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Shibboleths that get you past the initial script stage

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Re: Shibboleths that get you past the initial script stage

#31

Post by aguyfromnb »

fogetti wrote: post #6
ValentineC wrote: post #5

Another article from the same author on how to be a Dangerous Professional: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-r... (HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15206926 )

> “But I’m not a shareholder!” A surprising amount of Americans are shareholders in large financial institutions. Do you have an IRA? Does it invest in e.g. mutual funds? If you own a mutual fund or index fund, you are highly likely to beneficially own fractional shares of US financial institutions. Someone who owns 0.01 shares is a shareholder; welcome to the magic of capitalism. I like this guy. He has great insigh…

>I like this guy. He has great insight

I'm sure customer service people and healthcare professionals love people coming on premises and throwing their weight around with exaggerations and half-truths.

The people I know would put you on the bottom of the list.

Re: Shibboleths that get you past the initial script stage

#32

Post by ValentineC »

aasasd wrote: post #29
netcan wrote: post #10

This is (hopefully not) obnoxiously off-topic... As a Hebrew speaker, I wish the "shibboleth" idiom (which is a good one) was translated, rather than transliterated. laoned idioms are inherently exotic, and this one is worth demystifying It means any choice of word (or pronunciation, in the literal example) that clearly identifies the speaker's group affiliations. A good modern example is "LondonDerry/Derry. This'd b…

> I wish the "shibboleth" idiom (which is a good one) was translated, rather than transliterated. [...] A good modern example is "LondonDerry/Derry. This'd be my choice for an English translation of shibboleth. Well, the thing is, I'm not an Englishman so have no idea what's the deal with ‘Derry’ is, but I know what a shibboleth is. It has become an English term—and btw not an idiom in English since it has no other m…

> I'm not an Englishman so have no idea what's the deal with ‘Derry’ is

I had to look it up too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derry/Londonderry_name_dispute

Re: Shibboleths that get you past the initial script stage

#33

Post by tempguy9999 »

netcan wrote: post #10

This is (hopefully not) obnoxiously off-topic... As a Hebrew speaker, I wish the "shibboleth" idiom (which is a good one) was translated, rather than transliterated. laoned idioms are inherently exotic, and this one is worth demystifying It means any choice of word (or pronunciation, in the literal example) that clearly identifies the speaker's group affiliations. A good modern example is "LondonDerry/Derry. This'd b…

"patio"? I assumed you meant Patois, but I'm not sure now.

Re: Shibboleths that get you past the initial script stage

#34

Post by vermilingua »

tempguy9999 wrote: post #33
netcan wrote: post #10

This is (hopefully not) obnoxiously off-topic... As a Hebrew speaker, I wish the "shibboleth" idiom (which is a good one) was translated, rather than transliterated. laoned idioms are inherently exotic, and this one is worth demystifying It means any choice of word (or pronunciation, in the literal example) that clearly identifies the speaker's group affiliations. A good modern example is "LondonDerry/Derry. This'd b…

"patio"? I assumed you meant Patois, but I'm not sure now.

patio as in @patio11, as in the author of that thread.

Re: Shibboleths that get you past the initial script stage

#35

Post by everyone »

So when this guy is dealing with a doctor. He pretends to be a doctor himself? I assume the doctor would notice the guy is acting like a weird asshole for some reason but not mention it.

I guess the tweeter thinks hes being cool and 'hacking' his interactions with people, but I reckon he's just acting like a weird asshole and people are having to deal with it.

This is just quite funny imo.

Re: Shibboleths that get you past the initial script stage

#36

Post by vertis »

eschneider wrote: post #16
zer00eyz wrote: post #3

Find the accounting department at work and make as many friends as possible. These people see the "numbers" (and that is the heart of any business). They can get your checks expedited (reimbursement or for vendors). They can tell you when a lay off is coming, or when the company blew out the numbers. Most of them keep booze at their desks. All of this will come at the price of coffee and doughnuts/pastries/baglels at…

Or when they close out the quarter. Don't skimp!

