Random Chat, Thoughts, Posts, and/or Rants Thread

[Serito]

The world would be a much nicer place if something easier than English (such as Spanish) would be the international language.

I'm primarily referring to pronunciation which makes zero sense in English and is extremely frustrating to learn. In my native language, everything is spoken the same way it's written. Same in Spanish. In English, everything will have different pronunciation just for the fun of it. To this day I find it incredible that in languages like English once you learn a new word you need to learn how to pronounce it (yes, you can guess the pronunciation but you'll never be sure).

This reminds me of a book i read many years ago. Western alphabets try to define a linear correspondence between oral language and written one, writing letter after letter to compose a spoken word, suggesting a perfect one-to-one relationship between grapheme and phoneme and the idea that you can put letters in line as you do with sounds. This is notably not the case for the English language, as you are pointing out (Ghoti - Wikipedia).

I recall that almost every Chinese symbol has a “semantic part” (the meaning) and a “phonetic part” and that their system is very well structured and very flexible. It has a completely different approach, since it is not a “transcription” of the spoken language (a sign for every sound).

On a side note, also the Korean alphabet, which has a correspondence between symbol and phoneme, differs from the latin one in how it is written (syllables, and not letters, are written in sequence) and is very well defined and organized (it was created from zero between 1400 and 1500).

We might think (we are "scripted" to think?) that our alphabet is the best way of representing our spoken language (and often we look at eastern systems thinking they use “exotic” alphabets), but this affects how we learn: in the book it was stated that a Chinese child learns faster than a western one, despite the fact you may think that 40 thousands symbols of the Chinese system are harder to learn than 26 letters of the alphabet.

 

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[MTF]

This reminds me of a book i read many years ago. Western alphabets try to define a linear correspondence between oral language and written one, writing letter after letter to compose a spoken word, suggesting a perfect one-to-one relationship between grapheme and phoneme and the idea that you can put letters in line as you do with sounds. This is notably not the case for the English language, as you are pointing out (Ghoti - Wikipedia).

I recall that almost every Chinese symbol has a “semantic part” (the meaning) and a “phonetic part” and that their system is very well structured and very flexible. It has a completely different approach, since it is not a “transcription” of the spoken language (a sign for every sound).

On a side note, also the Korean alphabet, which has a correspondence between symbol and phoneme, differs from the latin one in how it is written (syllables, and not letters, are written in sequence) and is very well defined and organized (it was created from zero between 1400 and 1500).

We might think (we are "scripted" to think?) that our alphabet is the best way of representing our spoken language (and often we look at eastern systems thinking they use “exotic” alphabets), but this affects how we learn: in the book it was stated that a Chinese child learns faster than a western one, despite the fact you may think that 40 thousands symbols of the Chinese system are harder to learn than 26 letters of the alphabet.

Thanks for your interesting contribution. That ghoti example is funny.

Continuing this topic, studying foreign languages makes you discover interesting things about your native language, how it compares to them, and how it makes you think in a different way.

For example, Polish is deemed to be a very hard language to learn. But it has only three tenses. In my brain, it's the most logical approach: there's past tense, present tense, and future tense.

12-16 tenses of English make it extremely complicated in comparison to supposedly extremely hard Polish language.

At the same time, it probably helps add some nuance that I can't create that easily in Polish. Either way, your native language (and other languages you know) for sure affects how you think.

 

[Madame Peccato]

Italian has 21 tenses spread across 7 modes, step it up

We're slowly losing 2 of these modes because many people don't use them, and when they do they get them wrong.

I blame it partially on television. Besides the fact that TV is turning into a giant heap of trash, TV hosts sometimes get those same verbs wrong. Our national TV played a huge role post WW2 to educate the Italian population, I'd like to see it used again for that.

But the problem runs a little deeper. According to a 2015 study, 45% of people aged 16 to 65 didn't have a satisfactory literacy level. As in, being able to analyze and understand a familiar text, like a newspaper article or a book related to their field of work.

These people can read, and they know what the words they are reading mean, but they can't fully understand what the text is about.

And sure, most of these people belong to the older generation (>55 years). But the fact that there is a non-negligible percentage of students (24% according to recent estimates) who can't grasp the meaning of a text after 10 years of schooling is shocking.

