“Just remove the duck” (2013) • Hacker News Board

Re: “Just remove the duck” (2013)

#231

Post by mod » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 7:37 PM UTC

jimmaswell wrote: post #167

wambotron wrote: post #20

I worked at a deli during college, and people did this same type of thing on slices. By default, I'd always pick a pretty thin slice. Most people really like thinly sliced meats. The first thing you do is slice once and show them the slice, making sure it fits what they wanted. 99% of the time, people would say "thinner," I would pretend to fiddle with the knob, slice the same thickness, and they'd say "perfect!" I t…

>Most people really like thinly sliced meats Why would you want thinly sliced meat? That doesn't make any sense to me.

I imagine there's lots of reasons. A girl I dated would only eat very thinly sliced meat or very specific cuts of chicken.

I tried for a long time to come up with a set of rules that would account for her preference, and eventually I came to: no obvious evidence that it was an animal. No bones, veins, ligaments, fatty areas, etc. Also a good texture, no slimy meats.

Her preference was that turkey they cut so thin it's almost fluffy.

I heard she got over that while she traveled, and now eats all manner of meats.

Re: “Just remove the duck” (2013)

#232

Post by Dylan16807 » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 7:37 PM UTC

grecy wrote: post #132

mc32 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what happens to me too. I feel bad for the wasted cold cuts. So I'll give them two tries, one attempt and one adjustment, next time I'll wait for the person who does it better.

> I feel bad for the wasted cold cuts. I've recently started hunting to get my meat, and I seem to be really sensitive to this kind of terminology lately. You feel bad for the wasted animal that was killed .

I would imagine most people are either okay with animals living in X condition and then killed, or not okay with animals living in X condition and then killed. Why does it matter what you do with the corpse?

Re: “Just remove the duck” (2013)

#233

Post by enlightenedfool » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 7:40 PM UTC

Humans or animals, it's natural to want to leave a mark. The article is pointless.

Re: “Just remove the duck” (2013)

#234

Post by modfodder » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 7:41 PM UTC

mvdwoord wrote: post #8

A story from the time recounts that Piero Soderino, the head of the powerful Florentine Republic, even told the famously irascible Michelangelo that David's nose was much too large. Michelangelo then hid some marble dust in his hand, climbed back up his ladder and pretended to do some more "chiseling" on the offending proboscis. While he did so, he let some marble dust fall from his hand. The pompous Soderino was foo…

a film editor instructor liked to rag on director's wanting a frame clipped here or lengthened there, arguing they couldn't possibly know when something was a single frame too long or too short. He would solve this by hitting a few keys on the keyboard that effectively did nothing, then show the director the same cut. Inevitably they would always remark how much better it felt, not realizing no change was made.

Re: “Just remove the duck” (2013)

#235

Post by jallmann » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 7:43 PM UTC

eigenvector wrote: post #208

philh wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found it a little funny, but not funny enough to justify being that level of asshole.

It's satire. He didn't actually write this and there is no missing cat.

Not so sure about that [1]:

> Q: Are your articles (like Missing Missy), real emails?

> A: The email articles are verbatim ...

Even if his pieces are meant to be satire, IMO it's not particularly good satire. To each his own, I guess.

[1] http://live.washingtonpost.com/david-thorne-internet-is-a-pl...

Re: “Just remove the duck” (2013)

#236

Post by omegaham » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 7:46 PM UTC

NickPollard wrote: post #34

mvdwoord wrote: post #8

A story from the time recounts that Piero Soderino, the head of the powerful Florentine Republic, even told the famously irascible Michelangelo that David's nose was much too large. Michelangelo then hid some marble dust in his hand, climbed back up his ladder and pretended to do some more "chiseling" on the offending proboscis. While he did so, he let some marble dust fall from his hand. The pompous Soderino was foo…

Another version I've heard of this is with film censorship - apparently when Hitchcock made Psycho , the film censor (I think in the UK - the BBFC) wouldn't give the film a certificate because it was too extreme for the era - too much nudity, too much violence - and suggested a few cuts to just trim back some of the offending shots. Hitchock said of course he would, took the film back, and sat on it for a couple of w…

Matt Parker and Trey Stone, the creators of South Park, did the exact same thing when making Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. Put completely ridiculous over-the-top NC-17 stuff in there, get it rejected for those parts, and keep the iffy stuff.

