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How my genius roommate changed my perspective

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Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#51

Post by ed »

ctchocula wrote: post #48
brobdingnagians wrote: post #41

Reminds me of the story of Zhuangzi, the Chinese philosopher, on how one thing can be used in very different ways: There was once a man from Song who was skilled at making ointment for chapped hands. For generations, his family had made their living by washing raw silk. A traveler happened to hear of it and offered to purchase the formula for a hundred catties of gold. The man called his family into conference and sa…

I may be a bit slow today, but how did the traveler use a formula for chapped hands ointment to persuade the king of Wu to use it in dealing with troublesome neighbor state of Yue?

The ointment gave them a tactical advantage against the Yue, who couldn’t fight with chapped hands

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#53

Post by tm-guimaraes »

ctchocula wrote: post #48
brobdingnagians wrote: post #41

Reminds me of the story of Zhuangzi, the Chinese philosopher, on how one thing can be used in very different ways: There was once a man from Song who was skilled at making ointment for chapped hands. For generations, his family had made their living by washing raw silk. A traveler happened to hear of it and offered to purchase the formula for a hundred catties of gold. The man called his family into conference and sa…

I may be a bit slow today, but how did the traveler use a formula for chapped hands ointment to persuade the king of Wu to use it in dealing with troublesome neighbor state of Yue?

Ointment is very important in the sea, specially on the winter cold rain, and those old boats that need much more manual labour.

I remember seeing ads on some hands ointment that basically said "this is the number one choice by norway's fisherman"

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#54

Post by [deleted] »

geocrasher wrote: post #4

s/genius/resourceful and creative/g That's not a slight. But being resourceful (and creative, of course) is what was displayed. There was no evidence of genius. Being resourceful and creative means using what you have on hand to achieve a goal. For example, I wanted to make a gift for a friend who loves dinosaurs. I used old bicycle parts and various bits of metal I had left over from other projects and made her a 3…

[deleted]

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#55

Post by elcomet »

brobdingnagians wrote: post #41

Reminds me of the story of Zhuangzi, the Chinese philosopher, on how one thing can be used in very different ways: There was once a man from Song who was skilled at making ointment for chapped hands. For generations, his family had made their living by washing raw silk. A traveler happened to hear of it and offered to purchase the formula for a hundred catties of gold. The man called his family into conference and sa…

> The king put him in command of his forces to engage Yue’s navy in a midwinter river battle and the forces of Yue were routed

The story is nice but some details ruin it IMO.. How would a salesman know how to command an army ?

Also, the success of an army depends on a huge number of factors, not only dryness of hands.. Military strategy seems more important than hands

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#56

Post by icu »

no_time wrote: post #38
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]: http…

Thank you very much! I think my son will love the 'real life' Minecraft digging a secret tunnel series colinfurze has made.

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#57

Post by m0ck »

This painfully reminded me of my dad, who passed away earlier this year. We grew up as a family of 5, in small, 3 rooms flat in the block-of-flats from communist era. The way he made use of every single centimeter including the walls and ceiling still amazes me to this day. He was working with computers his whole life, but I haven't met anyone as handy as him. He built custom closets, cupboards, bunk beds, shelves, tables, perfctly designed for the dimensions of our flat, all without fancy tools and materials. My parents had their beds in our living room, but when we had event for our extended family, the whole room could be turned into something entirely different in 30 minutes, everything served multiple purposes. Whenever something needed to be done, or fixed, he disappeared into the "pile of useless junk" he kept in our basement and always came back with the right wire, pipe, or plank that did the job perfectly. Although I think I can be quite creative in some areas, unfortunately when it comes to manual work I am nowhere as gifted as him and am happy when I manage to change a lightbulb or hammer a nile.

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#58

Post by doctoboggan »

There is something very fulfilling (at least to me) about working this way. Not solving the problem in the best way, but solving it in the way you can _right now_. When I was younger this was how I solved most problems, but in my professional life I can't really do that (and for mostly good reasons).

I follow someone on YouTube who moved to a small island in Panama, built his house, many boats, and lots of other items by hand using what he has. He is definitely crazy but he personifies this get it done attitude. A few years ago I travelled to Africa to volunteer at a hospital and was tasked with fixing an oxygen machine. I had to channel this YouTuber because there definitely was not the right tools and I definitely needed to get it done. I honestly surprised myself in how I was able to fix it and it was quite fulfilling.

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#59

Post by 867-5309 »

tm-guimaraes wrote: post #53
ctchocula wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I may be a bit slow today, but how did the traveler use a formula for chapped hands ointment to persuade the king of Wu to use it in dealing with troublesome neighbor state of Yue?

Ointment is very important in the sea, specially on the winter cold rain, and those old boats that need much more manual labour. I remember seeing ads on some hands ointment that basically said "this is the number one choice by norway's fisherman"

https://www.selfpharma.com/en/brand/307-neutrogena

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#60

Post by biofox »

elcomet wrote: post #55
brobdingnagians wrote: post #41

Reminds me of the story of Zhuangzi, the Chinese philosopher, on how one thing can be used in very different ways: There was once a man from Song who was skilled at making ointment for chapped hands. For generations, his family had made their living by washing raw silk. A traveler happened to hear of it and offered to purchase the formula for a hundred catties of gold. The man called his family into conference and sa…

> The king put him in command of his forces to engage Yue’s navy in a midwinter river battle and the forces of Yue were routed The story is nice but some details ruin it IMO.. How would a salesman know how to command an army ? Also, the success of an army depends on a huge number of factors, not only dryness of hands.. Military strategy seems more important than hands

Dry socks win battles
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