[HN Gopher] How my genius roommate changed my perspective
___________________________________________________________________
How my genius roommate changed my perspective
Author : FarhadG
Score : 481 points
Date : 2021-11-09 17:24 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.farhadg.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.farhadg.com)
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| Thanks for the article. I didn't know the French had a term for
| it. Did he come from an impoverished background? The raw
| ingenuity and creativity from locally sourced or owned parts for
| free material is most commonly found in weed smokers making
| smoking tools, but I love and use what your roommate did all the
| time.
|
| I'm pretty biased against the raspberry pi and nearly every
| project I saw was achievable with old computers that would be
| free, but there's not much glory in talking about using a netbook
| for ad blocking or a server over a shiny SBC that's a real
| computer (like the real ones you probably already own, have
| better specs, negligibly more power usage, and are collecting
| dust).
|
| My grandfather would collect garbage for building material and
| build things with it like a bench, a raised platform in the
| basement because it flooded, and old fan motors to make kitchen
| ventilation. He loved watching this old house.
| sandreas wrote:
| Nice 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 you have to
| 1. Respect others feelings when rearranging your stuff or putting
| new things in 2. Regard the importance to build something
| aesthetical / beautiful rather than only useful
|
| I would love to see the author having emphasized these two
| aspects.
| madaxe_again wrote:
| The WAF is not incompatible with this way of thinking - it just
| requires you to extend your creative reach to come up with
| solutions that are also aesthetically pleasing.
|
| Me, I like to work with negative space when I'm making
| furniture - take stuff away to create something, add as little
| as necessary.
|
| I also have my fair share of Heath Robinson contraptions, but
| as long as I keep them invisible (i.e. tucked away in a shed or
| a hutch quietly fulfilling its function) the WAF is fulfilled -
| and I have a stringent set of controls and policies set out by
| the SWAMBO.
|
| Our bed is made out of leftover construction lumber and OSBs,
| but it's very pretty, as it's also made out of a bunch of
| walnut veneer doors I found by the roadside. Our kitchen is
| built from scrap wood from a skip, and the countertops are
| upside down concrete pavers with a tadelakt topcoat. The sink
| is a rock I took an angle grinder to. The faucets came from a
| "5 bits for EUR1" box of junk. People keep asking me who
| designed it, where did I buy X, Y, Z.
|
| So, yeah. There's no incompatibility - I started with the kind
| of quick and dirty hacks the roommate does as a student - but
| now that I'm pushing 40, I prefer to execute my stingy projects
| with quality.
| ethbr0 wrote:
| Side note: angle grinders are vastly underappreciated
|
| Maybe it's because I didn't grow up (completely) on a farm,
| but between circular saw (regular blade), angle grinder, and
| circular saw (diamond blade) you can cut and shape just about
| everything with enough care.
| tibbydudeza wrote:
| 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.
| wdfx wrote:
| Finally there's the WCF - Wife Compensation Factor;
|
| "Here, I bought you one too."
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) To be fair, he asked our roommates about using
| materials from our shared living space.
|
| I'll be using WAF in the future, however :)
| throw1234651234 wrote:
| This is an appropriate time to share a story about a co-worker.
| We went to Kroger for lunch (grocery store, like Publix, sells
| pre-packaged sandwiches). Every time we went, he would do $5-10
| in cashback. I asked why. He said so he has spending money that
| his wife doesn't know about. Minor, but always struck me as an
| epitome of deception and lengths people will go to in order to
| avoid honesty in their marriage.
| newbamboo wrote:
| Maybe he saved it up and used to it buy her an anniversary
| gift. There needs to be a little mystery.
| noduerme wrote:
| 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.
| hellbannedguy wrote:
| You had me at Hellbanned from HN for 8 years, and not
| realizing it.
|
| Me too. I didn't even know what HB was until this site, and I
| wish I didn't know it today.
|
| Always felt it was passive aggressive petty move.
| y4mi wrote:
| 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.
| mellavora wrote:
| Well, perhaps they are the ones being sexist by assuming that
| a wife has to be a certain gender.
|
| but you are right, this clearly NSFW territory.
| phist_mcgee wrote:
| I complained to my GF yesterday that the apple TV remote always
| gets lost in the sofa cushions, and opined that a bright fluoro
| yellow remote would be much better.
|
| She said it was a terrible idea and would be a complete eyesore
| (which was exactly my point!)
| andrewzah wrote:
| It doesn't have to be an eyesore, we use one of these [0].
| Now we never lose that darn remote.
|
| [0]: https://smile.amazon.com/Remote-Generation-Silicone-
| Controll...
| froh wrote:
| tl;dr a creative roommate refits a bed frame as a multi purpose
| table and workbench and opens the eyes and the heart of the
| author to "hack the physical world" to fit his needs.
| RaiausderDose wrote:
| after the bed part I wanted to quit reading, it was so simple
| and the bed looked modern not like "we were poor as dirt!"
|
| workbench was cool though
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) Although we were not rich, the group wasn't
| that poor either. We were fortunate as a group to have fun
| with what we had...
| mdp2021 wrote:
| Some other people started by seeing that they could modify pre-
| existing compiled code to better fit their needs.
| chasd00 wrote:
| reminds me of my old roommate in college, we had to fit 5 guys in
| a two bedroom apartment. He found/stole/bought (not sure which)
| some old scaffolding. He painted it and then got some 2x6's and
| made two queen sized bunk bed frames. So we had two decent sized
| beds in each room. Then, the last guy was on the couch (he was
| only there for the summer then back to the dorm).
| lbrito wrote:
| Side note, wasn't the genius roommate afraid of getting a huge
| fine for repurposing furniture?
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) Landlord found it amusing. She had much bigger
| problems in ensuring the unit was completed.
| hirako2000 wrote:
| Am I the only one thinking of a hoseless washing machine and a
| wide open wardrobe that will be rather complicated to sell?
| fragmede wrote:
| sounds like they were students at the time - put the parts back
| before you move out and no one that cares will even notice
| 2muchcoffeeman wrote:
| There are no regular inspections in a place like that?
|
| The pictures clearly show a drill and saw dust. Which is what
| I would expect from repurposing closet doors. You couldn't
| put that together without significant damage to the
| furniture.
|
| In most western countries you just lost your bond. No idea
| how permissible they are in China.
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) I should make this point more clear in my
| article. Once you realize how much extra materials are sold
| (e.g. hose length) to ensure it meets a wide range of
| customers, you realize you can do much to tailor the final
| result to your needs.
| stefap2 wrote:
| Hope he puts the wardrobe back together, otherwise landlord won't
| be happy.
| zz865 wrote:
| The landlord is going to kill them.
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) On the contrary, the landlord was was flexible
| with our group since our apartment was promised to be ready in
| 2 weeks but we didn't have hot water for 8 months--including
| Beijing's winter
| Wistar wrote:
| Very weird coincidence. This morning before I read this post, as
| I was trying to respond to a comment from a friend about "rubber
| band, bailing wire and bubblegum solutions," I began searching
| google for a reference to a related French word I had read about
| many years ago but couldn't remember.
|
| That word, which I eventually found in a google books excerpt, is
| bricolage.
|
| I was very surprised to read this post only a few minutes later.
| pwillia7 wrote:
| good bader meinhoff
| turdnagel wrote:
| Good article. I feel very comfortable doing this with code and
| not so much with physical material, where the constraints are
| much more imposing and the risk of screwing something up is much
| higher.
|
| Based on my experiences with programming, I imagine part of being
| able to think this way is also having experience building things
| physically. The fact that I can think about connecting pieces of
| backend infrastructure, or bits of reusable code, or a wiring up
| a handy library to solve a problem is from experience solving
| problems with the tools at hand.
|
| Probably the best way to get started with this mindset in any
| problem domain is to just start making things, getting a feel for
| the capabilities of tools, the strengths of various materials.
|
| In other words, the attitude adjustment is just one part of being
| able to solve problems this way - you've got to be very
| comfortable with your tools and materials, or have little to lose
| so you can experiment safely.
