pritishc

Pakistan is a faux-democracy at best. Their army controls the government[1], and I would rather not talk about their proxy war against India and terrorist funding, given my strong bias towards my country. Perhaps a neutral party can elaborate.

India, on the other hand, is a melting pot of multiple cultures, ethnicities, and religions that have managed to co-exist harmoniously, despite the odd riot or skirmish. Based on this alone, I would support India's "way of life" to be worth fighting for.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_Pakistan

Sure, if he has no value to them, the company has every right to let go of him and hire someone better. Doesn't mean that they have to do it as if their worker is an unfeeling mechanical automaton whose sole purpose was to spend his existence slogging for the company, and that he somehow failed in that regard. A little empathy wouldn't hurt.

I don't know about the other guy, but hopefully you'll bear with me since I've been on HN for a while now and wasn't paid by a government IT cell to comment (since you seem to be implying that).

I am not sure what the parent commenter means by "Hinduism is not a religion like Islam or Christianity". Do they mean that Hindus don't practice Abrahamic principles? Because other than that, I'm not able to understand what they mean.

Kerala is great for tourism and spending a vacation, but I don't recall seeing a startup community thriving there - infact I did not see any known tech company there. Also the people there are English speaking, but not always. As far as tech intellectuals, I'm not sure how many there are in Kerala.

high literacy

where literacy is defined as the ability to write my own name.

One would find a better-developed tech scene in Delhi/NCR and Bengaluru, but those aren't very nice places to live for different reasons. Kerala works only if the OP becomes a digital nomad and works remote.

Then there's also the problem of people going on strike whenever they like - flavour of the month types. When I went on a solo trip, they decided to strike due to the rise in fuel prices. Causes a lot of disruption in day-to-day activities. I'm guessing this is because of the influence of the communist party.

This is in line with my horrid experience with them last year. I have experienced the fallout from each point that you made. I had no idea that an e-commerce platform as popular as theirs could be so incompetent, rigid and downright hostile since I've had the exact opposite experience with their competitors. Their resolution policies and guarantees are a joke.

It looks like I'm the only one in this thread who has the experience of being scammed, as a buyer, on eBay. Although admittedly, this happened on the Indian version of the platform (which is now owned by Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart).

I wrote about the irony of them promoting the sale of refurbished items when it was a refurbished Xbox that I purchased last year that turned out to be a dud, on Medium (https://medium.com/@chakrabortypritish/ebay-india-a-cautiona... - I had to incorporate a bit of sensationalism to try and fetch some views, which is why it's written the way it is, didn't work anyway). Turns out that the seller lied about the machine's warranty, and Microsoft support couldn't help me either. eBay support consistently told me that they couldn't do anything about this according to company policy. Never felt this helpless on an e-commerce platform, and I've never gone back on eBay.

And yes, their platform UI/UX is horrible, I concur. The only way to show that the Xbox was stuck in a boot-and-crash loop was to record a video, and they did not permit video uploads on their (laughable) grievance redressal platform.

That's PUA, not TRP. TRP is built around helping a man survive and get about in today's world. Sex is one part, often talked about, but one part. One of the differences is that PUA doesn't help men get over the NiceGuy mentality.

But if you want to be pedantic, sure..

Becoming the example that people want to emulate? Yes, it does work, but it's a lot harder. The key is to do it in little increments everyday. The more influence you have, the more you'll be able to sway a person's opinion. Growing this organically is the challenge.

It doesn't have to be just Crossfit. Earnestly asking for advice from gym veterans (regular gyms, no programs involved) can also open you up to new friendships.

Doesn't fitness imply the need for sleep?

Isn't this wish rather selfish as well? Rather than spending time, becoming a contributor yourself and effectively showing them a better way, you want them to disappear.

FWIW, I found this after digging into the comments on the Quora link - https://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/9804020v3.pdf. It explains the context of Puranic cosmology.

I, too, am an Indian, and a healthy dose of skepticism is warranted. However, it is admittedly enjoyable for me to read about Indian history and ancient science.

You can still do OSS contributions and make small side projects to get noticed. The likes of us merely start X years behind the likes of those that go to a prestigious engineering college when it comes to work. X is as big a gulf as you let it be. Factor that into your growth and make of it what you will.

I'm sure I won't join the likes of TCS

TCS is fine if you're fine with maintenance work and/or want to pivot into doing an MBA or something similar. However, even TCS etc are laying off a lot of people and will probably shrink their "bench" pools greatly in the near future, due to the death of outsourcing.

I'll become an Uber driver

I'm sure it won't have to come to that, but yes, the job market slowdown is real.

Are you in college? You will find that 3 is not all rosy as it seems to you right now, if you are not from a top tier or atleast decent tier college. I was like you back in college when I realized that heading to TCS etc was a dead career path from the start.

The better product startups all look for "IIT/NIT/whatever other brand college" students. Snapdeal, for eg, first switched the application engineer position that I applied for to other secondary positions, and then rejected me when I asked for the original position on this basis. There is no guarantee that you will find good things in other startups. I realize now that these companies have no better way of screening candidates, because the candidate pool quality in India errs on the side of less than decent. Doesn't justify the bait-and-switch but oh well.

If you do end up like I did, make sure that atleast the peer group in your startup is exceptionally talented, and that the startup is good with tech. The pay is shit in these kinds of startups (for eg those running as a small service company, but building their product behind the scenes), but the idea is to become really good at what you do and then jump ship to a good product startup.

Also, if you are still in college, it helps to have GSoC under your belt.

If what you want to maintain is contact with all those people, you can deactivate your Facebook but keep Messenger on. They're separate apps. It's worked wonders for me.

Passion and motivation don't cut it. They get you a foot in the door. But when everything has worn out, it's discipline that does.

Dilbert's Principle?

The bit about athletic performance for the average, advanced and elite categories is fascinating. I had read about this phenomenon in Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength, and reading it here again makes so much sense.

The title really should be "Practice Alone Doesn't Make Perfect". We all have our own genetic potential, but how much of it we're able to harvest then depends on how we are nurtured and how much we're willing to push ourselves. Makes a lot of sense.

Sounds very similar to what people have to go through for other chronic disorders such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome. The "it's in your head" bit has to be the most aggravating thing to hear, I know what it feels like.

Add to this the rampant prescription of antibiotics and antidepressants, just to push the actual problem under the rug. It's very infuriating.

I've always wondered how people with chronic disorders/diseases manage themselves at a hackathon. That 24-hour non-stop insanity has always dissuaded me from attending one. Turns out there are people who see the downsides of one.

Well, this is YC's own forum, after all.