China does a variant of this where the whole country is on Beijing time. 99% Invisible did an episode that covered it here: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/matters-of-time/

Basically the local Uyghur population in Xinjiang code switch and maintain an unofficial local time which aligns more closely with the movement of the sun.

TRAINS

Given that they own all of the source code (CLA is required to contribute), they can just stop offering the code under GPL, unless they happen to have any GPL dependencies not under their control, in which case this would not be viable.

I’ve always been writing comments and using variable names in English, at all jobs I’ve had. Probably also the non-professional code before I started writing code professionally.

Part of this is that I’ve been working in a lot of companies with non-Swedish speakers, and another part is that it’s just kind of been expected that the code and everything around it is in English.

The developers get less, but it ends up costing more to employ people in the EU. In the US, the rule of thumb - for white collar, non-executive jobs, at least - is 1.4x the salary for TCE (and it’s often reasonable to round up to 1.5). For EU employees, it’s between 1.5 and up to 1.8. Norway is 1.7; I don’t know what Sweden is, but I’d assumed it’s around the same.

So I get where you’re coming from, but this is really not true, and I’ll provide you with some numbers as to why it is not true.

Let’s check out the median salaries for senior engineers in Stockholm using levels.fyi: https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/levels/senior/locations/greater-stockholm

As levels.fyi automatically converts to local currency, this is specified as 800k SEK, or 76k USD in today’s currency exchange. We can multiply that by the factor you provided for Norway, giving us 137k USD.

Now let’s plug in the numbers for San Francisco: https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/levels/senior/locations/san-francisco-bay-area

3.375m SEK, or 321k USD. Using your factor for the U.S, we get 448k USD.

The contrast is of course the largest for San Francisco which is the most high-paying area for engineers, but the thought experiment is basically replicable for any city with a tech scene in the U.S, which is most comparable to Stockholm, which is the most expensive city in Sweden and which has a tech scene.

Essentially the TCE cannot explain the discrepancy in salaries in tech between Europe and the U.S.

Before we inevitably go there, COL does not adequately explain it either - San Francisco is very expensive, but Stockholm is far from being a cheap place to live either. Even when adjusting for this factor, the total amount left after living expenses is quite significantly higher for someone on a U.S salary.

It’s basically a fool’s errand to try to logically explain this discrepancy. The honest answer is that capitalism follows no strict logic, and pay becomes whatever the people with the money can get away with. They just happen to be able to get away with far less in Europe.

As a caveat, you can definitely find cheaper devs than those prices when looking outside of the U.S. 90k would get you pretty close to the top in Sweden for local companies, for example.

That the buildings are owned by the collective of the tenants, which they are in this case.

200k or more is pretty normal for a unit in a coop here as well. Unfortunately.

Financialization of housing was a huge mistake, one we will pay for the rest of our lives.

Mood honestly

Yeah, it really is a perfect item for communal ownership.

This is considered standard equipment in all apartments in Sweden, both co-op and rentals.

We had that where I grew up, but mostly heavier machine tools like stuff to cut firewood, trailers to haul stuff etc. Cost just $10 a year and you could borrow it as much as you needed. Banger of an idea to be honest.

I know condos exist,

What’s your objection to condos in this case?

I live in an apartment co-op which in many ways is excellent. Highly efficient in both energy, economy and effort required from me. I’m not sure that I’ll ever want to live in a house, this is probably the ideal state for me.

For the record, lunch time is not considered paid time in Sweden either.

I seriously doubt they will actually phase it out, with such a popular TLD. They made an exception for .su, I don’t see why they wouldn’t this time as well.

99% Invisible

lmfao what

Yet another reason why car-focused transportation is a hilariously dumb idea.

Build some transit already

I never hear my neighbors in my apartment. I’m also living close enough to bike or take transit everywhere I want to go, and spending less overall on housing thanks to being part of a very well run apartment cooperative. I also get to skip out on the major hassle of having to maintain everything in the building I own myself.

There’s even a gym in the building which costs a rounding error per year to be a part of.

Cycling has been a massive boon to my health, both mental and otherwise. It’s such a fun way to get around, and just so happens to be great exercise in the process.