I actually tried a daily slack bot instead. The team HATED it with a passion. And the amount of productivity lost on other teams to a backend engineer blocking a systems designer being blocked by a UX flow etc is insanely large. We have never missed a deadline, hit all our revenue targets, and get much. much larger features done in 2/3rds of the time of the next nearest team. Part of that is because we’ve made sure to reinforce the concept that we are a single team instead of a group of server engineers, backened engineers, frontend engineers, system designers, [removed to protect identity] designers, econ specialists, UX designers, UI artists, and QA working in their own bubble.

I mean it really depends on the team. My role is as much translator as anything else. I have:

Infrastructure/Server

Backend

Frontend

Designers (three different kinds)

Performance/Econ specialists

QA

Hearing “Oh I didn’t know that, yeah we need to sync” is a common occurrence and on a team of nearly 20 people we never take more than 15mins. We have shared deadlines, shared goals, and work on shared user stories. Having that moment in the morning to go “okay, am I blocking anyone without realising it?” or “I gotta remember to make sure design knows the spreadsheet won’t have the thing they were expecting today, it’ll be Tuesday instead” is well worth the time.

On top of that, with WFH it’s a really good way to cement the team aspect. I wouldn’t care so much if we were in the office, but all being remote means we lose the “human” behind the screen a lot.

As I said, different teams and different projects need different things, but I’d argue the reason my team is the number one performing in the entire company is, in part, due to this morning time to get that alignment.

Depends on the team. My team do daily standup and it helps. A lot. “What are you working on today and do you need any help to get it done” is a super powerful question to make sure we’re all focusing on the same priorities and sharing the knowledge we have, especially in a team of mixed disciplines.

It is. The meme has four glottel stops, this has three. The meme has the “el” removed, this doesn’t. Weirdly, the meme has the “o” sound removed for for “of” as well.

It’s an entirely fictitious way of pronouncing something, it equates a very, very small subset of the country with “Britain” and is a great example of “fake American British accent” becoming the “norm” to the extent where British voice actors are training to put on voices to sound “more British” (such as Tracer in Overwatch).

The meme might as well say “burdle der wurder” and claim it’s how American’s say it - kinda close, but also really far 🤷

THAT’S how Americans think British people pronounce it? I was looking at the image for ages trying to sound it out.

Please tell me no one seriously thinks this?

“Worst” case I can think of is “Bo’el o’ wa’er” and even that is incredibly limited to like…four boroughs of London.

Pretty much the entire 4X mobile market, sadly.

My favourite “traditional” English meal is a good Steak and Kidney pie, made with an ale sauce. Seasoned with lots of pepper, Worcestershire sauce (anchovy sauce), onion and stock. Absolutely delicious.

Common myth, not true.

First recorded recipe for Shepherds Pie is from a Scottish cookbook from 1849. First recorded use of Cottage Pie is 1791 by an English clergyman.

Cottage Pie was used for both lamb and beef varieties until recently and was a way of eating leftover meats.

I read them recently - mostly it’s the same stuff as in the canon gospels tbh. Some have more of a Buhdist slant (Jesus isn’t God but we’re all god style) but nothing out there.

Gnostic Gospels is where it’s at! Oldest surviving (non metal/stone) books in existence!

Yeah, I don’t get it either. Weren’t most, if not all, ancient calendars lunar based? Far easier to work out a 28 day cycle than a 365.25 day cycle.

Gotcha! Though because it’s fetishism due to internalised racism spread over the centuries that means “white is right” it’s not okay to exploit!

Renato Constantino

Just asked my wife about this (she’s an author that’s just won funding to research and write about the history of the Philippines in her novels). These are her words paraphrased:

Oh yeah, Rizal was a reformist and thought of Spain as more of an abusive parent than something to overthrow. However, even at the time his work was really important to the revolution and his arrest led to the founding of the KKK (not that one) which was succeeded by the ongoing communist revolution. He directly, and against his will, led to the uprising that’s still a big feature of the country today.

America’s history with the country is a lot more complex than Spain. While Spain gained dominance by throwing their weight into an ongoing was between datus and changed the landscape to impose their hierarchy, America never really wanted the Philippines to begin with. Now, the Americas worship in the country is straight up horrifying, but that isn’t from the American period of rule but because of the brief period of Japanese rule as a contrast.

You do see how your last statement is not okay and plays into racial fetishism, right?

That’s interesting, I’ll give it a read. But I don’t entirely see how. He was first banished and then executed for his writing and thrown in an unmarked grave. During his life, his writing was the cornerstone of the burgeoning revolution against his wishes. This was all a fair chunk of time before the Spanish-American war.

Not…really. The racial hierarchy and the self-loathing are really Spain’s doing via the Church.

Spain was in control for 400 years and had clear racial caste system. They brought a new religion and used it to justify an incredibly evil rule. Lain America had governors, the Philippines had Friars (read Touch Me Not or Noli Me Tángere).

Compared with America, which in control for around 50 years and about 10% of that was the Japanese invasion. They are seen as liberators and saviours because of how utterly horrific the Japanese were (wasn’t just Korea with comfort women). In the early 20th century, a lot of the reforms in the Philippines by America were based around giving land to the farm workers and laying ground work for independence via the Insular government (so the cheap sugar supply could be blocked from entering the US market).

The big thing I will say from my experience there: the people are AMAZING. I didn’t get ripped off, everyone was so friendly, got to play basketball with a group of kids and had a blast. And the nature is incredible.

It also had some of the most downtrodden areas I’ve ever seen, some of the biggest displays of wealth disparity, and after a few weeks on different islands, Manilla felt more like a theme park for the rich than any kind of city.

Overall, really recommend it, but try going off the beaten path!

Man in 30s married to a half-Filipina woman here. When we went to visit for our honeymoon it was really gross. LOTS of very, very old men with teenage girls.

I had women falling out of their chairs to look at me.

I had a woman literally fall over while trying to ogle me while walking down the street.

For our goodbye dinner, her Ate toasted us by saying “You have fulfilled all our dreams: you’ve married a white man.”

I had several people say how ugly they were because they were Filipino.

EVERY convenience store and super market had skin whitening creams.

It was my first experience of the Philippines and the first experience I had of racial fetishism. My wife got preferential treatment for being Mestizos.

The Spanish did a real number over there with their racial hierarchy bullshit.