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) As a software engineer, I'd love to know more on
| how you apply this.
| turdnagel wrote:
| Two principles I see at play here are fluency (a mapping
| between a desired action and the physical action of using a
| tool) and parsimony (building something in the simplest or
| cleverest way to achieve the goal). You get fluency through
| practice and the parsimony comes through experience, a kind
| of wisdom - similar but I different concepts.
|
| With software engineering, I think when you're comfortable
| with the syntax and capabilities of the language you're
| working with, you get fluency. And then once you have
| experience using the standard library and some common
| external libs, you learn parsimony.
| redwood wrote:
| My day to day experience with this is cooking with what happens
| to be available in the kitchen
| honkycat wrote:
| I love stories like these. In college, I slept on a futon in a
| filthy studio apartment.
|
| My desk was a piece of wood I put on the arms of a chair, while
| sitting on the edge of my futon.
|
| It worked OK.
|
| I don't lionize this state of being. My more comfortable peers
| had better grades and had more fun.
| icu wrote:
| This reminds me of an 80s tv show called MacGyver which impressed
| on me as a kid that you can use what you got to get out of tricky
| situations. I've done loads of different things as a result of
| this attitude. The only time I stopped to think about the show's
| wider influence was when I was at University (some time ago) in
| the Engineering building with my best friend (an Engineering
| student) and a phone went off with the MacGyver theme. When I
| told my friend I thought that was cool (these were the days when
| you had to pay for novelty ringtones) he casually remarked that a
| lot of the Engineering student body had the MacGyver ringtone and
| MacGyver had a huge influence on students enrolling for
| Engineering.
|
| After reading this article I wonder if there are MacGyver-esque
| influences on younger generations? I haven't come across any
| YouTube channels or shows on Netflix, Prime or Disney Plus that
| would interest my 7 year old son and capture his imagination like
| MacGyver did for me as a kid.
|
| Having said that, in true MacGyver fashion I started teaching my
| son Chemistry last weekend using a whiteboard, YouTube and some
| Minecraft analogies.
| avbor wrote:
| Depends - on YouTube, there's definitely a lot of channels that
| encourage engineering and science of some kind, though not
| always in a safe way. We had Shitty Robots into just general
| engineering with Simone Giertz, William Osman and Michael
| Reeves with their dumb robots.
|
| I would definitely include some of Simone's builds in the super
| serious club especially now, but Mark Rober and Build Stuff
| Better definitely have a more engineering focus to their
| videos.
| tfandango wrote:
| Mark Rober comes to mind.
| jll29 wrote:
| The entertainment industry has a lot of influence over young
| minds, I often thought that could be the way to get more
| students into STEM subjects.
| no_time wrote:
| >After reading this article I wonder if there are MacGyver-
| esque influences on younger generations?
|
| Just type "Lifehack" into youtube and search. Extremely low
| signal to noise ratio in videos made with monetization above
| all else. It's quite tragic.
|
| A counterexample would be colinfurze[0] who makes very
| entertaining and inspiring videos. Apart from being a two
| legged OSHA violation his content is top notch. [0]:
| https://www.youtube.com/user/colinfurze
| marginalia_nu wrote:
| One of the few genres of YouTube videos I can stand is "old
| man dismantles electronics". It's a very peaceful and
| educational genre.
|
| Here are some channels I like:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/c/Techmoan
|
| https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtM5z2gkrGRuWd0JQMx76qA
|
| The latter channel is perhaps not great for children because
| of his somewhat relaxed attitude toward mains voltage, but
| it's great for me.
| chhickman wrote:
| One of my favorites in this vein is the channel below. This
| guy really knows how to "do what you can with what you have
| available".
|
| https://www.youtube.com/c/K%C3%AAnhs%C3%A1ngt%E1%BA%A1oVN-
| tr...
| ghaff wrote:
| There are certainly plenty of counterexamples. But there are
| also probably an unhealthy number of examples of things that
| people would have considered hobbies or just clever
| improvisation of one sort or another that are now, in many
| cases, about monetization/"side hustles"--with a lot of the
| negative baggage that can come from that when it becomes the
| primary goal.
| icu wrote:
| Thank you very much! I think my son will love the 'real life'
| Minecraft digging a secret tunnel series colinfurze has made.
| htek wrote:
| We're all just trying to be good little capitalists,
| extracting value from someone/something as cheaply as
| possible and selling it to someone else for profit. See ya at
| the bottom! ;)
| LouisSayers wrote:
| People like the lockpicking lawyer come to mind -
| https://youtube.com/c/lockpickinglawyer
|
| It's as tho there's nothing he can't figure out a hack for, and
| sometimes it's a matter of simply getting a nail gun to do the
| work.
| baby wrote:
| Lots of my friends were watching myth busters, which I think
| would qualify for this.
| themaninthedark wrote:
| I would say that some of AvE's stuff falls into that but he
| does not filter his language/attitude at times so he is off
| putting to some people.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/c/arduinoversusevil2025
| throaway46546 wrote:
| I feel like he isn't producing as much of that content any
| more. I liked it better when it was more watch me make a
| milling machine from a cheap chinesium drill press and less
| watch me press go on the $200,000 Haas CNC. I feel like he is
| a bit of a victim of his own success. I still love the BOLTR
| content.
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) Thank you for the reminder. I've heard of this
| show in so many different contexts and I've yet to come watch
| any of the episodes.
|
| If you start a channel, I'd follow along, btw.
| fb03 wrote:
| Industrious, yes! Genius, I'd say no.
|
| And that's a good thing.
|
| No amount of genius can convert ideas into results if you don't
| have the 'put the work in' perspective of a hard worker.
|
| Congrats!
| DantesKite wrote:
| A lot of the commenters here are the embodiment of the "Actually"
| meme, critiquing the least important parts of the story, like an
| editor looking for a typo, rather than engaging with the spirit
| of the story.
|
| This isn't a code base waiting for review.
| frazbin wrote:
| And if it were, stop anyway! Humanities classes are sposed to
| help us engage with content like this, but stem students often
| don't take them seriously (
| j3th9n wrote:
| Very cringey article, tell me you have limited creative abilities
| without telling me you have limited creative abilities.
| Cipater wrote:
| I think that people who "cringe" at regular stuff are
| projecting their own neuroses.
| j3th9n wrote:
| You're clearly not trying to understand what I'm cringing
| about.
| pentae wrote:
| Yes, it's almost a bit like people parroting TikTok memes.
| tiepoul wrote:
| I can definitely agree that close friends also affects on how you
| think.
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) Over time, I've found that my environment affects
| me much more than I had ever thought.
| bch wrote:
| "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
| programmer_dude wrote:
| Aren't you misattributing the quote?
|
| https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/536961-the-reasonable-man-a...
| scollet wrote:
| GMS
| croisillon wrote:
| B?
| scollet wrote:
| Game Maker Studio???
| scollet wrote:
| It's George, Man, and Superman, but I don't put esoterica
| past you.
|
| It was just a silly joke.
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) I've heard this before and it's a good reminder.
| artisinalbread wrote:
| I feel like author was never before in a frugal situation. These
| kind of things were common in student dorms (may be not to the
| scale of putting in hard work on making a table have wheels to
| move). I love the situations that surrounds with limitations to
| test your creativity in fulfilling your needs.
| rini17 wrote:
| You assume everyone is innately inclined to improve his/her
| living space in this way in frugal situation? That's not true.
| There are plenty of poor families which don't do that (for
| various reasons such as WAF explained in this forum).
|
| It's common in student dorms because it's kind of tradition,
| students learn to do it from one another. Still it can be
| surprising to freshmen if they haven't encountered it before.
