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   Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 17-Aug-2025 01:43:39 JST Adrianna Tan

   I continue to be irritated by tech people who think they can ‘barista FIRE’ (retire with investments and get a service job to cover basic expenses and not be bored).

   As if owning expensive espresso machines and spending hours a day making the perfect espresso for yourself based on ‘science’ in any way qualifies you to work at a coffee shop. Especially when so many people who think this have never worked a service job.

   Working service jobs as a teenager and young adult absolutely shaped my politics and world view and experiences.

   • Rich Felker repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 17-Aug-2025 01:48:28 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     My parents supported the idea of me working in service jobs. By the time I was a teenager we were already solidly middle class. They grew up poor. They thought it was important for me to understand how the real world works. Other Chinese Singaporean middle class families absolutely baby-ed their kids and

     Let’s just say working in service jobs made me forever disappointed and disgusted by middle class Chinese Singaporeans

     I worked as a cashier at a fast paced restaurant / bar empire and a lot of my food and cultural consciousness also comes from

     Thai and Lao chefs feeding me delicious food all day and night

     And anger at the owners treating everyone not in a suit and tie like shit

     Rich Felker repeated this.
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     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 17-Aug-2025 01:51:57 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     There was me and another girl who worked closely together. We were in these jobs because we were between life stages (she was going to do her PhD). We thought sometimes that if we went off shift and put on nice clothes we would have been the people eating and drinking at these nice places. Our coworkers were people who, 20 years later, are still working at places like these.

     I’ll always remember feeling like ‘rich people treat everyone else like shit’. That feeling has never left me

   • Embed this notice
     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 17-Aug-2025 01:59:16 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     • Poloniousmonk

     @Uair having grown up among old money rich Chinese and white peolle, there is also a different strata of rich where being obviously oaf-like is a marker of not being in your social class. That class demands public displays of gentle elegance. Doesn’t mean they won’t do horrible and amoral things on paper, but they’re not the ones treating service workers like shit. Many of these folks may even tip generously.

   • Embed this notice
     Poloniousmonk (uair@autistics.life)'s status on Sunday, 17-Aug-2025 01:59:17 JST Poloniousmonk

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte

     I had a lot of service jobs, including barista, and I feel you. I really think this is, as Boston pointed out, 'More Than a Feeling':

     "I’ll always remember feeling like ‘rich people treat everyone else like shit’. That feeling has never left me"

     In fairness, there is a small percentage of rich people who understand the world and don't take their wealth for granted. Seems to be about ten percent, roughly the same percentage of deep thinkers in any population.

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     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 17-Aug-2025 02:04:57 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     • Poloniousmonk

     @Uair do you think that’s related to autism? I feel like that as well.

     I can 100% pretend to fit in (not typically associated with autism but I think we actually do this a lot because of masking) with anyone. Feeling not like a real part of any group.

     But yeah seeing through delusions and social standards and therefore being disliked by people who feel that is against the rules

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     Poloniousmonk (uair@autistics.life)'s status on Sunday, 17-Aug-2025 02:04:58 JST Poloniousmonk

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte

     I'm weird, class-wise. I was born into the middle of the middle. My gene donors were public school teachers. But my personality is pretty universally despised by the middle class. I get along with self-made rich people, who had to dispense with all illusions (delusions) in order to win the money game in highly rigged America, and I get along with the people at the absolute bottom, like in an African homeless shelter, who have no illusions (delusions) because they could never afford them.

     The people who need to believe bullshit to get through the day despise me. My very existence punctures the bullshit they need and lets in the vapors wafting out of the abyss.

   • Embed this notice
     ginevra (ginevra@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 17-Aug-2025 06:51:35 JST ginevra

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte if they want to work service jobs when they retire, they better be treating service workers now as equals, and they better be demonstrating lots of understanding for the stresses of service work. I bet they aren't. And as tech people, I bet they don't love interacting with a wide variety of customers, all day long. Do they show lots of patience with people in their current workplaces?

   • Embed this notice
     Analog AI (retreival9096@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 18-Aug-2025 01:57:36 JST Analog AI

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte ... maybe should be required for all of the following:
     1) Graduation from High-school
     2) If you somehow by pass (1), admittance to all college programs.
     3) Serving in any public office (more years of service for higher office)
     4) Any C-suite position in a company of over 50 people.