Isn’t max unemployment in California like $450/week? It’s not nothing but it’s not gonna help much if you’re used to spending like a big tech engineer.
Luckily I am about as frugal as they come (humble beginnings) - but also I'm in Australia and big tech here pays about as much as an average Sr salary in a non big-tech company in the states.
At my last job, I was on 220k/y USD TC as a Sr.
This role is 140k/y USD, which is close to the top end of non big tech salaries here.
> I just passed on a job for a quality company in the Bay area because they wouldn't budge on remote work
You're assuming they don't trust remote employees? They may just not want remote employees.
It's a perfectly valid stance for a company to say, "You know what, remote work just isn't for us." They don't need to justify it any more than you need to justify your preference for remote work.
Typing is subpar next to a Mac so by the time you put the case on it and are in similar size/weight class, for same/MORE money .. why bother with iPad ?
There's no pen input on a Mac, it's only really usable in one orientation and so sucks for reading more than a page or two of a PDF. Tablets are WAY more flexible in form factor. Apple unfortunately cripples the software, but I'd rather have a device that's 100% better at pen input and bunch of tasks that's 30% worse at typing.
How do you mean? The entire iPad? Well this sucks because now you're carrying around an entire laptop and a tablet. Or do you mean using a pen with the Mac? Then it would need fundamental changes to use it well. Using a pen on a traditional laptop sucks more than a touchscreen on a traditional laptop. You need a really really good hinge to have it not be impacted by your arm, or you're forced to awkwardly hover and use minimal pressure. Bare minimum they'd have to add a 180 degree hinge so it can lie flat, or really a 360 one ideally.
With a tablet you get more freedom, not every task needs a real keyboard and sometimes even if it does it's better not attached to the device in wrong orientation.
The single purpose nature of the iPad makes it pretty good for quite a few tasks. I find it much easier to stay focused. I’m not saying that justifies the cost, but seeing as I have one anyway, it’s what I use for a lot of my writing like tasks.
Of course, you can now multi window in iPadOS but the experience is awful enough that I don’t.
Because it can do both. That may not be valuable to everyone, but it is a beneficial feature for many people. Also, Apple's keyboard case has a fantastic keyboard and trackpad that is a pleasure to type on.
You can never get into any kind of detail with people from a different career path.
Like, "I'm a software engineer" is the most people understand. If I say "I write tests for the GPU factory to improve semiconductor yield and screen parts" then launch into something about product binning, there's only 1% of people who'll be interested. The typical marketing person or government bureaucrat won't care.
Meanwhile "how do you know x" launches into a story about 'x', a person we both know and care about. Then we can swap stories.
I love talking to people about their work, especially if it's a field I know nothing about. People spend eight hours a day doing something, they have a lot of knowledge about it.
When it's a job that's opaque to me, I like asking "What's a typical day for you like at work?"
Only about 1-in-10 people have even heard of my company (AMD). Most that have are businesspeople/investors/tech workers. That is slowly changing but it is difficult to explain what segment of the economy I work in.
About 30% of Canada are in the public sector. There aren't enough jobs in the private sector, so we hire many people to reduce the unemployment rate.
Asking such a person "what's a typical day for you like at work?" would be "writing/approving briefing notes/decks". Generally, you'd ask what ministry they're in and go over the org chart. You can spend about 20 minutes figuring out the exact agency/ministry/division they work in relative to yours, then gossip about name changes or re-orgs.
Unfortunately, that only works if you're also a public sector worker.
Also, youth unemployment rate in Canada is about 15% right now. Even bringing up the subject of jobs makes people in my age group uncomfortable since you're forcing them to admit they're unemployed. It's too risky a question.
What? I get so much joy out of learning the details of careers of people in different industries than me. I had an hourlong conversation with someone the other day who is in the high-end rug business…where he sources from, how he deals with difficult clientele, how he gets new leads, what it’s like visiting the remote villages where the rugs are made, etc. And another one with a hedge fund quant, and a separate one with a professional dancer. These are some of my favorite conversations to have with people.
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