent on this, but atypical neuroleptics in low doses are less associated with tardive dyskinesia. Do seriously consider it.
Otherwise you could try an antidepressant with sedative qualities, like trazodone or mirtazapine, both very effective too. Best of luck to all, insomnia sucks.
Seroquel makes you wake up. at night and wanna eat chocolate. Too much of it makes you feel like a zombie the next day. SCAREQUEL should be the name. Ive sleep walked on that stuff
As an Asian-American, I'm struggling through the same dilemma as well. I've been given a huge opportunity to move to Asia and to initiate a program at a Fortune 100 company, but recently my parents have gotten very ill. My dad was recently diagnosed with cancer, and has had multiple surgeries. My mom has a myriad of health issues, and I feel painfully selfish by not helping them. They would never burden me, and pushing me to go pursue my career dreams.
I think this is an experience that most people will face in their lifetime. I don't necessarily know if this is an Asian experience, and the discussion of family burdens because in our culture the parents would never say a thing about their illness. But, I don't think what they realize is that it puts even more pressure on the children on accepting the right path.
I'm asian. I'm not american. I think weighing career dreams (a stereotypical american thing) versus taking care my parents (a stereotypical asian thing) is not even a close decision. When I look back at my life, I'm not going to regret spending extra time in the office.
I'm in no way saying my opinion is correct, because everyone has different values. I'm just sharing my surprise of the dilemma in your post and the original article from my point of view.
In fact, my wife and I are a 1000 km apart because she has to take care of her parents and my parents and job are here. we've lived like this for 6 years.
For me, it's about chasing after an opportunity that will potentially change my career and life. I grew up with nothing, so I chase after everything. My parents were illegals and watching the struggle was very impactful. Even if I decided to go back and take care of them, I would get an earful.
I think GP meant “I have made the correct decisions in life by prioritizing family over work so that I will not later regret spending extra time in the office”.
We are working on our own businesses. She will be at a point where she can hire staff soon to provide her more flexibility to travel here more. I'm running a side project which may change my career, allowing me to move. Other plans/alternatives too... situation is temporary even though it's measured in years.
How big is the opportunity? If it raises your income significantly will you be able to hire help to take care of some of the needs of your parents? Make your parents proud of your achievement can be an important factor to consider, esp. in the context of Asian culture.
In terms of medicine I think it is important to educate yourself about the particular problems your parents are facing. Medical books and journals are not that inaccessible to a well-educated person and not that time consuming to get a decent understanding of if you focus on problems at hand. Helping them understand their diseases and the medical system and set the right expectations may alleviate some of their anxieties.
But, this is not just Amazon specific. Even when discussing on renewable energies (e.g solar), this is the same argument that most conservative lawmakers and utilities make about applying a tax on residential solar. You have users of the grid that are not paying the same as others, but it's still utilizing the same grid as everyone else, therefore increasing the cost for everyone else that are not discounted, etc.
If China were to interfere domestically into U.S affairs covertly and somehow convince Texas into secession - I would find it difficult to believe the United States would go to war with Texas. If it was democratically voted, most Americans would be fine with it. It would be extremely unpopular to go to war over this. Just reverse it, if California were to leave the Union, most conservative states would say good riddance. Now bomb SF? Not even the most deranged Americans would want that.