Re: “Just remove the duck” (2013)

#237

Post by xrange » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 7:46 PM UTC

flarg wrote: post #87

I hate this story. I think it's important to differentiate between people who have the right knowledge to request a change and those that think they have the right solely because of seniority; but it's also rather disrespectful to 'cheat' and make fake changes just to make the someone happy. No-one deserves to be treated like a 'mark' for our tricks. My experience has been that being honest, polite and knowledgeable…

Yes, overall the approach of adding ducks smells pretty passive-agressive. In an ideal world I suppose the "duck-adders" should have enough authority to push back on questionable changes. It is unfortunate that so many people identify with the need for these tactics. I wonder if the "nit-pickers" in authority are just randomly distributed, and we only see the bad instances (i.e. there is no particular selective pressure on them). Or if we're seeing another manifestation of the Peter Principle of those in authority. Or if the duck adders are somehow self-selecting to be in a position of avoiding responsibility by not being assertive enough?

Re: “Just remove the duck” (2013)

#238

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 7:47 PM UTC

sxp wrote: post #120

TallGuyShort wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a huge Steve Jobs fan, but I had a professor who had worked as a designer under Steve Jobs and tried something similar. Steve insisted that a new mouse needed to be just a fraction of a millimetre slimmer so a person's palm was lower and closer to the work surface. They figured he was being an unreasonable "delicate genius" and returned a few days later with the identical mouse and claimed they had reworked it to…

There is a similar story about Larry Page when Gmail was being developed: Before Google launched Gmail in 2004, its creator, Paul Buchheit, brought it to Page’s open cubicle office for a review. As Buchheit called the program up on Page’s computer, the boss made a face. “It’s too slow,” Page said. Buchheit disagreed. It was loading just fine, he said. No, Page insisted. It had taken a full 600 milliseconds for the pa…

[deleted]

Re: “Just remove the duck” (2013)

#239

Post by lotharbot » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 7:48 PM UTC

larrys wrote: post #192

icebraining wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that's not exactly fake, it just has a human in the circuit.

Not to mention that obviously Johnson was aware of how the knob worked. And I find that it's funny that people think that a Vice President can't get temperature adjusted to his liking and should or would play games with him. "Oh there he goes again" type of thing. I don't think you get to be in a position of being able to fly a President or Vice President of any country by having an attitude and not being fully respe…

> "Johnson was aware of how the knob worked"

No, he wasn't. It was intentionally put in place to deceive him, and the deception worked.

> "people think that a Vice President can't get temperature adjusted to his liking"

Most VPs could get the temperature adjusted to their liking. Johnson was a special kind of control freak. He liked to make people uncomfortable by making it extra hot, extra cold, walking around naked (it's why he replaced some of the solid bulkheads with transparent plexiglas), raising the hydraulic table and his hydraulic chair so high that people at the table looked like children who could barely reach, and so on.

The Air Force crew got sick of his being in the cockpit, and they didn't much care for those antics, so they gave him the fake temperature control. No, he didn't know how it worked, and no, they didn't make it as hot or as cold as he wanted it to be, they just went along enough to keep him from making trouble for them.

> "not being fully respectful of those in power"

How many Air Force Colonels do you know? They'll give a guy the respect he earns, but they're not known for their willingness to defer to LBJ-style bullshit.

[One of our volunteers was the plane's crew chief for most of a decade. We got a lot of interesting inside stories on slow days.]

Re: “Just remove the duck” (2013)

#240

Post by yef » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 7:48 PM UTC

mc32 wrote: post #83

electroly wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They know. They just think you're bad at working the slicer and don't want to make that interaction an ordeal. That's what I've thought every single time I say "thinner" and they come back and it isn't thinner.

This is what happens to me too. I feel bad for the wasted cold cuts. So I'll give them two tries, one attempt and one adjustment, next time I'll wait for the person who does it better.

You (and parent commenters) should keep asking for thinner until you actually get what you want. Yes - let it take 15 minutes, if it has to. You're the one who's paying. The feelings of the employee are irrelevant - he has a job to do. The feelings of the people behind you are irrelevant - you waited your turn, too.