What’s on your mind?

[scubachap]

Soon England soon..

If you come over - Neals Year Diary is a really good place to visit (Seven Dials and Borough Market (I think)). I love the Compton Bassett stilton at Christmas, tons to choose from though. The smell even turns one of my daughters stomachs even though she likes cheese. She refuses to come in!

The whole lactose tolerance / intolerance thing is really interesting historically in Northern Europe. In Britain and Ireland (Europe is a bit more complicated) we are all pretty much genetically beaker people. The prior Neolithic farmers (Long barrows / Avebury etc) were supposedly lactose intolerant but the Funnel Beaker peoples and Bell beaker people (copper / archery / Kurgan round barrows etc) who swept into Britain and Ireland had quite high levels of lactose tolerance... There's also some suggestions they were more cattle herders / pastoralists than farmers and pretty thuggish to boot - so perhaps the negative sides of our nature here in our rain and windswept little island were fuelled by milk rather than the usual suspect that tends to catch us out these days - beer... who knows ...

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Yes it's fermented mare's milk, said to cure many sicknesses. I do like a lot of Central Asian cuisine, especially plov (rice pilaf) prepared with generous amounts of meat, usually mutton/lamb and chicken and lots of carrots and saffron as well as the terrific manti (large ravioli) and many salads and local fresh fruit like apricots and massive melons. Even the small hard cheese balls with a vague taste like pecorino and other hard cheeses meant to sustain nomads.

Agree completely re central Asian cuisine.

Ah, yes, plov (aka pilau, pilaf, pilaff), yes, I love that dish and have enjoyed different versions of it across central Asia, and yes, also in southern Russia close to where it borders Kazakhstan.

And agree, as well, about manti; the version in broth is delicious, but all of them are very tasty.

Re: English cheese one of the minor downsides of living on the continent is the dearth of many of the varieties of English cheeses. Having also read the menu posted by Applefanboy I am solidily behind the idea that England does indeed have good cuisine, partly helped by immigrants from the Commonwealth and also local production and traditional dishes (not the modern fast food culture which is gaining a foothold even here).

Unfortunately, the complexities of international trade as a result of Brexit has meant that it has become even more difficult to source good English cheeses (British cheeses) outside of the UK, even in specialist cheese stores.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

If you come over - Neals Year Diary is a really good place to visit (Seven Dials and Borough Market (I think)). I love the Compton Bassett stilton at Christmas, tons to choose from though. The smell even turns one of my daughters stomachs even though she likes cheese. She refuses to come in!

Neal's Yard?

Anyway, agreed, it is an excellent place.

The whole lactose tolerance / intolerance thing is really interesting historically in Northern Europe. In Britain and Ireland (Europe is a bit more complicated) we are all pretty much genetically beaker people. The prior Neolithic farmers (Long barrows / Avebury etc) were supposedly lactose intolerant but the Funnel Beaker peoples and Bell beaker people (copper / archery / Kurgan round barrows etc) who swept into Britain and Ireland had quite high levels of lactose tolerance... There's also some suggestions they were more cattle herders / pastoralists than farmers and pretty thuggish to boot - so perhaps the negative sides of our nature here in our rain and windswept little island were fuelled by milk rather than the usual suspect that tends to catch us out these days - beer... who knows ...

Fascinating.

 

[scubachap]

Neal's Yard?

Anyway, agreed, it is an excellent place.


Fascinating.

Yes, sorry - Neals Yard Diary. Linky here Blasted autocorrect...

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Yes, sorry - Neals Yard Diary. Linky here Blasted autocorrect...

The auto-correct is an eternal - not quite enemy, more an inconvenience - of mine.

Anyway, I second the recommendation for Neal's Yard Dairy; it is excellent.

 

[Macky-Mac]

The auto-correct is an eternal - not quite enemy, more an inconvenience - of mine.

Anyway, I second the recommendation for Neal's Yard Dairy; it is excellent.

auto-correct....grrr! ....seriously Apple should stop developing anything new until they fix auto-correct!