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) While I can understand your perspective, the way
| and approach he took in solving these problems was very
| different. It wasn't because we didn't have the means, it was
| just his way of expressing himself in solving the problem at
| hand.
| programmer_dude wrote:
| Did 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.
| abdulhaq wrote:
| He disassembled the video and turned it into a blog post
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) I wanted to start writing again and decided to
| make this my first post on my site. Much more to follow on
| math, philosophy, etc. Thank you for the kind words.
| greybox wrote:
| Yeah I read this blog post about 5 years ago I think - So glad
| I've found it again though!
| OJFord wrote:
| 2013 (link 404s, page moved presumably, but seems to be the
| same thing) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6838299
| greybox wrote:
| Funny it's been re-posted as new though, I wonder if the
| author is the original one ....
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| I bet the whole post is an ad for the wim hof nonsense.
| iJohnDoe wrote:
| Glad someone else noticed. I knew I read this many years
| ago. Not complaining though.
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) However wish I was true, that would've been
| nice to make an affiliate link :) jking.
| OJFord wrote:
| Same submitter posted it at a different URL on the same
| domain in 2013 -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6838299.
| prewett wrote:
| Very creative approach!
|
| I'm curious whether they got the deposit on their apartment back,
| given that apartments in Beijing are usually furnished, so
| probably the furniture was the landlord's. Could go either way:
| the landlord might be impressed at the added utility, or upset at
| the changes.
| jll29 wrote:
| Thanks for sharing this impressive story.
|
| What happened to your room mate professionally?
| tibbydudeza wrote:
| Wow - that guy would make an awesome engineer.
| mikkelenzo wrote:
| My thoughts exactly
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) As a composer, he was able to put together music
| beautifully. It extended to all aspects of his life.
| doctoboggan wrote:
| There is something very fulfilling (at least to me) about working
| this way. Not solving the problem in the best way, but solving it
| in the way you can _right now_. When I was younger this was how I
| solved most problems, but in my professional life I can't really
| do that (and for mostly good reasons).
|
| I follow someone on YouTube who moved to a small island in
| Panama, built his house, many boats, and lots of other items by
| hand using what he has. He is definitely crazy but he personifies
| this get it done attitude. A few years ago I travelled to Africa
| to volunteer at a hospital and was tasked with fixing an oxygen
| machine. I had to channel this YouTuber because there definitely
| was not the right tools and I definitely needed to get it done. I
| honestly surprised myself in how I was able to fix it and it was
| quite fulfilling.
| serg_chernata wrote:
| Jamie's channel is one of my all time favorites. I love
| watching him work exactly because of his general attitude
| toward problem solving and how different it is from mine.
| nier wrote:
| https://m.youtube.com/user/JMEMantzel/videos
| OJFord wrote:
| Can you suggest one as an 'entrypoint'? I watched a couple
| after Matthias Wandel mentioned him, but they were a bit..
| well, even the comments were saying things like 'that's it
| he's really fallen off the deep end now'.
| detritus wrote:
| Not sure how far back his YT channel goes, but I used to
| follow Jamie way back when he was based in a crappy flat in
| Southern England, developing some kind of hexapod toy, and
| thereafter when he was in [somewhere in North America]
| building a crazy place in a forest somewhere.
|
| I've not been able to get into his Southern American
| adventures so much.
| cossatot wrote:
| When I worked as a bike mechanic in my late teens, we referred
| to this approach as 'shade tree mechanic work'. I loved it,
| because of the creativity involved. However, I grew to have a
| great respect for the work of other mechanics, who were more
| interested in taking more pains, ordering the right tool or
| part if it wasn't around, and typically having a somewhat
| better outcome.
|
| I think there is room for both. Definitely during the prototype
| phase of a project, or on projects where there are very hard
| time constraints (epoxy is drying, etc.), or when you're out in
| the woods or whatever, working fast and creatively can be most
| beneficial. However as you transition into the finished
| product, it's often better to do use fresh and appropriate
| materials, do more QA/QC, write a robust test suite, and put a
| bit of polish on it (especially if it's for public
| consumption).
| uoaei wrote:
| If I may presume to be able to translate to dev-speak:
|
| "Have no fear in accruing technical debt before your first
| major refactor, but when it comes time to 'do things right',
| you better do just that"
| rurp wrote:
| I hadn't really thought about it in these terms before, but
| your comment made me realize this mindset is probably a big
| part of why I like spending time in wilderness areas. Being
| without cell service miles from another group of people very
| much forces a "figure it out" attitude. Solving a tricky
| situation, with some consequence at stake and using a
| hodgepodge of resources, is deeply satisfying for me.
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) Do you think that "figure it out" attitude
| helps make you become more present and alive? The moments I
| come out of my numb and autonomous ways of operating, I
| feel "alive," and it's often associated with that "figure
| it out" feeling.
| KineticLensman wrote:
| I enjoy what I refer to as 'bodge DIY' especially when
| working in my garden, using whatever is available to
| complete little projects without buying new stuff
| (materials and also sometimes tools). I certainly get
| satisfaction when an idea pans out, and in that sense
| feel more alive than if I'd just followed some
| instructions using the correct stuff.
|
| One good example occurred during our first COVID lockdown
| (in the UK) in 2019. DIY stores weren't open at all for a
| while. I'd decided to paint the roof of my summer house
| and while prepping it discovered that a couple of places
| had got completely rotten. We had rain storms forecast
| for a few days hence, so I had to make and attach a
| waterproof / windproof 'nosecone' for the roof using only
| the stuff available in my shed / garage. Very enjoyable,
| once I figured it out.
| the_only_law wrote:
| > When I was younger this was how I solved most problems, but
| in my professional life I can't really do that
|
| I find the same, mostly because my motivation to solve problems
| has changed significantly.
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) I share your perspective. As you can tell, it was
| eye opening and it really started to shape how I approach
| problems. I'd love to check out those YouTube channels.
| MonkeyClub wrote:
| Could you share a link to the Panama guy? (Asking for a
| friend.)
|
| Edit: Got it, this one as per the other comments:
| https://youtube.com/user/JMEMantzel/videos
| saeranv wrote:
| Random question: how does that "book bench" work in the first
| image of the blog? I can't figure out why the suspended books on
| the "bench seat" aren't just sliding down, given the lack of
| lateral force pushing them together.
|
| My best guess right now is that compressing the spine of the
| books inwards, naturally creates a moment force on the covers
| that pushes the page-side of the book outward. So the whole thing
| works like a truss bridge, with compression on the top, and
| tension on the bottom.
|
| I may be overthinking this though...
| readams wrote:
| You definitely can't get tension from books that are simply
| pressed together. I think more likely the books are glued
| together, and possibly reinforced with a cable or rod threaded
| through the center.
| [deleted]
| Fezzik wrote:
| Probably lots of glue and maybe resin, though it doesn't look
| like it's coated in resin... maybe some screws/nails that are
| artfully places. It doesn't look free/standing to me though.
| [deleted]
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) I am deeply humbled by your engagement, comments,
| critiques, and insights. Needless to say, this inspires me to
| write and share more. Thank you Hacker News. You are truly one of
| a kind.
| Uhhrrr wrote:
| Thank you! I'm curious about what that guy is doing now?