Anyway, I've been putting off learning a new language for years at this point. I can never pick a language to start learning. I remember having a discussion on this forum about this topic, but I never ended up acting upon it. I think it's about time I get started.

 

[MTF]

Anyway, I've been putting off learning a new language for years at this point. I can never pick a language to start learning. I remember having a discussion on this forum about this topic, but I never ended up acting upon it. I think it's about time I get started.

IMO only a couple of languages make sense to learn for their usefulness globally:

• English - you got this,
• Spanish - IMO the most sensible option for your third language (or second for English speakers),
• French - because it's the most globally-distributed language after Spanish.

Then second tier:

• German - because a few of the richest countries in the world (including countries very friendly to entrepreneurs) speak German.
• Portuguese - not that super useful globally but Brazil is a huge country and if/when it gets it shit together, it can be a superpower. European Portuguese is very different (way more than Latin America Spanish and European Spanish) and Portugal isn't really that major of a country.
• Russian - quite a few countries with Russian speakers though mostly relatively poor countries and overall not that useful globally.
• Arabic - I'm conflicted about this as Arabic dialects are so different that if you learn, say, Egyptian Arabic, you may not be able to understand people in Morocco or the UAE.

I'm not saying don't learn any other languages. If you have ties with a country/culture you love, I'd definitely learn its language, even if it was spoken only by a million people or something like that.

 

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[MitchC]

I was thinking something similar. Thought it may have been due to lower attention spans with the current TikTok generation. Decided to check.

Top 7 in the UK right now on Spotify:
1 - Starlight by Dave - 3:30
2 - Baby by Aitch - 2:57
3 - Heat Waves by Glass Animals - 3:56
4 - We dont talk about Bruno by various - 3:35
5 - Where are you now by Lost Frequencies & Calum Scott - 2:27
6 - Down Under by Lude & Colin Hay - 2:37
7 - Seventeen Going Under by Sam Fender - 4:56

Somebody can correct me if I’m wrong but this is what I’ve heard.

It’s actually due to the way music is consumed now, it’s kind of a hack.

Most music is consumed on streaming platforms which is a fairly recent change. On spotify you are paid per listen, and I think only after 30 seconds into the song it’s counted as a listen.

By making a catchy song shorter, it makes people listen to it more, I find myself restarting a catchy song if it’s new because 1 listen just isn’t long enough. Which is exactly what they want. More listens = more money and higher rankings in the charts.

A lot of albums are only 30 minutes long now. I imagine that’s also a hell of a lot faster and easier to pump out, and you make more money doing it that way because you get more streams.

I guess the other thing that’s changed in music now is people are always looking for something new and creating music is so much cheaper and more accessible so there’s always something new coming out.

You used to spend 2 years on an album, sell it for $20, do a tour for the next couple of years, and then record a new one, probably at great expense and needing approval of a label to use some expensive studio.

Now music is pumped out so quickly, and can basically be done by anyone at home with a laptop, unless you constantly have something new people will get bored and forget about you. 2 years is a hell of a long time now not to release something.

I think Kanye was one of the first to start doing 2 minute songs and that was like 2-3 years ago when Spotify had just sort of become the main way people listen. That’s when I heard about how it was a hack to do with streaming. Now everyone’s doing it.

Kind of a shame really and kind of crazy how something like that can influence how art is created by so much. I guarantee if we were still paying $20 for a CD people wouldn’t be making 2 minute songs, no one would pay $20 for a 30minute album.

 

[WillHurtDontCare]

The word idiot comes from the Greek term for a person who did not take part in the affairs of the state.

Infer from that what you will.

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

The word idiot comes from the Greek term for a person who did not take part in the affairs of the state.

Infer from that what you will.

Apathy is understandable but if we all become apathetic, the outcome will surely be subpar...

 

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[Antifragile]

IMO only a couple of languages make sense to learn for their usefulness globally:

• English - you got this,
• Spanish - IMO the most sensible option for your third language (or second for English speakers),
• French - because it's the most globally-distributed language after Spanish.

