• 3 Posts
  • 38 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 18th, 2023

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  • Exactly! I mean… some reptiles eat eggs, so we could be talking about something that happened before our ancestors had developed the concept of an ass. I don’t think it’s far-fetched to think that eating eggs may be as old a concept as eggs themselves. In that case, the first egg-eaters evolved alongside the first egg-layers, and were eating proto-eggs before even the modern egg existed.

    Imagine if zebras started evolving very tough placentas over time, and the foals started lying around in them for a couple days before popping out: Lions would keep eating newborn zebras, and no single lion generation would notice that they were slightly different from 1000 years prior. Give that development a million years or whatever and you now have egg-laying zebras and egg-eating lions!


  • I would go even further: Our primitive ancestors likely descended from proto-humans that descended from primates that were already foraging eggs. Some modern apes and other mammals eat eggs as well, we’ve likely been eating eggs since hundreds of thousands of years before the first human evolved.

    In a sense, that line of though is interesting: When we think of “observing other animals eating something, and then deciding to eat it”, we’re almost implicitly forgetting that we are descendants of exactly those types of animals, that “just know” what is safe to eat, and that some of the knowledge we have about food is potentially passed down from even before the first primates evolved.


  • To be fair: If you live in the south, it doesn’t make much sense, but if you live a bit further north it’s the difference between getting up when the sun is a a reasonable place, or getting up in the middle of the night (winter) or the middle of the day (summer). I want it to be light out when I’m awake, not when it’s sleeping time.

    Turns out it’s easier to adjust the clock than to say “work starts at 9 in the winter and at 8 in the summer”



  • Some languages - specifically Norwegian that I know of, don’t have separate words for “boyfriend” and “girlfriend”. In Norwegian we have the word “kjæreste” which can be directly translated to “dearest”. To me it always feels a little weird to use “boyfriend” or “girlfriend”, i guess the same could be true for other non-native english speakers.








  • The thing is this: You wouldn’t have known what kind of activities you enjoy unless you had been exposed to a variety of them at some point. I absolutely think part of the education system’s job is to expose kids to a wide variety of activities, help them push their boundaries regarding what they think is fun, and experience mastering different things.

    I don’t know about your education system, but it seems like there may be a too one-sided focus on some sports. I remember from my time in grade school that we were exposed to pretty much everything from hockey/football (the kind you play with your feet)/basketball to dance/gymnastics/weight lifting/track and field, etc.



  • Yes, but also: In a lot of professions you have a lot of freedom regarding when you work. I’m browsing lemmy now, and getting to work at around 10, but I worked late on Friday, and I’m probably going to be answering some mails after dinner today.

    I think this is just going to become more common: Not paying people for for the time they are at work, but rather for the job they do. That means that if you prefer to work 9-5, thats fine, but if you prefer to leave earlier or start later, and get some of your work done in the afternoon/weekends, thats also fine, as long as you get the job done.

    I very much enjoy having that freedom. Even though it means I may be expected to pull longer days every now and then, it also means nobody questions me for leaving early when the weather is nice.







  • Kittens typically aren’t given away before they are a couple months old, so they most probably met each other.

    Either way: I’ve seen this in action. We had a cat that had kittens, and we were unable to give away one of them. When the kitten started growing up the mother started harassing it, eventually to the point of chasing it off. Luckily we found out that it moved in with some people a couple streets over that were very happy to have it. The point is: Cats aren’t pack animals, and typically don’t like sharing their territory with other cats, even if they are related.


  • I definitely agree that breaking best practices in a way that could lead to UB or hard-to-find bugs should give point deduction. The sole requirement shouldn’t be “write standard compliant code”.

    However, a test does not simulate a real-world development environment, where you will have time to look through your code with fresh eyes the next day, and maybe even have someone review your code. The only thing a test reasonably simulates is your ability to solve the “thinking” part of the problem on your own. Thus, deducting points for trivial stuff that would 10/10 times be caught, either by the compiler, the developer or the reviewer, but isn’t “strictly correct” just seems pedantic to me.

    To be fair, other than the example by OP I have a hard time coming up with things that wouldn’t be either caught by the compiler or are very bad practice (which should give point deduction).