Momentary pity party aka I Don't Like being A Manager:
Three weeks ago I got a call from a client asking if one of my staff was alive, basically, because the client had a report that was supposed to be done in October and the staff member had been ghosting them for the last six weeks. I get with staff member, we'll call them V. V ghosts me too for a while, when we finally connect I offer to help finish the report together with them, I get no response, client is asking for an update, any update, on the schedule. V sends a report that's half-assed, so I promise the client I'll have additional staff work on it. I spend the entire weekend in the office re-writing the report myself. I come in Monday morning to V's resignation by email.
I start managing all of the shit required for a resignation and having nightmares about how hard it will be to onboard someone new. (The work we do is custom and complex and V typically did good work and will be challenging to replace.) I meet many times with the client being overly-accommodating to try to just get this nightmare project out of my life.
I get things somewhat manageable and head off to T-day weekend with intent to spend time away in the quiet finishing the report. While in the car leaving for holiday away, I get an email from one of V's *other* clients saying we thought we'd have a report yesterday, WTH is going on, can we just stop paying you and finish the report ourselves? My boss is copied and they start panicking b/c this client is a big deal.
Spent half my long weekend on the second client and Sunday on the original one. Two super unhappy clients and one former staff who has essentially eff'd up the rest of my year. Today I'm trying to finish the first report and finish one of my own that's now overdue and do all the end of year admin crap that I'm now two weeks behind on.
TLDR: I don't like being a manager. I love my job, I love the WORK itself, but I don't like managing other people. And partly it's because I guess I'm enough of a narcissist to think I can do the work better than anyone else so why don't I just do so?!
Anyway, I may ask to be demoted in 2025.
Grateful to have found LoFi Girl holiday tunes to work with today!
I was asked if I would be upset not being offered a director position, I felt a millisecond of annoyance, I firmly stated that I liked my life the way it was, I was challenged in the work, I like solving problems, managing projects and seeing get constructed. I don't want to stop doing that to manage people.
JLC-1, the story of all my professional experience...
I am very proud of Brian's statement "BAM Construction/Design, Inc. consists of a loose federation of architects, designers, and artisans who are willing to take on anything and everything, from mobile home remodels to upscale penthouses, from agricultural buildings to 50,000 sq. ft. advertising agencies."
Yikes! I get pissed managing 2-3 people on my project team, even though they are great and we have worked together for a while, I cannot even imaging managing more people.
Dec 9, 24 3:07 pm ·
·
Wood Guy
Wow, that's terrible, Donna. It's good that you're there to clean up the mess but are you really compensated enough for that? I'm with you, I love designing, but not managing people--they're just too unpredictable. And I really do think I'm better at most of what I do than the architects and drafters I've hired, though on a few occasions I was probably wrong. In the last ten years, my former long-time drafter has become a principal at a tony residential firm and designs $20-60M compounds for wealthy people.
Dec 10, 24 10:21 am ·
·
archanonymous
Donna - it sound like you don't like being a manager. So you should, like, stop doing that. Life is meant to be enjoyed!
Be careful of you sources. I am not saying anything that's been posted here is incorrect. It's just that I've seen a lot of stuff posted elsewhere on this topic that isn't correct.
Dec 10, 24 2:20 pm ·
·
OddArchitect
JCL-1 - I don't speak Italian. Can you translate that?
Dec 10, 24 2:59 pm ·
·
JLC-1
It's one of the main newspapers in Italy, showing comments on tiktok, originally in the us, but only being reported by foreign media - about the horrors people have endured with UHC denying coverage, asking doctors about life expectancy to assess payments, and mostly hailing Luigi as a hero. Instagram has a built-in translator btw.
Dec 10, 24 3:14 pm ·
·
OddArchitect
Ah. Thanks!
Translator doesn't work for the entire comment. Also, won't translate the image text. Probably because I'm not on my phone but a pc. I'll check it out on my phone . . .
While I understand the frustration I don't view the accused killer as a hero or some type of Robin Hood figure. It's a grey area. I'd like to read the accused manifesto before I make an judgements.
In my opinion, killing cand be justified in many situations. I'm not sure if this is one of them.
Our revit, of autodesk, hallowed be thy name, your sheet set come, your view templates done, on all views as they are in heaven.
Give us today our daily error warnings. Forgive us our sins, as we have used other software against you. Lead us not into temptation of sketchup and deliver us from the evils of rhino.
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory of architecture, forever and ever. Amen.
Every time I have to completely trace a view with detail lines to make it look anywhere near a damn, I add a teeeeny tiny little pentagram that only I know is there.
Non, your comment feels to me it could apply the USian healthcare system, too. Sure, you can learn your way around it well enough, but why should the difficulty exist in the first place?