I made a friend in the accounts department when we had to reconcile our credit cards. He was manually copying and pasting stuff into excel for reports for his boss.

Needless to say I whipped up some easy to use scripts that did the job for him. It changed my relationship with that department.

You become visible and friendly. You're not just someone making work for them.

Re: Shibboleths that get you past the initial script stage

#37

Post by FabHK »

EliRivers wrote: post #26
chillydawg wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is using the word shibboleth a shibboleth? I never really understood it until now and have never and probably wouldn't use it.

The word itself was the original shibboleth; used to identify fleeing Ephraimites. It did not go well for those Ephraimites thus identifed.

Specifically, Judges 12:4-6:

4 Jephthah then called together the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The Gileadites struck them down because the Ephraimites had said, “You Gileadites are renegades from Ephraim and Manasseh.” 5 The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he replied, “No,” 6 they said, “All right, say ‘Shibboleth.’” If he said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time.

Re: Shibboleths that get you past the initial script stage

#38

Post by FabHK »

leipert wrote: post #12
netcan wrote: post #10

This is (hopefully not) obnoxiously off-topic... As a Hebrew speaker, I wish the "shibboleth" idiom (which is a good one) was translated, rather than transliterated. laoned idioms are inherently exotic, and this one is worth demystifying It means any choice of word (or pronunciation, in the literal example) that clearly identifies the speaker's group affiliations. A good modern example is "LondonDerry/Derry. This'd b…

Yes. I am a native German speaker, and apart from grammar (people usually have a bit of trouble with cases, articles and particles) there are a few nice words to trip people up: - Streichholzschächtelchen (match box – diminutive): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:De-Streichholzsch%C3... - Austrians use a lot of different words, my favorite being Jänner and not Januar for the month January - Swiss German: Chuch…

Allegedly, during the invasion of the Netherlands by Nazi forces commencing on May 10th, 1940, the Dutch used "Scheveningen" or "beschuit" as a shibboleth to distinguish German speakers from Dutch. I don't quite understand that, as most Germans don't speak Dutch, full stop, and it would be trivial to distinguish them thereby, while presumably if you have gone to the trouble of learning Dutch, you'd know how to pronounce "Scheveningen".

At any rate, that story is often cited, eg in this insightful article that has many more examples:

Mcnamara, T. "21st Century Shibboleth: Language Tests, Identity and Intergroup Conflict " Lang Policy (2005) 4: 351. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-005-2886-0

Re: Shibboleths that get you past the initial script stage

#39

Post by knolax »

everyone wrote: post #35

So when this guy is dealing with a doctor. He pretends to be a doctor himself? I assume the doctor would notice the guy is acting like a weird asshole for some reason but not mention it. I guess the tweeter thinks hes being cool and 'hacking' his interactions with people, but I reckon he's just acting like a weird asshole and people are having to deal with it. This is just quite funny imo.

IME doctors hate it when patients act like their medical knowledge is on par with theirs because 99% of the time it isn't.

Re: Shibboleths that get you past the initial script stage

#40

Post by FabHK »

Tenoke wrote: post #8
fogetti wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “But I’m not a shareholder!” A surprising amount of Americans are shareholders in large financial institutions. Do you have an IRA? Does it invest in e.g. mutual funds? If you own a mutual fund or index fund, you are highly likely to beneficially own fractional shares of US financial institutions. Someone who owns 0.01 shares is a shareholder; welcome to the magic of capitalism. I like this guy. He has great insigh…

It seems wrong though - I am not an American, but if you e.g. own shares in an ETF (or mutual fund), you just own shares in the ETF while they own the shares in the underlying assets. I am not even sure if there's a legal definition of shareholder, but assuming that there is, I suspect this doesn't cut it and you are simply a stakeholder instead. Feel free to link to relevant materials, if that's not the case.

A pretty good criterion would be, I presume, whether you vote your shares for the election of the board of directors. If you vote, you're definitely a shareholder.
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