The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows | Hacker News Reader

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com

130 pointsshadowfiend23 comments

Ah, so it's called "vemödalen". Good to have a name for the feeling that keeps coming back to me whenever I think about new ideas to build. It's already been done, likely better than I could ever have. It's probably just one Google search away. It makes me fear searching. I'll just take few more minutes, few more hours, few more days, to toy with my new idea. It's probably been done already. But I don't have to know about it right now. Do I?

Sometimes it's already done 20 times. Otherwise, it truly isn't. Or at least it isn't visible on-line. I think that with age I managed to learn how to invent new flavours of old ideas, things that have not been done before in the exact way I want them to. Is this just me lowering my expectations?

I often find myself resenting tourists. I see all those people taking the same pathetic photos at the Tower of Pisa, photos that have been taken a million times before. Like they couldn't just go to Flickr. But here I am, coding my own hobby project, a thing that has been done a thousand times before. I do it in a different language, using different approach, personalizing it in every way I can, and yet I what I'm doing is nothing but taking yet another photo of the Pisa tower.

Some people say "think locally". Just because it has been done before somewhere else, doesn't mean it's been done near you. Narrow your scope. To your country. To your city. To your family. To yourself. But it feels wrong. The world is connected, and being limited to a subset of it feels... incomplete. Do it full-scale, or don't do it at all. That's what I keep thinking.

I guess many a HNer knows this feeling too. Maybe some of you found a way to make peace with it. I think so, after all, many have probably done it before. If you did, please share.

I apologize for venting out.

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Anyway, it's interesting that I couldn't find any reference to the word "vemödalen" other than The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. Did they invent this term? Or at least the name, since like everything else, the identification of the phenomenon has been already done before.

There's a great FAQ post at the beginning of the blog (http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/post/269599704/fre...). The answer to your last question can be found there; I copied it below :)

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Q. “Are these words real or do you make them up?” –silhouetteme

Both. They’re real words, that are made up by me. I use the standard of realness established by lexicographer Erin McKean:

“People say to me, ‘How do I know if a word is real?’ You know, anybody who’s read a children’s book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it. That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an arbitrary distinction; it doesn’t make a word any more real than any other way. If you love a word, it becomes real.”

I think you are mistaken. What about a popular activity like life drawing? It's an extremely generic task in a sense, but you always end up with a product that's specific to you and to the circumstances of the model, pose etc. It's not a field where a lot of innovation takes place but just maintaining the existing traditions is enough to make it worthwhile.

In fact, as a postgrad studying on a visual art course, the obsession with newness in the culture of art is something I'm beginning to tire of. It seems to serve metonymically as a sign of "youth" which is of course something perennially desirable but not really intellectually a big deal. If you look at the hobbies of retired people you see a different emphasis, which is probably a wiser one.

I've definitely made peace with it to the point its a game. When I think of the idea, I purposely spend a day or two "building it in my head" before I search for it. Then to google to see how others have done it! Humbling sometimes to be sure, but sometimes a thrill to see how far down the track I traveled in a short time.

The difference between that generic picture of the tower and the one I take is that the latter has me in it.

The credits on the video versions all include "Coined by", so yes, they appear to all be neologisms. In one sense, it would be neat if these really were existing words plucked from obscurity. But they're good words, and useful, so I hope they stay.

I agree. The first step to be really able to talk about something is to have a single word for it. It seems that's the way our brains work.

You're in a nearly empty building after hours and you get into an elevator. As the door is closing, you decide to let out a long, voluminous, and smelly fart, and it's at just this moment that a beautiful person of your preferred gender walks into the elevator.

Needs to be a word for that.

That sounds like something that would be defined in the Meaning of Liff - the dictionary created by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd.

See also the “Sniglets” by Rich Hall, collected in a series of books.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sniglet

I don't know the word for it, but there is an Android game with exactly that premise, i.e. timing your farts to the outside noises so that nobody hears you. C.f. vemödalen.

I guess that movie really did put me in a weird mood...

Ah, but maybe they like people who fart ;)

In all likelihood, they like people who fart. However, that doesn't necessarily mean they'd like to be greeted that way.

True. But I was getting at uptight vs laid back.

I really don't care if it's somebody on tumblr making youtube videos, but we need more words! Great website, but I wish it was more active.

I'm struck by "lachesism". I do not "desire to be struck by disaster". However, I do recall feeling far more present and alive after near-death experiences. Even with the pain. But only for a while.

Also, I found what seems to be a poetry contest about lachesism, which apparently started 2015-04-13.[0] And then there's "23 emotions people feel but can't explain".[1]

[0] http://hellopoetry.com/words/691456/lachesism/poems/

[1] http://imjustalonelyfandom.tumblr.com/post/123649660455

His YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/obscuresorrows

Just want to draw attention that most of these are made up words. They don't appear in the dictionary. Use these words wisely.

There is no Académie française for English - the borders of our language are fuzzy and based on drifting actual usage. Or, in other words, English dictionaries are a lot like open source: based on running code and rough consensus. OED just added "Redditor", "shareable", and "butthurt" to its pages this year.

So, if you like them, use them. Don't get hung up on the fact that some of them may be new.

Learned about this site a year or so ago while browsing Jason Silva's "Shots of awe" videos. Not directly related but also highly recommended for those who dabble in philosophy.

How about a word for the realization that one isn't as unique as one thinks? (It's a common reality, but probably a rare realization.)

"Maturity".

Vemodalen

http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/post/102182393150/...

Very nice - thanks to whoever posted this.

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