Your entire US health plan is a joke and a mess, unlike Revit which is just a tool. Too many old farts complain about Revit because they don't take the time to learn it or they get conned by junior staff or salespeople who pimp it well beyond it's capabilities.
Oh, don't get me started. Being an American with T1D, finding health insurance has been the major deciding factor on where I work, who I work with, and when I can retire. It's very frustrating.
revit is annoying, but also very nice for working quick and getting drawings out. While USA healthcare is a mess, I find Canada a pain as well in comparison to Japan. It is amazing that I can get care for free, walk in to a place with a problem, and then simply walk out not owing any money to anyone. Yay Canada.
On the flip side , it takes a long time to get to that free care sometimes, and that makes no sense.
At home in Japan we can walk into any specialist anywhere and get treated immediately. No referrals required. More important, those specialists are scattered all around us, working in clinics attached to their homes, in the suburbs, in the city centre, wherever. And the care is top notch. We can go to hospitals too, but decentralized and highly regulated care is possible
with just a little political will.
The big similarity between Revit and US healthcare is yes, it can really work when you know your way around it. I have learnt that rather painfully about US healthcare.
The big learning is that if you pay way more premiums for a PPO plan, things get easier. Kinda like how one has to pay out of their ass for an Autodesk Suite.
Being the outlier here, I hate Revit and always will. Sketchup>Revit>AutoCAD>Rhino.
For all the programs they are just tools. I use just as much hand sketching (about to start using a digital drawing pad) as REVIT. When it was only AutoCAD it was the same. Never really used Sketchup. With the digital sketching I probably will start. Oh the learning never ends.
Regarding US health care - SOD is spot on. I had to learn early how to understand and navigate US health care. I would say it's way more difficult than REVIT.
I have a love-hate relationship with Revit, just as I do with American healthcare.
On the one hand, Revit is a frustrating, annoying, limiting piece of crap with a closed ecosystem that can't deliver on most of Autodesk's promises. On the other hand, it's an immensely powerful tool for accomplishing the tasks its designed to do - to the point where it's really the only serious option for doing those things. I hate Autodesk passionately, and yet Revit allows my business to function at a high level and deliver great products at shocking speed. I'll take that.
On one hand, American healthcare is mired in an incredibly f***ed-up system of administrative and financial complexity, none of which has anything to do with providing healthcare. On the other hand, the American healthcare system delivers the highest level of quality care in the world when it's actually doing healthcare. That system kicked my daughter off my health plan because she had her 26th birthday, despite her being intensively treated for stage 4 cancer, leaving her with no easy way to pay for very expensive treatments. The system also found a way to help her get coverage, and then saved her life with heroic measures and treatments only available in the US. She is now cancer free. I'll take that, too.
Dec 12, 24 6:29 pm ·
·
OddArchitect
I think we've had this discussion before gwathorn. There is no evidence that American healthcare is the 'highest level of quality care in the world'. In fact, America ranks 38th in quality of healthcare in the world.
Funny how literally anybody who can afford to comes here to get critical health care when the stakes are really high. If my daughter had stayed in Canada after her cancer diagnosis, she'd be dead right now. There were only two cities in the world where the treatment that cured her is available, and both are in the USA.
Dec 13, 24 12:19 pm ·
·
JLC-1
it's not funny for those who can't afford it, especially americans.
gw, you've given us this story before and I'm happy it worked out for you but this is an exception. For everyone else, it's a terrible system. The only people who boast of the greatness of the USA health care system are those for whom money is not a concern. This is why it's far better everywhere else.
No one is disputing the quality of the Healthcare in America, we are either not rich enough, or poor enough to get it without going bankrupt. Why is this so fucking hard to understand? Capping a couple of CEOs while funny as fuck, ain't gonna solve the problem; Nationalize Healthcare.
gwharton - as before - the US doesn't have the best healthcare in the world. The US doesn't even have the best specialized healthcare in the world. There are various other countries that far exceed the US in certain types of specialized care.The US does have the best cancer research in the world.
You're statement that "literally anybody who can afford to comes here to get critical health care when the stakes are really high" is not true. You know this because we've been through this before.
Your daughter was extremely luck to get to see a specialist. Your daughter was even more lucky to not have to pay for it. 99% of the rest of the country wouldn't of had that outcome.
To gwharton's point - the US is amazing when it comes to severe diseases like cancer. It is not just about the research facilities here, but there is somehow a certain kind of "compassion" here when it comes to those diseases. Mind you, there are many stories of people getting kicked out of coverage when they are in their 4th round of chemo cuz etc, but it is still rare compared to many other countries where you die or resort to quack medicine cuz you did not have funds saved up. I know this from personal experience of my mom.
