thejdude

7 ms·

1.
by thejdude 12y ago
With anything (IMHO), you should first learn to play by the rules. Later on you can learn/discover when to break them. But that takes experience and judgement, which little kids may not yet have.
2.
by thejdude 12y ago
As a kid in Germany, I used to eat a slice of bread with butter and jam or nutella on it, sometimes with cheese, plus a glass of OJ or milk. Sometimes cornflakes with oatmeal/muesli and cold milk and maybe some fruit, which I still do
3.
by thejdude 12y ago
Since I'm also based in Germany, may I ask how you do marketing, where you get your gigs? Agencies, word of mouth, previous employment? What technologies do you do, do you cover the whole tech spectrum in that area, how many years expe
4.
by thejdude 12y ago
I never said they would. But for a while Germany had StudiVZ and MeinVZ. After a while FB became more popular, people with some international friends joined at first, and after a while everyone else did and the other networks basically star
5.
by thejdude 12y ago
For me there was a time where I wanted stuff to just work, to get good battery life on my laptop and still have a Unix. I went Mac OS X for a few years (X years ago). A few years later I switched back to Linux. Much better Java support. Bet
6.
by thejdude 12y ago
Well, it was a state college, I'm actually really good, and we couldn't pick graduate classes in the US, even though I was a senior already, and if you compare standards that basically means graduate. But most likely it just wasn&
7.
by thejdude 12y ago
Hm, I've heard many complain about the food quality at our mensa, and many never ate there, but overall my experience wasn't bad. No fancy restaurant quality, but better than typical prepared/frozen meals and not at all bad.
8.
by thejdude 12y ago
It's not. If you finish Realschule you can still get an education at a company for a skilled job and afterwards go get your Abitur (to be able to go to college) at an evening school or something. The early separation isn't the gre
9.
by thejdude 12y ago
Free shouldn't mean that everybody attends college. Degree inflation sucks. I observe the same problem in Germany - more and more people attend school/university for more and more years, but don't turn out any brighter overal
10.
by thejdude 12y ago
I think all German states have abolished tuition fees after lots of public outcry about them ( http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studiengeb%C3%BChr#Deutschland ). It says that Niedersachsen decided to abolish fees for the 201
11.
by thejdude 12y ago
I'd say most Germans with average income pay 20-25% in income tax, another 15-20% in health insurance/unemployment/retirement taxes, and 19% sales tax (7% on groceries). Just to give a perspective. I think the more expensive
12.
by thejdude 12y ago
IME very many German people are on FB (but yes, many also aren't, because they don't care and have their circle of offline friends). Twitter, almost nobody. Among younger (20-30) Germans, I think almost everybody is on FB (and eve
13.
by thejdude 12y ago
Not research, but in Sociology 101 I picked up that the US have a traditionally high upward social mobility and even poor kids can go to college (if only through student credit) and have a good career afterwards. I've heard that recent
14.
by thejdude 12y ago
Hah, and I love your user-name :-)
15.
by thejdude 12y ago
If by "monk-like" you mean being distracted/surrounded by tons of incredibly hot 18y/o bombshells wearing hot- or jogging-pants (depending on the season) and flip-flops, then yes. I loved my year in the US, but it wasn&#
16.
by thejdude 12y ago
In most cases, these tutoring classes are even run by students (because the professors don't want to / don't have time), so you get good explanations that you can actually understand, and the tutors have a nice way to make so
17.
by thejdude 12y ago
That's the thing. German unis aren't schools; in fact the whole point (or at least original point before we got degree inflation) of our "high school" (Gymnasium) degree is to prepare students to be able to go on with a
18.
by thejdude 12y ago
German here who also studied abroad for a year (US state college). Overall, there are many similarities, but also differences. I was surprised how freaking EASY everything was in the US university, compared to Germany. Multiple-choice tests
19.
by thejdude 12y ago
And you never know about critical issues coming in. I like to be notified, but if I'm reeeeally busy I don't go look at the emails. When I do, it's mostly notifications of something (delete immediately), simple requests (answ
20.
by thejdude 12y ago
23+ for actual bands. Most pop music is probably made by 40+. (recommendation: listen to Porcupine Tree - The Sound of Muzak)
21.
by thejdude 12y ago
Funny, I'd call what you describe Permission Marketing, but then I've never heard of Nathan Barry or Brennan Dunn.
22.
by thejdude 12y ago
By rank I mean title/position, something like that.
23.
by thejdude 12y ago
Plus, most software engineers I work with every day are hardly nerds. Maybe 1/3 of them are, the rest are just wearing suits without ties but are very professional at their job and attitude. The "nerd" idea is a myth, a preju
24.
by thejdude 12y ago
In general, I agree with our assessment, but let me add that I constantly got great evaluations by my superiors, but when I asked for a 10% raise they laughed in my face. I don't work there anymore, but other companies also didn't
25.
by thejdude 12y ago
To me that seems insane. With the work I do, at 50 hours, I would be seriously burnt out (I used to be at a previous job). NOT good for the company. By working ~40h I maintain my strength and keep delivering really good results. But when I
26.
by thejdude 12y ago
Well, a 50k salary will net you <30k€ in Germany (but more if you have kids). You probably should also save a bit for retirement, since you won't get much from the state (today's retired receive much more than they paid into th
27.
by thejdude 12y ago
Ok, but salaries are much lower than contractor rates, probably half.
28.
by thejdude 12y ago
In Germany, all those jobs you mention will also make more/much more than a developer. I think the tech sector in the US is very strong and competes for devs.
29.
by thejdude 12y ago
Not on average, but it's ~15% of your salary in Germany, so a high-income person pays a lot (it's capped at a certain level though).
30.
by thejdude 12y ago
I'm not too sure about that. Yes, if you compare the average American to the average European, you make more and have to pay for more things, so it more or less evens out. But developer salaries - definitely not.

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