There are two of us??

I’m an avid reader, and I like reading in original language. That has brought me in a variety of rabbit holes, including trying to learn Russian, then Japanese. Unfortunately, I forgot most of it. I also forgot most of my ancient Greek, but my Latin is still vaguely useful. My German and Spanish never reached the “I can read anything” level, that is a shame because I really want to read the Don Quixote and Goethe… But I’m proud to easily read in 3 languages, struggling in 2-3 others (depending how much dictionary use is allowed).

I haven’t been able to find a community of people that like this. Most like a specific culture and go deep into a single language.

I have smaller white whales, every year or so I remember something cool from some 4-5 years ago, usually quite niche, and I am rarely able to find it.

Yesterday, I remembered a music video from the lockdowns. Poppy music with a catchy refrain, the two artists on screen, singer and electric piano player, jungle inspired decorations. A pineapple on the keyboard. I’m sure if I could remember even a couple of words of the refrain I would be set… but somehow i remember that the artists were set in NY.

My department has been complaining to the big boss that we need more people. People have been retiring for years with barely one new hire per two empty positions. And now… I am in long term sick leave (protected) and shit is coming dooooown. Not enough people to cover all the projects. Multiple projects put on hold for the time being, others being roughly merged. People are pissed.

Consider that the full number is world wide. How many of them are US based or US involved?

Would I? Depends on the day, the weather, the mood.

Would I regularly? No, I would either take public transport or the bike.

Would I need to? Also no, I live in a mid-sized city with many libraries and the closest one is 20 minutes walk away, the main one is some half an hour walk away in another direction. Access to municipal facilities was a key element in my decision of where to live.

I think that, because cars didn’t dictate the layout, things ended up being naturally closer by, such that long walks would be fairly unusual within the city.

I hopped around in Europe with no problem: applied online to jobs, as soon as i got a job found a place. If you are young with little commitments and there is no bureaucracy hindering you, relocating is super easy. Nowadays, with a family with young kids, relocating is much more of a commitment. Luckily we really like it here, so we are not planning a new move any time soon.

Brief timeline:

• did my bachelor in my hometown
• did a 6 months student transfer
• decided I didn’t want to go back, applied for a new university outside the EU (no visa needed for students)
• found two internships during my master in two different EU countries (no visa needed, unpaid so no tax hurdles)
• found a phd position in a new EU country (no visa needed, moved with two suitcases and an easyjet plain ticket)
• moved to US for a temporary position (this was actually bureaucratically demanding, the move took 8 months between getting the job and being there)
• moved back to EU without a job prospect, found a temp job in a country I had already visited (no visa problems)
• moved again for a fixed position (last move, with a kid, took some 3 months to plan out)

Just to mess with you, I’m tempted to write a dozen comments with no real content… but other than that: i think it’s quite normal. Floods of negative reactions are more likely than positive ones, and more feared. In the other hand, Lemmy is a pretty chill place and, even when I got negative reactions, they were still cordial.

All in all, we are social monkey, and we care a lot about our social capital. That used to be the difference between survival by and death in nature, and we are still rooted that way. Even if we are accruing social capital with anonymous internet users we will likely never meet in person

It needs to happen but there is no reason for it to be inhumane

will keep me going for a long time along with the money

This depends entirely on you. I chose my path in life thinking “what can I do today and still be passionate to do tomorrow?” And here I am, some 15 years later, still liking my everyday tasks.

Some comments: not many writers have an income stream out of their work. Many have a little extra at the end of the month, most have their name on a book and that’s it. The Steven King/Rowling/… are few and far between.

A degree in Physics opens many doors if you do it seriously: physics research and coding being the two main one, but not only.

All comments we can give are local to us, your location and the society around you really influences the options. Talk to your seniors and professors and anyone willing to answer your questions about the job market. Think outside of the box but look at the data around you before jumping ship.

I lived in NJ. When i randomly said i didn’t have a car, some colleagues gave me pitying looks. I heard NY is its own little microcosm, but it seemed in general US is very car centric, so much so that there were areas I literally couldn’t reach by foot.

Italy: always offering (and accepting) food or drinks while visiting. It’s impossible and/or incredibly rude to pass by a friend’s house without getting at least a coffee or a glass of water.

Netherlands: cold lunch. Traditionally, you’d have only one hot meal a day, and lunch would be sandwiches. I don’t mean to say that sandwiches don’t happen in other countries, but that hot lunches are basically unheard of in NL.

US: everyone has one or multiple cars. Walking to the grocery store means you are basically destitute. (That was quite the culture shock!)

Yeah, the article lumps together a lot of things in the RV category. Mobile homes/trailers, luxury to minimal viability

Probably had to do with the country copyright laws :/ I had personal videos blocked because they used music that in over country was free to use and in others wasn’t… or maybe he hates you in particular 🤷‍♀️

The constraining effect of language can be counteracted by learning languages that are culturally far from your own, and their philosophy.

It comes to little surprise to me that great philosophers’ concepts are intrinsically associated with the words they used to describe them, often eluding a translation. I am thinking mostly of Zeitgeist, of Übermensch, but many others come easily to mind. In a similar manner, poetry is often untranslatable due to its strong cultural ties.

I reconnected with a friend. For a short period of time we lived in the same city, met up and became friends, then they moved away and contact died off. After some 3 years of minimal contact, I reached out. Timing must have been “right”, they told me they were having a hard time. I wasn’t doing great myself. We randomly decided to share memes. We religiously shared at least one meme a day, every day for almost a year. It wasn’t much, but it got us to find out more about each other’s sense of humor and helped both of us out. Now, we are doing better, we voice chat every month or so and are relatively close. I’m one of the few people knowing of their personal problems, they were between the first to know about my personal news. We still live very far away from each others, but that seems less important.