What is the newest installment of 'Random Thoughts' on Physics Forums?

[fresh_42]

Interesting book "Power of When" on how people have different internal time cycles/rythms so that their energy and focus levels change based on different patterns and schedules. The early bird 9-5 lifestyle is not well suited for all, though I am not sure how society, daily life, could be retooled to better fit this difference.

I remember a professor who told me that his night owl friend tried to change his rhythm his entire life - and failed. I remember a website which had a different clock running for night owls. I think it was minus 3 hours. And last but not least, they found out that kids at school improve their learning if they only started an hour later. I even remember a project, where they introduced an option: kids could choose whether to start early or to repeat the first class later and on another day of the week. First results have been promising.

My excuse? The astronomer's day is the night.

 

[WWGD]

I remember a professor who told me that his night owl friend tried to change his rhythm his entire life - and failed. I remember a website which had a different clock running for night owls. I think it was minus 3 hours. And last but not least, they found out that kids at school improve their learning if they only started an hour later. I even remember a project, where they introduced an option: kids could choose whether to start early or to repeat the first class later and on another day of the week. First results have been promising.

My excuse? The astronomer's day is the night.

Other than moving school start forward a bit, it seems difficult to change the 9-5 setup in most societies. But it's clear you can get much more done when you're rested and fresh.

 

[fresh_42]

Other than moving school start forward a bit, it seems difficult to change the 9-5 setup in most societies. But it's clear you can get much more done when you're rested and fresh.

Depends on the job. I once was in a project at a big airport. What should I say, you could get lunch 24/7 and eating at 2 a.m. in a small mess lost somewhere on the airfield has a completely different - and not boring - atmosphere. People are nicer at night.

 

[WWGD]

Yes, true. I think its fair to say that forcing or trying to get people to do their best in a 9-5 schedule has failed and needs, to say the least, some serious tweaking, which seems easier now that technology makes work away from the office easier. Edit: Seems like a step backwards from the Industrial age, in that it would be a de-synchronizing of society.

 

[WWGD]

Depends on the job. I once was in a project at a big airport. What should I say, you could get lunch 24/7 and eating at 2 a.m. in a small mess lost somewhere on the airfield has a completely different - and not boring - atmosphere. People are nicer at night.

Maybe we can even have nocturnal Baseball leagues ;).

 

[fresh_42]

Nocturnal (for me) NFL sufficies.

 

[WWGD]

Nocturnal (for me) NFL sufficies.

How about changing a different aspect: number of days worked per week. Would 4 be enough? Better? Different for different people? Wonder if this has been tried in a large-enough scale.

 

[fresh_42]

How about changing a different aspect: number of days worked per week. Would 4 be enough? Better? Different for different people? Wonder if this has been tried in a large-enough scale.

I think there are some companies in Scandinavia which have variations of those concepts. And a software product doesn't care when it was written and where.

The idea is easy: distribute earnings by productivity, not by time, which often only measures presence. The challenge is difficult: how do you measure it? In the end we still have the models from the early industrial revolution added by what unions have achieved. Time was then directly proportional to productivity, but meanwhile things have changed. How do we measure an email, fixing a bug, or installing a server? We still pretend that time is an adequate measure. I don't think it is, but I don't know an alternative. Since decades if not more we shifted productivity and profits from manual work to capital. Every single robot does that. But the time on the job payment is still from the 19th century, and so is the distribution of profits. I think mathematically this has to end up in some sort of collapse: we become more and more people, inventing more and more machines doing an amount of work which increases slower than the variables people and high end jobs, and thus shifting workforce profits to capital profits. In my calculation this will end in either more jobless people or underpaid people with minor jobs. Not that I can offer an alternative, I just think our models will be overtaken by reality. Not to mention Bolzano-Weierstraß on finite resources and our ideology of unlimited growth. (An insight which dates back to the Club Of Rome in the 60's or 70's.)

 

[WWGD]

Bolzano-Weirstrass? Doesn't that talk about limit points of bounded infinite subsets? Hitting the Bier Garten recently? Yes, those intangibles are difficult to pinpoint; I assume some techniques like latent class analysis to study them?

But, yes, we may have to try something different. I heard they had some controlled experiments with UBI in Finland but have not found anything reliable.

 

[fresh_42]

Hitting the Bier Garten recently?

Yes, cancel Bolzano. Just Weierstraß. And no, only Rodgers hit me, or better didn't hit anything. And I don't like the 49ers.

 

[Ibix]

Ugh. Stuck on a massively delayed train that's stopping at every single station because it's the only one that's run all evening. A bunch of lads who clearly spent the delay in the pub and can't seem to converse except in a ****ing bellow, you ****ing ****s, is just what everyone needed. And I'm beginning to regret the nobility behind reasoning that if I'm still young and fit enough to get on the train before all the seats were gone I'm young and fit enough to manage standing the whole way. I turn out to be young and fit enough to do it, but not young and fit enough to do it without complaining...