Then second tier:

• German - because a few of the richest countries in the world (including countries very friendly to entrepreneurs) speak German.
• Portuguese - not that super useful globally but Brazil is a huge country and if/when it gets it shit together, it can be a superpower. European Portuguese is very different (way more than Latin America Spanish and European Spanish) and Portugal isn't really that major of a country.
• Russian - quite a few countries with Russian speakers though mostly relatively poor countries and overall not that useful globally.
• Arabic - I'm conflicted about this as Arabic dialects are so different that if you learn, say, Egyptian Arabic, you may not be able to understand people in Morocco or the UAE.

I'm not saying don't learn any other languages. If you have ties with a country/culture you love, I'd definitely learn its language, even if it was spoken only by a million people or something like that.

No Mandarin Chinese? I’m surprised.

 

[Kak]

No Mandarin Chinese? I’m surprised.

They say it’s super widely spoken, but I find that misleading. It’s isolated to China… And the funny thing about China is that if you’re doing business there, English works. At least in my experience.

I second @MTF on this. If I could snap my fingers and have two new languages they would be Spanish and French.

 

[ZF Lee]

They say it’s super widely spoken, but I find that misleading. It’s isolated to China… And the funny thing about China is that if you’re doing business there, English works. At least in my experience.

I second @MTF on this. If I could snap my fingers and have two new languages they would be Spanish and French.

Isolated to China...and the ASEAN countries. And Taiwan (their Mandarin will be different from the mainland of course).

And the odd pockets of the Chinese diaspora in the rest of the world.

There's also the Chinese dialects like Cantonese and Hokkien. They are not compulsory to learn, but the deeper you go into Mandarin and the more relationships you make with the Chinese, knowing one major dialect eventually comes as a must.

Here in Malaysia...it is the norm to find folks who are trilingual (they pick up English, Malay, Mandarin), or even MORE (Malay, English, Mandarin, one dialect, Bahasa Indonesia for example). It's crazy...but all is needed is just a conversational level of mastery of the language. You don't necessarily need to know how to write (except your name)...but speaking alone can help open doors. That was how the old generation made it though even though they sucked at school.

 

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[MTF]

No Mandarin Chinese? I’m surprised.

I could have added it to my second tier but overall I don't think it's worth the effort.

As other posters pointed out, it's mostly isolated to one already isolated country and it's a country where very, very few entrepreneurs (if not people in general) would like to live.

Perhaps I'm biased but I don't see the language of a communist country ever being useful globally. I'd rather learn the language of a smaller country but with a promising future and/or otherwise attractive for a second residence/doing business there.

 

[MTF]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M2er7efuE0


Loved this edit. The elderly people featured in this video who are crushing it so much at their age are incredible. I've always found it way more inspiring than seeing young guys being fit. Imagine being 70-80+ and being in better shape than 99% of people at 20-30. Crazy stuff.

 

[Timmy C]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M2er7efuE0


Loved this edit. The elderly people featured in this video who are crushing it so much at their age are incredible. I've always found it way more inspiring than seeing young guys being fit. Imagine being 70-80+ and being in better shape than 99% of people at 20-30. Crazy stuff.

Love this a heap mate.
Thank's for sharing this.

 

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[StrikingViper69]

Italian has 21 tenses spread across 7 modes, step it up

We're slowly losing 2 of these modes because many people don't use them, and when they do they get them wrong.

I blame it partially on television. Besides the fact that TV is turning into a giant heap of trash, TV hosts sometimes get those same verbs wrong. Our national TV played a huge role post WW2 to educate the Italian population, I'd like to see it used again for that.

But the problem runs a little deeper. According to a 2015 study, 45% of people aged 16 to 65 didn't have a satisfactory literacy level. As in, being able to analyze and understand a familiar text, like a newspaper article or a book related to their field of work.

These people can read, and they know what the words they are reading mean, but they can't fully understand what the text is about.

And sure, most of these people belong to the older generation (>55 years). But the fact that there is a non-negligible percentage of students (24% according to recent estimates) who can't grasp the meaning of a text after 10 years of schooling is shocking.

Anyway, I've been putting off learning a new language for years at this point. I can never pick a language to start learning. I remember having a discussion on this forum about this topic, but I never ended up acting upon it. I think it's about time I get started.

