NubWizard's recent activity

  1. Comment on What is, in your opinion, missing on Tildes? in ~tildes

    NubWizard
    Link
    I have been on a comedy kick for awhile now so I would say ~comedy would be a nice addition where interested users could post stand up comedy bits, parodies, and any other high-effort forms of...

    I have been on a comedy kick for awhile now so I would say ~comedy would be a nice addition where interested users could post stand up comedy bits, parodies, and any other high-effort forms of comedy. I know there have been talks for ~fluff but I would envision ~comedy to be more like ~music.

    4 votes

  2. Comment on Meal kit delivery services like Blue Apron have an overall smaller carbon footprint than grocery shopping because of less food waste and a more streamlined supply chain in ~food

    NubWizard
    Link Parent
    I have found a food saver to be really helpful in situations like this. You can buy in bulk and then repackage everything at home for single servings. Or you can cook in large batches and freeze...

    I have found a food saver to be really helpful in situations like this. You can buy in bulk and then repackage everything at home for single servings. Or you can cook in large batches and freeze the leftovers really easily into individual servings.

    2 votes

  4. Comment on How is Tildes doing? in ~tildes

    NubWizard
    Link Parent
    I go through periods of lurking and posting. Mostly because I browse Tildes on mobile and making long, detailed comments is difficult due to the keyboard and difficulty formatting several links. I...

    I go through periods of lurking and posting. Mostly because I browse Tildes on mobile and making long, detailed comments is difficult due to the keyboard and difficulty formatting several links. I would like to get in a contributing mood again soon but I will definitely need to find some interesting content to post about.

    2 votes

  5. Comment on On hiring for tech positions: How do you get what you need from the HR department? in ~comp

    NubWizard
    Link
    Hello, HR person here. How about I answer some of these and let you know why sometimes it is a frustrating experience. "HR" in this situation includes many different people. You are going to have...

    Hello, HR person here. How about I answer some of these and let you know why sometimes it is a frustrating experience.

    Let’s say you have a new opening in your department. In what ways do you involve HR? (That could be anything from, “give them general guidelines and let them choose the best candidates for me to interview” to “I do the search myself, and use HR only for on-boarding.”) What makes you choose that path? How much choice do you have in the matter?

    "HR" in this situation includes many different people. You are going to have compensation and recruiters who will need to intake properly communicated qualifications and find people that meet that criteria. Everyone who is considered a candidate has to be taken through the wringer in as similar as possible in a legally defensible manner (i.e. you aren't discriminating against your talent pool). This is extremely important for compliance with the OFCCP. Looking at that link there is a lot involved with this step.

    Then once you choose a candidate, you still have to compensate them which where Compensation comes in. Most managers aren't going to know the intricate details of what their competitors are doing in this area nor do they know what the labor market looks like to give a decent offer that doesn't break the department's budget.

    Then Learning and Organizational Development comes in to help onboard a new hire. Poor onboarding can lead to a very good new hire to leave the workplace before a year is up. This wastes everyone's time and many positions are extremely costly to fill. In addition, my experience would say that many tech managers don't realize how important a structured onboarding program is to retaining those new hires. A lot needs to go into it to make new hires feel comfortable in their role.

    • Half of all senior outside hires fail within 18 months in a new position.
    • Half of all hourly workers leave new jobs within the first 120 days.
      SHRM

    What weaknesses have you discovered in your HR department’s ability to serve the needs of a tech-focused department?

    From an HR perspective, what is the weakness of other departments? I would say a lack of understanding on labor laws in the state, an inflexibility to work within these laws, and a general dismissiveness to any research and practice from research in the industrial organizational psychology sphere. I spent time in graduate school researching and understanding things like organizational justice, job characteristics theory, organizational behavior management, and reading all sorts of screwed up court case reviews in employment law like Duke v Griggs Power, Meritor Savings Bank v Vintor, Pricewaterhouse v Cooper, Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, only to be told that HR's bureacratic process is unnecessary and "I know what's best". Meanwhile, only white dudes in their 20s and 30s are hired, sexual harassment complaints become a real liability, and no one wants to work for the company because its gotten a bad rep on glassdoor.

    I have found the best companies are those that utilize HR in a business partner format where HR is there for guidance and help, while the managers respects the advice and work to make an enjoyable work environment for their team.

