We're effectively looking at somebody's notebook from 3200 years ago. Makes me wonder what our descendants would think if they were looking at our old notebooks and random text files in the next 3200 years.
3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
111–120 of 421 posts
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#112As an aside, a lot of people are joking about the pyramids. However, 3200 years ago is 1200 BC which is New Kingdom. The pyramids were built in the Old Kingdom. When these workers were complaining, the Great Pyramid was already 1000 years old.
(The bosses probably talked about how back in the day when their ancestors built the pyramids, workers were much tougher and dedicated)
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
My family lived in Texas for a time when my sister was younger and she stepped out of the shower one day and was stung on the head by a scorpion that was in her towel. Hearing that story I was certainly very vigilant, even paranoid perhaps, about checking my shoes and such when we went to visit family there when I was a kid.
A buddy grew up in Mexico. When he was 10 or so, he pissed on a wall and got stung in just about the worst place imaginable. I don't live around scorpions and now I keep an even larger distance between me and peeing-surfaces lol
No post body was provided.
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
Said nobody on their death cot ever, “I wish I’d spent more time carving hieroglyphs down at the Pharoah’s tomb!”
"I wish I had closed more Jira tickets and had a bigger impact on my org's KPIs"
I wish I had espoused the values that my company announced on their social media (after their 3rd rebrand).
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#115The original with ALL of the excuses is at the British Museum here: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA5634
Any idea what "WITH HIS BOSS" means in there? Is that also an excuse of absence, or is that what was marked when not absent?
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#116I don't get why some missed work for "wife bleeding"?
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#117My crocodile ate my papyrus
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
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”
Sure 300K TC seems impressive relative to the Barista you buy your Latte from but it pales in comparison to the amount that people like Zuckerburg, Musk, Bezos, etc have increased their wealth in the past 2 years for example, which is on the order of 10s of Billions. You are far closer to the homeless you guy step over on the way to Twitter HQ than to Jack Dorsey and sure if you deliver a great result this quarter maybe you'll make 400k next year but it's all relative.
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
My family lived in Texas for a time when my sister was younger and she stepped out of the shower one day and was stung on the head by a scorpion that was in her towel. Hearing that story I was certainly very vigilant, even paranoid perhaps, about checking my shoes and such when we went to visit family there when I was a kid.
A buddy grew up in Mexico. When he was 10 or so, he pissed on a wall and got stung in just about the worst place imaginable. I don't live around scorpions and now I keep an even larger distance between me and peeing-surfaces lol
how often are you peeing on walls on why?
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#1203200 years later... it would be nice if I could take time off to help when my wife is menstruating
She can probably manage it herself.
One in four women suffer pain severe enough to result in absenteeism from regular activities.
> Menstrual pain is a very common problem, but the need for medication and the inability to function normally occurs less frequently. Nevertheless, at least one in four women experiences distressing menstrual pain characterized by a need for medication and absenteeism from study or social activities
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3392715/
A common tongue-in-cheek joke among some women I know is that if men suffered from intense monthly pain this probably would have been cured 50 years ago. I suspect most men still minimize how debilitating mensuration is for many women.