Ashish Bhatia

@Empty_America Trump speaks sets the tone on Twitter. Vance speaks to mimic the tone set by Twitter.

@Empty_America That's what schools and offices in India do. There is a summer time and there is a winter time.

The solution is all "clock change" issues is to set 12:00pm at approximately solar noon year-round (this is Standard Time) and allow businesses and individuals to set their scheduales accordingly. Your job can have "summer hours" in July and August without changing clocks!

@Empty_America To be fair, the US mass affluence has outpaced other G8 countries only in the last decade.

One of the oddest things about X is how no one talked about "mass affluence" until I started pushing the term. If you were a foreigner you could be on here for years and never learn about the massive, post-2000, rings of suburban hyper affluence that surround every US city!

@GergelyOrosz Tech-wise, it is #1 But product & reliability decisions have been questionable. news.ycombinator.com/item?id=416147…

I'm sorry, but in my book, GCP is now the #4 or #5 cloud provider, in terms of reliablity. #1 and #2: AWS and Azure #3 Oracle . . . #4 GCP. Always have a backup plan for another cloud if you use them, and do serious business

Beyond terrible look on GCP. They suspended a bunch of prod accounts... automated. No warning. Including that of Railway: an infra company spending $20M+ per year on the platform. Two years ago they deleted the prod account of a $100B+ fund. How can a serious company do this?

@Empty_America It is a pretty cool ship. I did earlier this year. Review coming up soon here ashishb.net/tag/cruise/

We gave up the Stars for this.

@Empty_America So. No sanctions on China didn't kill the regime. In fact, they look at India and USA as an example of why democracy doesn't work at scale.

The weird thing about "sanctions" on places like Cuba or Iran is that the sanctions very clearly extend the life of the regime. If they were opened up, the highly affluent USA-based diasporas would swarm back at once. You would see very rapid Americanization, Westernization.

Why is the West not curious on the great Indian 🇮🇳 civilization? This week Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Norway. The government rolled out the red carpet. King Harald invited for lunch. All bigwigs of Norwegian business turned up. This is of course as it should be at such a historic visit. Rather different was media. No curiosity, no real attempt to understand India. When the third most powerful man in the world visits Norway, you may expect some real interest? An attempt to understand the world’s third largest economy, a global green leader, one of the world’s brightest civilizations?? It’s not that Norway is overrun with visit at this level. Last Indian top visit was Indira Gandhi in 1983. Last Chinese president visit was 1996, last American president was 2009. Here are some taste bits from Norwegian media: * Aftenposten the largest newspaper printed a caricature of Modi as a snake charmer, many found it racist and derogatory. The accompanying article (written by an otherwise brilliant journalist) described Modi as a “slightly annoying man” and simply showcased that India is not high on the papers reading lists. * Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK), the state broadcaster, explained “why prime minister Støre is clearing his desk to receive Modi”. From everyone outside Norway I got exactly the opposite question: Why did Modi use his valuable time in such a small and insignificant place? * Dagsavisen, a left of center daily, sent a young journalist to throw questions after Modi - claiming that India is 157 on a global democracy ranking. When a ranking is so contrary to common sense - why doesnt she ask those who created the ranking why they spread such nonsense? I am not aware of one Norwegian journalist closely following India. NOT ONE! How can the public learn more? Unless you believe democracy only fits a handful of small, homogenous, ultra rich western nations, India is the miracle of democracy. The large, complex, lingustically and religiously diverse nation with many poor people - which has etablished a vibrant democracy and is much less violent than Europe or America. India can in fact make a claim to be the worlds most homegrown and impressive democracy. We are entering the Asian century. Unless we Europeans become more curious - to civiliazation, history, politics and economy in the Global South - we will become the big losers of history.

@Ashurhaddon Contrarian take: Hindi in 21st century is what English in 17th century was. A language of trade spoken by masses across the world. And with little intellectual or academic benefit. But given Indian emigrant population, it will become the next language of trade.

Is learning French a mistake? Seems like it’s one of those languages that could be fun to learn but locals will hate you speaking it. I already speak Spanish. Thinking of either French or Japanese next.