 

[Macky-Mac]

If you come over - Neals Year Diary is a really good place to visit (Seven Dials and Borough Market (I think)). I love the Compton Bassett stilton at Christmas, tons to choose from though. The smell even turns one of my daughters stomachs even though she likes cheese. She refuses to come in!
....

The cheese shop at Neal's Yard is world famous, though it does have a very strong, um, fragrance.

 

[Clix Pix]

OK Junior, I believe some on this thread actually are baby boomers based on the birth years definition of the term. I being one, born 7 years before you and your Hollywood friends

I'm actually probably older than everybody else here, since I was born right at the cusp of the "Silent Generation" and the 'Baby Boomers." WWII was still going but was winding down, and President Roosevelt had not yet died.

Not surprisingly, after the war was over, there was much celebration and that eventually resulted in a bumper crop of babies -- i.e, the Baby Boom" generation!

 

[Scepticalscribe]

auto-correct....grrr! ....seriously Apple should stop developing anything new until they fix auto-correct!

Agreed.

Actually, it is infuriating at times.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

The cheese shop at Neal's Yard is world famous, though it does have a very strong, um, fragrance.

Aroma........not fragrance.

It has the most exquisite, inviting, irresistible aroma.

 

[fanboy-ish]

Apparently, people have a hard time understanding that "I'm on vacation, I'll be back in two weeks" is nothing more than the polite way of saying "Leave me the f*** alone!"; luckily, airplane mode is my ally in this situation, it brings you back to 20 something years ago when it was up to you to dictate your availability.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Apparently, people have a hard time understanding that "I'm on vacation, I'll be back in two weeks" is nothing more than the polite way of saying "Leave me the f*** alone!"; luckily, airplane mode is my ally in this situation, it brings you back to 20 something years ago when it was up to you to dictate your availability.

Agreed.

Just because you can be readily contacted at all times does not mean that you ought to be contacted at all times.

 

[rm5]

Apparently, people have a hard time understanding that "I'm on vacation, I'll be back in two weeks" is nothing more than the polite way of saying "Leave me the f*** alone!"; luckily, airplane mode is my ally in this situation, it brings you back to 20 something years ago when it was up to you to dictate your availability.

OMG, you would not believe how many times people contact me either super late at night, or, when I TELL THEM IN ADVANCE that I won't be available and they STILL try. I'm not one to get upset or annoyed by small things like that, but still...

I also think it's a generational thing. It seems like people of my generation REALLY love to text me at 1 AM, but older people have some sort of limit as to how late they'll get ahold of me—usually it's like 10 PM. The same thing goes for like vacations and such, but I gotta say, I'm not really the type of person that will "sign off" for two weeks. I understand the many benefits of doing that, but it just never works our for me.

Again, I try not to be really bothered by it because it's just something that happens.

 

[yaxomoxay]

Apparently, people have a hard time understanding that "I'm on vacation, I'll be back in two weeks" is nothing more than the polite way of saying "Leave me the f*** alone!"; luckily, airplane mode is my ally in this situation, it brings you back to 20 something years ago when it was up to you to dictate your availability.

That’s why I am very afraid of “work from home” mindset, let alone VR offices. Scares the heck out of me how the line between work and home is slowly disappearing

 

[fanboy-ish]

OMG, you would not believe how many times people contact me either super late at night, or, when I TELL THEM IN ADVANCE that I won't be available and they STILL try. I'm not one to get upset or annoyed by small things like that, but still...

I also think it's a generational thing. It seems like people of my generation REALLY love to text me at 1 AM, but older people have some sort of limit as to how late they'll get ahold of me—usually it's like 10 PM. The same thing goes for like vacations and such, but I gotta say, I'm not really the type of person that will "sign off" for two weeks. I understand the many benefits of doing that, but it just never works our for me.

Again, I try not to be really bothered by it because it's just something that happens.

Unless it's really important, or it's work related and I know for sure that person is on duty, or we're really good friends my limit is between 8 and 9 PM, and never during weekends, holidays and vacation periods, again, unless it's something really important.

