Sometimes we are bugged by some commonplace behavior, belief, or attitude, but bringing it up will come off as obnoxious and elitist. We all have those. I will tell you two of mine, in hope I am not unknowingly a snide weirdo.
1 - And/Or is redundant: Just use OR
At some point it was funny in context (like "the OP is stupid and/or crazy). I can hardly find a context that is not similar to this (arguably) ableist template.
In formal logic there is no use case for saying ‘and’ OR ‘or’, because simply OR entails AND.
If there was a valid case it should represent the logical structure of ‘AND’ OR ‘XOR’, but it is obvious that this is OR.
So, whenever we are tempted to say “and/or” it is kinda definitive that just OR should suffice.
2 - A ‘steep’ learning curve means the skill is quickly mastered : Just use ‘learning curve’
Apparently stemming from an embodied metaphor between the steepness of a hill and the difficulty of climbing it, this misnomer is annoyingly common.
I have yet to find a single source that does not yield to this erroneous, ubiquitous misconception.
Same goes for the fancier alternative ‘sharp’ learning curve.
In fact, in a diagram where the vertical axis is the skill mastery and the horizontal is time, a steep curve would mean that the task is quick or easy to master, since it reaches the higher level quickly, hence the steepness.
Since the literal alternative (‘Rust has a smooth learning curve’) will be counter-intuitive and confusing, and I bet nobody will adopt it, I suggest the following solution.
Almost every time you feel the need to reach for this phrase, YSK that probably just using ‘learning curve’ should suffice. For example ‘This language has a learning curve’. It gets the message across, without making others question your position in the graph interpretation learning curve.
What are your mundane grievances?
You must log in or register to comment.
My minor grievance? People framing arguments specifically to complain about things. Your second example about the learning curve is perfect.
In fact, in a diagram where the vertical axis is the skill mastery and the horizontal is time, a steep curve would mean that the task is quick or easy to master, since it reaches the higher level quickly, hence the steepness.
If you literally flip the axis labels it makes perfect sense. If vertical axis is time and the horizontal axis is skill, it takes exponentially longer to increase your skill mastery the more you understand it, much like many real world tasks.
Alternatively I always viewed ‘steep learning curve’ as a time skill ratio that you must meet or exceed rather than a guarantee of how your skill will develop over time.
After all, ‘steepness’ in isolation is meaningless (depends on your axis scales), but a comparitive ‘steeper than you can handle’ is more meaningful to me
See my other comment, Wikipedia says the axes are as I said.
Edit: And illustrating time as the vertical axis, it is wildly uncommon. So this ‘framing’ rebuttal is like …hysterical.
Dippin’ Dots have been the ice cream of the future for over 30 years, when is the rest of the ice cream going to catch up?
Doors. I live alone so I don’t need many but some are always in the way, blocking a closet if open etc… I have been thinking of taking off several cabinet doors but where the hell am I to store them? Also, I paid a pretty penny for them, which I ofc regret, I don’t need to hide my plates and cups or dry stuff…
Cabinet doors in part reduce the amount of dust that winds up on the contents of the cabinets, as well as other aerosol particulates like grease from cooking. Think about what the top of your range hood looks like if you don’t clean it regularly.
Of course that isn’t a factor if you have a low dust environment and never cook in your kitchen
My biggest one, and it’s absolutely irrational, is that I wasn’t asked for permission to exist.
When a meal you order has cilantro, but cilantro isn’t mentioned in the menu. Even worse when it’s finely chopped so I can’t just pick it out.
Shit tastes like bugs. Surprise me with that nastiness and I’m sending it back… and that’s coming from someone who will usually just shut up and take whatever they serve me even if it’s the completely wrong entree.
This was me just yesterday. Some one-third of all people have the gene that makes it taste like soap (or I guess, to you, bugs). Why would you be putting that everywhere and not mentioning it?! It is frustratingly common.
Stink bugs, specifically. When I was a kid, one of those fuckers kamikazied onto a PB&J I was eating. First there was the crunch… PB was the smooth/creamy kind, so definitely should NOT be a crunch in there; then a really - REALLY - strong taste of cilantro.
