Thanks for sharing. You’re definitely right about the divide. I just found that I had so much time I could do everything I needed and wanted to do (granted, within the confines of social distancing at the time). Housework was joyful because I could do a good job of it, and have time for hobbies, and have time to relax from both. Aside from all the suffering and madness in the world at the time, it was a genuinely satisfying experience at home.

I noticed over covid that many people were telling me that they were happy to be working again after being furloughed (temporarily paused employment in the UK) because they’d been losing their minds with nothing to do. I couldn’t understand it, I was busy and really happy.

Maybe I’m crazy as well but 10kW doesn’t seem like a huge deal to me either? Why do I need a battery for that? I’m in the UK and my shower draws 10kW all by its little self.

Specifically the season 1 episode “15 Million Merits”. One of my favourites.

This looks brilliant in a lot of ways. For me being able to set a precise temperature would be incredible. I have some doubts about the battery system though. I can understand the utility but surely it will degrade over time? I can’t see how it’s the last stove top I’ll ever need. The battery combined with the software update thing makes it feel like another product I’ll have to rebuy every 3 years or so.

I really appreciate you responding to me in good faith, thanks. I know it’s a fine line, but generally for me not liking the terms of the agreement isn’t enough for me to force my own terms. That said, the one time I’ve pirated something in the last few years was when Prime removed a show from the platform when I had 1.5 episodes of 5 seasons left to go. The idea of paying an extra 10 quid to watch maybe 1% of an otherwise ‘free’ show pissed me off haha.

So I’m not following my philosophy perfectly either. If it came to something like wanting to watch The Mandalorian from scratch though, I would wait and buy the DVD/BluRay.

Definitely a dissenting view but one I can’t help but agree with. Same applies to piracy for me. You don’t want to give Disney money? Fair enough. Very reasonable. You still “need” to watch The Mandalorian? Okay…

I’m 99. 9% confident they were being sarcastic.

On the topic of active investing, I’ve been led to believe there is some case for investing in brown/unethical companies (eg oil industry) on the basis that the investment only be used for green projects. Obviously this isn’t something an individual investor could do, but the principle is that a massive oil company like Shell could do more good with a large investment, bringing in large coordinated green programmes or just undoing their brown programmes, than that same investment split up into lots of smaller and newer green companies with different goals, lots of independent overhead etc.

I’m as equipped to make the argument as I am able to enact it, but I think it’s an interesting thought at least.

I’ve said it before, but music chords/tabs.

I’m just surprised that anyone didn’t assume this was happening. If most people are using playlists generated by Spotify, how are they not expecting Spotify to choose songs that are also in their interest? Furthermore, how would this be different from the practices of a radio station? Seems like manufactured outrage to me.

The Last of Us II. I went in expecting the same act structure as the first and was surprised. If you’ve played it then you know what I’m talking about. Despite mainly taking place over just a few days it really feels so drawn out and a relentless struggle, which felt so perfect for the world of the game.

Sorry but I’m really not convinced, though I am really enjoying this conversation so thank you for your reply.

Reading the article you shared, my impression is that if the medical clinic question is the inverted form of the previous sentence “sure, you do”, then the inverted part is the “do” moving to the front of the question in “does your medical clinic?”

Responding to your examples, I feel the exact same way. They read completely unnaturally to me. Do you actually hear people speak like that? I don’t think I ever have. It really sticks out to me because I would expect the context for ‘do’ to follow on, eg “but would your medical clinic do better?” I agree that a sentence like “I don’t, but your medical clinic might do” is acceptable like in the original link you provided, but when posed as a question, I would expect to drop one of the words in “might do” ie “but might your medical clinic?” or “but does your medical clinic?”

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

I think it’s a pretty subjective experience honestly. I get by just fine carrying a single USB C cable. The USB A adapter comes out extremely rarely for me. Wherever I go, everything uses USB C.

Thanks so much for these, I really enjoyed reading them. I’m not sure it’s the same thing though to be honest. I feel like in this example, ‘does’ is where ‘do’ would go. Eg ‘do your family members? Do your staff? Does your partner?’ In your links I think the closest examples are those saying that they need to add a word after ‘do’ to clarify what kind of ‘do’ it is, eg something like ‘Does your medical clinic do that?’

Could you give some more examples of this? Because I don’t think I agree that it’s even technically correct, though I don’t have a proper argument as for why. I feel like this is more likely a non-native speaker picking up on a structure like “does your X do Y?” and repurposing it incorrectly.

I agree, but I really don’t. What I do remember 10 years back is carrying around a bunch of different cables for each of the ports I had, which is practically the same issue.

Well I also use my laptop in isolation away from those docked environments, so it is useful.

To be honest I’m not sure I’ve plugged in a USB drive in the last year, likely much longer. But I do keep a tiny A to C adapter in my bag, so if need be I can easily plug a traditional A connector in. If I were to buy a usb drive today I’d get a USB C or hybrid one.

I do have 4, but except for extremely rare circumstances I only ever use one. A single USBC cable handles an external display, power, plus extra accessories like a keyboard via a built-in hub in the monitor. If you wanted to that monitor also supports daisy chaining another monitor without having to plug it into the laptop.

Obviously it’s quite a subjective thing, but if you happen to use tools from after USBC was a thing and your laptop routine is pretty established, I think you can get a ton of simplicity and function out of those ports.

The flag patriotism and intense praise of military action was a lot for me. I remember going to a mall, and seeing what would typically be reserved as disabled parking was instead veteran parking?? And then the cinema in the mall loudly advertising its discount for veterans as well. We do have a general discount in my country too, but it’s not so… intense. Like no one else has to know it’s happening because it’s more of a state benefit than it is a form of patriotism.

Neighbourhoods in general are what I found the strangest when I stayed in the States. Flags everywhere as you say, but also just the intense size, and the lack of walkability (the kurb drops felt massive compared to my country). Beyond that I remember walking for around 20 minutes through a suburb and counting upwards of 10 different company logos on rubbish bins. This neighbourhood seemingly had 10 different bin days rather than one centralised service.