Even older people (in their 40s, 50s), especially those used to tech, have adopted the toxic mentality that since you're reachable then you can be reached, even with phone calls; people need to learn the hard way, and that hard way is airplane mode, not even Do Not Disturb, with airplane mode, even if you send me a message (everybody here uses WhatsApp) you'll see that your message wasn't delivered.

I tried this method with voice notes, I hate listening to voice notes, I tried telling people, I tried to write it in my Whatsapp status and contact info, I tried listening and replying to people telling them that I prefer not to receive voice notes, nothing worked, until I stopped replying altogether, only then people stopped wasting my time with their voice notes.

That’s why I am very afraid of “work from home” mindset, let alone VR offices. Scares the heck out of me how the line between work and home is slowly disappearing

The mentality "It's just a message, it will just take you a couple of minutes to do that" or, even worse, "Hey, can you stop by tomorrow for a couple of minutes?", is toxic and very rude, setting boundaries the hard way it's the only solution.

However, there should be a better way, because with airplane mode I'm also excluding people whom I'd have no problems being contacted from, I'll figure it out.

 

[yaxomoxay]

The mentality "It's just a message, it will just take you a couple of minutes to do that" or, even worse, "Hey, can you stop by tomorrow for a couple of minutes?", is toxic and very rude, setting boundaries the hard way it's the only solution.

That’s why I keep saying that in the late 1990’s employees and employers cheered that “people can read emails from home or a cafe” not realizing that the meaning of the sentence was read in a very different way between the latter and the former.

I see this repeating but in a much worse way and smartphones are not helping.

 

[fanboy-ish]

That’s why I keep saying that in the late 1990’s employees and employers cheered that “people can read emails from home or a cafe” not realizing that the meaning of the sentence was read in a very different way between the latter and the former.

I see this repeating but in a much worse way and smartphones are not helping.

I've recently watched the Blackberry film and they say exactly that "it's an e-mail machine in your pocket".

When I was younger I had many online friends from different timezones and I thought it would have been great to be able to communicate with them via videochat or text anywhere, without having to sit in front of a computer, fast forward 20+ years and it's the first time in my life I'm really dealing with work related stress, and I've come to realize how I cherish when 20 years ago I was available only when sitting in front of that PC.

When people's rudeness, intrusiveness and disregard for personal time becomes overwhelming, then you start thinking that not having ubiquitous connectivity probably wasn't that bad.

 

[yaxomoxay]

I've recently watched the Blackberry film and they say exactly that "it's an e-mail machine in your pocket".

When I was younger I had many online friends from different timezones and I thought it would have been great to be able to communicate with them via videochat or text anywhere, without having to sit in front of a computer, fast forward 20+ years and it's the first time in my life I'm really dealing with work related stress, and I've come to realize how I cherish when 20 years ago I was available only when sitting in front of that PC.

When people's rudeness, intrusiveness and disregard for personal time becomes overwhelming, then you start thinking that not having ubiquitous connectivity probably wasn't that bad.

Precisely. Well said. I also remember those times, when in my naïveté I was so happy about the idea of a world connected, not realizing where it was heading towards. I miss the good old days of IRC in the mid 1990’s.

I think that also quality of work and productivity itself has actually gotten worse because of that. I bet that lots of people work with the idea that they can finish up the “easy” stuff from home.

Parkinson’s law is a thing:
Developed by British historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson, this theory asserts that work expands to fill the time available. Appearing busy is often perceived as being more acceptable that getting work done quickly, then being idle. So employees will pace their work to appear busy. Parkinson’s Law is related to concentration threshold -- the level above which work is produced and below which no work is produced, Concentration threshold varies with each person and each task. Simply stated, workers allocate time to complete specific tasks. If they allocate too much time, they procrastinate and work won't be completed until the last minute. If not enough time is allocated, the work won't be done because the employee can't complete it in the allocated time.

 

[chown33]

That’s why I keep saying that in the late 1990’s employees and employers cheered that “people can read emails from home or a cafe” not realizing that the meaning of the sentence was read in a very different way between the latter and the former.

