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Comment by uap | Hacker News Reader

Looks like my SF market street studio. We sure have come a long way...

First thing I thought: They look like modern student dorm rooms / living arrangements, but without windows, like that new Munger hall that is being built.

> The room was lit by a small upper window

On the other hand, extremely limited artificial light, so this would have been penumbral the entire day, with the possible exception of the moments where the sun really faced the window.

According to the plan at the bottom, the window would have been east-north-east and thus really only useful early morning, if at all.

I just spent 5 years locked in a room with no window and 24x7 artificial lighting, so they have it way better than some modern folks.

Let's not be ridiculous. This room has no artificial light and almost no natural light, minimal ventilation, no water, no electricity, which is the norm nowadays even for cheap apartments.

In Toronto you could get $1800 a month for that or sell it for $600k.

...but not prisons

Were you in prison or did you lose a key?

I lost my ke... wait, no it was a cell in a county jail awaiting trial.

It's way bigger and nicer than the jail cell I just spent several years in.

What did you do?

What did you do and what did they get you for can be wildly different questions and realities.

Unsolicited personal advice: The latter opens more doors of meaningful conversation, the former can slam those doors before you can walk through them.

Amen, brother. This is very true. What you did or didn't do, and what they arrested you for, or prosecuted you for, are often wildly different things.

oh, you were innocent?

Two criminal cases. One was dismissed after 5 years in a windowless room. On the way out of the jail I was arrested with a fake warrant made by the prosecutor and spent another 3 years in a room with a window. I am out now.

You should write a book

What'd they get you for?

Are you being sarcastic?

Wow - apparently asking questions is a bad thing on HN?

The fact that a "slave's" room from 1,942 years ag, resembles the room of a presumably well-educated, skilled and/or technically-focused contributor (as I perceive nearly all contributors to HN), seems rather odd.

So, my question still stands... Is the comment meant to be sarcastic?

Can the the comment be interpreted as:

1. "They didn't have it as bad as we might think"? 2. "My life is little different from a slave of ~2000 years ago"? 3. "I feel a connection with the people/person who lived in that room"? 4. Something else?

Per HN guidelines: Assume good faith

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

If you can't, just don't reply at all.

homework assignment: watch two Monty Python movies and three flying circus episodes.

Yes, I've seen them all... and "Oh, look, there's some lovely muck over here."

But, I don't see the connection?

Your parent comment assumes the OP comment was made in jest.

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