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) Zhang's experimenting a ton with 3D printers,
| making short films, and conducting music. The way I see it,
| there's much more to come from him...
| jareklupinski wrote:
| keep on hacking brother :)
| fferen wrote:
| I did similar things many times, though not as sophisticated.
| Using a chair on a table as a standing desk, etc. It's fine but
| at some point becomes an eyesore and makes you want some proper
| things.
| baremachine wrote:
| lol dis a comment
| brobdingnagians wrote:
| Reminds me of the story of Zhuangzi, the Chinese philosopher, on
| how one thing can be used in very different ways:
|
| There was once a man from Song who was skilled at making ointment
| for chapped hands. For generations, his family had made their
| living by washing raw silk. A traveler happened to hear of it and
| offered to purchase the formula for a hundred catties of gold.
| The man called his family into conference and said, 'For
| generations we've made our living washing silk and never earned
| more than a few pieces gold. Now we can sell our formula and earn
| a hundred catties of gold in an instant. Let's give it to him!'
| Once the traveler had the formula, he went to the court of Wu to
| persuade the king to use it in dealing with his troublesome
| neighbor state of Yue. The king put him in command of his forces
| to engage Yue's navy in a midwinter river battle and the forces
| of Yue were routed. The King of Wu carved a slice from his newly
| gained territory and rewarded the traveler with a fief. The
| traveler and the silk washer were alike in possessing the formula
| of preventing chapped hands; one used it to gain a fief, the
| other to wash silk - it was in the use of the thing that they
| differed." [1]
|
| [1] https://factsanddetails.com/china/cat3/sub10/entry-5581.html
| riddleronroof wrote:
| Plot twist: the travelled was Bill Gates.
| intricatedetail wrote:
| Today the traveller would buy regulatory capture so that
| himself only could produce the ointment.
| ctchocula wrote:
| I may be a bit slow today, but how did the traveler use a
| formula for chapped hands ointment to persuade the king of Wu
| to use it in dealing with troublesome neighbor state of Yue?
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| Yue was a naval power. It's logistics like prevention of
| seasickness or tropical diseases. Here's an example.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Red_Cliffs >Cao Cao
| had chained his ships from stem to stern, possibly with the
| aim of reducing seasickness in his navy, which was composed
| mostly of northerners who were not used to living on ships.
| Observing that, the divisional commander Huang Gai sent Cao
| Cao a letter feigning surrender and prepared a squadron of
| capital ships described as mengchong doujian (Meng Chong Dou
| Jian ). The ships had been converted into fire ships by
| filling them with bundles of kindling, dry reeds, and fatty
| oil. As Huang Gai's "defecting" squadron approached the
| midpoint of the river, the sailors applied fire to the ships
| before they took to small boats. The unmanned fire ships,
| carried by the southeastern wind, sped towards Cao Cao's
| fleet and set it ablaze. Many men and horses either burned to
| death or drowned.
|
| Mongolians did not like the weather of the south in China as
| well so their forces an DNA are much less common in the
| south.
|
| The use of optics in Europe also allowed them to see and
| prepare for ambushes, invasion and spying from far distances.
| The best modern example is keyhole: a Hubble space telescope
| designed for high resolution worldwide orbital scanning.
|
| Africa was also not colonized without the aid of vaccines
| that killed Europeans and genetic mutations like sickle cell
| prevented the local populations from malaria.
| ed wrote:
| The ointment gave them a tactical advantage against the Yue,
| who couldn't fight with chapped hands
| tm-guimaraes wrote:
| Ointment is very important in the sea, specially on the
| winter cold rain, and those old boats that need much more
| manual labour.
|
| I remember seeing ads on some hands ointment that basically
| said "this is the number one choice by norway's fisherman"
| 867-5309 wrote:
| https://www.selfpharma.com/en/brand/307-neutrogena
| markus_zhang wrote:
| It's probably a story to move the argument forward. But I can
| explain as the original Chinese version needs a bit of
| interpretation.
|
| Basically the formula can help soldiers fight during winter
| so whoever has it has an advantage over the other side.
|
| BTW the Chinese version if anyone is interested:
|
| Song Ren You Shan Wei Bu Gui Shou Zhi Yao Zhe ,Shi Shi Yi
| Ping Pi Kuang Wei Shi . Ke Wen Zhi ,Qing Mai Qi Fang Bai Jin
| . Ju Zu Er Mou Yue :{Wo Shi Shi Wei Ping Pi Kuang ,Bu Guo Shu
| Jin ;Jin Yi Zhao Er Yu Ji Bai Jin ,Qing Yu Zhi . } Ke De Zhi
| ,Yi Shuo Wu Wang . Yue You Nan ,Wu Wang Shi Zhi Jiang ,Dong
| Yu Yue Ren Shui Zhan ,Da Bai Yue Ren ,Lie Di Er Feng Zhi .
|
| Also to answer the other question why a traveller may have
| the skills to lead an army. So first I think this is just a
| story because I can't anything recorded in history regarding
| this battle. Secondly, many "travellers" during that time
| were strategists who were either of aristocratic origin or
| very rich. They made their livelihood to persuade kings to
| follow their advices and make profit (in money, fame and
| land) from it. Some of them probably were rich enough to own
| small armies so technically they could lead armies for kings.
|
| But again this is probably a story Zhuangzi made up to
| "prove" his point.
| athenot wrote:
| > They made their livelihood to persuade kings to follow
| their advices and make profit (in money, fame and land)
| from it.
|
| Early consultants?
| 0xdeadbeefbabe wrote:
| Lobbyists
| markus_zhang wrote:
| Yeah, and mercenaries too, but more of a strategic one,
| not tactical as a modern one.
|
| Some of them worked as "Ke Qing " (persons who came from
| a foreign kingdom/principality but listed as a high-
| ranking official in the host kingdom/principality) and
| helped the king/prince with reforms. Local aristocracies
| were usually the target of reforms (in that sense, very
| much like a consultant of today) so someone from outside
| needs to move it forward. Some can serve as generals who
| own a small number of elite soldiers and can lead armies
| for the king/prince of the host kingdom/principality.
|
| I'm pretty sure you can find similar examples in Medieval
| Europe.
| still_grokking wrote:
| BTW, great example why machine translation still doesn't
| work for quite different languages. Google Translate
| outputs the following given the Chinese input:
|
| > The people of Song Dynasty have good medicines for not
| tortoises, and they have always used Ping Pi Kuang as
| their business. If you hear it, please buy one hundred
| gold. Gathering together and seeking out the family, said:
| "My life is a Bei Pi Kuang , but I only count gold; now I
| have a hundred gold skills, please go with it. "The guest
| got it, so as to talk about the king of Wu." The more
| difficult it was, the King Wu made him to fight with the
| Yueren in winter, defeat the Yueren, and seal the ground.
|
| OK!?
| markus_zhang wrote:
| Haha I guess it's extremely difficult to translate
| ancient Chinese into English. TBH there are a few words I
| don't recognize.
| kaybe wrote:
| That doesn't sound fair. I don't think the army would have been
| successful with the ointment alone. Ointment doesn't make you a
| competent army commander. You can make the same argument with
| most things - food, a warm cloak, knowledge about the weather..
| all those things that make survival and even comfort possible.
| jacquesm wrote:
| That's all true, but given that both parties were evenly
| matched before picking winter to do battle required something
| to tip the advantage to the attacker who picked that time
| _because_ they had a solution to the problem of dealing with
| chapped hands, which in the age of manual combat may well
| have been of such importance that the outcome was all but
| certain.
|
| Asterix joke: "The Romans, upon learning that the English
| requested a daily ceasefire from 2pm to 4pm because they were
| having tea decided to attack only between 2pm and 4pm".
| Obviously, that's fictional but you get the idea.
| bryanrasmussen wrote:
| somebody is wrong on the internet and IT'S YOU!!!
|
| In Asterix in Britain
| https://asterix.fandom.com/wiki/Asterix_in_Britain the
| Romans attack during the time the British are having their
| hot water - with maybe a little bit of milk in it.
|
| Before the final battle when all seems to be lost because
| the barrel of magic potion was sunk in the river Asterix
| announces that they have the makings of the magic potion
| (pulling some herbs out of his pocket) - synopsis from link
| above:
|
| "Finally reaching the independent village, Asterix eases
| the Britons' disappointment by claiming he carries herbs to
| remake the potion; these are later revealed to be tea. With
| a psychological boost, the village prevails against the
| Romans. Asterix and Obelix return home to the inevitable
| feast. The Britons like the tea so much, they proclaim it
| shall be their national drink."