At this point I’m pissed off at my brother, cuz I figured he put a wad of cilantro in my PB&J, cuz that’s the kind of thing that little bastard would do… spit it out, and… that’s not cilantro… wtf… little chunks of shell and bug legs… some of the larger chunks of shell had that recognizable stink bug pattern.
Never gotten a soapy vibe from it, but always though it tasted like rancid ass… then the bug thing happened, and yeah… it tastes like bugs.
I strongly dislike when, in traffic, someone comes to a full stop to give the right of way to another person who should not have had it. It is very unexpected and will cause accidents. Secondly, not getting up to speed, especially on the higher speed roads/highways/freeways.
Using “Next” to refer to the one after the literal next when speaking in terms of time. “Next weekend” does not mean in 5 days it means in 12 days. But “Next Friday” could be in 4 days. It seems to vary dependent on the time of the week as to whether or not people will skip the truly “Next” point in time they are referring to.
I can understand why for much of what I mentioned, that does not mean I agree or enjoy it. Nor will I likely ever.
For the traffic one OH MY GOD I HATE THIS.
The people think they’re being so nice, and no! You’re not being nice! You just slowed down traffic for everyone behind you to help one person. You overall averaged out to be a huge asshole! Just keep driving, they’ll figure out how to get in, it’s not your job to let them in.
This one baffles me: leaving a huge gap when stopping a vehicle at a traffic signal. Ordinary intersection in flat terrain, I’ll pull right up to the marker/crosswalk/vehicle ahead:
|=|[::]Sometimes see other drivers a bit back. OK fine, maybe it’s alright. Suppose it’s good in the event of a stopped rear-end collision, to protect pedestrians/vehicles in front:
|=| [::]But what’s with this nonsense? Is it just me? I don’t remember seeing this earlier than the last ten years or so. Not a sensible safety gap, no. I’m talking two, three or more car lengths of space! Nowhere near the inductive loop sensor:
|=|<---------->[::]This is without any property entrances on either side, mind you. That I could understand since it leaves a space for traffic to pull out, or in from the oncoming lane. This just seems to occupy space for no purpose other than to reduce traffic density on one block and increase it in the trailing block (?).
Completely baffled; what am I missing? Where did this come from? Is it just me? Even worse is when I stop my vehicle behind theirs and then they creep forward a car length or two, making me look like a dummy.
Tall people in cars where the upward visibility is poor? Sometimes that’s me and my son is 7" taller than me and sometimes he drives my car.
I’m grieved by the opposite: people that cover or go past the crosswalk and then stop.
That one gets me too :) If I’m on foot I often consider just hopping up and walking across the hood.
edit: Actually there is one circumstance in which I will drive past the crosswalk and stop: green-signaled left turn where oncoming traffic has right of way. Stop past the crosswalk, complete the turn when the way is clear. It’s legal where I live, at any rate.
Things that grind my gears but I don’t comment on them because I don’t want to be viewed as a pedantic twat:
Anywho Lose/loose It’s/its
Driving behaviors:
Breaking small rules like changing lanes on a solid line Tailgating Not going on a green Blocking the box
Common courtesy:
Is a smile and a thank you too much to ask?
Miscellaneous:
Lists Irony Misplaced humor Niche references Very small rocks Bits of lead Churches
I’ll add: Turning into the far lane of a multilane street. Phase/faze. Sight/site.
I’ll add people who don’t use the turn Lanes on a five Lane strode but instead make a left turn from the second to the rightmost Lane.
Inappropriate stop signs.
If there’s plenty of visibility in both directions, a give way sign is fine.
Changing it to a stop sign later because people don’t give way occasionally is just punishing the rest of us.
Not linguistic but culinary, mainly burgers, no, the chicken sandwich in a round bun isn’t a burger, same with pulled pork, it’s not a bun that defines a burger, it’s the patty, might be a pork, chicken or even vegan, it might even be a patty wrapped in a piece of lettuce for that matter, it’s s burger
It really bothers me when people walk on the cycling lane or the road while there’s a sidewalk.
When people ask a question in the title and then answer it as text on the post instead of a reply to the post. If you answer it as a reply to the post then any comments stay in one thread instead of littering the entire post.