    Are there bad HR reps out there that seem out of touch and unhelpful? Absolutely.

    Are there bad managers out there that will break employment compliance because they deem its dumb? Absolutely.

    I could make a big write up similar to this about how IT gets in my way at work. But I won't because even though I can't install Chrome extensions on my machine, I'm confident that the IT people know more about network security than I do. I know they deal with the lowest common denominator in the organization and that typically shapes their processes and focus. Its absolutely the same thing in HR.

    11 votes

  6. Comment on Bing Crosby - Brother, can you spare a dime? (1932) in ~music

    NubWizard
    (edited )
    Link
    I came across this song when reading the the book Hard Knocks: An Oral History of the Great Depression E.Y. (Yip) Hamburg:

    I came across this song when reading the the book Hard Knocks: An Oral History of the Great Depression

    E.Y. (Yip) Hamburg:

    The prevailing greeting at that time, on every block you passed, by some poor guy coming up, was: "Can you spare a dime?" Or: "Can you spare something for a cup of coffee?"... "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?" finally hit on every block, on every street. I thought that could be a beautiful title. If I could only work it out by telling people, through the song, it isn't just a man asking g for a dime.

    This is the man who says: I built the railroads. I built that tower. I fought your wars. I was the kid with the drum. Why the hell should I be standing in line now? What happened to all this wealth I created?

    I think that's what made the song. Of course, together with the idea and meaning, a song must have poetry. It must have the phrase that rings a bell. The art of song writing is a craft. Yet, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" opens up a political question. Why should this man be penniless at any time in his life, due to some fantastic thing called a Depression or sickness or whatever it is that makes him so insecure?

    In the song the man is really saying: I made an investment in this country. Where the hell are my dividends? Is it a dividend to say: "Can you spare a dime?" What the hell is wrong? Let's examine this thing. It's more than just a bit of pathos. It doesn't reduce him to a beggar. It makes him a dignified human, asking questions - and a bit outraged, too, as he should be.

    Everybody picked the song up in '30 and '31. Bands were playing it and records were made. When Roosevelt was a candidate for President, the Republicans got pretty worried about it. Some of the network radio people were told to lay low on the song. In some cases, they tried to ban it from the air. But it was too late. The song had already done it's damage.

    1 vote

  8. Comment on What if we eliminated "ownership" of link topics? in ~tildes.official

    NubWizard
    Link Parent
    I disagree, there should be a diversity of ideas and viewpoints within reason and I believe we should foster an environment that promotes that diversity. They will know but they won't be publicly...

    If someone is so sensitive that criticising their post causes them to stop posting... there's no downside to Tildes. In fact, it's an upside: we lose a source of potential problems.

    I disagree, there should be a diversity of ideas and viewpoints within reason and I believe we should foster an environment that promotes that diversity.

    That's not going to be solved by removing a person's username from their submissions. If they submit a post that isn't well received they will still know.

    They will know but they won't be publicly criticized/ostracized for it. The only feedback most should receive is a lack of discussion surrounding the topic for submitting a poor topic. Content should be evaluated not by who posted it but what is within the content itself.

    It comes from other people seeing that someone keeps posting good content (regardless of what votes it gets), and therefore respond more positively to that submitter.

    People should be judged on the content of their own ideas and how they support those ideas rather than the content that someone else created/produced, that the user happened to find.

    I think I understand where your coming from and the intention is good in my mind. You contribute a positive behavior, you get positively rewarded. However, my feelings regarding negativity bias and the way I have watched communities get utterly caught up in social systems they have decided to gamify has led me to feel that most internet communities are a waste of time due to the lack of genuine and meaningful content. The idea of social pressure (positive or negative) as a means for filtering participation just doesn't sound like a good thing to me and I think Tildes has an opportunity to try something new here.

    I think you should build reward systems that are directly tied to the behaviors you are trying to promote. In the case of Tildes, a reward system that ties points, tags, and public recognition works great with promoting the creation of meaningful dialog. But I just don't feel like that same system should be applied to link submission as there isn't nearly as much work involved with it as there is for making your own meaningful comments. So with that, the tagging system and points system are key to categorizing and moving content so they should stay, but the recognition for submitting a link is the easiest to toss, especially when you consider the reasons I listed in my first reply to you.

