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This url [1] seems to work [1] https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2022/09/the-lost-art-of-...
"Is a Horseless Age Coming" is the story directly beneath it... another story with nerve-wracking relevance if you rewrite it about the rapidly-progressing-and-soon-to-be-omnipresent technology of today as opposed to 1900.
FYI: The article itself is on the top right of the pseudo-PDF that this link renders. After reading it, I thought it was funny to imagine "reading" replace with "Instagram" in the original author's invective. It would be so much fun to live in a world where everyone was constantly reading books everywhere now! But, these days, whenever there's an idle moment, most people reach for their phones and plug in to the near…
Then take a peek at the first one, "The Egregious Now". I don't think you even have to change a single word!
Reading old newspapers is an intoxicating cocktail. One part smugness of hindsight and one part affinity for the common struggle. My favorite random book purchase was from a multi-generational bookstore in San Francisco. Like many, it had succumbed to the pressures of rising rent and declining interest in musty parchment. In their going-out-of-business clearance pile, I happened upon an oversized binding of newspaper…
I recently read some books written during the late 1800's through to World War 1 about sniping (aka long distance military shooting).
It was fascinating on so many levels:
- The language was completely readable. On the one hand that makes sense but on the other it's wild to read something from over 100 years ago and still find it enjoyable and get a lot of the jokes etc
- Seeing a discipline still relatively in its infancy develop in combat conditions was incredibly interesting. One book in particular mentions the psychology and persuasion required to convince command to adopt new technologies and tactics
At the end of the day, you realize "we're all just people" spending a large amount of our time dealing with other people. The clothes and technologies change but we still stay largely the same.
With the conversation article itself, the complaints he raises are overblown even looking back at it now. I've lived in many countries and traveled to many more, and one thing I've always taken note of is how and when people hold conversations: it depends almost entirely upon local culture. You're much more likely to have conversations with strangers in the countryside than in the city. You're FAR more likely to have a conversation with random Portuguese than with random Germans. Traveling Japanese are far more interesting and open than Japanese at home, whereas the opposite could be said of the British. The Vietnamese keep to themselves whereas Cambodians are happy to meet strange people. People are far more friendly in Lyon than in Paris. San Franciscans are far more likely to talk at you than with you (even vs just across the bay in Oakland).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel the exact same way. Except it seems that no one I ever meet cares a single bit about about the topics that excite me, and aren't polite or curious enough to indulge me 1-3 minutes to share the exciting things about these topics. So usually I just listen to people talk about themselves. :/
There's a lot of it about. I usually solve programming problems in my head until they stop talking.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really well put - thanks for extending my point. The experience you described in the first paragraph is very similar to the one that led me to realize how necessary it was for me to become aware of the way I communicate (conversate?) w/ others.
Converse?
The articles in this paper sound an awful lot like letters to the editor: Trite complaints about non-issues and "old man's worries" about the kids today. With the conversation article itself, the complaints he raises are overblown even looking back at it now. I've lived in many countries and traveled to many more, and one thing I've always taken note of is how and when people hold conversations: it depends almost ent…
I'm glad to see that the spoken tongue is holding up well against, if not dictating, the written language.