Apparently I’ve been living under a rock

A proper Apple laptop, for just 600 bucks? And discount to 500 for educational purposes?? I’ve actually had a previous workplace where they would only issue Windows or Mac computers for work… which I think this would have been extremely handy. Because of this I’m honestly quite happy to hear the news, since it will probably make me requesting dedicated work computers easier. 8GB RAM is a bit of a bummer, but there are HPCs and virtual machines for heavy computation tasks so…

I refuse to pay Apple out of principle, so I don’t think my personal opinions about the Neo matter much… I guess one positive thing I could say is that I find the idea of using ARM chips for full computers quite cool

I’ve read upon a particular prediction that I thought would be quite likely to happen. The bubble itself will likely burst, similar to the dot com bubble… but AI as a technology is likely here to stay, similar to the dot com bubble. The hope is that most of the current AI expertise/research will shift more toward academic institutions, who will primarily work on building scientific AI for research purposes. Similar to how foundation models/LLMs are already used in studying genetics/genomics and protein structures… And a few commercial AIs might eventually find a way to be profitable & stay on the market

Will suck a bit for the ML engineers who will have to find new jobs in academia and suffer massive pay cuts though

GrapheneOS on a Pixel 6a. Technically have a few Google apps, but they are only banking/governmental stuff and one gacha game (which I primarily play on a tablet anyway). Too lazy to set up Nextcloud myself, but I do have a VPS I rent… and I used to have a local RasPi running PiHole

I am apparently a bit too uncomfortably close to the exact stereotype OP listed

Well… I might be a special case. Most folks I know don’t acquire languages that easily

What does an “Average American” look like?

I thought it would be whatever the stereotypes one would get from popular American TV shows… which is not very Asian all-things considered. But I guess the language plays a role too. This is something that is hard to grasp while I was in the US, but Americans as a whole do have a rather distinct English accent that is different from folks from say Britain, Australia, other places where English isn’t the primary language, etc…

Yeah, being in a country since 18 yrs old does something to you… Fun fact about the accent. Apparently most ppl I’ve met in the EU assumed I’m from the US, despite me not looking remotely like an average American

US visa system is a bit… Interesting. Student visas also work for PhD programs, which can last a while. And after the study concludes there’s an option for ppl to extend it by 3 years (OPT). So one could be into their mid-30s and still be technically on a student visa in the US

• Mandarin Chinese. Native, but actually not that good. Can’t speak Cantonese though
• English, with heavy “American” accent. Basically native-level fluency
• Japanese. Somewhere between B2-C1 based on test results but that was a long time ago. I can probably get to C1 if/when I have the time to practice
• French. Still actively learning, around A1 across the board

I also have some passive knowledge of Dutch and German… But really passive though

As others have mentioned, there are lots of genetic links between the two. So a lot of Autistic ppl would also have ADHD (as well as a bunch of other interesting neurodivergent traits), but it is definitely not guaranteed. I am actually such an example… I have diagnosed ASD lvl 1 & have some ADHD-esque traits, but I do not meet the diagnostic criteria & thus do not have ADHD

To add to this discussion… unfortunately there aren’t good ways to tell if one has ADHD except for consulting a psychiatrist. It’s probably a good idea to not rely on self-diagnosis too, since ADHD does have medical interventions, but a good number of them are controlled substances and probably realllly shouldn’t be taken by just about anyone

My hope is… I think most psychiatrists know the strong relations, so hopefully a good psych would have at the minimum also checked for ADHD while diagnosing for Autism…? Although to be honest, my first psych didn’t do it either. I later went for a separate comprehensive psych eval for ADHD+others, which did just about everything under the sun… (ASD, ADHD, anxiety, IQ, psychopathy, aphantasia, alexythymia, reaction speed, …)

Researcher. Important? Kind-of, I work in a supposedly very important biomedical research area but my position itself is not that important due to a variety of reasons…

Am I proud? Hell no. I’m only staying because I get paid enough (especially since I lived on near-poverty income for 5 years and below-average for another…). I’d disappear the moment I have a better opportunity, or if my paycheck is gone. This is position-specific though, I don’t mind working the same job as long as a few small things change

Yes and I have done it a good bit back in the US. Striking up a conversation with a total stranger is a bit frowned upon in the part of Europe where I live now… so I won’t

This is comparing two pretty extreme scenarios… which are both pretty strange but for different reasons

A lot of performing arts (music, sports) and related industries have a “winner takes all” model, where the most famous performer makes exponentially more than the average one. OF is a bit similar. So if you are a top OF model who won the genetic lottery, you could make millions… which hides the fact that the average OF model doesn’t make remotely as much (as others have pointed out)

Open source is more like a normal business, but with the problem that it doesn’t really generate profits given that many FOSS software are free as in free beer… If there is no revenue then of course there wouldn’t be a good salary either…

I do think there is a rather similar but interesting counter example: academic scientists. Many scientists do make rather comfortable wages; where I live now, postdocs/professors actually get paid above the national average. However, this is because science is very important to society… so the money we make come from governments/taxpayers. Governments generally agree to fund science at the taxpayers’ expense, because it will pay off in the long run. If governments don’t fund science then most scientists (barring some engineers) would make peanuts as well… So yeah, if governments believe FOSS has societal benefits and fund FOSS developers, that might be a way for them to make a lot more

Late 20s. If you count lurking, just when the Reddit 3rd party API thing happened; if not, a bit over a year ago