| ethbr0 wrote:
| Wait, there's an ongoing alternate history French comic
| that's been published since 1959 about warriors from Gaul
| fighting the Roman Republic under Caesar?
|
| I admit, retconning your arch-foe's national non-
| alcoholic drink of choice is fairly grand, but I feel
| like you buried the lede there.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix
| bryanrasmussen wrote:
| I mean the top poster was aware of Asterix
| jacquesm wrote:
| Ah yes, of course! The tea was revealed on the last page
| only. My memory isn't entirely bit-rot proof and it's
| been a good 47 years since I last read that particular
| story.
| AmericanChopper wrote:
| Small technical innovations have won wars in the past. In the
| first Punic war the Roman Republic (who had no significant
| naval strength at the start of the war) defeated Carthage,
| the dominant naval force of the Mediterranean. One of the
| most significant factors in their victory (they certainly
| would have lost without it at least) was inventing a plank
| with a spike on the end of it[0].
|
| The Romans at this time were so incompetent at naval warfare
| that their only significant defeats in the war were losing
| their entire fleet to bad weather (more than once).
|
| [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvus_(boarding_device)
| 14 wrote:
| As a dad I can tell you I often have to use a bowl for a cup or
| the handle of a wide handled for for a spoon. For some reason
| that always drove my partner nuts. Guess her solution was to
| wash the dishes lol.
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author Here) Thank you for sharing. Very strange that I've
| heard of Zhuangzi from various interesting folks but have
| rarely found much info on him.
| jhedwards wrote:
| The book that bears his name is very old and its origins are
| mysterious. There very well could have been a philosopher
| named Zhuangzi who wrote down (or had his pupils write down)
| his dialogues and stories, or he could have been a fictitious
| character that formed the nucleus of an oral tradition, it's
| really hard to say.
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) I recall a very close (and successful) friend
| that was deeply inspired by his works. She used to tell me
| how so many of the most powerful men in Chinese history
| were either tutored or influenced by Zhuangzi but it's kept
| secret within the Chinese history.
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| His philosophical fingerprints are everywhere. He is the
| originator of the ideas thought to be modern such as the
| matrix. https://www.philosophy-
| foundation.org/enquiries/view/the-but...
|
| > Chuang Tzu was a philosopher in ancient China, who, one
| night went to sleep and dreamed that he was a butterfly. He
| dreamt that he was flying around from flower to flower and
| while he was dreaming he felt free, blown about by the breeze
| hither and thither. He was quite sure that he was a
| butterfly. But when he awoke he realised that he had just
| been dreaming, and that he was really Chuang Tzu dreaming he
| was a butterfly. But then Chuang Tzu asked himself the
| following question: "was I Chuang Tzu dreaming I was a
| butterfly or am I now really a butterfly dreaming that I am
| Chuang Tzu?"
| spywaregorilla wrote:
| This story seems really weird by modern standards. The silk
| washer gets a great deal. The traveler could likely have
| offered far, far less because the value he saw wasn't obvious
| at all to the silk washer.
|
| Traditional storytelling would probably have suggested that the
| silk washer was naive and suffered for it, but he comes out
| great in this story. The traveler takes a huge risk in assuming
| this will prove to be a hugely important military asset, and I
| guess comes out ahead, but he was already in a position to pay
| this dude hundreds of catties of gold so... did it really make
| a difference?
| jareklupinski wrote:
| i have a feeling something got lost in translation; i got the
| same impression
|
| i think we're just used to these 'fables' having some sort of
| downside for the person who accepted the quick buck, like the
| gold turned out to be worthless because the person that
| bought the formula became poor from mis-using it or whatever
|
| maybe the lesson is "sometimes payday does come" ;)
| spywaregorilla wrote:
| haha yeah. It's definitely the quote. The guy exclaims how
| he is going to get rich quick and how great it is... and
| then that's the last we hear of him, so I guess it all
| worked out
| jareklupinski wrote:
| personally i would love to hear more stories like that
| haha
| GhettoComputers wrote:
| Simple. Think big.
|
| He valued it enough to know about naval problems to know its
| huge value, and wasn't unfair and left the silk washer whole.
| The silk seller's motivation out of poverty was noted, solved
| by the traveler and not unfairly so he was "bought" and
| cooperated fully with what was a great deal for him, which
| lubricates away resentment, half effort, and unhappiness
| because giving a good deal to someone is similar to "buy
| once, cry once". Negotiating costs time, energy, and paying
| less might not yield the full secret especially if the seller
| feels taken advantage of so he also will do his best not to
| cooperate.
|
| Imagine if Steve Jobs paid Woz half the profits with what he
| knew.
| elcomet wrote:
| > The king put him in command of his forces to engage Yue's
| navy in a midwinter river battle and the forces of Yue were
| routed
|
| The story is nice but some details ruin it IMO.. How would a
| salesman know how to command an army ?
|
| Also, the success of an army depends on a huge number of
| factors, not only dryness of hands.. Military strategy seems
| more important than hands
| powerapple wrote:
| During that time, travelers are people have knowledge and
| skills, are looking for opportunity to serve a king. One
| would travel country to country and find a king who value his
| knowledge.
| matheusmoreira wrote:
| > Military strategy seems more important than hands
|
| Can't wield weapons without hands.
| marginalia_nu wrote:
| Not with that attitude.
| arbitrabbit wrote:
| The traveler's name was Strider.
| ppseafield wrote:
| This is essentially a parable nested in another story to make
| a very specific point. The story this appears in shows Huizi
| complaining to Zhuangzi about some extremely massive gourds
| that he couldn't use as one might use as e.g. a ladle, so he
| get frustrated and smashes them. Zhuangzi comments that
| obviously they would be better as floating vessels, and Huizi
| could have floated down the river in them.
|
| All that to make a more general point: if you have the wrong
| expectations for the way something is, you're going to suffer
| because of those expectations. The silk-washing family was
| frustrated because they believed the balm could only be used
| in one way which kept them very poor and worn out. Huizi
| suffered because he was gifted seeds for some very large
| gourds, but expected to use them like normal-sized gourds,
| and eventually destroyed the gift after expending much time
| and effort on them.
| js2 wrote:
| > if you have the wrong expectations for the way something
| is, you're going to suffer because of those expectations.
|
| OTOH: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the
| unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to
| himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable
| man." -- George Bernard Shaw
| biofox wrote:
| Dry socks win battles
| forbiddenvoid wrote:
| This is the kind of story that people use in strong support of
| Capitalism as a system, and it falls flat for me because it
| just reads like 'rich man with connections uses his wealth and
| connections to become richer by exploiting the labor of a
| poorer man without wealth and connections.'
| 0xdeadbeefbabe wrote:
| It could fall flatter if he had stolen the formula. That's
| what I'd expect from movie version, wouldn't you?
| AussieWog93 wrote:
| For anyone else who is unfamiliar with old Chinese measurement
| systems, Wikipedia specifies the catty at around 600g.
|
| This means that the family received about 60kg of gold, or
| around US$3.6m at today's spot prices - a handsome reward for
| their valuable formula.
|
| Even in the ancient proverbs, capitalism is the optimal way to
| allocate resources, and this efficient allocation benefits all.
| Someone should let Xi know about this. ;)
| vimacs2 wrote:
| Yes, very efficient. Meanwhile nearly all of the peasantry
| subsisted on rice and suffered from malnutrition and frequent
| birth defects.
|
| Also, this has nothing to do with capitalism. It's just
| exchange of money which had existed long before that system
| first developed in the city states of Italy.
| AussieWog93 wrote:
| Gottem
| xwdv wrote:
| One used it for personal gain, the other used it in service of
| his country.
| pxc wrote:
| one used it to relieve his neighbors, the other used it to
| relieve professional killers
| xwdv wrote:
| one had the knowledge, the other had the vision
| runjake wrote:
| I am like Zhang.
|
| I directly blame watching a lot of MacGyver and A-Team as a kid.
|
| Those shows really got me thinking obtusely, combined with being
| poor and not being able to go out and just buy what I needed.
|
| Now it just comes naturally.
