Wouldn't call it genius, but certainly resourceful. In many cultures, this resourcefulness is not uncommon. Interesting how it is such a novel concept to the author, but second-nature to others.
How my genius roommate changed my perspective
71–80 of 247 posts
Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective
#72Reminds 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…
One used it for personal gain, the other used it in service of his country.
Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective
#73TIL https://www.wimhofmethod.com/ Does this have any real, proven by data reliability? or is it just self help-like material focused on alpha-males?
Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective
#74Reminds 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.
Small technical innovations have won wars in the past. In the first Punic war the Roman Republic (who had no significant naval strength at the start of the war) defeated Carthage, the dominant naval force of the Mediterranean. One of the most significant factors in their victory (they certainly would have lost without it at least) was inventing a plank with a spike on the end of it[0].
The Romans at this time were so incompetent at naval warfare that their only significant defeats in the war were losing their entire fleet to bad weather (more than once).
[0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvus_(boarding_device)
Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective
#75Wouldn't call it genius, but certainly resourceful. In many cultures, this resourcefulness is not uncommon. Interesting how it is such a novel concept to the author, but second-nature to others.
I'm ashamed to admit to the number of times I am impressed by someone from a third-world country not only being resourceful but being able to create much more than I could from much less.
I think of William Kamkwamba creating windmills from car parts.
We need to remember that "education" is not the only way to achieve, some people are just wired up well and education comes from many more places than school! (I also believe in schools btw)
Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
Not with that attitude.
Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective
#77Reminds 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…
Today the traveller would buy regulatory capture so that himself only could produce the ointment.
Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective
#78TIL https://www.wimhofmethod.com/ Does this have any real, proven by data reliability? or is it just self help-like material focused on alpha-males?
Did you actually hear him talk? There is no need to be insecure about your body’s abilities. Not only “alfa” males can do things. “He can do it you can (potentially) do it” sounds quite proven to me, do you disagree? So the only question (for me) is “can he do what he says he can”.
Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective
#79Reminds 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 abo…
Yes, very efficient. Meanwhile nearly all of the peasantry subsisted on rice and suffered from malnutrition and frequent birth defects.
Also, this has nothing to do with capitalism. It's just exchange of money which had existed long before that system first developed in the city states of Italy.
Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective
#80This 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…
One of the few genres of YouTube videos I can stand is "old man dismantles electronics". It's a very peaceful and educational genre.
Here are some channels I like:
https://www.youtube.com/c/Techmoan
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtM5z2gkrGRuWd0JQMx76qA
The latter channel is perhaps not great for children because of his somewhat relaxed attitude toward mains voltage, but it's great for me.