> I can often smell the people around me. Generally, they don’t smell good. I can often hear conversations that are on the other side of the office. (Have you ever tried to add up numbers while someone else says other random numbers at you? It’s like that.) When people walk past my field of vision, I can’t focus on my screen. When I try to tune out all of these distractions, it consumes a lot of energy. Doing it hour after hour, day after day would leave me depleted, exhausted, unable to focus.

I always just thought putting up with this was what I got paid for. Like isn't this why working on-site sucks?

That's why open office plans suck. The fact that software developers (assuming you are one, apologies if you are not) are idiots in not engaging in collective bargaining association (don't call it a union, lol). The "technology" exists to create private offices for everyone (and sufficient conference rooms while we're at it) so that working on site isn't terrible because you have your own private office with a door that keeps people and sound out when you're trying to get deep work done, regardless of your autism or adhd or other mental illness status.

That’s a sad way to see things. Aren’t you paid to solve problems? To create value somehow?

And apparently there are people who find these environments energizing. It seems like those people are the ones who make these cruel policies. But 20-30% of all humans are highly sensitive and they generally find situations like this draining. Most autistic people are highly sensitive. My guess is that many of us would be on the high end of the HSP spectrum. When I take HSP assessments I max out every measure. I often feel like a bundle of exposed nerve endings.

And I need to point out that this is not inherently disabling. When I’m out in nature or experiencing great art or music, it’s clear that I’m having a better, more intense experience than most other people. Music moves me to tears often, sometimes several times a week. It’s wonderful to experience the world this way. But the only way for me to tolerate an open office would be to drug myself. This, to me, is dystopian.

This high sensitivity is why I’m able to solve problems that many others can’t. If I can focus that high sensitivity on the problem space, and I’m given a few days to process all the information, then I’m often able to untangle messes and solve problems that many others find intractable.

But corporations expect that we all conform to some standard of what’s expected of a “normal” human. By doing this, we’re not getting the best out of the human race. We’re actively disabling people that could be doing valuable work. It’s absurd.

I have always followed the same, but also found calendar events are a good carve out to this.

The user doesn't care about the timezone change yesterday (and shouldn't..), they just need to see their meeting at 10am.

It is a good carve out, but it means you have to be careful.

For example, in my work, we handle appointment data, and we've gotten appointments sent to us from an upstream provider scheduled for non-existent local timestamps. (E.g., 2:30am in the middle of a spring-forward jump. That timestamp doesn't exist. Also in the fallback, where that timestamp is ambiguous.)

Even Google Calendar chokes on certain appointment times.

It's just not DST though. What if the user moves to a different country? Their 10am US meeting should probably update to the local timezone.

Company: "Use the app" / cut back front line staff

People: "ugh, I will use the app"

Company: "Look, nobody uses the front line staff"

Answer: Let's do neither!

My last interaction with it they started showing dialogs telling me I was using the wrong chat tool now.

So I clicked through, and the core functionality of "chat via IM and then spill out to video chat" was nowhere to be found*

*I'm sure it was there somewehere, but I was trying to join a damn meeting not learn a new UI

The people are removed from the ordering experience at all McDonalds in my local area (Sydney Australia-ish)

The registers are hidden behind a counter and there's no obvious place to order, unless you use the kiosk.

If you stand at the empty counter for ~5 minutes, a staff member will eventually appear for something else (e.g. to give out an order) and serve you reluctantly - it's awful.

We don't have this scam.

We get the car parked in the shopping centre with big "WIN THIS CAR" signs. Entry is $5-10 per ticket though, so it seems feasible there's actually a winner somewhere along the way (My assumption is a Mustang appears in a few shopping centres at once and one is ultimately given away, for example).

Worth it.

You forgot "The Boats" from the super important stuff list.

Your level of concern about "The Boats" is directly related to which shock jock you listen to on morning radio.

I would suggest that most younger people have a well tuned bullshit detector and have a pretty good idea of what is important to their and the countries futures.

Politian's who try to pull the fear lever have a fairly small audience these days, as evidenced in the recent federal election.

> I don't think we're in for a "correction"

> Housing will take a 30% haircut, and we'll probably see some of the over-extended corporate debt come to roost as well

What, then, is a correction?

I suppose in this case a "correction" is a crash of some form. A fundamental shift, and Agreed there's no basis for a fundamental problem.

Valuations are too high so a "30% hair cut" is warranted, but something like "ninja" loans or IPO'ed tech companies with 0 revenue isn't a thing right now.

There were market wide fundamental issues that cause huge shifts. This simply missing this time. The VC space isn't wallstreet and it definitely isn't mainstreet. Even if a crypto+vc crash happened, we'd only be in "haircut" not full on crash as a general populous.