Ultimately tech is a tool to help automate and solve people’s problems. You want to get close to the people your solving problems for so you can get feedback and figure out how to do your job. Your organization may not do this for you. I spend a lot of time on forums listening to my users, and do a lot of extra testing to make sure I’m solving there problems and not making new ones.
Pure capitalism favors the wealthy and the unscrupulous. That is if there are no laws in place protecting peoples rights then the business owners have little incentive to treat there employees well (they will trade short term profits over long term stability.
On the flip side a pure communist system favors the lazy since there is little to no reward for doing more than the minimum. That is to say the status quo is unchanging.
This is why we have government, to correct the selfish nature of capitalism, while hopefully still retaining the innovation and drive that it produces (winner take all is a strong motivator).
This only works in the long term if government is fair and balanced, looking out both for the interests of business and society (the poor, the environment, the common spaces, etc). And where an idea like socialism actually strikes a good balance between both extremes.
The idea that the markets will sort themselves out is a fever dream thought up by the right. The markets will quickly consolidate into monopolies and then exploit there power. It is only fair competition that produces benefits. And that is an unstable balance that must be carefully maintained by outside forces (government).
I fully understand how scary it is to try to talk to someone in a language your just learning. I’m shy and hate talking period! But it is one of those things where you have to allow yourself to make a fool of yourself.
Trust me, most people are very happy you are trying to learn there language and will be exited by anything you can produce. If you do find someone who is rude or offended by it, give them up as a bad job and shake it off. And never be embarrassed to say “I don’t understand”. We assume the people who know the answers are the smart ones, but the people who admit they still need to learn are in fact the geniuses.
Besides, unless your using Google translate, then your English comprehension is plenty good enough. It is time to face your fears and make a fool of yourself. The rewards are worth it!
I agree with the first point completely. The apps are usually good for practicing vocabulary, but languages are dynamic, and change based on what was previously said. Talking to someone, anyone, is going to get you up and going a lot faster. Granted, finding someone willing to spend hours talking to you when your just learning can be hard. Look for apps that try to hook learners up.
I’m not sure where you are, but try to find an English community. If your in an English speaking country that is basically any community. If your not then look around for where the English expats hang out. When I was in Cameroon we had an “american club” that everyone was a part of. Having a common interest helps a lot in motivating everyone to talk together.
In a pinch you can force yourself to watch English television, possibly with subtitles. This helps your comprehension but lacks the back and forth of actually talking.
Get a tin whistle, they cost nothing, are simpler than a recorder to play, and they sound great. You can find books or videos that will help you learn to play quite quickly.
My advice is to do things that bring you joy, and if there a hit then consider that an added bonus. I’m a computer programmer and some of my most popular projects were started by me being curious how something works without any intention of doing something with it. If I set out to do something amazing I would have failed outright.
So write a short story, then write another one. If you end up writing one you feel is with showing off then find a writing club to share it with, or post it to a blog. If that is successful then find a website or magazine to submit it too. Go on up the ladder till your the next Douglas Addams. But do it in many small steps, rather than setting out to conquer the world in one go.
We need to implement ranked choice voting for all of elections. A third party candidate should not be something scary we hide from.
Intelligence is a collection of multiple things. Curiosity is a contributor, but far from an integral part.
Someone can be a brilliant mathematician, capable of computing complex equations that would stump most computers (metaphorically at least), but they may utterly lack creativity and curiosity. In any definition of intelligence we would consider them highly intelligent.
On the flip side someone may be completely filled with curiosity about the world, but lack the intelligence to read or write.
Technically that is a learned skill, this is why intelligence is really a fairly useless measure. What is intelligence? Memorizing lots of facts? Having loads of education? A built in understanding of the world that others lack (common sense)?
I think what really matters is that you find the thing in life where you fit, rather than worrying about how we measure up. I have known very intelligent people who were worthless human beings, and simple minded people who made the world more special every day. We focus too much on being smart, it is one of the least important attributes.
Vegan is a very wide array of things ranging to not eating red meat all the way down to not doing anything that could hurt a plant (only scavengering fallen fruit).
https://theminimalistvegan.com/types-of-vegans-and-vegetarians/
Loco-Roco for the PSP. As a game developer, I consider this to be the pinnacle of game development. It is completely original, uses only two buttons, super intuitive, yet your drawn into it and want to play for hours. It makes me sad that few have heard of it.
Toy Story on the sega genesis (and snes) is a close second. It is actually a bit of a hot mess, each level is a completely different style of gameplay. But it is super rewarding to fight your way through to the end. And it showcases so many different styles of gameplay.
Not really, my parents voted for him twice, and will vote for him again, but they are very careful around me to act like they would not.