Things That Make You Go Hmm

[liliput1]

That’s way too deep for me to even consider that. I’m more into the refrigerator light being off when the door is closed, because...

It is. I hit a point sometime around 10 yo when I needed to confirm and mercifully our fridge could be opened the tiniest little bit before the switch that turned the light on would activate.

 

[dmallord]

If the water in a river is continually running out of it, is it still the same river?

Love this question—it’s basically the Ship of Theseus in river form.

If all the water in a river is constantly flowing out and being replaced, then in one very strict sense, no, it’s never the “same” river, because it’s never the exact same water twice.

But when we talk about this river, we usually don’t mean a specific set of water molecules. We mean the whole pattern: the riverbed and banks, the course it follows, the way it behaves in the landscape, the role it plays in people’s lives. All of that can remain continuous even while the material that makes it up is in constant flux.

So the answer kind of depends on what you think a river is. If a river is its matter, it changes every moment. If a river is its form and its place in the world, then yes, it can stay “the same” even though everything in it is moving.

Which raises the sneaky follow-up question: if a river made of changing water can still be “the same river,” what does that say about us, given that our bodies and minds are always changing, too?

 

[anthrodisiac]

We're all ships of Theseus. It's scary to think pieces of me are just scattering to the elements. And I would like to apologize to all the poor sods that have to incorporate the madness that is myself into them.

 

[dmallord]

Not making me go hmm... so much as Hmm! (A long time ago, but this just popped up.)

When someone says steep learning curve, it actually means it is something learned quickly, since time is on the X-axis and learning is on the Y-axis. Really, if something is difficult to learn, it should be called a shallow learning curve.

I love a good graph-nerd moment as much as the next Lit weirdo, but I think this one is a case of math-speak drifting away from people-speak.

Most folks who say “steep learning curve” are not secretly visualizing axes. They’re imagining exactly what it sounds like: a steep hill you have to slog up before things finally level out. In normal use, “steep learning curve” = this is going to kick your butt at first, not “this is delightfully quick and easy to master.”

You can absolutely draw a chart where steep = lots of learning per unit time. But at that point, we’re talking about one particular way of plotting a curve, not how actual human beings use the phrase. Language tends to follow vibes, not calculus.

So I’d say the X/Y explanation is a fun bit of trivia, but in everyday conversation, “steep learning curve” still means “brace yourself, the first part is rough,” not “oh good, I’ll pick this up in an afternoon.”

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Love this question—it’s basically the Ship of Theseus in river form.

If all the water in a river is constantly flowing out and being replaced, then in one very strict sense, no, it’s never the “same” river, because it’s never the exact same water twice.

A WIP of mine actually references Heraclitus.

 

[OralAllOver]

I fantasize about this pretty gal down the street as a college kid

and as she watches her older brother has me lick and kiss his asshole

she sees my tiny erection

I'll never touch her beautiful nipples, only service her brother and his friends

he laughs and tell me I'm his girlfriend because I came as he fucked me

 

[dmallord]

It is. I hit a point sometime around 10 yo when I needed to confirm and mercifully our fridge could be opened the tiniest little bit before the switch that turned the light on would activate.

It took me more than ten years. See, when I was young, we used iceboxes. An ‘iceman’ came to your house with a truck filled with dripping blocks that he chopped off, grabbed it up with his tongs, and lugged it into my mama’s kitchen and slid it onto the tray for her. No electric bulb in that box until I was a lot older. By then, I’d been warned about crawling into a refrigerator to check that out. Some of us learned that the door didn’t open from the inside the hard way.

 

[TheLobster]

One more tangential question to the gendered word discussion - how does gender get assigned to new words as the language evolves? Like, when the circuit board was invented, who decides whether it's masculine or feminine?

Male variants are to be inserted.

Female variants are to be inserted into.

I'd say the underlying logic is pretty obvious

 

[PennyThompson]

Male variants are to be inserted.

Female variants are to be inserted into.

I'd say the underlying logic is pretty obvious

*Diogenes dragging a coffee table into a bathroom policy debate meeting*

Behold, a woman!