Hasnain says:

Oooof.

“If you were to snitch on the boss for any of these episodes individually, you are “not living up to the core behaviors of the company” at best and you’re excluded, gossiped about, and let go at worst. You might have the fortunate off chance to be in a meeting about an unrelated topic with HR and position a window to bring it up nonchalantly. You might watch as they sit in uncomfortable silence until your two-minute defiant act of bravery is finished and hear “what would you like to do about this?” So you’re saying that she has layered more inane processes for your hiring than she does for your male counterparts? I see how that could be frustrating. Could you be interpreting this the wrong way?

Well Susan, I’ve been asking myself that question my entire life.”

Hasnain says:

“There are legitimate reasons to be in favor of restoring the full deduction, but instead of talking about them, Democratic leaders and pundits have mostly been trying to sell the public on an absurd lie: that a tax break for which only 1 in 10 Americans even qualifies, and overwhelmingly benefits those in the highest-earning percentile, is a “middle-class” benefit. No one seems to mind that this is the same take Democrats blasted when used by Republicans to argue for the Bush tax cuts or the repeal of the estate tax.”

Hasnain says:

COVID is running rampant and the government instead decided to spend their time and energy on this?!

“Twitter has removed more than 50 tweets critical of the Indian government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and did so at the request of the Indian government. First reported by Indian news site MediaNama, the Indian government sent Twitter an emergency order on Friday to censor 52 tweets, according to a disclosure notice on the Lumen database. The censored accounts include a sitting member of India’s Parliament, two filmmakers, an actor, and a West Bengal state minister.”

Hasnain says:

“I’m telling you this because it isn’t easy for us to tell you. It is difficult to say, “I’m sorry I couldn’t make it, I felt a crushing despair that I couldn’t shake,” or “I’d have called, but I was curled up in a ball trying to find a reason to keep going.”

You probably wouldn’t judge us or ridicule us for this admission, but the voice in our heads tells us you would—because that is how it works. Mental illness is an inside job and it knows what buttons to push.”

Hasnain says:

I long for a world where acts like this are also treated with equal severity to mass murder. Because that’s what this effectively becomes.

Hasnain says:

“But recent events, both in the U.S. and overseas, are making this position increasingly untenable. After a long period in which it was difficult for Americans to obtain vaccines, even if they were legally eligible, we’re now rapidly approaching the point—if we haven’t reached it already—where the main obstacle to getting shots into arms isn’t the supply of vaccine but some Americans’ reluctance or indifference to getting them.”

Hasnain says:

Following the VaccinateCA story has been one of the few beacons of hope over the last few months. This is really motivating to see

“Perhaps most importantly, the longer America struggles with covid-19, the later we will make the choice to help others. India is currently dealing with a prompt national healthcare crisis. Lower-income countries are looking at multi-year timelines until they can be vaccinated. Even relatively well-off nations like Japan and much of the EU are months behind the US on the vaccination curve. The faster we accelerate our efforts, the faster the best parts of the US vaccination’s response get to work on saving lives elsewhere.

Every day matters. Every dose matters.”

Hasnain says:

We need to abolish the vaccine patents and and work together, globally, to save lives. I’m not sure it will happen though.

“"I ran pillar to post but every crematorium had some reason ... one said it had run out of wood," said Kumar, wearing a mask and squinting his eyes that were stinging from the smoke blowing from the burning pyres.”

Hasnain says:

This just gets worse and worse and worse as you read it. Especially hit home for me when they mentioned standing N feet away at all times because the phone cord was N-1 feet long so it wouldn’t hurt when he threw it at you.

“Even after The Hollywood Reporter published a piece earlier this month going into greater detail, Hollywood and Broadway largely remained silent.

Meanwhile, the whisper network has become a chorus, with thinly veiled tweets and Instagram posts from former assistants lighting up social media. As detailed in a 2005 Wall Street Journal profile titled “Boss-zilla!,” Rudin, by his own estimation, burned through 119 assistants over five years — or, as one former assistant describes it, “an absurd revolving door of disposable, interchangeable, bright young people whose purpose is to be the target and outlet for his anger.””

Hasnain says:

I do think Q3 will bring about an upheaval in the US as the pandemic (hopefully) subsides here. Hoping the equivalent can happen worldwide soon.

“I’ll be honest: of all of the tips I provide in this newsletter, this is the only one that I think might help chip away at your teammates’ burnout. Burnout isn’t just about having too many things to do or not enough time to do them; it’s about lack of resources, support, and progress. A bit more vacation time, company-wide mandatory days, etc. won’t actually help most folks address their burnout. It hopefully will help you retain more folks in the long term, because it can demonstrate you recognize their very real human needs.”