As a native Japanese speaker, I find this homonyms concern kind of odd. It’s like asking how Japanese people can speak to each other and understand one another given all the homonyms -- the assumption being that speech alone clearly isn’t enough without written materials with kanji to aid their comprehension.
The obvious way people handle it in speech is by picking words that are clearer in context when homonyms might cause confusion. If you consume any Japanese video content on YouTube etc, it’s very common for speakers to say a homonym, instantly notice the ambiguity, and restate it using a clearer word or brief explanation, which they could, at least in theory, do in no- or low-kanji writing too.
同音異義語の区別に不可欠な漢字の廃止は不可能か？(Is abolishing kanji -- which is essential for distinguishing homonyms -- impossible?)
I’m a native Japanese speaker, so you don’t need to explain that writing kana with spaces is non-standard in most media (although some people -- both native speakers and non-natives -- erroneously claim that no native media uses that form of writing).
The people at Kanamoji Kai (all native speakers) are well aware of this too, and their website even has a section on 分かち書き (word separation). They use the example スモモ モ モモ、モモ モ モモ、モモ ニ モ イロイロ アル。 to illustrate that using spaces is a must if we switch to kana-based writing.
>> these full kana games would be harder even for natives if they used a more standard space-free style
This is true, but I take issue with your use of the word “more standard,” as USING SPACES IS THE STANDARD in full kana games.
Any form of writing reform, by definition, involves moving from the current standard to something that is initially non-standard, right? Korea got rid of kanji and now uses spaces with Hangul. In my opinion, it’s way easier to adapt than most people think.
Most of the confusion in written Japanese stems from the use of kanji. The Kanamoji Kai (カナモジカイ) was established more than 100 years ago by Yamashita Yoshitarō (山下芳太郎), and it has been advocating for the abolition of kanji for many years, though without much success.
If you watch a Let's Play of マザー２ (the original release of the cult classic SNES game EarthBound), you'll notice that writing Japanese using kana alone is not only possible, but that most native speakers have no trouble reading it -- although some claim that having a few kanji makes it easier because of homonyms.
The vast majority of books don't generate any profits past the first few years, so I prefer Lawrence Lessig's proposal of copyright renewal at five-year intervals with a fee. Under this scheme, most books would enter the public domain after five years
Lessig: Not for this length of time, no. Copyright shouldn’t be anywhere close to what it is right now. In my book I proposed a system where you’d have to renew after every five years and you get a maximum term of 75 years. I thought that was pretty radical at the time. The Economist, after the Eldred decision, came out with a proposal—let’s go back to 14 years, renewable to 28 years. Nobody needs more than 14 years to earn the return back from whatever they produced.
Tyler Cowen also did a podcast with Jonathan Haidt where he questioned Haidt's conclusion that the smartphone/social media are the cause of (some) younger people's poor mental health.
(The discussion on Haidt's book "The Anxious Generation" starts at 13:08)
Cowen also questioned Haidt's prescription about how social media companies and the government should regulate social media through (stricter) age verification etc.
I haven't read it but Steven Johnson wrote a book that argued the opposite:
Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter is a non-fiction book written by Steven Johnson. Published in 2005, it details Johnson's theory that popular culture – in particular television programs and video games – has grown more complex and demanding over time and is making society as a whole more intelligent, contrary to the perception that modern electronic media are harmful or unconstructive.
Wonder if there's a difference in average attitude between people who do creative stuff (e.g. games) vs people who do infrastructure type stuff (e.g. Linux kernel)
> Accent’s Way on YouTube
> taught herself the American accent to a complete perfection
Her oldest video is 12 years ago and I couldn't personally tell if she's just talented at mimicking sound from a young age or if she transitioned from a thick accent to a natural American accent.
This could be Sam Altman reacting to the recent article about George Hotz [1] mentioning Sam Altman as actually being a pro status quo figure masquerading as an anti-establishment figure:
It's a poetic mission statement for an endeavor which seems to jive with Hotz’s recognition that such a school must be physical and beautiful. However, scratch away the veneer, Hotz suggests in a recent blog post, and one finds that those behind UATX “are either straight up supporters of Power or naive political children.” He points to Joe Lonsdale, Sam Altman, and Marc Andreessen, all of whom “are very successful in the current system.”
“This is not a counter-elite!” Hotz continues. “This is a spin off of the exact same BS that’s everywhere. NGO awards and fake status signaling markers.”
The obvious way people handle it in speech is by picking words that are clearer in context when homonyms might cause confusion. If you consume any Japanese video content on YouTube etc, it’s very common for speakers to say a homonym, instantly notice the ambiguity, and restate it using a clearer word or brief explanation, which they could, at least in theory, do in no- or low-kanji writing too.
同音異義語の区別に不可欠な漢字の廃止は不可能か？(Is abolishing kanji -- which is essential for distinguishing homonyms -- impossible?)
https://www.kanamozi.org/hikari932-0704.html