I see this repeating but in a much worse way and smartphones are not helping.

Wait for the new Build-a-Bot app that lets you rapidly train an AI to respond in the same way you would. Of course, that will just start a new arms race, where the Build-a-Boss-Bot app uses an AI to badger employees using Build-a-Bot responders. Then there will be a Build-a-Bystander app where you can teach it to say, "I was out of the loop on that".

(/s maybe.)

 

[yaxomoxay]

Then there will be a Build-a-Bystander app where you can teach it to say, "I was out of the loop on that".

Which will be promptly met by the Build-a-FYSA bot which will forward the conversation to everyone with the ominous, ever-present “FYSA” text.

 

[fanboy-ish]

Precisely. Well said. I also remember those times, when in my naïveté I was so happy about the idea of a world connected, not realizing where it was heading towards. I miss the good old days of IRC in the mid 1990’s.

I think that also quality of work and productivity itself has actually gotten worse because of that. I bet that lots of people work with the idea that they can finish up the “easy” stuff from home.

Parkinson’s law is a thing:
Developed by British historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson, this theory asserts that work expands to fill the time available. Appearing busy is often perceived as being more acceptable that getting work done quickly, then being idle. So employees will pace their work to appear busy. Parkinson’s Law is related to concentration threshold -- the level above which work is produced and below which no work is produced, Concentration threshold varies with each person and each task. Simply stated, workers allocate time to complete specific tasks. If they allocate too much time, they procrastinate and work won't be completed until the last minute. If not enough time is allocated, the work won't be done because the employee can't complete it in the allocated time.

People will keep accepting those intrusions into their personal time and space under the threat of losing their jobs.

A few years ago I tried sites like Upwork, clients were still choosing the cheapest offer even if that meant a poor job, AI is definitely going to hit some creative jobs, I've seen it; as a side gig I work in communications, PR, advertising, and help here and there a few charities, no money asked, with Canva (not an AI, I know) and Microsoft Designer and Bing Image Creator I can produce perfectly acceptable work in a matter of minutes, not only for small, local charities, but those works would be more than acceptable for smaller companies with smaller budgets, it's becoming a matter of ethics.

I've seen a few demos of Microsoft Copilot in Office, it can make many jobs redundant.

I didn't think AI was going to progress at this speed.

So, when your boss or client texts or calls at 10 pm, or during a holiday or vacation, they can also play the "I can replace you with AI" card.

I know I'm sounding like I'm in that South Park episode, but it can really be a very powerful way to blackmail employees or freelances into sacrificing their personal time.

 

[Macky-Mac]

Agreed.

Actually, it is infuriating at times.

especially when the "correction" isn't noticed until too late to change it

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Agreed.



especially when the "correction" isn't noticed until too late to change it

Agreed.

Amen to that.

A heartfelt and profound amen to that.

 

[KaliYoni]

Personally, I feel a lot of media and tech guru predictions of how AI will affect work and workers is grounded in emotion. Freelance journalists in particular have a lot more at risk, in my view, than a lot of other types of workers. But every few years another "sea change" in work is predicted, run through the media and management consulting hype machine, and ultimately forgotten. Has the paperless office occurred? How many companies are structured using matrix management these days? Offshoring is in decline, in both manufacturing and services. The Gig Economy relies on massive amounts of venture capital and exploitation of workers. Even Apple's products are assembled with a significant amount of human labor.

In any case, AI has been used in many functions, in many industries, since long before the current wave of generative AI products launched. These older AI's are not accessible to journalists or the general public, though, and are used for support and back office tasks that don't make for exciting headlines. So while I do think AI has had and will have effects on work and workers, I don't believe the effects are going to result in broad, sweeping change during the next few years.

 

[chown33]

Which will be promptly met by the Build-a-FYSA bot which will forward the conversation to everyone with the ominous, ever-present “FYSA” text.

I had to look up FYSA. I guessed "Forwarded You Something Asinine". I was wrong.

Or maybe I was more right than the answers I found.