Here's why: https://www.stephenhicks.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/RandAyn-The-Comprachicos.pdf

 

[Boogie]

If you're interested in AI topics like metaverse, drugs, robotics, vision, etc., the Nvidia GTC conference started yesterday and goes through the 24th. Registration is free. There are lots of sessions available. Also, replays are available.

GTC 2024: #1 AI Conference

Register now. Streamed online. March 18-21, 2024.

www.nvidia.com

 

[Antifragile]

I could have added it to my second tier but overall I don't think it's worth the effort.

As other posters pointed out, it's mostly isolated to one already isolated country and it's a country where very, very few entrepreneurs (if not people in general) would like to live.

Perhaps I'm biased but I don't see the language of a communist country ever being useful globally. I'd rather learn the language of a smaller country but with a promising future and/or otherwise attractive for a second residence/doing business there.

China went from 90%+ population in poverty to less than 1% today. All in the span of 50 years. It is a global superpower that today rivals the USA and is poised to take over. They didn’t do it by being purely communist. Sure that’s the “party”, but look at their actions.

@Kak argument that doing business in China in English is fine is a limited view. It was fine because Chinese people doing business would try to learn English. They wanted your business! This trend can reverse with power. With dominating power, it’s short sighted to think the next 20-30 years will be like the last. They won’t.

I’ll once again be the voice of less popular opinion here and say that languages today are:
1. English
2. Chinese
3. Whatever.

My kid is learning the first two. Ironically, while we disagree with @Kak on which language to learn, I’ll use his argument to say that Spanish is useless. If I want to do business in any Spanish speaking country, I can do it in English. And I don’t see those countries becoming dominant on the world arena anytime soon.

The only exception would be if I wanted to choose to live in say Mexico, to lower my cost of living (retirement on modest means). Then it would make a world of sense to learn local language.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M2er7efuE0


Loved this edit. The elderly people featured in this video who are crushing it so much at their age are incredible. I've always found it way more inspiring than seeing young guys being fit. Imagine being 70-80+ and being in better shape than 99% of people at 20-30. Crazy stuff.

Awesome stuff although the focus is exercise where I will argue the crux of longevity is dietary nutrition, plus exercise, a ying/yang relationship.

Once look at the many obese Americans waddling around and its clear, the American diet is the biggest economic gauntlet in the country. If you exercise daily but have a heart-attack at 53, you really weren't "fit".

 

[Antifragile]

 

[MTF]

China went from 90%+ population in poverty to less than 1% today. All in the span of 50 years. It is a global superpower that today rivals the USA and is poised to take over. They didn’t do it by being purely communist. Sure that’s the “party”, but look at their actions.

@Kak argument that doing business in China in English is fine is a limited view. It was fine because Chinese people doing business would try to learn English. They wanted your business! This trend can reverse with power. With dominating power, it’s short sighted to think the next 20-30 years will be like the last. They won’t.

I’ll once again be the voice of less popular opinion here and say that languages today are:
1. English
2. Chinese
3. Whatever.

My kid is learning the first two. Ironically, while we disagree with @Kak on which language to learn, I’ll use his argument to say that Spanish is useless. If I want to do business in any Spanish speaking country, I can do it in English. And I don’t see those countries becoming dominant on the world arena anytime soon.

The only exception would be if I wanted to choose to live in say Mexico, to lower my cost of living (retirement on modest means). Then it would make a world of sense to learn local language.

Like I said, I'm biased. Also, I learn languages primarily for travel. This to me is the highest value of the language. Spanish is spoken in 20 countries, French in 29 (though it's less useful because out of these 29, most are poor African countries).

I have no interest to visit China and there's little use of it online (in the free Internet) so to me the language is useless.

Spain is a country notorious for low English proficiency. Mexico is better due to proximity to the US. But in other Spanish-speaking countries you'll find few people who speak English well (compared to Europe).

 

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[MTF]

Awesome stuff although the focus is exercise where I will argue the crux of longevity is dietary nutrition, plus exercise, a ying/yang relationship.

Once look at the many obese Americans waddling around and its clear, the American diet is the biggest economic gauntlet in the country. If you exercise daily but have a heart-attack at 53, you really weren't "fit".

I'm pretty sure that the people featured in this video all have healthy diets and other healthy habits. You don't get to this age in this shape while eating shit (genetics of some people aside).

