Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017)

Post by Loughla » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 6:23 PM UTC

Modified3019 wrote: post #94

WastedCucumber wrote: post #7

The first time I built a freestanding bookshelf, I put a lot of effort into making the feet level and the back straight and at a right angle to the feet. Once I put it up against the wall I'd built it for, I realized I'd solved completely different problem than the problem I really had. I needed crooked bookshelf, since the wall was totally tilted. In the end I screwed some wall shelves in and called it good enough.

Hah, yeah same. I grew up in a house built with hand tools sometime around 1910 (family bought it from an old lady whose father built it), not a single corner was square (though things were generally good vertically by some miracle), but it wasn’t noticeable until whenever were doing major work. Also learned that lath and plaster needs some special consideration when screwing/nailing things for securement, as the lat…

Post by mike_hock » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 7:14 PM UTC

danielmarkbruce wrote: post #134

marcosdumay wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, there has been a lot of evolution forcing us to focus on the right kinds of detail.

It's actually market forces. Evolution has almost zero to do with it. It's the past few thousand years where the vast majority of useful abstractions/tools/puzzle pieces have been built that enable any one person to do a lot without knowing so much.

Post by tedapeters » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 7:46 PM UTC

elfly wrote: post #111

So how do you trace the boards? I am assuming that you put the board at the correct angle on the floor, let it go over the upper entry floor, use a ruler to extend the line of the wall over to the board, trace that, cut it, then reverse the process but this time the part you just cut can go on the floor which will produce the correct angle on the wall?

Post by nuancebydefault » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 7:48 PM UTC

jonathanlydall wrote: post #136

jonathanlydall wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My father, (who by profession was a CA with MBA, but is exceptionally handy) has regularly reminded me that walls/floors and ceilings are pretty much never straight and level, and over here they're brick and mortar, not wood. This must be a well-known fact to all trades people who work on cupboards, tiling, door mounting, etc. But when you understand this, then you realize that everything is built to be forgiving of…

As I got a downvote I can only assume my tone came across as “how could you not know this?”, but my feeling when I wrote this was that it’s a bit of a funny and interesting anecdote the parent wrote and I’ve been similarly frustrated with how I easily make mistakes with seemingly simple tasks such as putting up a shelf, to which I have to laugh at myself about when thinking about it many years later. I definitely pre…

Post by mapcars » Sat, Jul 04, 2026, 11:09 PM UTC

mike_hock wrote: post #144

mapcars wrote: post #20

Reality does not have amount of details, it is infinite in all directions. Its only that we perceived certain amount of details, some more some less. One can spend their whole life mastering a single aspect and there always will be room to improve.

> Reality does not have amount of details, it is infinite in all directions. [citation needed] It's unknowable whether this is true.