Well, at least I learned a thing or two from this, or more like, to keep in mind for my next time messing with lights.
On diffusing them, I've had lamp shades that were adequate on paper but still didn't feel right; one eye would hurt and a headache would start (it has its own cause, after getting lasik a decade ago, I still see great but uneven light triggers a migraine) couldn't pinpoint until I started playing around this, rather than just limiting myself to intensity, temperature and the standard diffusion.
And it's funny, because the first thought they have if you get fined (say you didn't include the impressum in your personal website, or nosy neighbor found you mowing the lawn on sunday), it's that you must have done something wrong, not that the law is unfair.
It’s a Rechtsstaat with hardcore legal-positivist brain. Rules aren’t guidelines, intent doesn’t matter, context doesn’t matter, fun definitely doesn’t matter.
I think that is the biggest disconnect for me. To me rules are guidelines and I will break them when they do not make sense. Following the rules just because they are the rules doesn’t fit my style, although I live in a place when population density is very low so I understand that people bending the rules here has less of a consequence than bending the rules in densely populated areas.
Exactly. There are some “rules” that are perfectly valid, like “don't kill anyone,” but those make perfect sense and don't need much debate.
Plenty of rules are actually retarded and sometimes harmful if you follow them blindly. This is precisely how they got Nazism, and they like to pretend that it was only the bad guy Hitler's fault and a few other people's. If you know Germans well enough, it becomes pretty clear that a large part of the population was actually responsible in a small but meaningfull way.
I had a German exchange partner who refused to use the crosswalk unless the traffic light was absolutely green, even if there was absolutely no car or traffic around. That's just beyond stupid, and mindlessly following rules like that is how you get tyranny…
For you the rationale is "even if there was absolutely no car or traffic around".
For most Germans the rationale is "even if there was no car or traffic around, and no child could see me doing this", where the latter part is the most important one.
If you do it with friends and nobody is around, no problem. I often cross the street over a pedestrian crossing when the pedestrian light is on red and there are no children around, and I got scolded (very rarely, like less than 1%) but I don't care because it just might have been an unhappy or intolerant person, but that's definitely not the rule that people scold you for this. I don't think this is a German problem. I'm pretty sure if I'd do that in France it would have the same effect (maybe not in Paris).
In regards to your Nazi-comment: Of course we are aware of that it takes the majority of people to enable a slipping into Naziism, which is why we are so strict about it: No signs nor expressions used in that period are allowed to be used today, an Americans even scold us for caring about not "forgetting" what had happened (because we don't allow the signs or expressions, "freedom of speech").
So you saying "they like to pretend that it was only the bad guy Hitler's fault" indicates that you have no clue about how most Germans are.
From the 4 points he mentioned, the only one which would piss me off would be the last one, where he decides to spill the water in the trash bin. Who does that? What do they think when they do this? Why not just ask the security person where he can dispose it?
But the other 3, I can't explain why they scolded him; it's not normal.
And it's still strange that after a year, it only sometimes picks it up, depending on how relevant it thinks your location is.
For me it's a coin toss whether the answer tailored to my location is useful or not; I'm often following up with something like "do not show local results, I'm shopping in the US".
But this also happens with other features: the other day it was telling me it won't access a link I pasted. Next message, I ask why. Chat answers that it can't, it has no way to browse the web. I see Web Search wasn't explicitly turned on in the conversation (not that it has mattered before anyway). Turn on for the next message and tell it to try again, voilà. Didn't try just regenerating the answer, but that also works sometimes.
Yup, I had massive success with a theragun around the traps, and gentle massage around the SCM area for the ocassional flare up. Also caffeine use, vigorous exercise, loud fans, teeth clenching and sleeping on the side with the neck bent almost reliably triggers it back. But interestingly, after the initial flare during the pandemic and allergy season, the noise subsided with oral steroids. Now it's the occasional reminder maybe a few times a month, always the right ear, then it goes away.
I like words that weren't part of my speech, which I now use quite often, because of the context in which they were introduced to me by ChatGPT, they felt like a natural addition. Like intention, as in living with intention; before I'd rather use having a purpose or direction, but this captured something else, mind that english isn't my native language.
I hated the 'vibing' thing, 4o for some time started to use it on any given text, about the time vibe coding and the zoomer revival of the word was a thing last year.
Another one that I've seen pop up, and on a proofread comment of mine right here I let it slip (sorry, will keep doing it when I feel lazy) was that thing where you lead with a question "...the result? this happened".
I try to calibrate on NOT introducing them even if I like the expression, if I see it repeated too often throughout my chats or elsewhere in social media (X usually, esp. with foreign elonbux grinders), because then it feels cringe.
For anything serious I'd still double check, but my go-to strategy of googling expressions in quotes isn't that useful anymore. Here in HN (or any other forum), I've only done it very few times, because the thing rewrites it in a voice that doesn't sound like me, which I don't like. Plus I don't aim to keep a polished identity here, so I'm fine with the occasional mistake. Also I've been like 10+ years with this account, but lurking since 2011 or so... I guess what would offend me the most is someone treating me like a bot because I end up sounding like AI-slop in the future.
I'd say more the opposite; when driving alone I have ideas that pop up and sometimes entertain, I can rehearse conversations or thoughts out loud, because of the privacy, and maybe the fact of having the other half of the brain focused on the road. I don't recall doing much of that in my mind when taking the subway or riding a bus, especially since I was already expecting the moment to combine stations or walk away. It did however, bring a different sense of freshness to start my workday, already with some physical activity.
Fun drives or going on walks intentionally, not as part of the commute, hit different though.
On diffusing them, I've had lamp shades that were adequate on paper but still didn't feel right; one eye would hurt and a headache would start (it has its own cause, after getting lasik a decade ago, I still see great but uneven light triggers a migraine) couldn't pinpoint until I started playing around this, rather than just limiting myself to intensity, temperature and the standard diffusion.
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