@AncientSavant I always take private rooms in hostels ashishb.net/travel/hotels-…

Many people from the lower middle class tend to avoid hostels, assuming they’ll be dirty, low-quality, or “poor people coded.” Their idea of luxury is everything being spotlessly white and almost clinically clean. In my experience backpacking around Europe, however, the opposite is true, especially if you avoid the absolute cheapest places. You mostly meet academics, upper-middle-class people, and occasionally even those from genuine upper-class backgrounds. If you’re in your 20s and traveling, hostels are actually one of the best ways to meet interesting people.

@Empty_America It is scientifically the right thing ashishb.net/parenting/gene…

Another example of "neo-morality." It used to be quite common for American men to marry a deceased wife's sister. Now it seems really transgressive for vague reasons that no one can explain.

@Empty_America Google software engineer in USA drives Tesla and has fancy vacations but no full-time maids. Google software engineer in India has no Tesla but has at least three maids that come daily - house cleaning, toilet cleaning, and cooking.

Being average in a wealthy country is a lot different than being wealthy in a poor country. In a wealthy country, imported "goods" are cheap but the average person has no special ability to consume the time and labor of other citizens. It doesn't feel like you expected.

@Empty_America @empty_america doesn't need that. Your broad insights on India and Europe are impressive compared to most Indians and Europeans themselves!

Despite having no technical knowelge whatsoever, I have consistently been quite bullish on Ai for a long time. I could sort of tell from the *tone* of the leading doubters that it was real. Deep down, they actually knew it was real all along, but constructed denials.

@Empty_America 4B to Korea is a cultural equivalent of small pox for native Americans. They have no immunity to it.

Like it or not, stuff like this might be why American and NW euro societies appear resistant against falling to TFR 0. You hit a certain floor with Westerners. While there appears to be no bottom for the more conscientious Asian societies.

@Empty_America Technology and leverage makes a huge difference now. An NYSE trader could not partically participate in Bombay stock exchange a 100 years back.

For a long time, it has been an article of faith that higher compensation indicated higher social utility or real productivity. In some cases this is clearly true (MDs) but covid suggested that the general trend might be the INVERSE. Also consider Only Fans, betting apps.

@TouchLumber I met a German girl in Ecuador. She told me about driving an auto/tuktuk from New Delhi to Chennai. Most Indians can't imagine pulling that off at that time! ashishb.net/travel/ecuador/

I’m motorcycling parts of Asia and I have been surprised to see loads of Frenchman and Dutch motorcyclists. Even a fair amount of women troops. Not a single american man other than myself. There are sexpat americans but they don’t count

@Empty_America When in I was taking my parents on the US highway. I told them "the real America is on the highway". They could contrast this with the saying is India that real India is in the villages.

The Knowledge of "how" to drive through America is somewhat a lost art. On the interstates, you can drive coast to coast and see almost nothing but ugliness, gas stations, etc. You need to research and follow the old "US Routes" these are 2 lane roads from the old days.

@Empty_America "we were the Nepal of Europe. Now, we import workers from Nepal" - as told by my Macedonian guide a few years back.

It would be interesting to see a european country "decline in place" but it may not happen. Even places like Romania or Moldova have no problem attracting immigrants. Once a certain point of economic pain is reached, seems like *everywhere* opens the doors.

@PeterMackness @edwest Indian origin is genetically verified though. They most likely were slaves taken by Turks.

@edwest I thought the story was they came from India, which always sounded a little far fetched

Interesting. In England Travellers had a similar exotic origin story - 'Gypsy' comes from Egypt - but Gregory Clark suggests in the Son Also Rises that they're entirely English in origin, people who at one point became a mobile rural underclass x.com/arash_tehran/s…

@Empty_America This sounds like Indian school system as well. Except that it does contribute one of the best groups of the US melting pot.

Interesting post about the excessively rigorous Italian school system (I think French school is similar). Oddly, this type of rigor never seems to accomplish anything other than making people unhappy. USA and even UK economically outperform such places.

@Empty_America Californified parts of India have the exact same problems as California. But 10X lower immunity!

It seems like modernity/anti-natalism has evolved into a stronger strain, it hits harder now. The effect is *more* dramatic when it reaches populations who haven't built up resistance to it over time. Like a novel disease.

@Empty_America One tragedy of traveling in the US and Europe is that there is nothing local (food or goods) that are worth trying. Go to India, the local markets will sell goods that won't exist 100 km outside of that.

Everyone wishes someone else would engage in localist business.