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        Another dimension
        2019.08.03 13:26:30 -03
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        This week I'm enjoying my family vacation at my in-law's place. The
        city is called Barreiras [0] and it has over 150000 inhabitants -
        that's over ten times more than the city I live in. It has, however,
        an HDI [1] of 0.721 [2], while Switzerland has one of 0.944 [3].
       
        This isn't that surprising given Brazil is a developing country and
        Barreiras is not a state capital. What was surprising to me are the
        many ways this gap shows up in everyday life. I know, the fact it
        surprised me is also surprising - meta-surprising - I myself am from
        Brazil, what was I expecting?!
       
        While I'm here I decided to give a talk at a local college, mainly
        to IT students (but we had attendance of people from different
        backgrounds too), about the demand of IT professionals, the
        opportunities and challenges from a point of view of someone who
        moved abroad. Another speaker talked about the same from a national
        and regional perspective.
       
        It was a very interesting event and people were eager to hear me
        speak, but at the end I wanted more to hear from their perspective
        than to speak about mine. Technology is becoming more pervasive
        here, but they have demands which are not met by "worldwide"
        solutions. They adapt and do the best they can, but things are not
        perfect (I wouldn't even say good, they are just minimally viable).
       
        The landscape here would be perfect for the development of local
        solutions by local hackers whose goals are to better their community
        or region - no focus on worldwide user base.
       
       
        [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barreiras
        [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index
        [2] http://www.atlasbrasil.org.br/2013/pt/perfil_m/barreiras_ba
        [3] http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/2018_human_development_statisti