Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How my genius roommate changed my perspective

farhadg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 247 posts

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#231

Post by spywaregorilla »

GhettoComputers wrote: post #198
spywaregorilla wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This story seems really weird by modern standards. The silk washer gets a great deal. The traveler could likely have offered far, far less because the value he saw wasn't obvious at all to the silk washer. Traditional storytelling would probably have suggested that the silk washer was naive and suffered for it, but he comes out great in this story. The traveler takes a huge risk in assuming this will prove to be a hu…

Simple. Think big. He valued it enough to know about naval problems to know its huge value, and wasn’t unfair and left the silk washer whole. The silk seller’s motivation out of poverty was noted, solved by the traveler and not unfairly so he was “bought” and cooperated fully with what was a great deal for him, which lubricates away resentment, half effort, and unhappiness because giving a good deal to someone is sim…

That's not my point. My point is that the story element has no purpose. The entire transaction is entirely irrelevant. The wisdom of thinking of alternative use cases could have been conveyed with the traveler simply being clever and identifying the use case thinking outside the box without the part where he buys it for an outrageous amount of gold.

The silk washer has no ability to even make use of the knowledge that the ointment has other potential applications or that it could be very valuable. It seems like a distracting element of the story.

If the dynamic of "don't try to rip people off when you have an informational advantage" was the point, it should have shown a consequence for doing so. As it stands, I see no reason why he shouldn't have offered 1 cattie of gold instead of 100.

Normal western storytelling would either

* Show the consequences of an action

* Have the character recall specific advice on the right thing to do; or reason through it; and then benefit

In this case a choice was made and it was fine-ish. But given we don't know how wealthy the traveler was, we're left to wonder if he was either:

* banking his entire net worth on this ointment

* saying "it's one ointment, silk guy. What could it cost, 100 catties of gold?" with a certain opulent flair.

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#232

Post by FarhadG »

pitaa wrote: post #17
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…

> Perhaps for people who don't have a "hack the world!" mindset, it does appear as genius I suppose. I think this is it. I've realized that as an engineer, I look at the local environment around me as a construct. If I don't like something or think it can be improved, I can redesign it better. Hell, I once got the traffic markings on an entire street changed by sending a single email to the right person pointing out…

(Author here) I absolutely love this story and your student's approach. Thank you for sharing.

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#236

Post by barbs »

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…

I agree. I think that's why I love roguelike games. Each time you play you get different situations and are equipped with different things, so you need to solve different problems eachtime.

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#237

Post by mleonhard »

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…

Looking at ugly plant pots and visible plumbing are a small sacrifice for his satisfaction. How about helping him use his DIY skills for more, like building & repairing bicycles for charity?

It's good to tell him what you need, especially around health. Encourage him to do his projects without making indoor air pollution. He can make his own fume hood for spray painting.

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#238

Post by riidom »

saeranv wrote: post #191

Random question: how does that "book bench" work in the first image of the blog? I can't figure out why the suspended books on the "bench seat" aren't just sliding down, given the lack of lateral force pushing them together. My best guess right now is that compressing the spine of the books inwards, naturally creates a moment force on the covers that pushes the page-side of the book outward. So the whole thing works…

This book bench is awful. What a devaluation. Saw the picture, immediately came to the comments and searched for "books" to vent about it.

Now I am able give that article a second chance.

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#239

Post by BoxOfRain »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #80
no_time wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

>The latter channel is perhaps not great for children because of his somewhat relaxed attitude toward mains voltage, but it's great for me.

PhotonicInduction is the extreme version of this, he's an electrical engineer / "mad scientist" who builds ridiculous things such as enormous capacitor banks for blowing things up, power supplies that deliver many kV for feeding to various household appliances, record players that spin at 10,000 RPM and that kind of thing. He also demos old tech you wouldn't see in other places like mercury arc rectifiers. Definitely "don't try this at home" but it's usually really interesting to watch.

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#240

Post by GhettoComputers »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #231
GhettoComputers wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simple. Think big. He valued it enough to know about naval problems to know its huge value, and wasn’t unfair and left the silk washer whole. The silk seller’s motivation out of poverty was noted, solved by the traveler and not unfairly so he was “bought” and cooperated fully with what was a great deal for him, which lubricates away resentment, half effort, and unhappiness because giving a good deal to someone is sim…

That's not my point. My point is that the story element has no purpose. The entire transaction is entirely irrelevant. The wisdom of thinking of alternative use cases could have been conveyed with the traveler simply being clever and identifying the use case thinking outside the box without the part where he buys it for an outrageous amount of gold. The silk washer has no ability to even make use of the knowledge tha…

I think you should consider that your position might be interpreted as racist or implying western superiority in storytelling, it’s an old story that might not be succinct enough to you but you’re not familiar or xenophobic against foreign ideas and presentation, he’s known for poetry and wordplay. If you don’t like it, consider it’s age and why it’s still relevant and referenced today. I have no idea what a cattie is but 100 pieces of gold sounds like a lot.

Remember the South Park animation of Allan Watts? Why bother with a story? It’s also entertaining especially in that era to hear epics like Gilgamesh with what you might consider too much irrelevance. You’re thinking of a subset of western storytelling, they’re not all styled like Marcus Aurelius, Shakespeare is more widely read despite it being a play, being unclear enough to need translations on the margins, and footnotes at the end.

This is the similar to comparing the Old Testament with the 10 commandments and explaining why we should really change it because it didn’t conform to our personal sensibilities.

Post reply on HN