“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
-George Bernard Shaw
Edit: proper attribution
How my genius roommate changed my perspective
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Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective
#12Did you not make a Youtube video about this like a decade ago?
edit: Don't get me wrong I am happy you re-posted this. I just want to know if I have seen this before.
Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective
#13Wow - that guy would make an awesome engineer.
Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective
#14Nice article. Unfortunately there is a limitation to this way of thinking in my daily business - the WAF ;-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wife_acceptance_factor Luckily the articles' principle doesn't only apply to building furniture. Edit - Clarification: This comment describes only my personal situation and should in no way harm anyone. It is a satiric way of stating out that if you are not alone in your apartment…
Ha you got us there - there is also WHF (Wife Hiding Factor).
What is the new thing on your desk (splurged on a Mac Pro) - no my dear I always had it - got it from Craigslist/gumtree for a steal.
Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective
#15“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” -George Bernard Shaw Edit: proper attribution
Aren't you misattributing the quote?
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/536961-the-reasonable-man-a...
Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective
#16s/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…
I think the author was adding a little sensational flair to the title, not trying to make a definitive attestation of their roommate's genius
I never once thought that I was clicking on this post to behold a tale of True Genius.
Nor did I expect that OP believed that.
I think the title reflects that semantic sentiment.
Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective
#17s/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 something that annoyed me whenever I drove through that area.
I've realized that not everyone has this mindset though. So many people write things off as "just the way it is" without considering that they can be changed. Sure, YMMV. As an average Joe, I really don't have much power to change the tax code. But I do have a lot of control over my local environment.
I'm reminded of When I was teaching, I would occasionally hear students grumbling about the way their homework was being graded. But with enough time, you'll hear students grumbling about nearly everything, so I never paid it too much attention. I'd just check that the grader had followed the rubric, and then either make a grade correction if needed, or just tell the student that it had been graded accurately. After several years, I got a long-winded email from a student expressing their dissatisfaction with the way their assignments were being graded. But instead of solely complaining, this student explained _why_ they were upset and politely requested that I consider changing my rubric. After some discussion, I did just that. I didn't concede all their "demands", but I did make changes that made the students happy.
This was a student that understood that the class policies were a construct, and that a sincere discussion can be sufficient to incite change.
Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective
#18“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” -George Bernard Shaw Edit: proper attribution
Aren't you misattributing the quote? https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/536961-the-reasonable-man-a...
GMS
Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective
#19Nice article. Unfortunately there is a limitation to this way of thinking in my daily business - the WAF ;-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wife_acceptance_factor Luckily the articles' principle doesn't only apply to building furniture. Edit - Clarification: This comment describes only my personal situation and should in no way harm anyone. It is a satiric way of stating out that if you are not alone in your apartment…
Yeah this is why when my gf let on she's a big Frida Kahlo fan, I suggested we keep living in separate houses. Mine is a paradise of clean dishes and vacuumed rugs. Hers is like a girl's dorm room with bras and underwear all over the floor. It's great to not feel judged hah.
Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective
#20Nice article. Unfortunately there is a limitation to this way of thinking in my daily business - the WAF ;-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wife_acceptance_factor Luckily the articles' principle doesn't only apply to building furniture. Edit - Clarification: This comment describes only my personal situation and should in no way harm anyone. It is a satiric way of stating out that if you are not alone in your apartment…
I like that you shortened it to WAF. Now I will always imagine Web Application Firewalls to be the wife of the application.
And she denies all strange requests entry.
Fun image, though some overly sensitive people might decry it as sexism somehow, so probably not something i can joke about at work.