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How my genius roommate changed my perspective

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Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#61

Post by AussieWog93 »

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…

For anyone else who is unfamiliar with old Chinese measurement systems, Wikipedia specifies the catty at around 600g.

This means that the family received about 60kg of gold, or around US$3.6m at today's spot prices - a handsome reward for their valuable formula.

Even in the ancient proverbs, capitalism is the optimal way to allocate resources, and this efficient allocation benefits all. Someone should let Xi know about this. ;)

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#62

Post by jacquesm »

kaybe wrote: post #49
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…

That doesn't sound fair. I don't think the army would have been successful with the ointment alone. Ointment doesn't make you a competent army commander. You can make the same argument with most things - food, a warm cloak, knowledge about the weather.. all those things that make survival and even comfort possible.

That's all true, but given that both parties were evenly matched before picking winter to do battle required something to tip the advantage to the attacker who picked that time because they had a solution to the problem of dealing with chapped hands, which in the age of manual combat may well have been of such importance that the outcome was all but certain.

Asterix joke: "The Romans, upon learning that the English requested a daily ceasefire from 2pm to 4pm because they were having tea decided to attack only between 2pm and 4pm". Obviously, that's fictional but you get the idea.

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#63

Post by powerapple »

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

During that time, travelers are people have knowledge and skills, are looking for opportunity to serve a king. One would travel country to country and find a king who value his knowledge.

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#64

Post by matheusmoreira »

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

> Military strategy seems more important than hands

Can't wield weapons without hands.

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#65

Post by jacquesm »

nobrains wrote: post #43

This is amazing. My dad is like this, very resourceful with very less and creative with the limited resources he has as hand, and has lived/survived through life like this. But there is a problem now. As a family, thanks to the incomes of the kids, have enough to survive (and thrive), but he continues with his efficiency-only approach, instead of the just-buy-it approach. - So, we see plastic bottle based plant pots…

I'd say let him be. After all, it got him this far and it clearly satisfies him, those factors may well weigh higher than having a better or prettier solution, and there really isn't anything wrong with being frugal.

I'm a lot like your dad, but maybe a bit wealthier and yet, the number of one-off tinkering solutions around the house is rather higher than you would probably expect in a normal household and yet apart from some frustration when things are a bit messy for a while due to some project on the whole it is a net positive. If my ability to do this would be circumscribed a lot of the joy would go out of my life.

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#66

Post by serg_chernata »

doctoboggan wrote: post #58

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 item…

Jamie's channel is one of my all time favorites. I love watching him work exactly because of his general attitude toward problem solving and how different it is from mine.

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#67

Post by nier »

serg_chernata wrote: post #66
doctoboggan wrote: post #58

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 item…

Jamie's channel is one of my all time favorites. I love watching him work exactly because of his general attitude toward problem solving and how different it is from mine.

https://m.youtube.com/user/JMEMantzel/videos

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#68

Post by pqs »

nobrains wrote: post #43

This is amazing. My dad is like this, very resourceful with very less and creative with the limited resources he has as hand, and has lived/survived through life like this. But there is a problem now. As a family, thanks to the incomes of the kids, have enough to survive (and thrive), but he continues with his efficiency-only approach, instead of the just-buy-it approach. - So, we see plastic bottle based plant pots…

Don't try to change other people. It never works. Let him be and accept the inconvenience as a gift.

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#69

Post by burnt_toast »

nobrains wrote: post #43

This is amazing. My dad is like this, very resourceful with very less and creative with the limited resources he has as hand, and has lived/survived through life like this. But there is a problem now. As a family, thanks to the incomes of the kids, have enough to survive (and thrive), but he continues with his efficiency-only approach, instead of the just-buy-it approach. - So, we see plastic bottle based plant pots…

I think this is a lot more common than we realize. I've noticed some men as they age seem to prefer DIY solutions over pre-bought solutions. I think it might be a mix of enjoyment, or self-satisfaction from coming up with a new solution, or remnants of an old habit they developed out of necessity when younger.

I live in a rural area myself and it's not unusual to see a pick up truck with DIY elements on them such as a wood bed rack, or wood bed cap. Usually this is a dead give away of an older gentlemen driving it. My parents own a pick up truck that had an older gentleman as a previous owner and it has a DIY wooden center console in it as it did not come with one from the factory. Ford sells a center console as an option for some of them but I guess he preferred to build his own.

I fear this will be me in 40 years.

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