    6 votes

  9. Comment on What if we eliminated "ownership" of link topics? in ~tildes.official

    NubWizard
    Link Parent
    Because I would theorize a few things based on my experience on the internet and my knowledge of psychology: While positive reinforcement is great, when some gets a negative response, the negative...
    • Exemplary

    But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Positive social reinforcement of a desirable behaviour is an appropriate way to achieve things. If someone gets validation from posting good content, why is that a problem? The site gets good content, and the submitter gets validation: it's a win-win situation.

    Because I would theorize a few things based on my experience on the internet and my knowledge of psychology:

    1. While positive reinforcement is great, when some gets a negative response, the negative response has a disproportionate impact on someone's psychological state and processes than a neutral or even positive feedback. This is called negativity bias. I think we can all agree (for the most part) on the belief that the people on the internet and the interactions they have, are not always positive and are not always rational, devoid of their own biases and stereotypes. In my experience, interactions can veer into the cruel and critical real fast if something gets misinterpreted. All it can take is one harsh comment, calling out a user specifically or negatively tagging a post, to prevent that user from attempting to post again.

    2. Positive social validation in internet groups is, more often than not, only given when posts are made that align with a users world views or beliefs. Going back to the 1st point, internet users are not rational people and most are not systematically evaluating content in a standardized format to decide whether or not to vote positively or positively tag. I would posit that content will only be received positively from a group if the content matches values or beliefs that the group holds. For example, a liberal article will be more positively received than a conservative article by a liberal group, even if the conservative article has better content. E.g. Confirmation bias

    3. By having a user attach their name to the post, they needlessly attach their own social reputation to the content, altering a group's ability to objectively evaluate and respond to content. Going back to the liberal vs. conservative argument, if a user gets a (negative!) reputation for posting conservative articles that are not well-received in a liberal group, their name, and therefore their reputation, gets attached to the content. Again, I will say that people in general just aren't rational enough to work through these feelings, nor do they have the ability to withstand the cognitive load, to prevent them from thinking this way on a site like this where every link is evaluated, even at passing. I have too often seen users evaluate a poster's motive for posting content rather than discussing the actual content.

    All of these factors eventually cause group polarization and unnecessary group dynamics. If the goal of tildes is to promote good discussion, the positive validation should not come from a little number next to the article title, but rather than from the quality of the discussion it brings. By removing the user who posted, it provides a user the ability to post things that aren't mainstream in the group and not have to worry about being publicly stigmatized if it doesn't go well. If comments or discussion doesn't come, they can move on and submit again when they found something interesting again.

    If a person's self-worth or ego is tied to having some sort of social recognition for posting links on a site, I would say that that is unhealthy and a sign that there is something missing in that person's personal life and that Tildes is a poor substitute for whatever it is they are missing.

    7 votes

  10. Comment on What if we eliminated "ownership" of link topics? in ~tildes.official

    NubWizard
    Link
    I am in favor of removing usernames from link posts with some accountability on the back-end for spammers or poor posters. Would maybe caveat this that one day if the site does grow large enough,...

    I am in favor of removing usernames from link posts with some accountability on the back-end for spammers or poor posters. Would maybe caveat this that one day if the site does grow large enough, to limit link submissions only to users who have the trust built from their own dialogue on existing topics. I know some forums have the 'junior' phase that prevents users from making parent posts unless they have an arbitrary comment count but with the trust system, this could be a better transition and keep the focus on meaningful dialog rather than solely link aggregating.

    Having names attached to submissions only seems important to me if you are looking for some validation or public recognition for the content you submit. It creates a mad dash for when big news comes out to be 'FIRST!' posting which creates a flood of duplicate posts.

    2 votes

  11. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~food

    NubWizard
    Link
    I have been using harissa sauce for a dip with a surprising amount of foods. It's spicy but so good.

    I have been using harissa sauce for a dip with a surprising amount of foods. It's spicy but so good.

    1 vote

  12. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~food

    NubWizard
    Link Parent
    Fun fact, brushing won't do much for it. The compounds that give you bad breath after eating garlic is found in your lungs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garlic_breath?wprov=sfla1 My fiance and I...

    Fun fact, brushing won't do much for it. The compounds that give you bad breath after eating garlic is found in your lungs:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garlic_breath?wprov=sfla1

    My fiance and I were flabbergasted for awhile because we noticed each other's breath was a sour, acidic like quality. Sure enough, it was garlic that we were putting in everything because it's delicious.

