davidcalloway

I imagine The Mythical Man Month would have been much more entertaining if written by Mel Brooks ;-)

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.

The main thing I find missing with hurl is an rc file.

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.

Ah, now that I see this comment, I'm guessing you're one of the ones that flagged the post.

You're surely more knowledgeable than the author about America and Europe, but he's not commenting about the differences of those two things.

He's only remarking that he's observed a general difference in the mindsets in the two cultures.

As pointed out by another comment, it's a fairly broad observation that many have noticed.

This is exactly what I wanted to say... Lacking credentials, but still accurate observations.

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 cannot be right.

I've known multiple people in my life whose working shifts do not correspond to the seven-day week.

I know of no illness from which they suffer.

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 lived in Hong Kong for nearly a year and our building underwent renovation on the facade at the time.

We could open our windows and go up to the roof on the scaffolding.

Good times.

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!