631 Comments
User's avatar
тна Return to thread
Koshmarov's avatar

I'm just glad I made it through college before Google and Wikipedia were things. Came up the hard way, had to walk 50 miles in the snow, etc. I did actually learn a lot.

Seriously, though, writing final exams in blue books was a cast-iron bitch. Hand cramps!

Expand full comment
Atma's avatar

@ grisha koshmarov

No KIDDING ! Fifty miles to school in Six Feet of snow - *BAREFOOT ! We had to keep boiled eggs in our coat pockets to keep from frostbiting our *hands !

No, I KNOW that same road !

I feel equally blessed to have completed my education even before computers became a "thing" in the 1980s. Especially bcuz I ended up retiring as a Systems Analyst for IBM. That is *another thing that will *lift the lilies from one's eyes - to SEE Hi-Tec from the INSIDE. We can file *that under "continuing education ! But, yes, it all had tremendous value.

I am quite a fan of one of the myriad quotes from Mark Twain. Twain's father died when Twain was 12, forcing the youngster to drop out of school to help support the remaining members of his family.

He became an autodidact (that does NOT involve a dark closet and a belt around the neck ;-D) (Self Taught, for those unfamiliar.) The quote:

"I have never allowed my schooling to interfere with my education !"

Expand full comment
rtj's avatar

I'm glad we made it through college in a time before social media. We would have been so screwed.

Expand full comment
Koshmarov's avatar

I'd be screwed if I were on social media now.

...wait, does this count? TK Comments is akin to a 1990s message board with slightly poorer functionality. That's why I like it.

Expand full comment
BillPD's avatar

Fully agree GK...this comments section smells a lot like my old BB (BB = bulletin boards for those too young to know).

Expand full comment
Koshmarov's avatar

I'm nostalgic for that dial-up modem noise. The buzz and then the whirr.

Expand full comment
BillPD's avatar

But not nostalgic for how long it took to download porn I'm assuming...

Expand full comment
Koshmarov's avatar

Nicely done, sir.

I am waiting for a fearless investigative journalist to tackle this topic: scarcity to surfeit of porn.

Teenage boy c. 1980: "I heard there were some PLAYBOYs hidden in the woods." (Straight Tom Sawyer stuff; he swings a dead cat to divine the location of the porn.)

Teenage boy c. 1995: "gotta uudecode these porn files, 4/4"

Teenage boy c. 2000: "this ability to download porn directly is awesome."

Teenage boy c. 2010: "this ability to livestream porn is awesome"

Teenage boy c. 2020: "All of my favorite models on Chaturbate have grown wearisome. I desire to view new models. The King has spoken."

It's a direct lesson in the economics of scarcity and surfeit. I never worked in the porn industry, but I'm hazarding a guess that the girls in the '70s-'80s were treated better and got more relative take-home pay than the girls now.

Expand full comment
Trollificus's avatar

Hahah! I remember putting my first computer together and when I went get online and heard that noise I was certain I'd destroyed something. Almost ran out of the room.

Expand full comment
rtj's avatar

But at least it's not pictures. Bong hits would have been the least of our worries.

Expand full comment
Koshmarov's avatar

I believe bong hits are now largely viewed as benign, but it has been many a moon since I was "hip" to "the scene."

Expand full comment
rtj's avatar

Not if you were on Joe Biden's staff, and then got shitcanned for admitting that you smoked weed. Despite the fact that it may well have been legal in your state.

*VP exempt, of course.

Expand full comment
BillPD's avatar

That is a common government test. Ask if someone smoked weed. If they deny it, they can lie their way through anything and thus should be hired.

This question is literally the strainer to weed out those that might be too honest to hire...

Expand full comment
rtj's avatar

Think Hunter Biden, but your daddy isn't the VP or potus.

Expand full comment
druzus's avatar

Blue books still exist. Students just have better access to pain killers and hand surgeons now to ameliorate the wrist issues.

Expand full comment
BillPD's avatar

And notes from their parents excusing them from Carpal tunnel-causing activities

Expand full comment