The bigger problem is for smaller ailments, which are common when one starts to get older. For example we need an expensive PPO insurance just to keep our GP and Pediatrician in network, as they accept only PPO. Doctors are rather fed up with the HMO system. This is where other developed countries excel. Although i just heard from a friend in the UK, that he has to bear his kidney stone pain for about 8 months as the next appointment is only in august of next year, so who knows. ?
It would be great if the subsidized Obamacare was available to medium earners the same way they are available to low earning families. It would necessitate us not sponsoring proxy wars or investing so heavily in the military industrial complex. though.
Some folks here seem to have a lot of difficulty distinguishing between the quality and capability of medical care, and the administrative delivery system used to deliver that care to patients. The USA has an incredibly high, essentially incomparable, capability and quality of care, with an absolutely disastrous delivery system. That delivery system is the problem. We have combined all the worst aspects of for-profit care with all of the worst aspects of socialized care. If you don't have the resources necessary to escape or bypass that system, you are locked into a nightmarish hellscape of administrative bullshit to get access. So, you all hating all over the US medical system need to focus on what the real problem is rather than repeating propaganda talking points distributed by the various competing interests associated with existence and perpetuation of the problem. It's especially rich to see people talking up Obamacare, which seems like it was specifically written by the insurance industry and their governmental enablers to make quality health care in America as inaccessible as possible for the majority of people while enriching themselves.
Dec 13, 24 2:16 pm ·
·
sameolddoctor
I dunno, gwarton, but Obamacare (or lets call it the ACA to make it less divisive) has changed a lot of stuff for good, especially the pre existing condition clause, which it did away with. It is not at all perfect, but here in california its worked rather well for a lot of people I know. Yes, the premiums are quite a bit if you make >80k as a family, but its better than what existed before that. It also frees up quite a few solo practitioners in the way of health coverage. I think its one of the only baby steps taken by Obama (and Biden) in terms of equitable healthcare.
If the ACA had been a single-payer system as originally designed it would have been far less expensive and more effective. But our politicians weren't ready for true socialized medicine.
GH, I believe everybody here is acknowledging that the difference between the behind-the-scenes aspects of our "healthcare" system and the delivery system, and that the delivery system, governed by insurance companies, is the worst aspect. But there are also plenty of issues with the quality and capability of care; I'm sure we all have personal experiences with that. It's probably worse in rural states like mine, where doctors are in short supply, and specialists are nearly non-existent.
The system you all are criticizing so hard literally is ACA/Obamacare. So is it the worst system in the world or really great? Make up your minds. This is exactly what I was referring to when pointing out how sloppy and political everyone's thinking is on this stuff.
Dec 13, 24 3:46 pm ·
·
b3tadine[sutures]
No it's not.
Dec 13, 24 3:50 pm ·
·
b3tadine[sutures]
I should clarify the ACA did a lot, and didn't do enough. No rational person thinks the ACA is any kind panacea, it still kept UHC and other scamming companies.
GW, I believe you're being disingenuous, but in case you aren't: I had even worse experiences back when I was on an employer's insurance plan, long before the ACA. My mom and MIL both have Medicare and have had numerous issues, both with their primary care docs and especially when trying to see specialists, who are often booked out 6-12 months.
While the ACA has some impacts on Medicare, they aren't the same thing. And I don't think anyone has said that the ACA is amazing; I think it's terrible, and expensive, but it's my only option.
Dec 13, 24 4:14 pm ·
·
gwharton
Two things: (1) Do any of you seriously believe that care and coverage isn't regularly denied or unavailable in single-payer systems? and, (2) Before ACA, it was still possible for generally healthy people to buy cheap catastrophic care coverage (e.g. real health insurance) and self-cover regular visits and that kind of thing. That is now literally illegal. My health insurance premiums have nearly quintupled since ACA took effect, and cover less.
Dec 13, 24 4:38 pm ·
·
Non Sequitur
Why should you have to buy any insurance at all? What's the cost to a regular freedom-loving 'merican if they need to mend a broken leg? All I need to worry about is parking fees so I can break my leg as many times as I want without fear of insurance cost premiums.
"Before ACA, it was still possible for generally healthy people to buy cheap catastrophic care coverage" You are peddling the quack insurances sold by the companies before ACA - the insurance plans that did not cover anything at all.
For some context, i dealt with a loved one's gunshot injury (which is also patently an American issue) before the ACA and then a loved ones cancer diagnosis and treatment after the ACA. World of a difference in terms of what was covered and what wasnt.
"My health insurance premiums have nearly quintupled since ACA took effect, and cover less." This is really disingenuous and false, the part about covering less.
