Comment by 100011_100001 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by 100011_100001 | Hacker News Reader

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I have structured and unstructured contemplation.

I journal every morning right after I write my to-do for the day, which is pretty much self-reflections.

I also have a weekly review on Sundays where I reflect on my week, what I did well, what kind of sucked etc.

For work, I contemplate first, then write code second. A lot of times I do it while typing my thoughts. An actual example after a failed test

    > FAILED: the container doesn't have git so it can't run...so that means git tagging should happen prior to the gradle or docker container...
    > I kind of like this because that means it will only have to happen once outside both workflows....which eliminates a bunch of the issues
    > I need an init workflow in a way....checkout workflow
    > I can't test this, I think test jenkins pushing to prod gitlab is causing issues. Commented it out.

Then I pretty much think during most of my spare time whatever piques my interest at the time. The only times I am not contemplating is when I try to be present for my children, or watching a show with my SO.

To contemplate words for a moment, the phrase is "pique my interest".

"Pique" is an odd word. "Pique my interest" is a positive thing but "a fit of pique" or just feeling piqued are negative.

Thanks. I updated the spelling. English as a second language has created a weird discrepancy in my brain for words that sound the same, but are written differently.

not - knot

where - were

...and now peak - pique

At least I don't confuse "you are" vs "your".

Now explain plurals to me:

cat - cats

dog - dogs

bird - birds

mouse - mice <--- why?

goose - geese

moose - moose <--- why not meese?

I think it’s the Germanic roots bleeding through.

A “German” way to pluralize a noun is to “open up” the vowel, and occasionally add an “uh” at the end, for effect.

Maus -> Mäuse (kind of sounds like mice, listen to Google translate)

For moose, it would be spelt “muse” in German, which would be pluralized “müse”.

But umlaut does not exist in English, we use “oo” for “u”, and the “uh” is silent: so we get “moos” and “moos” :)

Also, apparently moose is an Algonquian loanword! TIL. Perhaps the plural in Algonquian dialects was not distinguishable to English speakers in the 1600s.

At least in the US, where and were are pronounced differently.

I'd pair them with two more words like this:

where - ware

were - whir

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