The Oatmeal

I have a great deal of sympathy for anything printer/scanner related. This Oatmeal comic comes to mind [1].

However, I have heard anecdotally that recent university class intakes for CS have been encountering the death of the desktop metaphor as a problem. I'm aware there are more instances of students (who have chosen to do CS) not knowing the first thing about hierarchical file management, folders, etc. It's definitely possible to get through secondary education using only a phone or perhaps a tablet. It's then totally unsurprising when people (other than PC gamers) have very little intuitive understanding of desktop computing.

I don't know how much of a problem this really is, as people are generally fast learners, but it's a weird thought as someone who has used a "desktop" (laptops mostly) computer every day since about age 12.

[1]: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/printers

But HN seems to be the exception, rather than the norm. Whether that's because of good moderation, or demographic, or something else, I'm not sure.

It's certainly easier to get the 'road rage' mentality when writing, than when conversing in person. As well as losing information, communicating through text makes it more difficult to relate to other people as people. It can lead to people behaving in terrible ways that they'd never do in person. Road rage does a similar thing: ordinarily nice and well-balanced people can be enraged by other road-users, but would never have such a response walking down the street. (This was captured rather brilliantly by a comic [0].)

I wasn't the only one who was surprised to see that real-names policies (such as on Facebook) fail to get people to behave themselves.

[0] https://theoatmeal.com/pl/minor_differences/cutting_off

Maybe I’m an outlier, but I actually like the unwritten rules better than the written ones. Every interview I’ve ever had I make a point to ask what would be expected. At my MBA program (yes, I’m one of those guys) we had to wear slacks and a button down to class every day. And having worked for NYC firms there are different social expectations. So my question is usually phrased like this: “Hey, I’ve worked in situations where a tie was required and where a tie would get one ostracized. Can you give me a quick heads up on normal office attire?”

This usual ends up with some decent back and forth and inevitably I send them the following Oatmeal comic. [0]

My point is that if you play it right, you can turn awkward social norms to your advantage. You just have to be willing to ask.

[0] https://theoatmeal.com/pl/minor_differences5/suit

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/unhappy

Also, there's a passage in Meditation by Marcus Aurelius I think would do you well. To paraphrase, if you turn your full attention to the present task, not worrying about the future, and letting the past go, nothing can stop you from living a good life.

> Always loved learning new stuff, but don't have enough time to really be immersive in anything. Now when I see an interesting problem in math/physics I can hardly give it an actual shot and it makes me very very sad deep down.

I have something for you to do. Take a moment to sit down, and write about the things you knew how to do you first graduated from college, and the things you know how to do now. I'd say from your experiences as a founder and a CTO, you've learned some things that are more valuable than math or physics.

Very good read indeed. Some key quotes:

"managers strive to prevent bears from learning to associate people and human spaces with food by providing bear-resistant food storage and garbage receptacles and enforcing their use."

"[...] managers may use techniques called aversive conditioning to teach bears that human spaces are unpleasant. This can include noisemakers, shooting them with beanbags, or capturing and releasing them."

This is also very good:

http://theoatmeal.com/blog/bears

" If they have to enter the pen of a captured animal, such as a bear, they wear a bear-urine-scented bear costume. The point of all this is to disassociate themselves as a source of food or care for the animals. Once released, they want these wild animals to avoid people as much as possible. "

This is a very good take on the situation and it’s clear the person being interviewed is walking fine lines trying not to offend.

Speaking as an outsider looking in, the Chinese perspective in 2025 appears to be composed of pragmatism, heads-down understanding of each person’s (relative) insignificance and how it leads to a need to work hard; belief in the collective ability to win; and now they’re seeing some world leadership, some carefully managed pride. If reading this triggers you, have another read of https://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe.

The article isn’t propaganda. It’s an interview with a person who understands the fine lines that must be walked to get through to people in a politically charged space at a politically charged time.

It’s a really insightful read.