I think you are letting your politics getting in the way of your judgment. Again the ACA is not perfect by any means for a developed country, but is much better than what existed.
All healthcare systems deny coverage, because not all care is effective. Decisions about what to pay for are difficult and complex and imperfect. When insurance companies try to gather rent is when it goes wrong. On the other hand the fact that not everything is paid for seems a misdirect to avoid actual conversation.
In Japan all adults have insurance, mandated by the govt and it is progressive, based on income. It is not anywhere near as expensive as the USA. For my family it was a few hundred dollars a month which always seemed reasonable. Especially since that goes with impressive access to care.
That said, I have also seen wealthy friends pay directly for experimental care or care that was out of the system - a flag that there is a gap for some care at least. So it's not a utopia. Even so, it seems to be exactly what ACA was supposed to be.
Why there is no political will about that kind of approach in Canada or USA or UK is beyond me. No wonder so many feel so helpless. Its a tragedy.
Two things: (1) Do any of you seriously believe that care and coverage isn't regularly denied or unavailable in single-payer systems? and,
It's denied or unavailable in all heath insurance systems, regardless of the type. In the US claims are denied or unavailable at a rate 3.5 times higher than countries with a single payer.
(2) Before ACA, it was still possible for generally healthy people to buy cheap catastrophic care coverage (e.g. real health insurance) and self-cover regular visits and that kind of thing. That is now literally illegal.
That type of cheap coverage was basically worthless. That's why it's illegal.
My health insurance premiums have nearly
quintupled since ACA took effect, and cover less.
That isn't because of the ACA. It's because a larger % of the US population are getting older (older than 65), living longer, and providers charge more.
When I worked in Philly in the late 90s, way before the ACA, our health insurance costs at the office went up 25% every year.
Dec 15, 24 7:38 pm ·
·
Wood Guy
OA, while those are probably factors in why insurance premiums have gone up, insurance company profits have to be a major factor as well. Oddly I can't find a simple graph of health insurance company net profits online, only revenue.
Just spent 2 hours in all today trying to get an appointment with a specialist (not a surgery or anything), who told me to call blue shield (even though I have a PPO) - only for the rep to put me on hold for 45 minutes while "researching", then transferring me to another department where no one picked up the phone for a good 45 minutes and I hung up. Finally found another specialist. The insurance bros deserve every ounce of hatred and ill-will directed towards them.
I just talk to my doctor and get a referral to specialists. Of which I see three. Makes things a lot easier. Still have to go through the process to ensure things are covered and the rest of it.
Dec 17, 24 9:59 am ·
·
sameolddoctor
Well the GP that we like usually refers doctors to a network that Blue Shield suddenly decided to drop, so we have to find our own specialists, which is not super hard as we live in a big city with many good providers. But yes the difficult part is to make sure they are in network even after paying almost $1000 per month in premiums as a family.
Dec 17, 24 11:38 am ·
·
OddArchitect
Yup. I've at a referred doctor become out of network halfway through treatment. Most of the time it's the doctor's choice, sometimes the health insurance provider drops them.
such a stupid & corrupt organization... fits well that it's hosted by a stupid corrupt nation. What are the betting odds on the number of slaves killed during the construction?
Anyone here in Denver have some friends or students that are interested in digital fabrication? I am running out of room in my van and need to offload a CNC knife cutter. Free. I really just want to see it go to a good home.
Also an 11 x 17" format Brother printer from like 2006 that absolutely will not quit and ink costs like $0.12 for a refill.
Thread Central
For the record, Timotee WAS in Minneapolis this week. Was.
If he plays an assassin in his next movie this could be the pinnacle of method acting
Momentary pity party aka I Don't Like being A Manager:
Three weeks ago I got a call from a client asking if one of my staff was alive, basically, because the client had a report that was supposed to be done in October and the staff member had been ghosting them for the last six weeks. I get with staff member, we'll call them V. V ghosts me too for a while, when we finally connect I offer to help finish the report together with them, I get no response, client is asking for an update, any update, on the schedule. V sends a report that's half-assed, so I promise the client I'll have additional staff work on it. I spend the entire weekend in the office re-writing the report myself. I come in Monday morning to V's resignation by email.
I start managing all of the shit required for a resignation and having nightmares about how hard it will be to onboard someone new. (The work we do is custom and complex and V typically did good work and will be challenging to replace.) I meet many times with the client being overly-accommodating to try to just get this nightmare project out of my life.
I get things somewhat manageable and head off to T-day weekend with intent to spend time away in the quiet finishing the report. While in the car leaving for holiday away, I get an email from one of V's *other* clients saying we thought we'd have a report yesterday, WTH is going on, can we just stop paying you and finish the report ourselves? My boss is copied and they start panicking b/c this client is a big deal.
