Weekend Open Thread: Quince
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Something on your mind? Chat about it here.
I just ordered this 100% organic cotton sweater with a birthday gift card to Quince that I've been sitting on for far too long. (Thanks, Mom!) Of COURSE it was this pretty sapphire blue color that finally pushed me to to purchase. In addition to the color, I like the wide cuffs and hem, and the relaxed, loose silhouette.
What are some of the hits you've found from Quince?
The sweater is $45, 100% organic cotton. There are eight “core” colors and five seasonal ones; they're all available in sizes XS-XL.
Sales of note for 10/9:
- Ann Taylor – Extra 50% off sale, and $50 off dresses, jackets and shoes
- J.Crew – Friends & Family Event, 30% off for loyalty members
- J.Crew Factory – 50% off all stores and sitewide
- M.M.LaFleur – Fall Refresh Event, up to 25% off (Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off on other items)
- Nordstrom – 15 points per dollar on beauty and 6400+ new markdowns (also, weirdly, they have the Fall 2026 Chanel collection, which I feel like is a first for them, but it's like a catalog for you to call for an appointment… very strange)
- Nordstrom Rack – Extra 40% off select clearance
- Old Navy – 40% off everything. The Old Navy x Altuzarra collab is in! All sizes (up to 4X!) of the blazer in the collab is still available.
- Talbots – All markdowns 50% off two or more, or 40% off one.
- Theory – End of season sale is on with extra savings (new prices are marked).
Could someone give me a balanced summary of the whole H1B situation? I have family that is extremely pro H1B and friends who are against it, and the internet is equally confusing. Is there quantitative evidence that it really takes jobs away from Americans? It does seem reasonable that companies should at least be required to pay the same so its not a cheap loophole for companies. Cutting off H1Bs overnight is disruptive to peoples lives, but maybe reducing the number is warranted?
I come at this as a native-born US citizen who got a masters in computer science from a flagship US university where the vast majority of my classmates and instructors were foreign born and started or hoped to start their careers via H1B visas in the US. Even pre-Trump the process was onerous enough that I got far more interviews than they did. They did get jobs fairly quickly, but I had an easier time and there definitely weren’t enough US citizens who could fill the positions.
Faculty who were here on H1Bs were common, because there really aren’t enough US born computer science phDs who want to teach. Faculty salaries are the same for H1B holders as citizens. US citizens who are competent in computer science also tended to get pulled into cleared government positions that foreign workers understandably dont have access to. The Trump administration’s treatment of the federal workforce has turned that on its head, though I’m sure some are waiting it out.
tl;dr, in my field there is a long and documented need for foreign talent. We cannot grow enough here.
This is also my experience in the pharmaceutical industry.
I think this is a pretty good encapsulation of the whole argument: “there really aren’t enough US born computer science phDs who want to teach”
The argument against H1B visas is: the inability to attract American phd’s to teach is a sign that the university is underpaying. If there were no H1Bs, they would have to raise wages (or hire non-PhDs to teach), and that would benefit American workers. High wages in the has-a-cs-phd market would attract more US citizens to study CS, until demand was met.
The argument for H1Bs is: if we have to pay more to attract US-born workers away from highly paid industry roles, we’ll have to raise tuition (ie. rising wages –> inflation). And, on average, we’ll be hiring worse instructors for our students (“Choose the best teacher you can find among a pool of 300 mil. people”, on average, yields less talent than “choose the best teacher from a pool of 8 billion people”, even if both teachers meet minimum requirements). Getting rid of H1Bs is a form of economic protectionism; it might benefit an individual American worker temporarily, but it undermines America’s long-term competitiveness.
The only reason to oppose H1Bs is ignorance and racism.
I work in tech, and my assessment would be four points:
1. The stated rules for H1B (only for highly skilled, specialized roles where there’s truly no US citizen who could possibly do the role) doesn’t match the reality. TBH, I think anyone in tech would agree with that: there’s no possible way eg. a bog-standard “senior software developer” role can’t be filled with a US citizen. The current rules and enforcement of “how do you prove no American can do this job” do not do a good job of enforcing the stated rules.
2. Related, the stated rules already call for H1B workers to be paid the same as US citizens. I do not think anyone thinks that is seriously enforced. It is very easy to make up a justification about why person X’s job duties are sligggghtly different than person Y’s. Sometimes the difference in compensation is in actual cash, and sometimes it’s just in eg. a manager treating someone poorly, or bad benefits, or knowing they’ll respond to 1am emails without pushback. I have absolutely heard people in leadership say things like “I have X dollars for raises; but 3 of my team are on H1b so I know they won’t leave even if they get $0”. Illegal? Sure. Is anyone going to do anything about it? Nope. (Related: allowing companies to sponsored H1B –> Perm conversion is basically allowing them to offer US citizenship as a non-monetary benefit to their employees. OF COURSE some employees value that very heavily, and will stay with a lower-paying job to get it. But it feels like a pretty giant giveaway to corporations to let them offer citizenship as a benefit!)
