I suppose running down the stairs when I was 5 or 6. Look I was really excited to use those stickers. Tumbled head over heels down the basement stairs and struck the top of my head on the support beam at the bottom. Ended up getting stitches, a bear stuffy, and topical cocaine so obviously I came out ahead
This is how books were written 100 years ago, you had to spend like the first third explaining why everyone else is wrong before getting to the part where you claim to be right.
I initially didn’t do enough of that in my PhD thesis (CS, about some weird non-frame-based imaging tech that is still only of academic interest), and my committee demanded I add more stake-claiming favorable comparisons to other tech to my introduction before I submitted.
I don’t think there’s any way to count years without rooting it somewhere arbitrary. We cannot calculate the age of the planet, the sun, or the universe to the accuracy of a year (much less a second or nanosecond). We cannot define what “modern man” is to a meaningful level of accuracy, either, or pin down the age of historical artifacts.
Most computers use a system called “epoch time” or “UNIX time”, which counts the seconds from January 1, 1970. Converting this into a human-friendly date representation is surprisingly non-trivial, since the human timekeeping systems in common use are messy and not rooted in hard math or in the scientific definition of a second, which was only standardized in 1967.
There is also International Atomic Time, which, like Unix Time, counts seconds from an arbitrary date that aligns with the Gregorian calendar. Atomic Time is rooted at the beginning of 1958.
ISO 8601 also aligns with the Gregorian calendar, but only as far back as 1582. The official standard does not allow expressing dates before that without explicit agreement of definitions by both parties. Go figure.
The core problem here is that a year, as defined by Earth’s revolution around the sun, is not consistent across broad time periods. The length of a day changes, as well. Humans all around the world have traditionally tracked time by looking at the sun and the moon, which simply do not give us the precision and consistency we need over long time periods. So it’s really difficult to make a system that is simple, logical, and also aligns with everyday usage going back centuries. And I don’t think it is possible to find any zero point that is truly meaningful and independent of wishy-washy human culture.
Wow, those are pretentious. Are those really “semi-famous”? I’ve seen plenty of “# rules for the internet” and this is not the list I would start from.
4 is an oversimplification I can think of at least one counter to. 7 is flat out wrong.
Edit: yeah, there are clarifying comments on 4 and I’ll just leave it at saying it’s poorly written. The author could benefit from a different list, George Orwell’s six rules for clear writing.
I’ve never heard of these, and disagree with some of them.
A comment being deleted is equivalent to taking back what one has said?.. Nah, edit your comment to ADD that you take it back. Cross it out, but don’t delete it. Because not everyone who replied to what you DID say is going to be able to edit all their comments too. Context is important.
I like free books from my library and usually read on my phone. I like that I can try a book, and if it’s garbage, I have zero sunk costs. Just move on and read something else.
As I’ve watched the continued and utter destruction of our natural habitat, the increased pollution and started reading up on climate changes effects and Limits to Growth I realised I didn’t want to be part of what was happenig and wanted to distance myself as much as possible from the people who were. Being surrounded by people and things that make you sick in the mind and body is not what I wanted. It did take a near death experience to catalyse the thoughts into actions though.
I had a change of life about 25 years ago, am now 57. I quit my job, my wife at the time didn’t want to take that journey with me, so got divorced. Now have a parter who does, live frugally (which I always mostly have, just back then I had lots of surplus income I invested, now only a little surplus income from said investments) and am debt free in a little cottage in a small town. A few missteps along the way, as I am not the all seeing eye.
Looking back my regret was not doing it sooner, never been brave I guess ?
Interesting segue, my next door neighbour is a recently retired crane operator who installed windfarms with mega cranes and before that was a lawyer and before that emigrated from another country.
I am so freakin' unbelievably thankful to be with someone who didn't start from a place of minimalism but ultimately arrived here. Because it just makes life so much easier. You don't buy a bunch of junk. You don't consume a bunch of junk. And simple comforts reign supreme. I am glad you guys are happy and you're living simply. I am not sure what big picture will happen with us. By that I mean, I don't know where we're going to go or how we're going to live. But I think a lot of stuff is up in the air for most. Glad you guys got to escape the rat race though.
As someone who just came out of a long term relationship, I don’t know how you can have an interesting life and survive the emotional scars.
I can understand why people trundle through life without, settling for compromise after compromise until your mind is depleted to the point of stable glue. It just hurts less.
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