Spent half my long weekend on the second client and Sunday on the original one. Two super unhappy clients and one former staff who has essentially eff'd up the rest of my year. Today I'm trying to finish the first report and finish one of my own that's now overdue and do all the end of year admin crap that I'm now two weeks behind on.
TLDR: I don't like being a manager. I love my job, I love the WORK itself, but I don't like managing other people. And partly it's because I guess I'm enough of a narcissist to think I can do the work better than anyone else so why don't I just do so?!
Anyway, I may ask to be demoted in 2025.
Grateful to have found LoFi Girl holiday tunes to work with today!
I was asked if I would be upset not being offered a director position, I felt a millisecond of annoyance, I firmly stated that I liked my life the way it was, I was challenged in the work, I like solving problems, managing projects and seeing get constructed. I don't want to stop doing that to manage people.
solidarity!, I've been lucky to work in a 3 person firm for the last 16 years so nobody manages others, sporadic task help only.
Yikes, Donna. I wonder if that elusive NYC fellow in the hoodie might be available for a little HR work...
JLC-1, the story of all my professional experience...
I am very proud of Brian's statement "BAM Construction/Design, Inc. consists of a loose federation of architects, designers, and artisans who are willing to take on anything and everything, from mobile home remodels to upscale penthouses, from agricultural buildings to 50,000 sq. ft. advertising agencies."
Yikes! I get pissed managing 2-3 people on my project team, even though they are great and we have worked together for a while, I cannot even imaging managing more people.
Wow, that's terrible, Donna. It's good that you're there to clean up the mess but are you really compensated enough for that? I'm with you, I love designing, but not managing people--they're just too unpredictable. And I really do think I'm better at most of what I do than the architects and drafters I've hired, though on a few occasions I was probably wrong. In the last ten years, my former long-time drafter has become a principal at a tony residential firm and designs $20-60M compounds for wealthy people.
Donna - it sound like you don't like being a manager. So you should, like, stop doing that. Life is meant to be enjoyed!
IS THIS REAL
Yep. He's a right wing person with class solidarity.
OK, not saying he's not right wing, but in that conversation above Max is the Trad, not Luigi.
I could see that, I read it too quickly.
https://x.com/IwriteOK/status/1866250515686019089?t=CYrv_zwmBr8Lp-ktgxNdXw
I wonder why the northamerican media hasn't showed any of this https://www.instagram.com/p/DDZ9SfmR8lJ/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Be careful of you sources. I am not saying anything that's been posted here is incorrect. It's just that I've seen a lot of stuff posted elsewhere on this topic that isn't correct.
JCL-1 - I don't speak Italian. Can you translate that?
It's one of the main newspapers in Italy, showing comments on tiktok, originally in the us, but only being reported by foreign media - about the horrors people have endured with UHC denying coverage, asking doctors about life expectancy to assess payments, and mostly hailing Luigi as a hero. Instagram has a built-in translator btw.
Ah. Thanks!
Translator doesn't work for the entire comment. Also, won't translate the image text. Probably because I'm not on my phone but a pc. I'll check it out on my phone . . .
While I understand the frustration I don't view the accused killer as a hero or some type of Robin Hood figure. It's a grey area. I'd like to read the accused manifesto before I make an judgements.
In my opinion, killing cand be justified in many situations. I'm not sure if this is one of them.
there you go https://web.archive.org/web/20241209212748/https://pepmangione.com/manifesto/
Um, hole up:
Exclusive: Luigi's Manifesto - Ken Klippenstein
Do you know if that the entire thing taz?
I ask because I've been told this was a multi page document with several references to the Unabomber's writings.
No idea - everything is sus, but the site I linked makes reference to other fakes floating around.
Maybe the pages were small notebook sized? The link JLC posted is a mini-novella.
That's the issue.
Both claim to be the shooters manifesto, both are different.
It doesn't appear the one posted by Klippenstein is a portion of the larger one titled 'Healthcare and it's Victims'.
The two documents don't appear to be written by the same person.
Let's keep TC the way it was intended. Maybe create your own thread for this?
revit weenie daily prayer:
Our revit, of autodesk, hallowed be thy name, your sheet set come, your view templates done, on all views as they are in heaven.
Give us today our daily error warnings. Forgive us our sins, as we have used other software against you. Lead us not into temptation of sketchup and deliver us from the evils of rhino.
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory of architecture, forever and ever. Amen.
Every time I have to completely trace a view with detail lines to make it look anywhere near a damn, I add a teeeeny tiny little pentagram that only I know is there.
