voltooid

I see a lot of comments asking what a fear of learning something new is. I interpret is as the fear of appearing stupid when trying to learn something new. This means, that one doesn't ask questions, doesn't take big steps in the presence of other people, the fear of failing at this new learning experience. The fear of appearing incompetent at something that one "should" already know.

I am an engineer and I particularly relate to the problem that the doctor has with having to click multiple times to order medical tests where previously only one sufficed. Also, the problem of multiple links named with very similar, thus confusing names - "chart review", "result review" etc.

I see this on a regular basis when using visual studio team services so much so that our team spends a large amount of our time dealing with the VSTS interface instead of making use of the system to do our planning quickly and efficiently. I deal with a computer all day every day and I don't find VSTS the least bit intuitive or helpful. The problem described in the article is not one that just doctors have to face.

The QWERTY design predated any potential jamming problems. Perhaps it was so foreseeing?

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/fact-of-fiction-...

Apparently it was partly publicity stunt, partly defined through feedback received from actual users.

Why should an architect know Shakespeare and QWERTY?

Well why not? QWERTY could refer to just being able to type. An artist could possibly do well to be able to use a computer? It could also refer to the placement on old style typewriters where the type bars could get jammed if letters used often in the English language were typed in quick succession. (Myth maybe? But interesting to think about anyway for someone that is going to design things for other people to use.)

As to Shakespeare, it has been suggested that people that read fiction/literature of this sort develop empathy and makes you a "better" person.

I remember reading about baby name fads that were caused by names of TV characters. The one I remember is "Emma" catching on after the baby on the TV show Friends.

Your comment is very interesting. I recently took a course on Design Patterns. I sat squirming during the lectures because I didn't like what was being said, but couldn't put my finger on what exactly I disliked.

What I understand from your comment is that you dislike the Gang of four book because it renames concepts that don't need the cutesy names that they give them. Do you have a problem with the _concept_ of design patterns? Or just the names they are given? Are the concepts themselves sound and worth paying attention to?

> Not that of some long gone boogeyman.

Since the boogeyman has been "gone", the entire region (not just India) has gone through several wars, a very messy, violent and tumultuous process of nation building. The region is not even used to existing as one nation yet. It takes time. Not making excuses for slow progress. Just trying to make the point that there isn't a magic wand to make everything all nice and shiny. It takes time. And as we see from this supreme court ruling, the intention is good and it is there.

You make a good point.

It is simplistic and lazy to blame the colonials for all the ills of a society too. But the slow progress in fixing something like this is not so much because of a backwards attitude. Nation building takes time. Especially when things around the world are changing fast. There is a long long way to go. And it is definitely going to take a very long time getting there. Especially because there are way too many issues that need the attention of an already strained legal system.

There is more history to this. The introduction of the law relating to making gay sex illegal "... dating back to 1861, (that was) introduced during the British rule of India (modelled on the Buggery Act of 1533) criminalised sexual activities "against the order of nature", including homosexual activities"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_377_of_the_Indian_Pena...

It is the truth for a lot of countries that were under colonial rule. Colonial powers left their mark behind in so many unfortunate ways that are just too complex for countries to deal with even today. It is simple and lazy to label something "backward".

Have they also taken away your stapler?

That's the thing about being a rebel in a hierarchical system. You really are up against much more than a "rebel" in say the U.S. would be up against. For example, think of the adoration that American people seem to have for people that do things off the beaten path. Being ordinary is to be avoided at all costs in the U.S.

In a place like India, you are taught to conform. A hierarchy is enforced. No deviation is tolerated. (Sorry to use such dramatic language. But there is no other way to describe this system.) You don't get to do anything outside of arbitrary norms that others have drawn for you. This is too much for young and curious minds that may want to do things even a slight bit differently. The path of least resistance is to just lie down and submit to rote learning or whatever other evil the system imposes on you.

What do you mean by a colonial system? edited to add: I ask the question because I genuinely don't understand what you mean by it in this context. It seems to me that it might mean some sort of system that the British introduced in India that was then adopted by the Indians after Independence. But I could be missing the nuances in your argument.

Respectfully, it seems to me that India (and other countries in the region and maybe elsewhere) has a problem with strictly hierarchical structure, issues with accessibility and availability of resources. There is no investment in improving training for teachers. Typically, people that don't find jobs anywhere else take up teaching. Teaching is also typically a high-stress, low-paid job. It seems to have not a lot to do with language. There are more factors here.

