Bistromathtician

Tech worker, Magic player, historian of science. I drink and I know things.

[Bistromathtician @bistromathmagic]

@speakerjohnash not just celebrities, they’re only the most visible
(for obvious reasons)

[Bistromathtician @bistromathmagic]

@drethelin nominatively antidetermined

[Bistromathtician @bistromathmagic]

@nosilverv Such a better use of time to get that summary than to read the (AI-generated) original.

[Bistromathtician @bistromathmagic]

@Impish_Bunny never ever talk to anyone

[Bistromathtician @bistromathmagic]

@speakerjohnash and then you can sell to the AIs!

[Bistromathtician @bistromathmagic]

@DefenderOfBasic @ianlilleyt When it comes to the cardinality of Dunbar’s Number, Defender is going to become the Pope

[Bistromathtician @bistromathmagic]

@terrafically monsters need toys too

[Bistromathtician @bistromathmagic]

@tracewoodgrains “We live in a the shadow of the ‘60s” should be everyone’s go-to explanation for social and cultural trends.

[Bistromathtician @bistromathmagic]

@shinboson Or there’s a time loop where each one destroys the other like an Ouroboros, and therefore neither exist to outside observers.

[Bistromathtician @bistromathmagic]

@GForCer2 @DefenderOfBasic stay *capped

[Bistromathtician @bistromathmagic]

@DefenderOfBasic In Master and Commander, when Russel Crowe puts on his hat, that signals to the crew that he is becoming serious and everybody needs to get ready for action. The energy of the ship changes dramatically because of it. Such a little detail carries great import.

[Bistromathtician @bistromathmagic]

@brianwut @9chabard Pagliacgpt

[Bistromathtician @bistromathmagic]

@natural_hazard @nosilverv for what it meant to be American. I suspect raising the floor to include everyone is what reduced the average (especially once non-written mass media was invented). But it’s probably true that bad methods only exasperated the problem, and were pushed for unaccountably.

[Bistromathtician @bistromathmagic]

@natural_hazard @nosilverv I suspect the population’s cultural differences are a bigger driver. The US had so much immigration from poorer and less well-read nations that maintaining the levels set by Puritan descendants would be tough. Compulsory schooling was felt necessary to maintain any standards

[Bistromathtician @bistromathmagic]

@natural_hazard @nosilverv of the “average” person/reader, and writers would craft their work with those expectations in mind. Standards are as much (or more) a product of culture as they are of policy.

[Bistromathtician @bistromathmagic]

@natural_hazard @nosilverv Having just read Walden a few months ago, I was struck by how many allusions Thoreau made to both history and contemporary events that he simply expected his audience to understand without explanation. I don’t think that was unusual for the time; there was simply more expected

[Bistromathtician @bistromathmagic]

@natural_hazard @nosilverv That is quite plausible. Reading because of cultural expectations (mimesis) rather than being forced to would likely result in a higher median quality of reader and material. The reduction in poverty is probably as much because of widespread literacy as anything else.

[Bistromathtician @bistromathmagic]

@natural_hazard @nosilverv Yep, was going too fast and posted a bad graph. But it's still the case that compulsory schooling reduced the illiteracy rate (which would align with the Swedish example):

[Bistromathtician @bistromathmagic]

@defnotbeka bichateral mind