> Keep your head down and weather the storm.

This certainty a good way to survive but not a good way to live.

It's about learning to live smaller. Not trying to change the world, but building a small world around you. Hiding in plain sight. Etc.

Plenty of joy to be had even if you choose to disconnect from the nonsense around you.

Something about Buddhism and suffering in there as well.

In my experience, it also grounds us and gives us useful feedback loops with what we can really control, and what really matters to us, the most.

Which is super important.

In my opinion, a lot of the crazier things going on in the world are due to a lot of people not being well connected or healthy with those things, and being susceptible to manipulation by outside forces looking to harness that angst.

This.

The digital era has propelled us further into the "hyperreality" that Jean Baudrillard wrote and warned us about. [1] You descend into pure madness the moment both feet leave the ground and you give in to it.

Our children are living in it, it will be all their children have ever known.

Living small is about keeping one foot firmly planet in the desert of the real.

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

If you’re in a storm, what other alternatives do you propose?

Carefree singing from the prow of the ship is pretty awesome when the sky is clear and the waves are small.

It’s a solid recipe for being lost at sea and never seen again when you’re in a hurricane.

> Tech jobs at FAANG no longer look attractive or stable. Google hits the final nail in the coffin (not necessarily involving the layoffs)

This is already happening. FAANGs no longer pay the top dollars according to levels.fyi report: https://www.levels.fyi/2022

> and culture which more resemble 90s than 2020s

What was the culture like in 90s? Any articles/books I can read?

> Labor unrest will increase everywhere

Why do you think this will happen?

Aren’t you adding extra work for him out of pity?

I live in a small village. In it (and in neighbouring villages) the checkout ladies appreciate (even when it comes with some minor work) the occasional small talk.

(That said, in larger urbanised areas I appreciate self-checkout, because the former cashiers are now free to be wandering around the store, and very helpful for answering questions on locating items)

Better paid work for him than unpaid work for me

I think she never intended to be a billionaire. She doesn’t fall under the usual bucket of billionaires.

I’m sure Netflix in 2000 had a lot simpler tech stack than Twitter in 2020. However your point is taken.

I'm not sure. 2000 is pre-AWS which means a lot of easy things were more complicated than they are now. Though Twitter is famously on-prem as well, so maybe they're equivalent?

My impression is Twitter handles traffic and complexity in a different magnitude than Netflix in the 2000. Internet usage was significantly smaller back then.

On-prem is a good point though. I don’t know a lot about their core infra.

Where did you find that Elon was fired from Zip2 and PayPal?

As I mentioned elsewhere, I was wrong about Zip2; the board just refused to let him become CEO. But at PayPal, the board fired him after 6 months as CEO. That's documented in many places, including here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk#X.com_and_PayPal

I read it as an advice to chill, as in the opposite of working too hard.

When the valuation drops those money just evaporates. They don’t go into economy.

Looking at their last comment it looks like OP worked for Amazon.

It’s an interesting thought experiment to think what would happen if Amazon fails. It can bring down a big chunk of US economy with it.