 

[WWGD]

Ugh. Stuck on a massively delayed train that's stopping at every single station because it's the only one that's run all evening. A bunch of lads who clearly spent the delay in the pub and can't seem to converse except in a ****ing bellow, you ****ing ****s, is just what everyone needed. And I'm beginning to regret the nobility behind reasoning that if I'm still young and fit enough to get on the train before all the seats were gone I'm young and fit enough to manage standing the whole way. I turn out to be young and fit enough to do it, but not young and fit enough to do it without complaining...

Too bad. You're too nice; I am surely better at rationalizing my selfishness and missbehaving than you. I can offer a few excuses. "So I took his food. He's 3 years old, has his life ahead of him. Me, I am hungry"

 

[WWGD]

My friend played a game on me when I showed him my weather app that gives detailed info, by setting it up for Beijing. I will return the favor by taking one of those automated online IQ tests where you enter your email and they send you the results in a message. I will enter his email, make sure I get everything wrong in the test so he will get an email saying: " Jeff, your IQ is 29!"

 

[Ibix]

You're too nice; I am surely better at rationalizing my selfishness and missbehaving than you.

Rationalizing selfishness is a national sport here at the moment. I'm making an effort not to play.

 

[fresh_42]

Too bad. You're too nice; I am surely better at rationalizing my selfishness and missbehaving than you. I can offer a few excuses. "So I took his food. He's 3 years old, has his life ahead of him. Me, I am hungry"

So you're a politician!

Listen, I'm a politician which means I'm a cheat and a liar, and when I'm not kissing babies I'm stealing their lollipops.

 

[WWGD]

So you're a politician!

I always thought politicians are neither better nor worse than the rest of the population; most people are too easy on themselves when blaming politicians.

EDIT: And it is 18 F in Beijing.

 

[Ibix]

So you're a politician!

That scene is fun. That quote is from the president, who is saying it because he knows that saying that plays to Ryan's beliefs and is therefore the best way to manipulate him. Ryan is fully aware of it, and that it's working.

 

[WWGD]

Which one is that, the one with Sean Connery? I watched parts of it just because I like his accent. Wattarrrrrr...

 

[Ibix]

Yes. Although I'm not 100% sure that quote's in the movie.

 

[fresh_42]

I always thought politicians are neither better nor worse than the rest of the population; most people are too easy on themselves when blaming politicians.

This is too easy, and I don't agree. The reason is: you have to pass several "tests", elections etc. to end up as a politician. This is a kind of filter, and at the end, we do not have the average person anymore. Those filters foster lies, or at least reduced truths, certain speaking skills and yes, manipulating others, too. And when did an average politician in any of our western democracies had last contact to ordinary people on workstations while actually working, and not in townhalls or dinner parties? These circumstances spoil the ideal.

EDIT: And it is 18 F in Beijing.

EDIT: And it is -7 C in Beijing.

 

[fresh_42]

Yes. Although I'm not 100% sure that quote's in the movie.

Mine? I copied it from IMDB.

 

[Ibix]

Mine? I copied it from IMDB.

Ok, then it probably is in the film. I remember it from the book, but the film adaptation is pretty loose in some places so I wasn't sure.

 

[WWGD]

Mine? I copied it from IMDB.

I have seen pirated movie CDs, strangely, dated before the movies came out in the theaters.

 

[fresh_42]

Well, I only have the German version in mind, which is why I looked up the correct translation.

 

[WWGD]

Well, I only have the German version in mind, which is why I looked up the correct translation.

Dubbed or translated?

 

[fresh_42]

Dubbed or translated?

What is the difference? They do not use the original soundtrack and speak over it, if you meant that. They produce a new soundtrack to match the lips better.

 

[Ibix]

Dubbed or translated?

There's an animated kids' series called "Timmy Time" about a bunch of anthropomorphic animals in a preschool. None of them actually talk - they just make the appropriate animal sound, and that's done by a person saying the sound. I mean, Timmy is a lamb, and he's voiced by someone saying "baaaa". Between the inflection they put into the voices, clever camera work and exaggerated facial expressions, they're surprisingly communicative.

I gather that dubbed versions are available in case you don't speak english.

 

[fresh_42]

I gather that dubbed versions are available in case you don't speak english.

And you don't have Russians speaking with a Scottish accent.

 

[Ibix]

What is the difference?

Dubbed or subtitled, I expect he means. Connery's Scottish Lithuanian is as hilarious as his Scottish Spaniard in Highlander and his Scottish Englishman in James Bond.

 

[WWGD]

And you don't have Russians speaking with a Scottish accent.

Vladimir, Alexei, Babushka said: Out of the WattaRRRRRRR! Bring me the Vodka, er, Whiskey! Wonder if AI can improve on this. Not likely in the short run.