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) I'd love to hear more on how you think about
| problems and what motivates you in doing so...
| Cybiote wrote:
| Oh this sounds like Macgyvering. The Real Life section in the TV
| tropes article on it has some interesting examples and lists some
| other cultural takes on it: desenrascanco, debrouillard, Jugaad.
| It's a skill clever poor people are more likely to have
| opportunities to hone.
|
| https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MacGyvering
| geocrasher wrote:
| s/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 foot tall
| T-Rex. She loved it! Money spent = $0. Am I a genius? Probably
| not. Was I _resourceful and creative_? Definitely.
|
| Perhaps for people who don't have a "hack the world!" mindset, it
| does appear as genius I suppose.
| johnorourke wrote:
| I think 'genius' is a relative term.
| ghostbrainalpha wrote:
| Indeed, relativity is paramount.
|
| In my house I was considered a 'genius' for putting Cheetos
| inside a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich.
| AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
| I wouldn't even apply the term "creative", honestly. I don't
| think creativity is necessary to say "I want A, I have B and C,
| how can A be accomplished with B and C?".
|
| > Perhaps for people who don't have a "hack the world!"
| mindset, it does appear as genius I suppose.
|
| I'm not sure that's right either. I wonder if instead it might
| just be a matter of culture, possibly even class. If you grew
| up always just buying the "right" things and only doing things
| the "right" way, then maybe you just never learn that a thing's
| "purpose" is just what it was designed to do, not all that it
| can do.
|
| > I used old bicycle parts and various bits of metal I had left
| over from other projects and made her a 3 foot tall T-Rex.
|
| See now this is actually what I'd call "creative", since
| something was actually created.
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) Thank you for the thoughtful post and rigor. I've
| really taken time to reflect on this term and what it means. I
| still come back to `genius` being associated with
| attitude/approach/decision-making that may yield certain
| results. In this case, `resourcefulness` applies to his
| approach while sharp/smart/genius applies to his attitude and
| approach.
|
| In another way, I find it difficult to deem someone a genius by
| the results of their actions (i.e. resulting). It's much more
| about their mindset and decision making process.
| geocrasher wrote:
| Thanks for the reply, FarhadG! I do see how you are applying
| the term. I get it :) I suppose my reply was a bit pedantic
| (taking the term "genius" literally) but I do have another
| thought: I think the word 'ingenious' is a better fit. Check
| it out: ingenious : having or showing an
| unusual aptitude for discovering, inventing, or contriving an
| ingenious detective. 2 : marked by originality,
| resourcefulness, and cleverness in conception or execution an
| ingenious contraption.
|
| At any rate, I loved the article and I got your point, and I
| think at the end of the day that's all that matters. I take
| pride in having people take the time to dissect my writing,
| it means they read it and that they cared enough to analyze
| it even if it was just enough to call me a moron, which has
| happened on occasion!
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) Love that point. Never considered the term
| `ingenious`
|
| I'm adding a note (as we speak) in the blog post to reflect
| this.
| geocrasher wrote:
| Oh. Wow. Well, I'm glad I could give you something to
| ponder on, and thank you for the credit, although not
| necessary.
|
| On another note, this interaction just made it to my Top
| 3 Internet Things of The Year :)
| johnchristopher wrote:
| > Perhaps for people who don't have a "hack the world!"
| mindset, it does appear as genius I suppose.
|
| That's just a turn of style.
|
| With that being said perhaps there's something in common
| between the stereotypes of hackers and genius, and that's not
| flattering I suppose.
| prox wrote:
| It's called divergent thinking. Creativity is a form of
| intelligence. RSA Animate on education and changing the
| paradigm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
| [deleted]
| jackTheMan wrote:
| Better example might would be with LEGO, not everyone who plays
| LEGO is genius, but you can definitely be creative with what
| you have
| udev wrote:
| I think you might be operating with a romanticized definition
| of what a genius is.
|
| In fact a common definition of (higher) intelligence is the
| ability to see patterns (abstractions, properties, laws) in an
| otherwise random looking world.
|
| Think of Darwin looking at birds, animals, vegetation, and
| being able to come up with something like the Laws of Natural
| Selection. Even today 99.999% of people would not see those
| patterns.
|
| Think of Kepler looking at random movement of stars and planets
| on the sky and being able to come up with the Laws of Planetary
| Motion. Same thing, today 99.999% of people would not see those
| patterns.
|
| On a much lower scale, the character in this text displayed a
| similar ability to see in otherwise random looking objects new
| properties, arrangements, and applications.
|
| I think you are judging here based on the small scale of his
| achievement (rolling table, who cares, $50 at Home Depot could
| make better, right?) but you are failing to consider for the
| absolute-zero (or close to it) in resources that the guy had at
| his disposal.
|
| For example an achievement like this:
| https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2018/09/06/...
| , in my opinion, has to be amplified in our eyes to compensate
| for the difference in resources availability in a typical bio-
| tech-lab in say US, and what was available here.
| pitaa wrote:
| > 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.
| delif wrote:
| When I've learned some things in my time is that most
| engineers don't have this mindset because they are not
| allowed to have it. If you mean software engineer you might
| be right but not in the general regulated engineering jobs.
| AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
| The way you get a lot of "this is the _right way_ to do it
| " talk on Stack Overflow from people who don't actually
| answer the poster's question and know nothing of their
| constraints suggests that software engineers aren't
| inherently more likely to think this way.
| boringg wrote:
| This is the first thing I thought of. This is a very creative
| and resourceful individual.
|
| To be fair I would be one of those people (am fairly young too)
| who thinks the word genius/brilliant is thrown around for way
| too many cases that it isn't accurate to the point that it is
| losing its impact. People are diluting language through
| hyperbole or lack of intentional use imho.
|
| It could also be that too many people this kind of thinking is
| so foreign that it seems like genius/brilliance. I guess it
| could all be relative. A genius to the general public might be
| different from say a genius to a group of nuclear physicists.
| h0l0cube wrote:
| 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
| [deleted]
| mobb_solo wrote:
| 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.
| js2 wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necessity_is_the_mother_of_inv...
| nobrains wrote:
| This is amazing. My dad is like this, very resourceful with very
| less and creative with the limited resources he has as hand, and
| has lived/survived through life like this.
|
| But there is a problem now. As a family, thanks to the incomes of
| the kids, have enough to survive (and thrive), but he continues
| with his efficiency-only approach, instead of the just-buy-it
| approach.
|
| - So, we see plastic bottle based plant pots all over our house,
| instead of normal clay or terracotta plant pots, which look a bit
| better.
|
| - We see DIY style visible piping and hosing to achieve drainage
| around the house where required, instead of hiring a professional
| plumber to have hidden piping (which would cost more)
|
| - You come home one day and there is spray paint smell everywhere
| because of yet another (although very useful) project, and that
| paint causing asthma related problems to the kids (his grandkids)
| - Etc.
|
| And now I am confused. I am not sure to tell him to stop (and
| kill one of his interests in living life) or to etl him continue
| (while the rest of the family continues being majorly
| inconvenienced).
|
| Note that, we are a subcontinental family, and living in a joint-
| family is very common, and moving out is not an option for me (it
| will kill him more than asking him to stop).
|
| (Also, while writing this it was very helpful. I think while
| writing this, I have decided that I will let him continue, as my
| inconveniences are much slight compared to the damage it will do
| him and his, I guess its called "agency")
| jacquesm wrote:
| I'd say let him be. After all, it got him this far and it
| clearly satisfies him, those factors may well weigh higher than
| having a better or prettier solution, and there really isn't
| anything wrong with being frugal.
