Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 177 posts

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#161

Post by kulahan »

martin_a wrote: post #155
kulahan wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a couple stores around me run by small families, and honestly sometimes I feel like I'm halfway to being part of their family when I visit. They recognize me, greet me by name, and start firing up my order right away. Or they ask me how I'm doing and I do the same, but it goes deeper than "good, you?" - I'm learning currently about how one dude is trying a year living together with his ex again. I'm praying…

> how one dude is trying a year living together with his ex again Get us in, how is it going so far? :-D

I’ll update you as soon as I find out! He JUST signed the lease. Haha

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#162

Post by coldpie »

criddell wrote: post #114
zdc1 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, if I could stop working tomorrow I would. I have nothing against work, but I do feel that most jobs aren't particularly meaningful, and so they act as a pacifier that fills in our time so we don't need to confront the question of: what do we do with our time?

When my dad retired, he basically stopped doing much of anything outside of watching television. I think if I could afford to retire tomorrow, I'd have no trouble keeping myself busy for the rest of my life.

> I think if I could afford to retire tomorrow, I'd have no trouble keeping myself busy for the rest of my life.

Completely agreed. I took 6 weeks off between jobs a couple years ago, the longest continuous span without work or school since I was 14. It seemed crazy long. My goal was to get bored so I'd be ready to go back to having a job at the end of it. I completely failed, I filled those 6 weeks and would eagerly have filled many more self-directed months. Maybe it'll be different when I'm older but right now, I could easily spend years and years keeping myself busy if I didn't have like bills and stuff to pay.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#163

Post by pm215 »

tokai wrote: post #141
pastage wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> maelström Good use of that word. English has ae in Maelstrom but the contemporary word in Danish, Swedish and Norwegian is Malstrøm/Malström. I wonder when it lost it's ae, I see Mahlströmn from 1698, reading the etymology it says dutch but I wonder if they just wrote it down first. Everything about the sea is always filled with mythology. I think social media needs a less poetic word though.

It never had the ae in swedish and danish. Its from male/mala, to grind or to mill. English somehow changed it to ae, maybe through dutch where its maalstroom.

The OED agrees about the Dutch idea, giving the etymology as:

"early modern Dutch maelstrom (now maalstroom) whirlpool and also thinks Dutch is the origin, with Swedish/Danish etc taking it from Dutch too:

"The use of maelstrom as a proper name (also in French) seems to come from Dutch maps, e.g. that in Mercator's Atlas (1595). There is little doubt that the word is native to Dutch (compare synonymous German regional (Low German) Maling). It is true that it is found in all the modern Scandinavian languages as a common noun, but in them it is purely literary, and likely to have been adopted from Dutch."

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#164

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

zdc1 wrote: post #48
N_Lens wrote: post #8

Working past a 100 is a dream of mine (The barista in the article is 101). I don't think too many people are fond of images of old age in the Western popular zeitgeist - care homes, infirmity, increasing disability. I hope we can cultivate more 'blue zones' across the Planet, such as in Japan and around the Mediterranean. We have the capability to do so.

Personally, if I could stop working tomorrow I would. I have nothing against work, but I do feel that most jobs aren't particularly meaningful, and so they act as a pacifier that fills in our time so we don't need to confront the question of: what do we do with our time?

> but I do feel that most jobs aren't particularly meaningful, and so they act as a pacifier that fills in our time

For like 99% of people, work exists so they can buy a food and a roof over their head.

> the question of: what do we do with our time?

I've got a growing Steam library of games that I've bought but haven't gotten around to playing.

It always surprises me when people complain about being bored after retirement. If you've got disabilities or fading health so don't have the energy or ability to do the things you want, that's understandable. But I'll never understand the people that are able-bodied yet get bored only months into retirement. I just think...what did you do during your free time before you retired? Just stare at the TV?

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#165

Post by prewett »

sph wrote: post #102
phorkyas82 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Second that. I see that as a failure of society or democracy as a whole - that we are no longer able to have that broad, public conversation and act accordingly. Why should every "innovation" be shoved down our throats, if we don't want to?

I would place this blame on academia. They're the ones that are supposed to think difficult questions, and drive change. I guess today any serious discussion would just get lost in the ocean that is the Internet. Only echo chambers get reinforced.

