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Maybe the default settings are too high

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Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#131

Post by underdeserver »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #40

I can't control the speed that I read. In fact, I noticed that whenever a book becomes most exciting, I start reading especially fast (to the point of skipping words), because I want to know what happens next. So I spend the least time with the best parts of the best books. Ever since I realized that, I have switched pretty much exclusively to audiobooks. I don't really know if it's faster or slower overall, but it's…

Have you made a serious effort to try lately? I think it should be possible for everyone.

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#132

Post by zem »

eszed wrote: post #34
danielodievich wrote: post #7

We read LOTR to our sons when they were little. It was likely the 6th time for me,and 3rd in English. Stupendous experience. The command of the English Tolkien had is sublime. Wish the movies didn't take so much liberty with Faramir.!!!

I can't wait to read LOTR to my (now four-year-old) son. Been looking forward to it since we started trying for a kid. Seriously, peak fatherhood moment. I'll savor it. That (and a few others are) on the embargo list: he's not allowed to see the film before we read the books. I wish I'd got Winnie the Pooh on there in time.

I feel like winnie the pooh won't lose much from having seen the film version beforehand, but also the books had the kind of whimsical humour that I enjoyed a lot more in college than I did as a kid.

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#133

Post by JumpCrisscross »

xeonmc wrote: post #45
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #21

One of the pleasures of reading literature is noticing how compressed they are. This is true for Tolkien, Turgenev, Hemingway or Pound. The amount of information per page—per word!—is incredibly high, which permits the conveyance of ideas which simply do not land when spoken more plainly. You don’t need to go to high literature to find this density, by the way. Political speeches from Republican Rome and America’s Fo…

And presumably political speeches from Republican America combines the best of those two?

> presumably political speeches from Republican America combines the best of those two?

Why?

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#134

Post by JumpCrisscross »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #124
FridayoLeary wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting you mention that. Even Obamas detractors admit he spoke well. True, but i find JFKs speeches are on a different level from that. And it's not just him, but the contrast is particularly striking. Now in the UK all we get are monotonous robots or people who have clearly had intensive coaching in how to speak in a clear. Decisive. Direct. Way, to inspire confidence and project competence. The two qualit…

> Even Obamas detractors admit he spoke well. True, but i find JFKs speeches are on a different level from that. And it's not just him, but the contrast is particularly striking. My off the cuff observation is that there is a lot less mastery of language than there used to be in America. I'm not really sure why, but compare the grand language used by the early political leaders to, say, Obama, and it's striking. And…

> never given something on the level of Lincoln's Gettysburg address (in my opinion at least)

I’m arguing he couldn’t have. Until America regains a literary tradition, the complexity and imagery gained with heavy words is lost against the conciseness soundbites demand.

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#135

Post by zdc1 »

Great article. Living and enjoying life is a skill that needs conscious practice and intentionality.

The title would make more sense as the default settings being "too low" since Low is the setting where when we trade off fidelity for speed, but "too high" has a nice ring to it.

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#136

Post by teaearlgraycold »

nabbed wrote: post #50

This can work with the way you think as well. Many years ago, I had a technical manager who never felt any pressure to be the first to come up with the answer to a question or the solution to some problem. If I was having a technical conversation with him, and we arrived at a particularly subtle or complex issue, he could go completely silent, just staring straight ahead with his fingers to his lips. I would find it…

I that once in a technical interview and got the job (just paused for 30 seconds until the answer came to me). I think they expected a 15 minute process of problem solving.

If I recall correctly the question was something like:

You are sitting recording cars by their license plate as they drive down a road. You only have N spots on your worksheet. You can overwrite spots as many times as you need to. By the end of the day you must have an unbiased sampling of cars that have driven by you. How do you record the cars?

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#137

Post by hx8 »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #40

I can't control the speed that I read. In fact, I noticed that whenever a book becomes most exciting, I start reading especially fast (to the point of skipping words), because I want to know what happens next. So I spend the least time with the best parts of the best books. Ever since I realized that, I have switched pretty much exclusively to audiobooks. I don't really know if it's faster or slower overall, but it's…

> I can't control the speed that I read.

For me, moving my lips while reading is a surefire way to significantly slow down the pace. I do this all the time when giving a document a final proofread before publishing.

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#138

Post by energy123 »

somat wrote: post #69
powvans wrote: post #11

I find walking can be a similar experience. It really crystalized for me this summer while walking the Camino de Santiago because of the effect of exploring another country. When you walk, you see everything. The world is huge. Everything is slower, higher fidelity, and for me, richer. You can spend an entire day walking from one town to another. Think of everything you will see! Compare this to driving. Driving is l…

For the same reason I have decided I don't like fast travel in games. The whole thing becomes this strange distorted reality where the travel nodes and their immediate surroundings are over represented in your mental model but most of the rest of the map is blank. Now I don't think games should get rid of their fast travel systems But I find that enjoy the game world a lot more without them and think every one should…

I'm thinking of the The Forest survival game. The first one in the series was great.

The successor game added an in-game compass/radar which detracted from the immersion, made the world feel small and boring.

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#139

Post by nerdsniper »

teekert wrote: post #122
jibal wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if that were true (and it obviously isn't), what then would be the point of expending tremendous time and energy to "dam it off and keep it dry"? These are alternative ways to keep the tents dry ... which entails that they were never soaked in the first place. > A tent that’s been in a lake The tents were never in the lake. A few inches of the campsite was in the lake at high water. > sounds like a throwaway to…

I guess the term "tent" is pretty broad, this is what I see: [0], the cotton does not take being in water very well. But I guess a synthetic ultra light tent will do better. I also assumed the tents were already there when he arrived (complete assumption, but the term campsite conjures up a place with tents already there), and so must be of the more heavy more stationary kind. Anyway, the point is, I also had this qu…

A “campsite” is a relatively flat and relatively root/stump-free patch of dirt. That’s it. Also tents are generally not made out of the canvas material you linked that yurts and teepees might be made from.

Tents are generally made of a very wuick-drying, thin synthetic.

And like the other person said, this does make it seem like you’ve potentially never been camping but i don’t want to gatekeep the definition of “camping”. My version is carrying everything I need on my back for two weeks and walking 10-15 miles each day to the next campsite (read: “patch of dirt”, preferably near fresh water). Other people “camp” in RV’s though, so.

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#140

Post by [deleted] »

nabbed wrote: post #50

This can work with the way you think as well. Many years ago, I had a technical manager who never felt any pressure to be the first to come up with the answer to a question or the solution to some problem. If I was having a technical conversation with him, and we arrived at a particularly subtle or complex issue, he could go completely silent, just staring straight ahead with his fingers to his lips. I would find it…

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