John Siracusa

Siracusa Says

A fun collection of things John Siracusa has said on podcasts

Not Using Computers To Their Fullest Potential

Two hands on the mouse? Typing S, S, H? John can't stand you.

Podcast: Accidental Tech Podcast
Episode: 96: The Windows of Siracusa County

Marco: I thought this was going to be a short show, we’d like barely get to an hour 20, have no idea what to talk about because the news wasn’t that interesting, and I thought we’d be scraping around for desperation topics.

John: I can talk to people all day about how they’re not using computers to their fullest potential. Like, think of this way: when you see somebody else use a computer, do you feel like they could be doing it better or faster?

Casey: Of course!

Marco: Yeah, all the time.

John: I have that feeling so much. I cannot look at other people using computers.

Casey: I cannot imagine what it’s like for you!

Marco: This is the hell of your life.

John: It’s not as bad as having two hands on the mouse, slowly bringing the cursor up to the close box, but that’s what it feels like. And I feel better when I see, you ever see the people who do everything in one window but do everything on keyboard, those touch typist people? At least I feel better about those people because they may not be as efficient as they could be, but it’s clear that they have a system. And so, it’s like just a flurry of commands, and the screen is splitting and flashing and changing from one thing to the other, and they’re probably doing more work than they have to, but things are happening. Versus the person you see using the computer and you make a suggestion, and it’s like, alright so, I gotta go to that server, I guess I get a new window here, and I could type S, S, H…

Super Yellow or Super Orange

In the 70s, going skiing meant everything looked like pee.

Podcast: Accidental Tech Podcast
Episode: 501: Torsional Rigidity Check

I think it might true in the same sense that if you’ve ever gone skiing and worn yellow ski goggles cause you were born in the 70s, you put the ski goggles over your face, yellow or orange ski goggles that are like super yellow or super orange, right? But then after you’ve had the goggles on for a little bit, your brain adjusts and you stop noticing that everything looks like pee.

HTML Threshing Machine

Markdown is readable, HTML requires a threshing machine.

Podcast: Reconcilable Differences
Episode: 161: ASCII Salad Bar
Time Location: 00:29:52

The Markdown is meant to be readable as is by human beings, and not merely, like HTML, a, you know, sort of a pre-compiled format that you chuck into a threshing machine and that it grinds out into the real format.

John's Special Relativity

Polarizers and special relativity: they're all the same.

Podcast: Accidental Tech Podcast
Episode: 500: All the Nerds in the Room

John: A feeling I would get when I used to tell… this is going to sound nerdy…

Casey: NO!

John: The feeling you get when you tell people about special relativity.

Marco: Have you done this a lot??

Casey: Yeah, this is just something you do from time to time?

John: When I was a kid I used to do it, right, so here’s the thing

Casey: This is the least surprising thing you’ve ever said

John: This polarizer thing, if you haven’t ever seen this before, it will give you a similar feeling of learning about special relativity. Special relativity when you explain it to people, or when you first learn it, in my case when you’re a kid or whatever, like the ideas behind it, like wait a second. Everyone in the world has known that this is true, and no one has told me??

You're in a Religion

As soon as somebody's asking for money, you're in a religion.

Podcast: Robot or Not?
Episode: 214: Religious or Spirtual
Time Location: 00:01:45

Maybe the money thing is even better. Maybe you’re super spiritual with you and your five friends and there’s an org chart among your five friends, but is somebody asking for money? As soon as somebody’s asking for money, you’re in a religion.

Hard Pear People

John will eat a pear when it's way too hard because it's better than not having a pear.

Podcast: Accidental Tech Podcast
Episode: 120: One Magical Wire
Time Location: 02:03:59

John: Are there hard pear people?

Marco: Yes!

John: I’ll eat a hard pear, right? I’m not against it. But you’re saying people who don’t like soft pears? It goes too soft and they’re like, “that’s it, I can’t handle it.”?

Marco: Yeah, people who just basically treat pears like apples and just bite them when they’re solid as a rock.

John: I can do that, I’m not against that, but I agree that they get… it’s like banana ripeness, have you seen the variability in the ripeness of bananas people are willing to eat? Some people will eat them super green to where you feel like they’re going to get a stomach ache, some people wait for them to go entirely brown on the outside, and some people are in-between. I think pear is, maybe the continuum is more abbreviated?

John: I will eat a pear when it’s way too hard because it’s better than not having a pear.

Angry Impairment

John doesn't care if you get angry at him.

Podcast: Hypercritical
Episode: 3: The Mouse is Not a Finger
Time Location: 00:05:59

I don’t think I would feel impaired if hundreds of thousands of people were following me and everything I said got angry responses. People get angry about everything. Including me.

Chin Mask

The all important chin must be protected.

Podcast: Reconcilable Differences
Episode: 189: The Cutting Edge of Technological Grievance
Time Location: 00:22:20

When I saw another masked person, we make eye contact and be like “Can you believe these people?” Like, what are they doing? You’re going to be in a tube with other people breathing each other’s air, and you’re not gonna wear…

And then occasionally you’d see there’s a mask but then it’s a chin mask. They got the chin mask. They’re not at a restaurant. They’re not eating, they’re not drinking from their water bottle. They’re chin mask… they’re sitting there.

People Are Not Thumb Drives

You can't transfer your memories to a baby, and even if you could, the baby would not be you.

Podcast: Robot or Not?
Episode: 192: Backup Brain
Time Location: 00:02:25

John: Trying to transfer your memories to a baby, that doesn’t make any sense, and it doesn’t change the baby into you, even if you could do it.

Jason: So premise rejected.

John: Mmm-hmmm.

Jason: Sorry, Vitor, I tried.

John: People are not thumb drives.

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