What you said applies to race and sex. People expect their engineers to look and act like RMS, so minorities tend to have to "prove" they belong.

Manufactured consent precedes the Snowden leaks by perhaps a century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Opinion_(book)#Manufact...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent

Driving is proven to be very dangerous but our government still encourages us to brave traffic every day.

With regulations, including government issued id and adult supervision of people under a certain age.

Driving in a necessity in most of America, alcohol and tobacco is not.

Driving is not “very dangerous”?

People decide they break the law for the right reasons all the time. Do you not speed while driving?

No, because in here speeding tickets are based on a percentage of my income.

I can't afford to speed =)

In order for someone's existence to be acceptable, they should provide value? Monetary value? Or does human life intrinsically have value, making this a tautology...?

I really wonder what this means in terms of how the homeless or the elderly are treated.

It may sound different, such as "That's a great question"

I worked for 5 years at an American company in Australia and I heard this multiple times per day from my US colleagues - my conclusion after heard it said to the most basic questions was that it’s mostly a filler phrase used to buy time while the respondent thinks up an answer.

It's a culture thing, I had a similar experience after the company I worked at was bought out by an American company.

In any exchange with the US, any question asked was responded to with, "That's a great question!".

It was probably just filler but definitely came across as incredibly patronising to our ears.

It's certainly filler, but it's usually meant to mean "I'm taking your question seriously, but I don't know the answer at this moment".

Not super relevant but I’ve noticed recently that when I ask someone a question, they start their answer with the word “absolutely” even though the question was not a yes or no question.

Is this a time-filler like “that’s a great question” for extreme people pleasers? Or just an agreeability signal? To me it makes the answerer seem overeager to share. It could just be regional culture.

Depends heavily on how it's said. If it's flat with no derivation from the previous sentences intonation, it is probably filler. If it intentionally stands out, it is probably not.

Personally, I use the phrase often as a Senior IC in a way that makes it clear it t is not filler. I also use phrases such as, "Hell if I know, let's google it and find out together."

i haven't had the good luck to work with enlightened or humble people

Based on the rest of that sentence you quoted, it is the most among midwestern states.

thanks, that wasn't clear at all. But even among Midwest states, that is not true. (KS, MO, SD, ND, NE are all more republican) https://www.bls.gov/regions/midwest/midwest.htm

Your virtual assistant is not going to remind you of things that you did not devote to telling a virtual assistant in the first place. Your spouse is more likely to help fill in the unintentional places you might have missed in your intentional day to day actions.

Well, it's way easier to replace a bad assistant than a wife.

That assumes no corruption. Hard to partake in the democratic process when kickbacks and bought votes exist.

> That said, there is still an appetite for talent at well-funded, early-stage companies in emerging areas, including electric-vehicle batteries, as the auto industry shifts away from gas-powered cars, and artificial intelligence, a technology with the potential to change industries that has prompted a global race to build AI products.

My Wellfound (previously AngelList) inbox begs to differ!