This isn’t a specific dig against you OP, tons of people on lemmy do it. I think /r/askreddit had a rule against it.
I see. Looks like it could keep things tidy. I will try to stick to this solution then.
You misunderstand what a learning curve means. The x-axis is the desired level of productivity/proficiency, and the y-axis is necessary knowledge/skill. A steep learning curve means you need a lot of knowledge/skill to even be slightly productive/proficient, making the learning process daunting for new users. A gentle learning curve means you get rewarded throughout the learning process with frequent productivity/proficiency gains. A “cliff” means there will be a long period of learning with little to show for it until the end.
I see, so you need way more knowledge to get a small increase in reward, hence the steepness. Point taken.
Edit: Wikipedia though
A learning curve is a graphical representation of the relationship between how proficient people are at a task and the amount of experience they have. Proficiency (measured on the vertical axis) usually increases with increased experience (the horizontal axis), that is to say, the more someone, groups, companies or industries perform a task, the better their performance at the task.[1]
The common expression “a steep learning curve” is a misnomer suggesting that an activity is difficult to learn and that expending much effort does not increase proficiency by much, although a learning curve with a steep start actually represents rapid progress.[2][3]
An activity that it is easy to learn the basics of, but difficult to gain proficiency in, may be described as having “a steep learning curve”.
That’s what the phrase means, I’ve never heard someone use it to refer to a learning curve that starts steep. I’ve always heard it used to refer to activities where initial progress is slow and proficiency is delayed until after significant experience. A “standard” learning curve is a diagonal line, a “steep” learning curve is more like an exponential function.
Very much this. No one ever talks about the labels of the axes of the learning curve. Time vs ability is not an unreasonable guess, but as you point out incorrect.
I assume most people get by using the term without really thinking about the actual graph at all.
Huh. That’s an interesting way to explain what people mean when they use “steep learning curve” that way. I’d always been taught that a learning curve is proficiency vs. experience.
I have two off the top of my head. First, inappropriate apostrophe usage. Far too often I see people writing things like tea’s, hot dog’s, bagel’s, and so on. They’re not just there to alert the reader that an s is coming!
My other gripe is people standing in a grocery aisle to ponder products or chat with someone while parking their cart horizontally so that nobody can get past them. It really marascinos my cherries when I need to either go down another aisle to go around them, or worse, I need to talk to someone to ask them to please scoot a little.
My local grocer has “Tea’s” on the sign for that aisle and it bothers me every time I see it.
I 100% agree with you. But also my iPhone puts 's on anything and everything. And’s <- look at that shit. That’s not even fucking possible except in the most unusual of sentences. I try really hard to correct all of them, but a lot of them slip through because I can’t catch them all. Especially when it helpfully updates it after I’ve typed the next word.
It’s the tea’s bag. It’s the hot dog’s cheese. It’s the bagel’s (whatever bagels claim ownership of.)
Driving into the intersection when the light is green, even though you can’t get all the way through, and then when the light changes and you’re in everyone’s way delaying 30 people by 2 minutes because you wanted to be able to wait stationary in one location instead of a different location… looking helpless like what do you mean, it’s not MY fault, there’s a car in my way I can’t go anywhere
I for serious fantasize about just plowing into the side of the person’s car and then getting out like what do you mean, it’s not MY fault, my light was green means I have the right of way you fuckin toad do better next time
I thankfully don’t drive much anymore, but I’d get annoyed when I’d wait before the intersection, and people would be honking at me. Like, do you want me to block the intersection? Maybe they just can’t see and assume I’m a moron
A lot of those people are probably the same sort that hold the subway doors open and make thousands of people late just so they can cram in.
you fuckin toad, do better next time, anyway here’s my insurance information
This de-escalated kinda uneventfully
I’m not tryin to get in a fistfight. Just to correct the behavior.
And what are you going to do better next time, Derek? Are you gonna drive into the intersection? Do I need to back up and T-bone you another time and then ask again, or do you feel like you’ve figured out now what the right answer is?
Yes!! Don’t enter the intersection if you can’t exit it!! Also, how did covid make people think it’s ok to keep going when the light turns red? Why has that worsened in the last 4 years?
