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Reposted by Lagrange Point 4 Linguist

Shivam Bhatt @shivambhatt.bsky.social · 13h

remembering that time that a friend of mine who was a scholar of ancient Assyria and Babylon made me a Soldier token out of clay in the style of art from Nineveh and wrote its stats in cuneiform

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Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 1d

I over-planned materials for a project involving single signature custom notebooks, so any time I finish work early I spend the last 10 minutes assembling them. It is so good for de-stressing.

Job is done early, but also fold, pierce, stitch, tape. Just peaceful work with hands before I go home.

Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 1d

Congrats on the LR(ASM)R stream!

Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 2d

But when a school schedule is built around maximum efficiency, bringing students in and out as quickly as possible and no space in the schedule to just breathe, let alone god forbid get bored, is it any wonder they don't ask me questions?

Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 2d

Likewise, I regularly invite my students to ask me questions if they are unsure of something. Lately I have tried to encourage them by pointing out that my subject is my hobby and I enjoy engaging with it, so they would be doing me a kindness if they asked me something.

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Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 2d

I still don't know why the change is happening. I don't object to the change, but it defies what I expect from my doctor's context, so it naturally prompts questions.

However my doctor's office is a model of efficiency, and in the rush to move customers in-and-out, I didn't feel I had space to ask.

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Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 2d

In exam-centered education, there is strong pressure to assume that because a student got passing marks on exam questions, that means they understood the content of the questions.

But it is so easy for uncertainty to be hidden under such metrics. And uncertainties add up fast.

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Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 2d

Context supported the interpretation that we were supposed to wear our street shoes in the doctor's office.

But it was still such a shocking surprise that I had to pull out my phone and translate the sign. Not because I didn't understand, but because I didn't trust myself to understand.

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Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 2d

Comprehension is not a binary.

Today at my doctor's office, there were signs up over the alcoves where we were supposed to put our shoes after taking them off and over the case where they kept slippers for us to wear. I knew all the characters on the signs. I could guess what they meant. ...

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Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 2d

It rained basically all weekend but for the first time in ages I didn't have urgent work brought home, so I think today was a tuning day, a day to set things to rights in the hopes that I can resume creative habits and keep them over the winter.

Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 3d

Then #10 is me getting weepy at the Civ4 title music because it made me imagine a cosmic chain stretching from a past we can't remember to a future we can't imagine, and then naturally I wondered if the life I'm living is worthy as a link in that glorious chain.

youtu.be/5e0Qelqp-Cc?...

Civilization 4 Soundtrack: Title Screen (Baba Yetu)

YouTube video by Grahckheuhl

youtu.be

Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 3d

The 10 Games to Know Me meme is interesting because I can't grok how showing any game I've liked could teach anyone the Tao of me.

The closest I can think of is 9 screenshots of a Civ game that I'd begun and then abandoned when I stopped liking the story of the world that emerged.

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Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 5d

The absolute cheek of Adobe Acrobat insisting on asking me if I want an AI summary every time I open documents that I made to use as handouts when teaching a class I developed the curriculum for.

Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 9d

...a laborer optimizing their life for labor must be just as clever as a power-seeker optimizing their life for power, right?

And if that's the case, maybe "clever" and "dumb" as descriptions of people's innate trait intelligence just aren't useful because people aren't actually that different.

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Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 9d

The more I thought about this, the more I realized I'm not sure if I know anyone who is actually, truly dumb. I know people who have never stretched their intellectual muscles because they've spent their lives in exhausting labor, but if we're going to explain intelligence through worldview, then...

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Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 9d

I'm trying to think of the dumbest person I know and it's hard to think of anyone who is dumb, yet couldn't achieve some kind of power if they had a worldview built around justifying their power, significant inherited wealth, and a family background steeped in business.

Maybe not as famous, but...

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Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 9d

I appreciate the post, but Q: What explanatory power does it give you to label either person as clever or intelligent?

Perhaps it is useful as a way of signifying the purpose of your post isn't just to trash them publicly, but what does it get the model you're building?

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Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 9d

Huh? What's this about new research showing middle-aged people tend to become obsessed with the music of their youth?

Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 9d

I was surprised to read Jane Child's "Don't wanna fall in love" dropped in 1990, because that "WOOoo-wOOoo" has such a tight grip on some of my foundational neurons that it feels like I must have been listening to it for most of the 80s.

youtu.be/zWd__w5UWVc?...

Jane Child - Don't Wanna Fall In Love (Official Music Video)

YouTube video by RHINO

youtu.be

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Reposted by Lagrange Point 4 Linguist

Acid Rain @bearysweet.bsky.social · 10d

If traditional artworks aren't able to scratch that artistic itch of yours, perhaps you might be wanting to check out the paintings of Joachim Ingulstad of Norway.

Here's a 3-in-1 artwork of his that's simultaneously an oil, UV-reactive and also glow-in-the-dark painting. Interesting.

#art #modern

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Reposted by Lagrange Point 4 Linguist

adamatomic @adamatomic.bsky.social · 11d

pretty far fetched that tech bros invented something they're calling "intelligence" that is wrong all the time but still butting into everyone's conversations with totally unearned confidence

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Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 12d

Bind me with iron and speak my true name, did I really spend time this week making a promotional poster for the project we're doing in class just because I missed doing something visually creative?

DURING EXAM WEEK?

Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 15d

Well stake me and leave me in the sun, that was TWO years ago?!

Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 16d

It doesn't work.

But that's okay, because I learned from it and enjoyed making it.

Lagrange Point 4 Linguist @l4pointlinguist.bsky.social · 16d

Totally unrelated, but I got fed up today with not being able to find what Americans call Italian sausage in this country, so I made my own and made a pizza with it and it was fucking amazing.

And that's the energy I intend to maintain going forward.