    3 votes

  13. Comment on Here’s what happened when I quit drinking a year ago in ~life

    NubWizard
    Link
    That comment about noticing how prevalent alcohol consumption is after you stop drinking is so true. I remember going to Denver and just being amazed at how many bars there were. Growing up in TN...
    • Exemplary

    That comment about noticing how prevalent alcohol consumption is after you stop drinking is so true. I remember going to Denver and just being amazed at how many bars there were. Growing up in TN and VA, I was so used to liqour being sold at liquor stores while grocery stores were reserved for beer and more recently in TN, wine. I'm in CA now and it's astonishing the amount of space that's reserved for liquor at Safeway.

    Then I come to work and hear about small quips of everyone getting drunk on the weekends, or my coworker telling me they were hungover.

    Drinking is just a huge part of our culture that when you aren't a part of it anymore, it just becomes so clear how prevalent it is. It reminds me of how when people are fixated on being a certain way (happy, beautiful, smart), you become hyperaware of the things that don't make you that way.

    I can also relate to that awkwardness when someone brings up drinking and you say you don't drink. That awkward pause my boss gave me after I said u don't drink when he talked about relaxing at the end of the day. The follow-up questions wondering if it's a religious thing. The stare when you can feel people looking at you like an alcoholic.

    But at this point I just tell people why I don't drink. It makes me unhappy. It made me realize that being drunk doesn't end with a hangover but rather with depression. I could see that one or two beers at the end of a workday had a noticeable depressive effect on my mood for 1-2 weeks.

    I quit because that lingering feeling was divorcing me from reality and forgetting the positive ways to cope with emotions. Too often I would feel like I needed to drink to relax. Or to have fun. Or to play video games. Or to get over being sad. Being sober, I can recognize my feelings more and yeah, when I'm mad or sad or bored or stressed, I don't have a quick release valve that temporariky removes them, but it makes the good things in my life that much sweeter when they come back in my focus.

    9 votes

  14. Comment on TWRP - Atomic Karate (2018) in ~music

    NubWizard
    Link
    This song was recommended to me on Spotify out of nowhere, but is exactly what I have been looking for with its 80s synth and funk. If you like this, the entire Ladyworld album sounds amazing to...

    This song was recommended to me on Spotify out of nowhere, but is exactly what I have been looking for with its 80s synth and funk. If you like this, the entire Ladyworld album sounds amazing to me so far.

    1 vote

  20. Comment on Should employees keep their salary a secret? in ~finance

    NubWizard
    Link
    Practicing open compensation and pay transparency communication within the workplace is successful when its part of the company's culture and that the compensation/performance management system...

    If it comes into effect, it’s bound to be either the type of workplace disclosure that results in greater fairness among team members or, counterproductively, greater discontent. My money’s on the latter. I only think that way because this all reminds me of a time I came perilously close to being fired. All I’d done was tell a colleague – someone I’d actually considered a friend – the size of my bonus. He erupted and immediately went to my manager’s manager demanding his be doubled. The bedlam and discipline that ensued have since stuck with me, especially the harsh lesson most companies seem to enforce: that people must never disclose their pay to their peers at work.

    Practicing open compensation and pay transparency communication within the workplace is successful when its part of the company's culture and that the compensation/performance management system has been communicated and viewed just by the employees. Of course if I told everyone at my workplace how much I made, some would probably feel really good about themselves and others would feel bad or resentment towards me, but that's because the negotiation for their salary came after their benchmark of what their peers are making.

    Compensation as a practice relies heavily on company's knowing what is being paid out to people in similar roles and functions, within the same geographic location, within the same business area. The company already starts out negotiating using salary data that costs way more than what you would be able to afford for yourself and negotiate properly. It would be way more worker friendly to have the same compensation and salary information as the organization has when negotiating a salary upon offer of employment. If you know how much your future co-workers are making, you can assess what is fair for you based on your knowledge, skills, and experience.

    The key is pay transparency. Imagine a justice system where no one knew the punishment lengths for different crimes. Or imagine if individual pricing was a thing and you didn't know how much an item would cost until you were brought to register to check-out. Its unfair because the knowledge for negotiation is lop-sided. If we had pay transparency and a culture that were willing to talk about it, we could have much more consensus I feel on issues like gender wage gap.

    3 votes