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How my genius roommate changed my perspective

farhadg.com

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Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#31

Post by mellavora »

y4mi wrote: post #20
sandreas wrote: post #6

Nice article. Unfortunately there is a limitation to this way of thinking in my daily business - the WAF ;-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wife_acceptance_factor Luckily the articles' principle doesn't only apply to building furniture. Edit - Clarification: This comment describes only my personal situation and should in no way harm anyone. It is a satiric way of stating out that if you are not alone in your apartment…

I like that you shortened it to WAF. Now I will always imagine Web Application Firewalls to be the wife of the application. And she denies all strange requests entry. Fun image, though some overly sensitive people might decry it as sexism somehow, so probably not something i can joke about at work.

Well, perhaps they are the ones being sexist by assuming that a wife has to be a certain gender.

but you are right, this clearly NSFW territory.

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#32

Post by icu »

This reminds me of an 80s tv show called MacGyver which impressed on me as a kid that you can use what you got to get out of tricky situations. I've done loads of different things as a result of this attitude. The only time I stopped to think about the show's wider influence was when I was at University (some time ago) in the Engineering building with my best friend (an Engineering student) and a phone went off with the MacGyver theme. When I told my friend I thought that was cool (these were the days when you had to pay for novelty ringtones) he casually remarked that a lot of the Engineering student body had the MacGyver ringtone and MacGyver had a huge influence on students enrolling for Engineering.

After reading this article I wonder if there are MacGyver-esque influences on younger generations? I haven't come across any YouTube channels or shows on Netflix, Prime or Disney Plus that would interest my 7 year old son and capture his imagination like MacGyver did for me as a kid.

Having said that, in true MacGyver fashion I started teaching my son Chemistry last weekend using a whiteboard, YouTube and some Minecraft analogies.

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#33

Post by wdfx »

tibbydudeza wrote: post #14
sandreas wrote: post #6

Nice article. Unfortunately there is a limitation to this way of thinking in my daily business - the WAF ;-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wife_acceptance_factor Luckily the articles' principle doesn't only apply to building furniture. Edit - Clarification: This comment describes only my personal situation and should in no way harm anyone. It is a satiric way of stating out that if you are not alone in your apartment…

Ha you got us there - there is also WHF (Wife Hiding Factor). What is the new thing on your desk (splurged on a Mac Pro) - no my dear I always had it - got it from Craigslist/gumtree for a steal.

Finally there's the WCF - Wife Compensation Factor;

"Here, I bought you one too."

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#34

Post by madaxe_again »

sandreas wrote: post #6

Nice article. Unfortunately there is a limitation to this way of thinking in my daily business - the WAF ;-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wife_acceptance_factor Luckily the articles' principle doesn't only apply to building furniture. Edit - Clarification: This comment describes only my personal situation and should in no way harm anyone. It is a satiric way of stating out that if you are not alone in your apartment…

The WAF is not incompatible with this way of thinking - it just requires you to extend your creative reach to come up with solutions that are also aesthetically pleasing.

Me, I like to work with negative space when I’m making furniture - take stuff away to create something, add as little as necessary.

I also have my fair share of Heath Robinson contraptions, but as long as I keep them invisible (i.e. tucked away in a shed or a hutch quietly fulfilling its function) the WAF is fulfilled - and I have a stringent set of controls and policies set out by the SWAMBO.

Our bed is made out of leftover construction lumber and OSBs, but it’s very pretty, as it’s also made out of a bunch of walnut veneer doors I found by the roadside. Our kitchen is built from scrap wood from a skip, and the countertops are upside down concrete pavers with a tadelakt topcoat. The sink is a rock I took an angle grinder to. The faucets came from a “5 bits for €1” box of junk. People keep asking me who designed it, where did I buy X, Y, Z.

So, yeah. There’s no incompatibility - I started with the kind of quick and dirty hacks the roommate does as a student - but now that I’m pushing 40, I prefer to execute my stingy projects with quality.

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#38

Post by no_time »

icu wrote: post #32

This reminds me of an 80s tv show called MacGyver which impressed on me as a kid that you can use what you got to get out of tricky situations. I've done loads of different things as a result of this attitude. The only time I stopped to think about the show's wider influence was when I was at University (some time ago) in the Engineering building with my best friend (an Engineering student) and a phone went off with…

>After reading this article I wonder if there are MacGyver-esque influences on younger generations?

Just type "Lifehack" into youtube and search. Extremely low signal to noise ratio in videos made with monetization above all else. It's quite tragic.

A counterexample would be colinfurze[0] who makes very entertaining and inspiring videos. Apart from being a two legged OSHA violation his content is top notch. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/user/colinfurze

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#39

Post by LouisSayers »

icu wrote: post #32

This reminds me of an 80s tv show called MacGyver which impressed on me as a kid that you can use what you got to get out of tricky situations. I've done loads of different things as a result of this attitude. The only time I stopped to think about the show's wider influence was when I was at University (some time ago) in the Engineering building with my best friend (an Engineering student) and a phone went off with…

People like the lockpicking lawyer come to mind - https://youtube.com/c/lockpickinglawyer

It's as tho there's nothing he can't figure out a hack for, and sometimes it's a matter of simply getting a nail gun to do the work.

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