Many years ago I visited some lava tube caves in Hawaii. I had to call and get directions, write them down and follow them... No address I could out into a navigation device, no coordinates.
It seemed strange and I thought they could surely modernize their operations and get more business.
Nope. The friction was intentional, they told us later. Before visiting the cave you had to prove it was worth it by calling, and that you could follow directions and instructions.
They previously didn't filter customers so well and those people would touch and break sensitive pieces of the cave.
While I like the article and agree with the sentiment, I do feel it would have been nice to at least mention the GNU project and not leave the impression that we have free software only thanks to Linus Torvalds.
I totally agree with this! So much of what we've come to think as American culture emerged from the political success of the car.
It's the main thing I notice that aggravates me when I return to visit the USA: cars, cars everywhere, and few places that allow walking as a reasonable means of transport.
So many assumptions here that it's hard to know where to start. The fact that I prefer a mindset which prioritizes time with friends and family is extrapolated into a caricature of me as a freeloader. It's a bit of a stretch.
On that note, you seem to be saying that immigration is a form of freeloading in general. But the expense of my upbringing all happened in America, and I basically arrived ready to contribute right away in Germany. And I've paid plenty of taxes along the way.
At the end you make wild assumptions about my political support for which you have no evidence. I'm aware that Germany faces serious issues surrounding immigration, but I didn't think rhetoric which paints the current picture as a catastrophe and inevitable decline into chaos is very helpful.
There are so many other points... It's hard to know what set you off by my mere remark that the author is largely correct in his observations and I prefer living in a country that values free time as well as work!
I'm curious how the author has much experience with the American mindset, since he didn't mention living in America when describing his background.
Having said that, as an American living in Germany, I lately agree with his description of the difference. And, frankly, I cannot currently see myself ever returning to my home country other than shorter visits.
This reminds me of the discover and defend modes from Jonathan Haidt's latest book The Anxious Generation.
On taking a break, I've often found it difficult to stick to the pomodoro technique because the breaks seem too frequent. But those breaks help avoid going down an unfruitful path for too long.
I'm pretty sure the parent comment is pointing out that the quoted sentence from the main page ought to be present in the rationale page that is linked.
My teacher did the peanut butter and jelly problem with us in the fourth grade, but we were given the time to write the instructions as homework and she picked a few to execute the following day.
The disappointment always stayed with me that my instructions were not chosen, as I really had been far more precise than the fun examples she did choose. I recall even explaining which side of the knife to use when taking peanut butter from the jar.
Of course, she would still have found plenty of bugs in my instructions, which I wish I still had.
Thanks for that, and also the pet rats, Ms. Clouser!
I know this is nitpicking and perhaps a dumb thing to say, but in my view the simple case of drink spilling does not apply.
Have you been around children who spill a drink? The ones who experience high levels of stress bury their heads and treat it as a catastrophe, waiting for someone else to clean it up and soothe them.
Those who treat it as no big deal are more likely to clean it up.
And being more careful only grows slowly with age. Oh, and using heavier glasses btw. It's way better to give kids real glass for drinks and tolerate the occasional breakage than to have constant spilling with light plastic cups.
It is the bane of my existence that in German you cannot just put things in places. The word you would use for "put" depends on the physical relation of the objects involved.
Is it lying down ultimately? Hanging on? Standing upright?
And things don't sit on other things unless they literally have a chair.
Maybe it's not my children but the constant dealing with the German language that perpetually makes me feel exhausted.
Isn't this more of a cultural thing, that Germans seem to agree that it is authoritative and use it as a reference?
I'm not sure what would even make a dictionary prescriptive other than an explicit declaration that it is so or, ridiculously, a law declaring the same.
I get the sentiment but I've never really understood why this saying is so popular. A tax is a specific word with a real meaning. It is not voluntary. By this logic alcohol and cigarettes are themselves a tax on people with poor judgement, as well as many other products.
I myself have never understood the thrill payoff that must exist for lottery ticket buyers, but I cannot call it a tax.