|
| I'm a lot like your dad, but maybe a bit wealthier and yet, the
| number of one-off tinkering solutions around the house is
| rather higher than you would probably expect in a normal
| household and yet apart from some frustration when things are a
| bit messy for a while due to some project on the whole it is a
| net positive. If my ability to do this would be circumscribed a
| lot of the joy would go out of my life.
| jraby3 wrote:
| I think feeling like you are useful and have purpose are
| critical parts of aging well and living a life well lived.
| Seems like your dad gets a lot of satisfaction from these
| products.
|
| I think a little more communication on your part for getting
| stuff you need done (or having him teach your kids these
| amazing skills) could make this a huge win for your family
| instead of a burden you have to tolerate.
| dirtyid wrote:
| >But there is a problem now. As a family, thanks to the incomes
| of the kids, have enough to survive (and thrive), but he
| continues with his efficiency-only approach, instead of the
| just-buy-it approach.
|
| ...
|
| >(Also, while writing this it was very helpful. I think while
| writing this, I have decided that I will let him continue, as
| my inconveniences are much slight compared to the damage it
| will do him and his, I guess its called "agency")
|
| You've distilled some thoughts on living with tinkers in my
| life, many of them has enough income later in life to just buy
| it, but finds joy in being resourceful. That said, it is very
| annoying to live with "ghetto" rigged contraption that means a
| lot to them but is just unsightly to you. It's an admirable and
| annoying combination of being resourceful and miserly vs DIYers
| who are willing to spend a little extra cash to buy new
| materials to put together a custom solution that both satisfy
| needs and general aesthetics for everyone. That said, I think
| the zero-waste repurpose aesthetic is what many fallout
| scavenger workshoppers enjoy about their handiwork, but don't
| realize others aren't deriving the same level of joy from
| living with their creations.
| pqs wrote:
| Don't try to change other people. It never works. Let him be
| and accept the inconvenience as a gift.
| burnt_toast wrote:
| I think this is a lot more common than we realize. I've noticed
| some men as they age seem to prefer DIY solutions over pre-
| bought solutions. I think it might be a mix of enjoyment, or
| self-satisfaction from coming up with a new solution, or
| remnants of an old habit they developed out of necessity when
| younger.
|
| I live in a rural area myself and it's not unusual to see a
| pick up truck with DIY elements on them such as a wood bed
| rack, or wood bed cap. Usually this is a dead give away of an
| older gentlemen driving it. My parents own a pick up truck that
| had an older gentleman as a previous owner and it has a DIY
| wooden center console in it as it did not come with one from
| the factory. Ford sells a center console as an option for some
| of them but I guess he preferred to build his own.
|
| I fear this will be me in 40 years.
| convolvatron wrote:
| embrace it. it is very empowering to be able to
| control/enhance your environment without driving to the
| hardware store or worse yet sorting through thousands of
| objects on amazon.
|
| if you start early enough you can actually make/repurpose
| things out of scrap that are really nice...much nicer that
| what you can easily buy (without engaging a custom
| fabricator).
|
| edit: you can also get access to nicer materials. mahogany
| from discarded dining tables, nice heavy alum/iron castings,
| really beautiful old antique appliances etc. (sadly copper
| alloys are worth to much to be left on the street)
| mod wrote:
| You sound really reasonable, so I recommend talking to him,
| maybe in less absolute terms if he'll still get it, and tell
| him things like "please spray paint outside" and "please design
| for aesthetics as well as functionality if the object will not
| be temporary", or whatever other types of solutions make sense
| to you. Some kind of compromise.
|
| Or, my real recommendation--search for a new perspective,
| because you're so close already. Enjoy his objects, celebrate
| those that work well, and let him keep contributing to his
| family.
|
| Good luck!
| kbelder wrote:
| My family and I moved into a new house a few months ago,
| after we lost our previous home in a fire.
|
| I've always been a tinkerer and a builder, but not
| professionally, and would always make functional but ugly
| items. Consequence of a poor, rural upbringing, I suppose.
| But in the new house, I resolved to put in the extra effort
| (and expense, but mainly labor) to build esthetically
| pleasing, high-quality repairs.
|
| Staining and finishing the wood, sinking and covering the
| screws, squaring corners _exactly_, buying the proper tools
| for the job, that sort of thing. And it has been really
| rewarding. It doesn't feel like a bother or needless expense;
| it feels like growth, a new layer of expertise.
|
| Seeing the wife posting pictures on Facebook saying "my
| husband built this!" was also a nice reward.
|
| Anyway, I think that one strategy with that sort of person is
| to encourage them. Don't try to stop them, challenge them to
| learn drywall repair so they can hide the plumbing like a
| pro.
| mod wrote:
| I went through the same experiences! I have a 40 acres
| homestead and that means plenty of custom projects.
|
| After a while I was tired of ugly solutions, so I've been
| forcing myself to make them pleasing to the eye.
|
| I was largely inspired by a youtuber, channel name Pask
| Makes. Everything the guy makes is highly functional and
| also so, so good looking. Better than I can achieve, but
| I'm working on it.
|
| Highly recommend checking him out for inspiration, although
| most of what he builds are shop projects (tools etc).
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) While it can be frustrating, I think there is
| something about encouraging someone to lean in on their
| creative skillsets. You never know what's to follow when a
| creative person is backing with inspiration, support, and a
| little guidance :)
|
| Thank you for sharing. He sounds like a very interesting
| indiviual.
| Aulig wrote:
| Tough to say, I can see how some of that can be bothersome. But
| once it impacts others health there has to be a limit in my
| opinion. Maybe he can do the spraypainting outside or in a
| garage?
| m0ck wrote:
| This painfully reminded me of my dad, who passed away earlier
| this year. We grew up as a family of 5, in small, 3 rooms flat in
| the block-of-flats from communist era. The way he made use of
| every single centimeter including the walls and ceiling still
| amazes me to this day. He was working with computers his whole
| life, but I haven't met anyone as handy as him. He built custom
| closets, cupboards, bunk beds, shelves, tables, perfctly designed
| for the dimensions of our flat, all without fancy tools and
| materials. My parents had their beds in our living room, but when
| we had event for our extended family, the whole room could be
| turned into something entirely different in 30 minutes,
| everything served multiple purposes. Whenever something needed to
| be done, or fixed, he disappeared into the "pile of useless junk"
| he kept in our basement and always came back with the right wire,
| pipe, or plank that did the job perfectly. Although I think I can
| be quite creative in some areas, unfortunately when it comes to
| manual work I am nowhere as gifted as him and am happy when I
| manage to change a lightbulb or hammer a nile.
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) Thank you for sharing a deep part about yourself
| and your family. If you ever decide to share more about what
| your father built and how he did it, I'd love to also learn
| from his wisdom and approach.
|
| This is why Hacker News is my homepage. Thank you for sharing.
| foxhop wrote:
| I love you. Thank you for telling me about your father. I carry
| his light having been shown from my father. It comes easier
| with practice and many mistakes are made to make it appear
| effortless. Most of the work happens in the imagination with
| eyes closed.
| VoodooJuJu wrote:
| Wouldn't call it genius, but certainly resourceful. In many
| cultures, this resourcefulness is not uncommon. Interesting how
| it is such a novel concept to the author, but second-nature to
| others.
| lbriner wrote:
| I'm ashamed to admit to the number of times I am impressed by
| someone from a third-world country not only being resourceful
| but being able to create much more than I could from much less.
|
| I think of William Kamkwamba creating windmills from car parts.
|
| We need to remember that "education" is not the only way to
| achieve, some people are just wired up well and education comes
| from many more places than school! (I also believe in schools
| btw)
| yoz-y wrote:
| Reminds me of a story when a friend was moving places in
| China. Now this is a second order account so the details are
| hazy.
|
| He had arranged for the movers to come in and take his stuff.
| When the time came the bell rang and the person on the other
| side said "I'm here". My friend was puzzled as he had quite a
| bit of stuff, weren't there supposed to be more of them?