Just learn to use it properly and your frustrations will dwindle significantly.
axonapoplectic, that prayer is perfect.
Non, your comment feels to me it could apply the USian healthcare system, too. Sure, you can learn your way around it well enough, but why should the difficulty exist in the first place?
Your entire US health plan is a joke and a mess, unlike Revit which is just a tool. Too many old farts complain about Revit because they don't take the time to learn it or they get conned by junior staff or salespeople who pimp it well beyond it's capabilities.
Oh, don't get me started. Being an American with T1D, finding health insurance has been the major deciding factor on where I work, who I work with, and when I can retire. It's very frustrating.
revit is annoying, but also very nice for working quick and getting drawings out. While USA healthcare is a mess, I find Canada a pain as well in comparison to Japan. It is amazing that I can get care for free, walk in to a place with a problem, and then simply walk out not owing any money to anyone. Yay Canada.
On the flip side , it takes a long time to get to that free care sometimes, and that makes no sense.
At home in Japan we can walk into any specialist anywhere and get treated immediately. No referrals required. More important, those specialists are scattered all around us, working in clinics attached to their homes, in the suburbs, in the city centre, wherever. And the care is top notch. We can go to hospitals too, but decentralized and highly regulated care is possible with just a little political will.
The big similarity between Revit and US healthcare is yes, it can really work when you know your way around it. I have learnt that rather painfully about US healthcare.
The big learning is that if you pay way more premiums for a PPO plan, things get easier. Kinda like how one has to pay out of their ass for an Autodesk Suite.
Being the outlier here, I hate Revit and always will. Sketchup>Revit>AutoCAD>Rhino.
For all the programs they are just tools. I use just as much hand sketching (about to start using a digital drawing pad) as REVIT. When it was only AutoCAD it was the same. Never really used Sketchup. With the digital sketching I probably will start. Oh the learning never ends.
Regarding US health care - SOD is spot on. I had to learn early how to understand and navigate US health care. I would say it's way more difficult than REVIT.
I have a love-hate relationship with Revit, just as I do with American healthcare.
On the one hand, Revit is a frustrating, annoying, limiting piece of crap with a closed ecosystem that can't deliver on most of Autodesk's promises. On the other hand, it's an immensely powerful tool for accomplishing the tasks its designed to do - to the point where it's really the only serious option for doing those things. I hate Autodesk passionately, and yet Revit allows my business to function at a high level and deliver great products at shocking speed. I'll take that.
On one hand, American healthcare is mired in an incredibly f***ed-up system of administrative and financial complexity, none of which has anything to do with providing healthcare. On the other hand, the American healthcare system delivers the highest level of quality care in the world when it's actually doing healthcare. That system kicked my daughter off my health plan because she had her 26th birthday, despite her being intensively treated for stage 4 cancer, leaving her with no easy way to pay for very expensive treatments. The system also found a way to help her get coverage, and then saved her life with heroic measures and treatments only available in the US. She is now cancer free. I'll take that, too.
I think we've had this discussion before gwathorn. There is no evidence that American healthcare is the 'highest level of quality care in the world'. In fact, America ranks 38th in quality of healthcare in the world.
https://worldpopulationreview....
https://www.internationalinsur...
https://www.healthsystemtracke...
https://www.usnews.com/news/be...
Funny how literally anybody who can afford to comes here to get critical health care when the stakes are really high. If my daughter had stayed in Canada after her cancer diagnosis, she'd be dead right now. There were only two cities in the world where the treatment that cured her is available, and both are in the USA.
it's not funny for those who can't afford it, especially americans.
https://youtu.be/_6fEx3Rw41s?si=4OBlPGZCw_lnkPbg
gw, you've given us this story before and I'm happy it worked out for you but this is an exception. For everyone else, it's a terrible system. The only people who boast of the greatness of the USA health care system are those for whom money is not a concern. This is why it's far better everywhere else.
No one is disputing the quality of the Healthcare in America, we are either not rich enough, or poor enough to get it without going bankrupt. Why is this so fucking hard to understand? Capping a couple of CEOs while funny as fuck, ain't gonna solve the problem; Nationalize Healthcare.
^and say no fucking way to for-profit healthcare.
gwharton - as before - the US doesn't have the best healthcare in the world. The US doesn't even have the best specialized healthcare in the world. There are various other countries that far exceed the US in certain types of specialized care.The US does have the best cancer research in the world.
You're statement that "literally anybody who can afford to comes here to get critical health care when the stakes are really high" is not true. You know this because we've been through this before.
Your daughter was extremely luck to get to see a specialist. Your daughter was even more lucky to not have to pay for it. 99% of the rest of the country wouldn't of had that outcome.