3. I think there’s no clear evidence either way about whether removing H1Bs would be a net loss or a net win for American workers. If we shut down the H1B program overnight, some companies would hire US citizens for the same roles; and some companies would offshore that role entirely. And longer term, some companies might start doing a better job of hiring and training new grads, and treat their people better because they have to retain them; and also, it might undermine the long-term vitality of the tech industry (which is massively concentrated in the US, partially *because* we can pull people from the whole world). My personal assessment is that, if H1Bs went away, my career prospects would be stronger over the next 5 years, and weaker over the next 20 years.
3. The vast majority of individuals I’ve worked with with H1B visas are smart, hardworking, thoughtful people, who I want good things to happen for.
4. Technically, H1B (and the student visas a lot of people enter on prior to converting to H1B) are *temporary* visas, not intended to be the first step in immigration. In practice, everyone thinks of them as an immigration pathway, and the vast majority of people who pursue them want to stay in the US permanently (or at least until retirement), buy homes and build their lives here, raise their kids here, etc. So that is another discrepancy where the officially stated purpose (not an immigrant visa) and the reality on the ground conflict, which leads to frustration on both sides (if you think of it as a permanent choice, restrictions like 60 days grace period to find a new job after a layoff feel harsh and unfair; and if you think of it as “we were sold this as a temporary non immigrant visa, but most people on it are using it to immigrate permanently, they’re cheating”)
does anyone have a smart home thermostat? i think we want to upgrade from our 2015-era Ecobee but i’m not sure what. i hate that the house just can’t be the temperature i want it to be year round, i hate the stupid 5 degree ranges and having to adjust for the seasons.
No. I just have a regular thermostat, and it’s the temperature I want it to be year round, no adjusting, no ranges.
I just switched from a first-generation Nest (which I hated but learned to live with by setting it to be the same as a dumb thermostat) to an Ecobee because Google stopped supporting the old Nests and I needed to be able to control it from my phone. Ugh. I hate the Ecobee because apparently there’s no way to make it completely dumb, as I could with the Nest.
Anyway, you might want to look at one of the newer Nests because apparently it’s still possible to make it completely manual: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awW8fUyMGlU I wish I’d known…
Why not just buy the new nest? Sell the ecobee on FB marketplace and accept that the loss is the price for daily happiness. I’m probably more frugal than most on this site but I will happily ‘waste’ a hundred dollars if it makes every single day better.
I’ve had a Sensi thermostat for 8 or 9 years, it’s been fine and works well with my iPhone.
We just replaced a very old hvac system with manual tstat for a new super efficient system that cane with a smart stat, it’s a daiken. I love it bc i can set programs by the day with multiple steps, like “cool the house when perimenopausal mom is trying to go to sleep but then ket it warm up a few degrees so everyone else isn’t frozen out.” Also we can adjust settings remotely which has actually come in handy multiple times for things like my FiL stopping by while we’re away.
There are no 5 dgree ranges but it has settings like “overcool to dehumidify” which is super nice in summer. . We had a (1st or 2nd gen?) nest in our old house and i used to use the geofence to set the temps back when we were gone. Daiken does not appear to have this ability, although i’m sure a smarter person could make AI do it for them.
what’s your go-to fall jacket this season? are we still doing denim?
I’m not. Denim jackets give me the ick.
I still do denim here and there, but in non-traditional cuts and it’s not my go to. This season I’m into wool bomber jackets.
My husband ‘broke up’ with me today for the like hundredth time because I got a haircut (during work hours with my own money, just a trim no substantive change!) without telling him, so that makes me a ‘liar’ who ‘hides things’. I know the cycle but y’all I’m tired. Because obviously when I do tell him about mundane sh!t he gets mad at me for wasting his time telling him about stuff that doesn’t matter, no winning.
I’m sorry. You already know you need to go. Some people are just this way and need to find their annoying equal.
Until you make a decision, can you just ignore his tantrums? “You got me! Total liar!”
This is abuse, and a DTMFA situation.
Yep, I first read boyfriend and thought oh good, break that right off. A husband is more involved but no one should live like that.
Friend, this is well outside of the normal. Of course you’re tired!
Can you give yourself one concrete step towards getting out? If you don’t know where to start, how about the plan is: “On Monday at lunch at work, I’m going to schedule an initial consultation a divorce lawyer”.
Why are you staying with this man? Is it worth it?
There’s no winning. Stop calling his bluff and break up for real.