Hacker Cinema
Ugly Betty
2006 · TV series · 43 min episodes · 4 seasons
Created by Silvio Horta
Wannabe writer Betty Suarez is a plain girl from Queens, who is smart, hardworking and savvy but lacks a fashionable sense of style. When publishing mogul Bradford Meade puts his son Daniel in charge of Mode magazine, he hires Betty to be Daniel's new assistant -- mostly because he knows that she may be the only woman in Manhattan with whom the younger man won't sleep.
1 negative6 neutralfrom 7 commenters
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7 comments on Hacker News
Your case would have been better if you had used Mad Max: Fury Road, or even Titanic as examples, rather then a mediocre TV show nobody remembers. Ugly Betty used green screens to make production cheaper, that did not improve the show (although it may have improved the profit margins). Mad Max: Fury Road on the other hand used CGI to significantly improve the visual experience. The added CGI probably increased the cost of the production, and subsequently it is one of the greatest, most awesome, movie ever made.
Actually if you look at the scene from Greys Anatomy [0:54] you can see where CGI is used to improve the scene (rather then cut costs), and you get this amazing scene of the Washington State Ferry crash.
I think you can see the parallels here. When people say they hate AI they are generally referring to the sloppy stuff it generates. It has enabled a proliferation of cheap slop. And with few exception it seems like generating cheap slop is all it does (these exception being specialized tools e.g. in image processing software).
"I hate CGI video"
"So you hated the TV Series Ugly Betty then?"
"What? that's not CGI!"
This video is 15 years old
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDjorAhcnbY
I wish I could do this with subtitles! I hate waiting years for subtitles to TV series and obscure movies to become available. Ones in European languages mostly e.g. Cordon season 2 has been out for years, no English subs available. Latest season of Rita, out for a year, no English subs. The Colombian Ugly Betty, impossible to find many years later. I waited a couple of years for the latest season of Engrenages etc.
Maybe there could be a fixed priced online, which you could contribute towards. I won't pay for movies/tv now, but I'd sure pay for subtitles! Divided between many people, it wouldn't cost much. Not sure how to ensure high quality subs.
(I contributed to doing subs on viki years ago, which seemed like a good thing, but it disappeared, taking all the subtitles with it.)
There's also the element of chance. A technical acquaintance of mine has a daughter who went to school for TV and film writing, and managed to land a job writing for a popular show a few years back (Ugly Betty), and make a considerable amount of money in the process.
His take on her success was as follows - in that career even if you were really good, you have a small chance (2-5% he estimated) at being in the right place at the right time (had writing credits on a show that didn't get canceled, and became popular) in which case you could make a very impressive income.
On the other hand, you could go get an engineering degree and get a job at an engineering firm. You'd have a much better chance (85-95%) at getting a job that paid well provided you did the job properly, although possibly not as well as the wildly successful writer mentioned above, and it may not be what you wanted to do. The implication is that he would have rather had her get that kind of job, but considering the outcome was quite proud of her.
I tend to think of internet startups like the TV writer gig - it's a way to have a small chance at hitting the goldmine, but less of a sure thing.
Similarly, my father is a pediatrician. He often sees kids for physicals who want to get into professional sports because they really dig soccer/basketball/football/etc. He does a math exercise with them, going over how many people are drafted a year, and basically it comes down to "Are you the best person this year in the entire state?", which the answer is usually no. Not to crush their dreams, but it's an honest dose of reality
So, in short, people should look at the chances of success before pursuing a field. Internet startups are a pretty good chance, especially considering that doing them often involves a lot of technical and business self-investment that can carry over into other jobs if it doesn't work out.
It is the same mechanism that that TV show Ugly Betty wouldn't work if the actress playing her wasn't actually quite cute.
As others have pointed out this is more about the person you marry than the act of marriage. But realistically if they like to cuddle on the sofa and watch 10 episodes of Ugly Betty with you and you want to code, you'll probably work that out a long time before you go as far getting married.
What does make a massive difference is kids. And more precisely sleep deprivation, especially in the early stages. Coding until 2am, going to bed and 5 minutes later a little person is crying and you are up again etc is hard. Also when you are just a couple your SO might not mind you rolling out of bed at 10am, but most aren't going to be too happy about having to get up at 7am 7 mornings a week to look after the kids whilst you are snoring quietly. And even if you do get away with that, don't discount the amount of noise etc that at least stops you from getting a great sleep. Some people get lucky, some people think they "trained" their kids, but for most people the first few years are tired years.
And as they get older your unsociable hours don't really work either. Most kids operate from around 7 to 7/8. They wake up in the morning they want to jump on your bed. They want you to tuck them in. You'll love it too - but family life is hard to balance with the typical lifestyle the average hacker on here probably lives.
Please note it is not all bad, I work from home in an office in my garden and see my kids for hours every day - something most people don't get. You probably also have more flexibility to go to sports days, plays etc. But never underestimate the tiredness in those first few years!
Lets put it this way. I think of myself (I wrote the piece) as quite attractive to a lot of people...but with the exception of America Ferrera in Ugly Betty, there is no female character in the movies or on TV who is my size or larger and gets the guys.
It's a message that society sends...you are not attractive enough if you are not super-groomed, super-thin. As I get older, I am getting better at resisting this message.