Blaming academia is misguided, and "drive change" has never been in their job description until Progressivism took hold. The problem is each one of us: we want to numb out more than we want to do something hard. The problem is also philosophical/religious: we have collectively decided that virtue is following our animal desires (what makes you happy), which is the opposite of historical virtue. I think this can be traced back to the prevailing nominalist utilitarian view: matter is just what we make of it, and since there is nothing higher than matter, the only ethic is greatest happiness. So now, as a society, we do not really have any way to articulate the problem we intuitively feel, because the problem is that our underlying philosophy does not work, but we have even forgotten (societally) the other philosophy that has historically worked, so we cannot easily get back. I think this accounts for the interest in Stocism and traditional Christianity (especially Eastern Orthodoxy), since both unequivocally say that being enslaved to your passions (animal desires) is not the good life.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#166

Post by prewett »

komali2 wrote: post #13
bell-cot wrote: post #5

Between the lines you can hear the eulogy for a healthy economy and dense social network which have, now, mostly rotted away.

> I tell my granddaughters: work, save, don’t depend on anyone. The world is getting harder. This woman lived through fascist Italy and everything that came after, and then says this about the way the world is going.

I have a feeling she would have said that 10, 20, 30, and 40 years ago, too.

But she's probably not wrong. Over the course of her life, the US has gone from mostly farm communities which for good or bad have long-standing social networks, to mostly atomized people in cities. We've also gotten incredibly richer as a society, but we don't know each other. If you don't know each other, who can you rely on? I assume that something similar applies to Italy.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#167

Post by oersted »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #160
oersted wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> robotic baristas Coffee vending machines? That’s what’s inside the box, it’s nothing new really… There are very high quality ones too. It’s not a particularly skilled job for a human to do, besides the customer service aspect of course, perhaps I am ignorant in that regard. Indeed, coming from Spain, I don’t really see the lady as a barista, she is the classic bartender that listens to you and knows everybody. Exce…

> Coffee vending machines? That’s what’s inside the box, it’s nothing new really… There are very high quality ones too. I have yet to see a high-quality one. I've been at two offices that have automated espresso machines. They'll make something that's labeled as a "Latte", but it's just coffee with powdered milk.

You are right that most are not very good, but it's more because of business reasons than technical ones. It's more costly and bulky to keep remote coffee machines supplied with fresh milk or cream, as well as other extras, and keep it all well refrigerated. Most people do not seem to be ready to pay extra for it.

But a robot barista in a coffee shop would end up being exactly like normal coffee machines that have been around forever, perhaps just a bit higher-end than an office one. It's not really an idea like OP was implying.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#168

Post by lotsofpulp »

barbazoo wrote: post #143
lotsofpulp wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People aren’t locked into being baristas. People immigrate from all over the world to the US, and become whatever they have to. Dry cleaners, landscapers, cooks, maids, nurses, etc.

Do those folks make more than minimum wage? And becoming a nurse isn’t something you switch to after being underpaid as a barista. It’s a career with real training.

I do not see why a barista cannot do “real” training and switch to working as a nurse.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#169

Post by camtarn »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #160
oersted wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> robotic baristas Coffee vending machines? That’s what’s inside the box, it’s nothing new really… There are very high quality ones too. It’s not a particularly skilled job for a human to do, besides the customer service aspect of course, perhaps I am ignorant in that regard. Indeed, coming from Spain, I don’t really see the lady as a barista, she is the classic bartender that listens to you and knows everybody. Exce…

> Coffee vending machines? That’s what’s inside the box, it’s nothing new really… There are very high quality ones too. I have yet to see a high-quality one. I've been at two offices that have automated espresso machines. They'll make something that's labeled as a "Latte", but it's just coffee with powdered milk.

I've had a coffee from a high end bean to cup machines, installed in a conference room at our vebdor's headquarters, which used fresh milk and made a better cappuccino than I've had from real humans at many chain coffee shops. They might be rare, but they're out there.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#170

Post by jimbokun »

sph wrote: post #71
jimbokun wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working for a larger soul sucking corporation that long would be spiritually crushing. But serving your community coffee every day seems like a great way to stay involved in your community doing something useful.

It's the same reason you see barbers working well into their 70s. After a lifetime offering a service to your neighbourhood, cutting hair and having a chat, why would you even retire? Just to stare at a wall, useless and lonely?

There was a barber down the street from my former work place, and I had no idea what his hours were. He seemed to just show up and work when he felt like it. Clearly was semi-retired.

Was a great story teller and joke teller. That was worth the price of a haircut by itself.

Post reply on HN