rockbier1218
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User ID: 1794
rockbier1218
1yr ago
What's a reasonable base/canon of Western literature to be familiar with to call oneself "educated" like a man from the early 20th century? I want to read in chronological order the great works and ideas of western civilization and am hoping Mottizens can help me fill in some gaps. I'm mainly interested in literature but of course there is room for philosophical works as well. Obviously this can be a really wide range of works, but I'm looking for the absolute indisputable foundation, things you cannot skip at all.
What I have so far (very basic in rough chronological order):
Iliad/Odyssey by Homer
Dialogues by Plato
Metamorphoses by Ovid
The Bible (King James version for the literary value?)
Beowulf (already read this one)
Summa Theologica by Aquinas? (Not sure how foundational this is)
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Divine Comedy by Dante
Shakespeare's Works
Paradise Lost by Milton
Don Quixote by Cervantes
Moby-Dick by Melville
In Search of Lost Time by Proust
Thoughts? Please help me fill in some gaps!
rockbier1218
1yr ago
Specifically, how the hell did they always have perfect quality x265 files for movies with a very reasonable file size (<2.5GB)?
Even 5GB files from other places are shit quality in comparison
rockbier1218
2yr ago
Blindsight was a bit tough for me to get into. I think Watts went a touch too abstract with his plot and it was something I felt I had to force myself to finish.
On the other hand, Solaris by Lem conveyed the same idea of the absolute alien nature of non-human intelligence in a very evocative and beautiful way.
rockbier1218
2yr ago
Totally agree that it seems something catastrophic happened and there’s very little chance they’ll be rescued or even found. They’re probably already dead.
Forgive me if somebody else has already posted about this. What’s going on with that submarine that tried to tour the titanic wreckage?
Is it a stupid idea in the first place? Is there any chance they’ll be rescued?
I’ve been fascinated by the fact that even the richest among us are only surviving because Mother Earth decided not to crush them today. Seems like these people just had their luck run out, and maybe made a really stupid decision?
rockbier1218
2yr ago
Does anybody have experience with bouncing back from a negative performance review in a software engineering job?
Just had mine recently and was somewhat surprised to receive a “Needs Improvement” rating. I can see some of my manager’s points but I mainly feel a bit blindsided because I constantly asked for feedback and only rarely received areas of improvement. He would give me certain things to improve upon, but during later check-ins he would say I’m back on track etc.
I don’t think my job is the type to treat this as a formality before being fired, but I would appreciate some advice from other mottizens who may have gone through something similar.
I do like the job and it pays well so I’m going to try my best the next few months to perform and constantly check in and be more explicit about asking things like “do you still think I’m underperforming” etc.
rockbier1218
2yr ago
Not much advice, but I agree that there’s a huge gap in Turkey for this sort of thing. Start small and see what happens, just be careful not to translate anything too spicy or Baskan will come knocking.
rockbier1218
2yr ago
It all depends on your risk tolerance and how much healthcare you think you’ll require in those 3 months.
If you’re otherwise healthy just get the catastrophic option, it shouldn’t be more than 400-500 per month depending on your state.
As far as I’m aware there is nothing better than what you’d find on the marketplace given your circumstances.
rockbier1218
2yr ago
There’s at least one prison that is famous for hosting white collar criminals.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Correctional_Institution,_Otisville
rockbier1218
2yr ago
I often wonder just how deep and widespread the second-order effects of this situation are.
My job as a software engineer occupies a lot of my cognitive capacity even outside of work hours. This includes time spent walking outside in the park, commuting on the subway, etc. Any time I encounter a violent or deranged person in the park or on the subway, fight or flight immediately kicks in and I lose my train of thought for 15 minutes minimum and it probably results in diminished cognitive capacity for a lot longer because I’m now on edge and scanning my surroundings even subconsciously.
Multiply this across every white collar worker in NYC and the drag on research and innovation is probably unfathomably large. It would probably horrify most people how much further along we could be on the road to curing cancer if our public transport was like Singapore or Tokyo.
rockbier1218
2yr ago
This is a great point. We don’t have any kind of standard for that, and I think having my colleagues categorize their comments and forcing them to think about if it’s really a blocker would be helpful.
Cheers.
rockbier1218
2yr ago
Where are my fellow software engineers at?
How do you all deal with not taking PR comments personally or not allowing yourself to get frustrated by them?
It seems like half the time I have to end up arguing over minor bullshit with colleagues that boils down to “I wouldn’t have done it that way” or “it’s not absolutely perfect” or “did you consider doing it this way?” (This way being probably the more “idiomatic” but often far less readable way).
Obviously I’m not going to get offended if a colleague catches an obvious mistake I made, or asks for more documentation or comments because something is unclear, but usually it’s what I described above.
Do I just need to develop thicker skin with this shit?
rockbier1218
2yr ago
I'm planning to start one of these next year but have run into confusing information regarding how to handle taxes (on a taxable brokerage account, not an IRA).
Is it better for the completely lazy investor (me) to put the money into ETFs vs the index funds like VTSAX? I want to minimize any time spent dealing with paperwork or tax bullshit and it seems like index funds aren't as "set and forget" as I thought in that sense.
rockbier1218
2yr ago
I'm re-working my way through the Harry Potter series for the first time in about a decade.
Currently about halfway through Goblet of Fire and overcome with nostalgic love.
Her prose is pretty basic but the humor, imagination, and world-building are top-tier. As an adult looking back, you can really see the depth of the British influence on these books. Boarding school, dry humor, Dickensian names, some undertones of Arthur Conan Doyle mystery, etc.
I really hope that the controversy around her political views doesn't start to overshadow how incredible these books are. I already see it happening on Reddit whenever Harry Potter is brought up. People are starting to memory hole Harry Potter as if it wasn't one of the biggest cultural phenomenons of the past century.
rockbier1218
2yr ago
Finished that a few months back. Fantastic, fantastic book.
One thing that I didn't realize before actually picking it up was how much time he spends on the landscape descriptions.
It's probably 40-50% of the book, and while I didn't know most of the plants and geological formations he described it was still totally gripping and reminiscent of the best kind of Romantic-era writing.
rockbier1218
2yr ago
I can imagine that this religious/secular divide will only continue to get worse. The ultra-orthodox are projected to be 25% of the population by 2050, apparently.
How will the body politic handle 25% of the population being exempt from military service and essentially living off of the productive capacity of the other 75%? Especially with Muslim birth rates outpacing the secular Jews?
The secular Jews of Israel will probably experience a massive leftward shift and true coalition with the Muslim population once the ultra-orthodox drag on GDP and military becomes too big to ignore.
Just my two cents, but I think this rightward shift won’t last beyond a decade at most.
I used to be like this too. What worked for me is to imagine having that same argument with the person in real life. And crucially, imagining that person as either a 12-year old who doesn’t know shit, or the biggest neckbeard stereotype of all time. Oftentimes that wouldn’t even be far off the mark.
Once I created this visualization it stopped bothering me and indeed I don’t engage in any kind of argument online at all anymore. It just seemed so absurd to imagine shouting at a 12-year old or a foul-smelling fedora-toting beast in real life.
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