The original with ALL of the excuses is at the British Museum here: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA5634
Big day for the guy BURYING THE GOD.
3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
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Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#92The original with ALL of the excuses is at the British Museum here: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA5634
Interesting that the dates are "Month 3 of Summer, Day 24" etc. The curious bit to me being the enduring use of 4 distinct seasons, when there are obviously other ways to mark a year. Is anyone aware of a culture that did/does not have exactly 4 seasons?
It's common among many ancient cultures to treat equinoxes and solstices as events of great importance, as those mark the beginning of the season change, but not all regions experience seasons the same.
Ancient Egyptians, while knowledgeable of astronomy, had only three seasons: Akhet (summer/heat), Peret (flooding, of the Nile) and Shemu (harvest). Notice the conspicuous absence of winter.
https://egyptianstreets.com/2022/01/28/a-year-in-three-seaso...
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
It makes sense, there are like 100 species of scorpions in the regions where house cats were first domesticated. Cats do hunt scorpions which probably scored them some extra holiness points with the ancient Egyptians.
Dogs also hunt scorpions. Dogs are not immune to scorpion stings, they're just ignorant.
Dogs seem to hunt pretty much anything. I wonder if we've bred out the understanding of what is and isn't edible in dogs, but not cats? Or perhaps its a social thing that wild canids teach their young?
Half the dog owners I know have some story of their dog catching a hedgehog or something equally inedible, but the worst that seems to happen with cats is their prey fights back a bit harder than they expected and they get a rat scratch.
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hope the parallel of SWEs working for Mega-Billionaires is not lost on the HN crowd.
Build software to ~harass~ track warehouse workers. "Anyone can learn to code bruh" 170k base + 300k RSU "man I can't afford anything in [high COL area]" "Therapy is really useful y'all" - average SWE
So what's the alternative? Move to a LCOL area, get a worse job, and watch as inflation turns it into a HCOL area?
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't really think SWEs are being taken advantage of the same way other employees at successful tech companies are. (Coming from the perspective of an SWE)
Didn't mean that in general but there is a strong undercurrent of bootlicking and overworking oneself for little or no reward on HN.
fair enough
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#96We really are the same people. No measurable difference in IQ (as well as that can be "measured"). Only knowledge (some gained for us; some lost, too) and context are different. The tablet is a cool reminder of this.
This is incorrect - iq has risen steadily with improvements in nutrition, public health, and medical science. It's mostly plateaued over the last 50 years, but it's evident that pre-industrial / pre-rnlightenment humans had a much harder life, including things that suppressed potential at an almost global scale. We may see additional gains if there are globally adopted pedagogical improvements in both childhood educa…
It might've actually dipped for everyone born during the decades leaded fuel was used. But that's on a base/general level - education would outweigh that.
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#97The original with ALL of the excuses is at the British Museum here: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA5634
Time off for illness! That's nice. I wonder if one of the HR scribes tracked the days every person took off in an analog ERP system. Scribes seemed important, maybe they outsourced the basics to contractors.
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#98I used to live in a scorpion-rich environment and can attest that a sting should disqualify one from manual labor for a day. I found that every time I was stung though the effects were less and less. The last time I was stung was a minor nuisance at most. I would advise, if you find yourself living with scorpions, to check your shoes, by shaking them out, before putting them on.
Wrap the opening to your shoes in socks. That let's them get air and keeps critters out.
Source: kept camel spiders, scorpions, and mice out of my boots.
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#99The original with ALL of the excuses is at the British Museum here: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA5634
Big day for the guy BURYING THE GOD.
I feel a connection to the guy who missed work "absent with the scribe". I know it was probably something important, but a scribe writing "that guy is excused, he was with me" makes me think of those times my boss took me for lunch and paid with the corporate card.
(Of course, I'm assuming the scribe wrote this)
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't really think SWEs are being taken advantage of the same way other employees at successful tech companies are. (Coming from the perspective of an SWE)
Didn't mean that in general but there is a strong undercurrent of bootlicking and overworking oneself for little or no reward on HN.
Wouldn’t call the typical SW career “little or no reward”