Saturday Night Live
6 HN mentions · mentioned in 6 months, 2024–2026
4:51 · 34M views · Oct 29, 2023
An SNL sketch in which George Washington, played by Nate Bargatze, tells his soldiers his dream for the country.
HN only uses it as a joke reference in unrelated threads.
6 comments from Hacker News
Yes, but that's only because societies basically gave up on trying to get better in such ways and laid back very deep in their 'comfort zone' for the lack of better words, laziness and fear of challenge may be another. You know, the place where ossification happens, be it in individuals or in millions. Sweden switched to right hand driving in 1967, I don't think if they postponed it till today they would still dare (not bashing swedes in any way, happy to be wrong here). Now that's a brave move, and everybody gained from it. Imagine US switching say to left hand side if whole world would be driving like that... nope. It doesn't matter if metric (of Celzius based on freakin' H2O states for fucks sake) system is vastly simpler, especially the less intelligent/educated one is (since we have 10 fingers in our face 24/7 and we learn counting on them), ego is too big, thus you guys measure in washing machines, football fields etc. You guys even fail to realize that whole US population would benefit, scientists don't care they will use whatever suits them and they are smart enough to not be slowed down by units used or their conversion. Nice summary via great Nate Bargatze in this SNL sketch [1]. Its fun to make fun of but its also sad, because it really is pure ego game, nothing more and those are always childish and immature at their core, throttling the potential for greatness in hard to measure ways. [1] this video
> Not all solutions require monetary compensation. Employers often overlook what employees find rewarding. This is where a culture of curiosity becomes invaluable—simply asking employees what motivates and empowers them can reveal unexpected insights. Acts like acknowledging sacrifices, allowing flexibility for parenting emergencies, or offering an afternoon off after a rough day can build goodwill and strengthen the employer-employee relationship. This reminds me of that recent SNL skit where Nate Bargatze plays George Washington and when Keenan Thompson asks him about the slaves, he changes the topic hastily: this video What employees want is money . All that extra stuff is nice, in addition to more money for their work.
It helps to understand that the only freedom Americans only cared for (and the only freedom they have left from the looks of it) is the freedom to choose standards of measurement and vocabulary. This will provide historical context: this video (Washington's Dream - SNL)
This documentary might change your mind: this video > There is _one_ correct way to write dates But seriously what if a comet hits earth at the perfect vector to reduce it's spin rate so that's it's slower than it's orbit rate?
In the words of the great General Washington, we use meters and kilometers for certain unpopular sports like swimming. So for measuring an island, use of swimming units seems appropriate. this video