Yes the Germans are able to get ahead cause of the use of both German and English. But it seems like lazy reasoning to suggest that this is solely the reason why they do better. How about looking into what else their education system does that is possibly absent in the Indian system? How about comparing the structure, the resource usage, the training for educators and managers in education and research? Surely, language is not the only difference between the two systems?

Hacker news is definitely more a forum than social media platform. But the temptation to collect "likes" and the resulting dopamine high is a thing on HN too.

Definitely not. https://qz.com/547641/theres-an-awful-cost-to-getting-a-phd-... (Most of the article is anecdotal but it does make references to studies & statistics of self-reported stress levels among academics.)

I don't think anyone needs 7 pairs of shoes a year. I have had the same three pairs of shoes (each for a different kind of weather) for the past 2 or so years. One of these pairs has been with me for close to 4 years. Buying 7 pairs a year seems so wasteful.

Sure health and energy are helpful when raising kids. But what about wisdom and perspective? I would think it really depends on the person and how prepared they feel with respect to having kids - mentally and physically.

It makes sense that the language is too young to have evolved to be a means of communication.

I remember being surprised that the phenomenon of colonial rulers of a country imposing their own language on the population (occurred with the British wherever they went) was not true for Indonesia. The Dutch seemed to have kept their language out of reach for most of the local population. There being no translation for a lot of words, especially legal terms, from Dutch to local languages, a lot of Dutch words ended up being part of Bahasa Indonesia. This could be more cause for it to feel like a foreign language.

:vsplit filename

to open file called "filename" in a vertical split of the console window. Also

:split filename

will open it in a horizontal split

In today's research community this doesn't matter. All that matters is how many papers you publish - no matter how stupid they are.

Do you mean forcible abortions? The article is not focused on voluntary sexual sterilization. It is focused on sexual sterilization of people tricked/forced into it or paid for it. So I don't see why the article should have mentioned abortions unless it is of the forcible kind.

I think that the comment above mentioned killing baby girls because that is a thing. The killing of live born baby girls. You are right, that is different from aborting fetuses. Both these things happen.

People's last names often give away their caste, sometimes where they come from. I have seen people being treated poorly because of the way they dressed - that is the rich/poor divide. Also, a lot of Indians, even in cities, do still dress according to their religion or caste.

Engaging in discriminatory, derogatory and demeaning behaviour actively. That comes from hate. The experiences of the person featured in the linked article, that could only come from hate.

I think people that oppose gay marriage do so because of hate. But found a neat little loophole out of being called hateful by claiming that they have no problem with gay people.

My reasoning is this: taking any kind of stance on any subject requires some kind of motivation. If you are moved to spend energy on something, you are motivated by some need to do so. If you oppose something that does not directly affect you, the reason is most probably hate.

I am wondering now if you read the linked article. There is logic in not wanting a giraffe in your field of vision at a movie hall. Actively discriminating against people because of arbitrary conditions of their birth is not that logical. Active discrimination in the life of "untouchables" means that they are viewed as dirty or lowly. I think it is a bit simplistic to think that it is ok to actively stick to demeaning and derogatory practices because it is societally accepted or because that's "just how things are".

From personal experience, I know that the people that may be described as the oppressors in Indian "urban" societies are often the ones that take on servile qualities when they try to assimilate in Western societies. Western society is often seen as the superior kind and the so-called oppressors of Indian society recognize a hierarchy in it, in which they are at a lower rung. It is hard to break out of that mindset.

Of course, this is all based on personal experience. I wouldn't say this is the general rule.

People that do want to hate others, will find reasons to hate.

Does anyone else have problems reading that blog because of the font?

I open up links to articles that seem interesting to me at that moment, skim through and find out if it is indeed still interesting, leave it in a browser tab to come to later. I come back to my browser tabs and ask myself if I still am interested in the article. Close it if the answer isn't a resounding yes.

"Someone has to pay for all of this change, and it is still going to be us in the form of targeted advertising"

Honestly I would hate this to be part of the future. I don't believe ads work now. Users get used to ignoring them by being over-exposed or using ad blockers. When we already know that they make for a terrible experience for users now, couldn't we start dreaming of different ways to do this.