To gwharton's point - the US is amazing when it comes to severe diseases like cancer. It is not just about the research facilities here, but there is somehow a certain kind of "compassion" here when it comes to those diseases. Mind you, there are many stories of people getting kicked out of coverage when they are in their 4th round of chemo cuz etc, but it is still rare compared to many other countries where you die or resort to quack medicine cuz you did not have funds saved up. I know this from personal experience of my mom.
The bigger problem is for smaller ailments, which are common when one starts to get older. For example we need an expensive PPO insurance just to keep our GP and Pediatrician in network, as they accept only PPO. Doctors are rather fed up with the HMO system. This is where other developed countries excel. Although i just heard from a friend in the UK, that he has to bear his kidney stone pain for about 8 months as the next appointment is only in august of next year, so who knows. ?
It would be great if the subsidized Obamacare was available to medium earners the same way they are available to low earning families. It would necessitate us not sponsoring proxy wars or investing so heavily in the military industrial complex. though.
"It would necessitate us not sponsoring proxy wars or investing so heavily in the military industrial complex. though." Sounds like a win/win to me.
Some folks here seem to have a lot of difficulty distinguishing between the quality and capability of medical care, and the administrative delivery system used to deliver that care to patients. The USA has an incredibly high, essentially incomparable, capability and quality of care, with an absolutely disastrous delivery system. That delivery system is the problem. We have combined all the worst aspects of for-profit care with all of the worst aspects of socialized care. If you don't have the resources necessary to escape or bypass that system, you are locked into a nightmarish hellscape of administrative bullshit to get access. So, you all hating all over the US medical system need to focus on what the real problem is rather than repeating propaganda talking points distributed by the various competing interests associated with existence and perpetuation of the problem. It's especially rich to see people talking up Obamacare, which seems like it was specifically written by the insurance industry and their governmental enablers to make quality health care in America as inaccessible as possible for the majority of people while enriching themselves.
I dunno, gwarton, but Obamacare (or lets call it the ACA to make it less divisive) has changed a lot of stuff for good, especially the pre existing condition clause, which it did away with. It is not at all perfect, but here in california its worked rather well for a lot of people I know. Yes, the premiums are quite a bit if you make >80k as a family, but its better than what existed before that. It also frees up quite a few solo practitioners in the way of health coverage. I think its one of the only baby steps taken by Obama (and Biden) in terms of equitable healthcare.
If the ACA had been a single-payer system as originally designed it would have been far less expensive and more effective. But our politicians weren't ready for true socialized medicine.
GH, I believe everybody here is acknowledging that the difference between the behind-the-scenes aspects of our "healthcare" system and the delivery system, and that the delivery system, governed by insurance companies, is the worst aspect. But there are also plenty of issues with the quality and capability of care; I'm sure we all have personal experiences with that. It's probably worse in rural states like mine, where doctors are in short supply, and specialists are nearly non-existent.
The system you all are criticizing so hard literally is ACA/Obamacare. So is it the worst system in the world or really great? Make up your minds. This is exactly what I was referring to when pointing out how sloppy and political everyone's thinking is on this stuff.
No it's not.
I should clarify the ACA did a lot, and didn't do enough. No rational person thinks the ACA is any kind panacea, it still kept UHC and other scamming companies.
GW, I believe you're being disingenuous, but in case you aren't: I had even worse experiences back when I was on an employer's insurance plan, long before the ACA. My mom and MIL both have Medicare and have had numerous issues, both with their primary care docs and especially when trying to see specialists, who are often booked out 6-12 months.
While the ACA has some impacts on Medicare, they aren't the same thing. And I don't think anyone has said that the ACA is amazing; I think it's terrible, and expensive, but it's my only option.
Two things: (1) Do any of you seriously believe that care and coverage isn't regularly denied or unavailable in single-payer systems? and, (2) Before ACA, it was still possible for generally healthy people to buy cheap catastrophic care coverage (e.g. real health insurance) and self-cover regular visits and that kind of thing. That is now literally illegal. My health insurance premiums have nearly quintupled since ACA took effect, and cover less.
Why should you have to buy any insurance at all? What's the cost to a regular freedom-loving 'merican if they need to mend a broken leg? All I need to worry about is parking fees so I can break my leg as many times as I want without fear of insurance cost premiums.
"Before ACA, it was still possible for generally healthy people to buy cheap catastrophic care coverage" You are peddling the quack insurances sold by the companies before ACA - the insurance plans that did not cover anything at all.
For some context, i dealt with a loved one's gunshot injury (which is also patently an American issue) before the ACA and then a loved ones cancer diagnosis and treatment after the ACA. World of a difference in terms of what was covered and what wasnt.