| Turns out it was indeed just one mover on a scooter. But he
| was still able to move everything in a couple of trips by
| tricks like carrying the fridge on his back with aid of some
| straps and bundling and hanging everything.
|
| When I was in China I saw people transporting all kinds of
| stuff on scooters and some were really impressive. One time I
| thought a lorry was coming and it was just somebody carrying
| really _a lot_ of empty plastic bottles strapped onto them.
| OJFord wrote:
| We really are constrained by having so much. The Einstein
| quote in the article 'The only thing that interferes with my
| learning is my education.' is a good one - but it's resources
| too, having so much interferes with us putting things
| together.
|
| Related I suppose is 'analysis paralysis' - becoming so
| bogged down in working out the ideal way to do something,
| which parts shall I buy (I have access to all of them and the
| means for many of them after all!), how shall I do it, should
| I use my computer and education to model and parameterise it
| first, determine the properties I need from my materials to
| operate under the conditions I want, etc.
| twobitshifter wrote:
| My wife is also from South Asia and I think she has the same
| resourcefulness. I have seen her rearrange various couch
| cushions, oddball pillows, and blankets to form a perfect bed
| to watch TV on. I had to document the step by step process on
| my phone in photos so that I'd know how she got there. It seems
| like genius to me but she says anyone would know how.
| alex_smart wrote:
| In India, we have a word for this type of "engineering" - jugaad.
| A great tool to use at an individual level. A terrible mindset to
| have as a society.
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) First time I've heard about this. Care to share
| more?
| primitivesuave wrote:
| In India, you will find all kinds of homemade vehicles on the
| streets and similar ingenious use of existing materials,
| although it seems to be mostly applied toward providing a
| service or making street food
| (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rnG91loNzk).
| tta wrote:
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugaad
| htek wrote:
| Another perspective...
| https://www.indiatoday.in/opinion/shahana-basu-
| kanodia/story...
| deltron3030 wrote:
| Bricolage, a collage of bricks (or building blocks) isn't it?
| omega3 wrote:
| It just means do-it-yourself, it comes from the verb bricoler.
| Nothing to do with the collage of bricks.
| darkwater wrote:
| TIL https://www.wimhofmethod.com/ Does this have any real, proven
| by data reliability? or is it just self help-like material
| focused on alpha-males?
| unkulunkulu wrote:
| Did you actually hear him talk? There is no need to be insecure
| about your body's abilities. Not only "alfa" males can do
| things. "He can do it you can (potentially) do it" sounds quite
| proven to me, do you disagree? So the only question (for me) is
| "can he do what he says he can".
| penjelly wrote:
| wim had world records in ice diving and has worked with
| researchers on studying his breathing technique. that said,
| HE IS AN ANOMALY. Hes been shown to have higher brown fat
| percentage then the average male (including his own twin).
|
| so no, just because he can do crazy things like dive into a
| frozen lake for X minutes doesnt mean the average person can.
|
| That said. the breathing exercises and cold showers DO have a
| positive physiological effect and they are worth doing, even
| if you dont become superhuman overnight.
|
| do his breathing technique every morning when you wake up,
| its like a very potent meditation that makes you feel good.
| im about to do mine now.
| robocat wrote:
| > Hes been shown to have higher brown fat percentage then
| the average male
|
| Cause, or effect? I think you are implying he was born an
| anomaly, rather than that he has become special using his
| techniques.
| zikduruqe wrote:
| Yes, sorta. Just like boxers train themselves not to flinch
| when punched, you can teach yourself to tolerate cold better.
| As to boosting your immune system and the other claims, no one
| can prove that at home and is probably due to other changes in
| their personal lives. But I will say I did the Wim Hot method
| for 1000 days straight, and considering the cost of admission
| (free), my resistance to cold increased. I am that weirdo that
| walks around barefooted in the winter anyways, and it just
| allowed me to go a bit longer in colder conditions.
|
| I used to teach people to survive extreme situations, and only
| used the WHM to teach them how to endure cold a bit better, but
| some people are just wired to be able to do so or not. It is no
| magic bullet.
| penjelly wrote:
| can confirm the breathing can help you when in cold OR hot
| scenarios i used to do in in the sauna to bear the heat and
| its an interesting experience. (not recommending huffing on
| hot air though)
| foxhop wrote:
| I'd say Wim is more of a sigma male than an alpha. The
| breathing techniques allow the practitioner to traverse space
| time without death, in cold and low oxygen environments. Check
| out the highlights from David Blaines "Ascension"
| penjelly wrote:
| doctors opinion: https://youtu.be/D6EPuUdIC1E
|
| personal anecdote: just do the breathing once or twice and
| youll feel it doing something. i find the effect very useful
| for eliminating brain fog and impulse control, also relieves my
| tired eyes, and makes me want to crack my knuckles. to me its
| like a rapid meditation but more potent.
|
| its def not self help focused on alpha males. the breathing imo
| is the most effective single thing you can do from his 3 things
| (meditation, breathing exercises, cold exposure). This isnt new
| btw. the breathing is based on pranayama and people have
| experimented with blood oxygen/CO2 levels for performance
| forever. see: apnea training & freedivers.
| OJFord wrote:
| Definitely self-help quackery.. 'focus on breathing, expose to
| cold, commit to both' ok fine whatever, scroll down, 'travel
| with Wim, EUR 2499'.. uh-huh.
| mightyRodri wrote:
| I mean, when I am allowed to just take the seats out of my
| neighbours Porsche I can get myself a nice chair. That doesnt
| make it genius o.O
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) Depends on which model Porsche ;)
| Dumblydorr wrote:
| I think the word genius is a bit click-baity in this title.
| Genius is Einstein's year 1905, it's Beethoven writing profoundly
| inspirational, timeless works while fully deaf. If we cheapen the
| term genius down to creative maker, or PhD level mathematics, or
| moving some planks of wood around, I feel we cheapen the greatest
| insights of historys bonafide geniuses.
| FarhadG wrote:
| (Author here) I share your sentiment and it's something I often
| reflect upon. However, I'm also cautious of not attributing
| `genius` to events based on results. I feel that would limit my
| ability to look at situations and judge intelligent (and
| perhaps genius) [decision making] because I would have to wait
| for results and--only then--dictate whether the person was
| intelligent (or a genius).
|
| I'd love to know how you think about this term and how you use
| it.
| jbluepolarbear wrote:
| Where does this value of only a few can be genius' come from?
| Anyone with an exceptional gift, be it intelligence or
| creativity, is a genius. Using your genius to make a great
| lasting impact is something only a few will accomplish, but it
| doesn't cheapen their accomplishments to call others genius.
| wibblewobble123 wrote:
| "Genius" comes from genus meaning source/give birth/produce,
| a genius is a prolific source of original work. If you are
| only prolific, or only original, or neither, you may be a
| clever person or highly skilled, but a genius you are not.
| Dumblydorr wrote:
| It's the word's definition, it's language that matters here.
| If I say every musician is a virtuoso, it cheapens the
| playing of Hiromi, Chick Corea, and Coltrane. If I say every
| athlete is a superstar, it cheapens the label for Lebron and
| Giannis. If we say someone who repurposes wooden furniture is
| a genius, it cheapens the monumental feat of Einstein
| publishing multiple Nobel-worthy articles while writing in
| evenings after getting home from clerking at a patent office.
|
| The definition of genius is not "resourceful" or "creative",
| it must indicate a profound mind who greatly improved human
| society through their intellect.
|
| We shouldn't use terms like genius to drive content to our
| blogs, unless the word is warranted. That is why I believe
| it's click bait.
| bengy5959 wrote:
| I've checked multiple sources and I can't find a single
| definition of genius that requires the person be notable or
| "who greatly improved human society through their
| intellect." Only that they be exceptionally intelligent or
| gifted in a certain field.
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