dshoemaker
> It's your art, you can choose whatever skin tones you wish.
This is pretty self evident, no?
I don't understand this sentiment at all. Identifying positive aspects in existing religions is perfectly fine (I'd even argue there is some amount of virtue to it). How is it possibly ghoulish to see good in other cultures/religions and bring that into your practice? One example that comes to mind are religions where consumption of meat is eschewed. If you find that the rationale that Jainism provides for a vegan lifestyle resonates with you, why can't you incorporate that into your life for those reasons?
> Educational attainment varies among the nation’s immigrant groups, particularly across immigrants from different regions of the world. Immigrants from Mexico and Central America are less likely to be high school graduates than the U.S. born (54% and 47%, respectively, do not have a high school diploma, vs. 8% of U.S. born). On the other hand, immigrants from every region except Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America were as likely as or more likely than U.S.-born residents to have a bachelor’s or advanced degree.
Not the OP you're responding to but your own source disagrees with your assertion. Relevant quotes above, emphasis mine. Also, I'm not against immigration but it gets old seeing accusations of xenophobia when someone is trying to have a reasonable conversation about the very real macro-level challenges involved in immigration. Stifling this sort of discourse also ends up being a disservice to people that have worked very hard to immigrate to the US as it can lead to people sweeping under the rug the challenges people will face when arriving.
The monetary value of private equity is in most cases nonexistent. If it is a private company that is not already riding high (think airbnb when everyone knew it had struck gold) then the equity offer is nothing but a lottery ticket. I took a pay cut at a startup that sold me on accepting the offer with the pitch: "if we were to sell for $100 million like XYZ company, you'll be a millionaire". We ended up unable to raise another round of funding and my equity became worthless. Obviously this is my own biased personal experience and if you believe in the company and think the experience + shot at growing something is worth it to you, go for it! My experience was financially less ideal, but it led to a number of opportunities down the line that I wouldn't take back. But understand that trying to convert your esops into a direct monetary value isn't easy to do because they aren't terribly liquid (unlike vested equity in a publicly traded company).
Things to ask: Have they recently raised a round of funds and at what valuation? Why are they raising the money? What sort of operational runway do they have?
Besides that, and somewhat related to your question, starting/joining a book club was one of the more enjoyable things I did in my reading life. Get a group of people together and spend some time talking about what you're reading! In my case, we weren't even reading the same books, it was just another place to talk through things that really hit home while we were reading.
edit: and of course I come across an article about a silent book club here on HN right after writing this. Book clubs are for everyone but I think the format here can help broaden the audience https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22023996