"My health insurance premiums have nearly quintupled since ACA took effect, and cover less." This is really disingenuous and false, the part about covering less.
I think you are letting your politics getting in the way of your judgment. Again the ACA is not perfect by any means for a developed country, but is much better than what existed.
All healthcare systems deny coverage, because not all care is effective. Decisions about what to pay for are difficult and complex and imperfect. When insurance companies try to gather rent is when it goes wrong. On the other hand the fact that not everything is paid for seems a misdirect to avoid actual conversation.
In Japan all adults have insurance, mandated by the govt and it is progressive, based on income. It is not anywhere near as expensive as the USA. For my family it was a few hundred dollars a month which always seemed reasonable. Especially since that goes with impressive access to care.
That said, I have also seen wealthy friends pay directly for experimental care or care that was out of the system - a flag that there is a gap for some care at least. So it's not a utopia. Even so, it seems to be exactly what ACA was supposed to be.
Why there is no political will about that kind of approach in Canada or USA or UK is beyond me. No wonder so many feel so helpless. Its a tragedy.
gwharton wrote:
Two things: (1) Do any of you seriously believe that care and coverage isn't regularly denied or unavailable in single-payer systems? and,
It's denied or unavailable in all heath insurance systems, regardless of the type. In the US claims are denied or unavailable at a rate 3.5 times higher than countries with a single payer.
system. https://www.pgpf.org/article/how-does-the-us-healthcare-system-compare-to-other-countries/
(2) Before ACA, it was still possible for generally healthy people to buy cheap catastrophic care coverage (e.g. real health insurance) and self-cover regular visits and that kind of thing. That is now literally illegal.
That type of cheap coverage was basically worthless. That's why it's illegal.
My health insurance premiums have nearly quintupled since ACA took effect, and cover less.
That isn't because of the ACA. It's because a larger % of the US population are getting older (older than 65), living longer, and providers charge more.
https://www.pgpf.org/article/w...
When I worked in Philly in the late 90s, way before the ACA, our health insurance costs at the office went up 25% every year.
OA, while those are probably factors in why insurance premiums have gone up, insurance company profits have to be a major factor as well. Oddly I can't find a simple graph of health insurance company net profits online, only revenue.
WG - Oh yes - insurance company profits are a major factor. The source I linked even said so. It's just that it's not the ACA.
Just spent 2 hours in all today trying to get an appointment with a specialist (not a surgery or anything), who told me to call blue shield (even though I have a PPO) - only for the rep to put me on hold for 45 minutes while "researching", then transferring me to another department where no one picked up the phone for a good 45 minutes and I hung up. Finally found another specialist. The insurance bros deserve every ounce of hatred and ill-will directed towards them.
I just talk to my doctor and get a referral to specialists. Of which I see three. Makes things a lot easier. Still have to go through the process to ensure things are covered and the rest of it.
Well the GP that we like usually refers doctors to a network that Blue Shield suddenly decided to drop, so we have to find our own specialists, which is not super hard as we live in a big city with many good providers. But yes the difficult part is to make sure they are in network even after paying almost $1000 per month in premiums as a family.
Yup. I've at a referred doctor become out of network halfway through treatment. Most of the time it's the doctor's choice, sometimes the health insurance provider drops them.
Nikki Giovanni
A fucking legend in arts passed away recently, and I don't think we should let it pass without noting.
Who's going to lick these guy sandals to build some useless stadiums and villas? https://www.npr.org/2024/12/11...
such a stupid & corrupt organization... fits well that it's hosted by a stupid corrupt nation. What are the betting odds on the number of slaves killed during the construction?
I suspect there are plenty of firms wetting their tongues hoping to get some of this work.
I'm guessing BIG and ZHA are going after this.
The main stadium will be called JAK Arena, Jamal Ahmad Khashogg, it's going to be a cutting edge facility.
and after that, series of "Black Lives Matter" stadiums in good old USA.
The main stadiums (at least 2 that i know of) are being designed by Populous...
That makes sense. I've never been able to get my brain around such large scale projects. What a beast that would be.
Well I guess Rick knows more about law than lawyers . . . .
of course he does
It's odd that he's 'debating' that what a lawyer said and judge ruled on the issue.
I don't see anything from him since a long time, for the same reason.
Anyone here in Denver have some friends or students that are interested in digital fabrication? I am running out of room in my van and need to offload a CNC knife cutter. Free. I really just want to see it go to a good home.
Also an 11 x 17" format Brother printer from like 2006 that absolutely will not quit and ink costs like $0.12 for a refill.
cu denver arch 1250 14th St
Mrs. Claus branching out!
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.