I’ve been using Mastodon for a few months and even transitioned to selfhosting a -key instance for a while back then. So when the Reddit fiasco happened it was pretty natural for me to be drawn to Lemmy lol. I’ve only been a lurker even on Reddit though, so it took me some time to actually participate. Fun fact, but I first became aware of Lemmy a few months before the API thing, when the top posts only had a bit over 100 upvotes and almost every other person knew it for the devs’ questionable political ideologies… I’m still a bit positively surprised that Lemmy has become as self-sustaining as it is today

I think I’d fall more into the latter camp but both descriptions somewhat apply to me TBH. I’ve daily driven Gentoo for a year and a half for good measures (don’t do that anymore out of practicality), and I generally have a distaste for anything too mainstream so

Video games. Very, very challenging video games that don’t require co-op… I’m currently mostly maining rhythm games, but had several years where I hyperfixated on roguelikes as well

For mornings, 75 g light-roast coffee / 1250 g water made with a French press using the Hoffmann method, divided equally for 4 days per brew (so roughly 250-300 ml liquid each day). Not sure about caffeine content

And then I have some random tea bought from the local Asian supermarket that I brew casually with hot water & drink throughout the day without any care as to how I make it, no idea how much caffeine is in this either

I usually don’t take in any other caffeine beyond my daily routine

Community is too small

I think most of the things I find annoying about the fediverse (echo-chamber, lack of interactions overall, no real place for discussing extremely niche interests) stem from the fact that it is not big enough so…

I don’t think it is a terrible thing per-se though, small communities have lots of upsides too

I really want to be able to go clubbing

Okay! If that’s what you want… I have never gone clubbing in China or Japan, but I was being told that nightlife absolutely exists & is quite nice in both countries. Major cities of course; rural area in East Asia aren’t as easily accessible as those in the wealthier European countries so

Have you considered going to multiple places? Japan isn’t that far away from China all things considered. And if you are going to China… most people stick to Southern China (fewer things to do in the North unfortunately), which if you do, Shenzhen is right next to Hong Kong/Macao, and Taiwan isn’t that far away either

Mayyybe dinner, but only by a little bit

I used to cook the same meal for breakfast/dinner and skip lunch for several years… These days I simplified my breakfast routine and still don’t each lunch most of the days, so dinner is by definition the most important, although breakfast is my most consistent one (I sometimes go for a big lunch and skip dinner instead)

… I almost never travel not solo, so apologies if I don’t know what the other side of the coin is like

I think the biggest advantage is the absolutely ridiculous amount of freedom, because you can cater to 100% of your own needs, and your own needs alone. Want trip to be cheap? Youth hostels and 10-hour Flix/Blablacar buses exist. Want to do nerdy things only you are interested in? No need to care for travel companions for “wasting” 10-hours in a modern arts museum or anything like that

I did hear that some people find traveling alone a bit lonely though… so maybe it is not for everyone. Oh and maybe booking restaurants can get a tad awkward depending on the place I travel to

I think I’d be a good person to answer this. I’ve lived in Houston (needless to say, extremely car-friendly) without a car for almost 2 years; currently I’m living in a city that banned cars within its city center in 2015 which resulted in very visible changes, but the rest of the country is still very pro-car and quite car-friendly

A couple of things that cars benefit everyday life that would be difficult to do without a car. There’s probably more but these are the ones I can think of:

• Accessibility to places that have difficulty justifying being served by public transit. These include poorer neighborhoods that are far away from city center, semi-rural natural preserves, extreme geographical difficulties, … Case in point, Houston has a lot of nature/green spaces that were 20-30 miles outside of the city center… good luck getting to these without a car (trust me, I tried once)
• For certain physically disabled people, driving would be easier than walking/biking/public transit… Especially in particularly hilly cities, centuries-old cities where roads were paved no better than playgrounds, or sometimes both. This can be somewhat mitigated with good infrastructure projects, but cars are usually an easier solution
• Car-free zones can get very crowded, very fast. This is usually a good thing in terms of urbanism… but some find it uncomfortable for various reasons. My current city is actually a rather extreme example: they are now considering banning bikes in the city center too, due to pedestrian injuries
• I know cars are prone to needing repair, but with how the road network functions, personal vehicles can reduce a lot of dependencies on external factors such as public transit being functional. Case in point, two months ago NL’s national rail company became essentially non-operational due to extreme weather, which would be rather devastating if your only way of commuting to work relies on the train

Also I think some positive points associated with cars are doable without cars:

• Hauling stuff from point A to point B: delivery companies and car-rentals exist for a reason! This is surprisingly doable even without owning a car (you are technically using someone else’s car in this case). Of course doing it without your own car will be more expensive… but we do have the logistics for it, especially if the entire society shifts to a car-free model
• Not all rural areas need cars: some are actually quite doable by walking alone due to how small they are (I have a friend who lives in a rural American town like that: yes everyone drives, but everything is also 30-minutes on foot if you don’t mind walking). And there are quite a few parts of the world where rural towns are served by trains frequently
• Road trips: scenic railways exist for a reason… and unlike point 1 I made, sightseeing trains actually do make money, so there is pretty good justification for building them

• Slay the Spire. I have played quite a few roguelikes before StS but I never played much card-based games at all, due to me never playing boardgames or TCGs… so this was obviously a new experience for me. Almost 1000 hours on record now with the game, cleared A20H with every base game character (and did A20H on almost every Packmaster pack)… which should speak for itself
• Dancerush Stardom, that funny shuffle game. This is Konami’s attempt at making a beginner- and normie-friendly rhythm game… which never quite caught on (aside from random YouTube recordings having several million views). I wasn’t particularly fit & never knew about this game before at all, so it was a pleasant surprise to me that I liked it so much. I have 5-star cleared many of the hardest songs in this game so

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