retired

For such a bike friendly country the amount of commuting by bike is shockingly low. You would expect 70%+ but it is closer to 15%. Most commuting is done by car.

It doesn’t help that the Netherlands has the worst urban sprawl of Europe. The whole country feels like one low density city. Partially because people think apartments are for peasants. Most people want a single family home with a big yard and a driveway.

~60% of workers commuting in to the big cities is horrible policy.

* https://www.pbl.nl/en/latest/blog/putting-dutch-urban-sprawl...

In parts of The Netherlands is simple never gets dark due to light pollution. It feels like it is always dawn. Pretty bad for your sleep cycle.

Some pictures: https://milieufederatie.nl/nieuws/6-op-de-10-nederlanders-wi...

Where your money comes from. Dollars earned and euros spent is the winning formula. A local paycheck is the one that breaks everything.

The problem is finding housing with foreign income. Both renting and buying is significantly harder. To reference the article, €700 to €1100 isn’t going to get you a 1BR in Malaga on foreign income. Think €1500+ minimum.

Also good for adding bits about healthcare. Unlike what many Americans think, you dont magically have healthcare when you move to Europe. Really depends on the country and system.

I’m from a country with such a system. You end up with your children all going to different schools, attending parent teacher meetings all over the country and spending lots of time dropping of the children at multiple schools.

Did it deploy five AWS m8g.12xlarge instances?

Thanks for typing the exact reply I wanted to give! Yes, I’m happy that I can request garbage pickup through WhatsApp instead of having to fill out a form at the municipal building. An online portal or app would be even better than WhatsApp.

Some secure online portal would be nice for the GP or municipality.

The delivery issues can be solved by introducing a standardized address system for Spain but that would take decades to roll out. Some people I know don’t even have an address, they just use the land registry number. Or just the name of their village + surnames, which is typically good enough for the standard mail (but not good enough for DHL/UPS/DPD packages, their drivers want your location via WhatsApp)

Meanwhile in Spain I use WhatsApp to contact the municipality, the GP uses it to send my blood results and package delivery drivers ask me to share my location. I hate it.

I have no issues with A1 Spanish in Spain for daily life.

Indeed, fatbike riders come in all colours. Though I have noticed that it is mainly transportation for the poor.

EU has stricter regulations.

Different, not stricter perse. In the EU it is allowed to sell food with non-edible parts inside or cheese with maggots.

Grass is greener. I’m currently in Spain. I don’t have access to the public healthcare system. Don’t have access to unemployment. A third of the population can’t even afford a holiday. People are getting more obese every year. Rent is higher than minimum wage.

EU is a good place to be but some people have this overly optimistic view of the place.

I moved to Spain from The Netherlands as a Dutch citizen. It was a lot of paperwork, lots of planning, needed close to €10k in my bank account and needed to get private healthcare with a pretty serious health check. I had to do multiple trips to the national police office and municipalities.

That is not needed when you switch states in the US. You just need to update your address and tax records. You do not needed to show financial means and you do not need private healthcare.

And have freedom of movement within the whole EU

To a certain degree. In the US you can drive to another state thousands of kilometers away and decide to just live there for the rest of your life.

In Spain I’m paying only 70 euro per month for the most expensive private healthcare plan. I don’t have public healthcare so I can’t compare but the private plan has been excellent. You get a private room at top clinics if something happens to you.

However rent here is literally more than minimum wage after taxes so that is something to consider.

If you want the best healthcare in the EU go to The Netherlands. Though food is meh over there, over 70% is ultra processed.

http://www.foodwatch.org/nl/pers/persberichten/persberichten...

Simple Batavus analog bike. Don’t know the type. It’s an eleven speed and has disc brakes front and back that make a horrible noise when you come to a stop. Back one makes noisy because the bike leaks oil on the disc. No idea why the front one is noisy. A project for one day.

Already did. Hated working with AI. Will try to start a business one day where I can code how I like it.

Currently not doing anything IT related. Just went on a bike ride.

This is why I left The Netherlands. They have been working on laws for both self employment and unrealized capital gains for the past ten years and in the meanwhile have implemented some unworkable “temporary laws”.

Just implement good laws, do it right once. Yes it will hurt to not have a smooth transition but it’s better than having meetings about it for ten years.

As a consultant I am looking forward to being hired by companies to get rid of all the vibe code and to replace it with beautiful maintainable artisanal code.

Apple is still selling Macs with M3 and M4 chips.

Regarding M5 support, seems like a matter of time.

https://github.com/AsahiLinux/m1n1/pull/578

This is why the Steam Machine costs $1049

Dutch police shot at a child during protests.

With video:

https://nos.nl/artikel/2435671-beschoten-boerenzoon-ik-wil-v...

Shots during COVID protests:

https://nos.nl/video/2406436-terugkijken-zo-werden-rotterdam...

The largest Dutch tech website doesn’t adhere to the cookie law. They ever reported about websites not adhering to the law while not adhering to the law themselves.

This is why the Steam Machine is $1049. There is no reason to use AI on a hobby project.

In the Netherlands that person would be considered an eetpiraat (food pirate) or flessentrekker (bottle puller). Those are terms used in court.

https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/resultaat?zoekterm=Flessen...

https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/resultaat?zoekterm=Eetpira...

In The Netherlands all Masters at a university are to prepare you for an academic career.

I’m guessing Nordics?

It is typically much cheaper to run your own heating. That is why in The Netherlands everyone is going for heat pumps instead of district heating. A heat pump can warm your home for €70 per month where district heating is €150 + €50 for equipment renting. Biggest problem with district heating is that there isn’t a free market. You are stuck with one party and they raise the prices every year.

Doing my thesis in The Netherlands I got guidance on my thesis three times. Once during the start to get an initial baseline of what is expected of me, once halfway through as a quick call to see if everything was going according to schedule and once when I had the concept ready.

If you need someone to hold your hand every other week perhaps you shouldn’t go into academics. You should be operating autonomous at that point.

I studied in The Netherlands about ten years ago and it was very cheap. Around €10k a year total for tuition, room and board. Most of my peers graduated with only €30k in debt as they worked evenings and weekends during their education. Meanwhile I read online about Americans going in debt for $200k