 

[Mathuin]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M2er7efuE0


Loved this edit. The elderly people featured in this video who are crushing it so much at their age are incredible. I've always found it way more inspiring than seeing young guys being fit. Imagine being 70-80+ and being in better shape than 99% of people at 20-30. Crazy stuff.

Words cannot describe the hatred I have for a Ethan Klein (H3H3)

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M2er7efuE0


Loved this edit. The elderly people featured in this video who are crushing it so much at their age are incredible. I've always found it way more inspiring than seeing young guys being fit. Imagine being 70-80+ and being in better shape than 99% of people at 20-30. Crazy stuff.

lol h3h3 is either making a really depressing joke about himself or needs a serious slap in the face

does he know how lucky he is to have two functioning arms, two functioning legs, working lungs, heart, the chance to even live and work out and make his body healthy? and he's wasting it.

every day that you have as a healthy human being is a blessing and a gift that is just so special, it's hard to really appreciate until you don't have it

TL;DR - life is too short NOT to exercise.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Exo-planet database... hard to read, but interesting nonetheless at gaining perspective in a perspectiveless world.

NASA Exoplanet Archive

exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu

TESS

www.nasa.gov

 

[Kak]

China went from 90%+ population in poverty to less than 1% today. All in the span of 50 years. It is a global superpower that today rivals the USA and is poised to take over. They didn’t do it by being purely communist. Sure that’s the “party”, but look at their actions.

@Kak argument that doing business in China in English is fine is a limited view. It was fine because Chinese people doing business would try to learn English. They wanted your business! This trend can reverse with power. With dominating power, it’s short sighted to think the next 20-30 years will be like the last. They won’t.

I’ll once again be the voice of less popular opinion here and say that languages today are:
1. English
2. Chinese
3. Whatever.

My kid is learning the first two. Ironically, while we disagree with @Kak on which language to learn, I’ll use his argument to say that Spanish is useless. If I want to do business in any Spanish speaking country, I can do it in English. And I don’t see those countries becoming dominant on the world arena anytime soon.

The only exception would be if I wanted to choose to live in say Mexico, to lower my cost of living (retirement on modest means). Then it would make a world of sense to learn local language.

You raise good points, but do you honestly think the language dynamic of the world will change that easily? Do you really think Europeans, Americans, and Canadians of notoriety are all going to start speaking Mandarin? I am not as convinced as you are. Despite the population, Mandarin speakers are still geographically isolated. If they immigrate, they almost always learn the language of where they go. For this to turn on its head, that trend needs to reverse.

Ideally, you can learn them all like @MTF. He's like a UN translator. He has put me hard on the spot for making excuses about learning new languages. The reality, and the reality I think a lot of Engilsh speakers face, is it's just too easy to speak English everywhere. And I don't consider that an excuse... I have just been able to do what I need to do with English and I have never felt disadvantaged in a situation for not knowing a different language. If I felt like it was important, I would do it. The problem is, I have way too many other things that sit higher on my priority list.

Spanish is another question all together. I would ultimately like to live in a low tax Caribbean nation when physically being in Texas is less helpful than the tax break. Those countries speak English, Spanish or French. So I admittedly might have a myopic view and Chinese could serve the future generations well. You might be dead on right... I also have another problem with Mandarin though, China doesn't even speak only Mandarin. Even if I learned Mandarin, I would have still been speaking English for business in the Cantonese regions. To this date, I have never, to my knowledge, done business with a Mandarin speaker. I'm assuming they have mostly been Cantonese.

I also disagree that Spanish is useless... I see big things happening in Latin America in the future. Many Latin countries are on an upward trajectory while "the west" is on a downward trajectory.

 

[starttoday123]

They say it’s super widely spoken, but I find that misleading. It’s isolated to China… And the funny thing about China is that if you’re doing business there, English works. At least in my experience.

I second @MTF on this. If I could snap my fingers and have two new languages they would be Spanish and French.

I agree if you're not interested in China, Mandarin doesn't make sense to learn if you want to use it to travel because there are so many dialects in different regions plus getting to an advanced conversational level in any region is enough of a challenge for any English speaker. For doing business in China, it might be enough to study Mandarin for an hour and be able to just show respect when you first meet people in China by offering a hello how are you.

But if you have an interest in China, I find knowing Mandarin basics really useful while living in the US. I use it easily once a month including this last weekend. I've learned so much about Chinese culture and politics through being able to converse at least a bit in Mandarin over the years. Also, on the philosophy side, the culture is so rooted in the language so learning the language and characters is like learning history too of a culture formed in such a different way from US culture but so similar too in lots of ways which you don't get by learning Spanish, French, Italian etc.

Great point about English proficiency. I never thought about it that way but that's a really good idea for deciding whether to learn a language or not (or how much of it to learn) while traveling.

 

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[jdm667]

Exo-planet database... hard to read, but interesting nonetheless at gaining perspective in a perspectiveless world.

NASA Exoplanet Archive

exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu

TESS

www.nasa.gov

James Webb Space Telescope is already sending back some unbelievable images of faraway galaxies.

 

[Matt Sun]

Love love love being an entrepreneur and visit my family in Córdoba Argentina for 1 entire week and not caring if it's holiday, if my boss will let me go, watever. I'm not super rich yet but having time freedom is amazing.








On the topic of music and entrepreneurship, could tou take a song by let's say Bobby McFerrin - Don't Worry Be Happy and make a parody song with the same melody but changing the lyrics and talking about crypto ? Would it enfringe copywriting ? I think it could be funny and somewhat viral and could add value to the listener with a good message.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

James Webb Space Telescope is already sending back some unbelievable images of faraway galaxies.

Any pics? I couldn't find any on the internet.

 

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[Antifragile]

You raise good points, but do you honestly think the language dynamic of the world will change that easily? Do you really think Europeans, Americans, and Canadians of notoriety are all going to start speaking Mandarin? I am not as convinced as you are. Despite the population, Mandarin speakers are still geographically isolated. If they immigrate, they almost always learn the language of where they go. For this to turn on its head, that trend needs to reverse.

I am not convinced. But the odds are good that if China becomes the dominant superpower, more and more schools will start teaching Mandarin in Europe and America. 30 years ago people learned Russian in China, but they don't anymore. Macro trends sneak up on you and may seem unlikely because of the long view is murky at best.

Ideally, you can learn them all like @MTF. He's like a UN translator.

Haha. I went to school in the UK and had an economics teacher from South Africa. He spent some time in prison with Nelson Mandela, a hard man, let me tell you. He'd smoke cigars and you'd smell him before you see him. Since our school was international, he uses to say "There are only two languages in the world: English and Foreigner, and you know them both!". In some ways it reflects the current situation. If you know English, you are likely to be fine for a long while.

He has put me hard on the spot for making excuses about learning new languages. The reality, and the reality I think a lot of Engilsh speakers face, is it's just too easy to speak English everywhere. And I don't consider that an excuse... I have just been able to do what I need to do with English and I have never felt disadvantaged in a situation for not knowing a different language. If I felt like it was important, I would do it. The problem is, I have way too many other things that sit higher on my priority list.

Goggins.

So I admittedly might have a myopic view and Chinese could serve the future generations well. You might be dead on right... I also have another problem with Mandarin though, China doesn't even speak only Mandarin. Even if I learned Mandarin, I would have still been speaking English for business in the Cantonese regions. To this date, I have never, to my knowledge, done business with a Mandarin speaker. I'm assuming they have mostly been Cantonese.

I am literally the opposite. Mainland China speaks Mandarin and I've mostly worked with people who speak Manarin (business and friends).

I also disagree that Spanish is useless... I see big things happening in Latin America in the future. Many Latin countries are on an upward trajectory while "the west" is on a downward trajectory.

Hmmm.... this is interesting. They may be on the upward move, but how down are they? I may need an education here, but my impression was that most of the Latin America's economies were negligible on the world stage.

 

[Mathuin]

He has put me hard on the spot for making excuses about learning new languages. The reality, and the reality I think a lot of Engilsh speakers face, is it's just too easy to speak English everywhere. And I don't consider that an excuse... I have just been able to do what I need to do with English and I have never felt disadvantaged in a situation for not knowing a different language. If I felt like it was important, I would do it. The problem is, I have way too many other things that sit higher on my priority list.

Goggins.

Who's gonna carry the 船?