Atypical Expectations
Humans acclimatize to conditions very quickly, which is why I tell my wife not to put on a jacket too early in the autumn, otherwise she will freeze all winter, because she will have trained her body to consider it cold, when it was actually pretty warm.
She doesn't listen to me.
The last few days I have been reading from the Australian news that people are "freezing" as they work from home in unbearable conditions. The above image is the weather from Sydney and there today, it is going to be warmer than it was for midsummer in Finland last weekend.
It is all relative.
But, acclimatization is a funny thing, because it conditions our expectations as well, which is how we end up with such an incredible sense of entitlement. For instance, in the paragraph above I italicized "work from home", as this is something that most of the same people now complaining about the cold, was adamant they wanted to do. After Covid stupidity of lockdowns, they have become accustomed to not wearing pants at their desk and said they won't return to the office. The commute is too long, they work just as well from home, they don't get paid enough to go to the office... whatever.
Turn on your heater.
Oh... you can't afford it. Cost of living pressures and the price of the coffee you ordered and paid to have delivered to your door, has made turning on the radiator too expensive. The overheads are too high. And now, you are considering going back to work, because at least there, the company pays for heat.
The irony.
People complaining about the cost of working from home, after fighting for the right to do so, not caring about the overheads for a company in rent, electricity, and heating that they have to pay whether people are in the office or not.
I know what it is like to work in a cold room, because this last winter, in the weeks while the new office was in changeover with the old, I worked from home. It was -30C outside, our heating failed and with everything that could give off heat on in the house, it was 8C degrees inside. That was in the warmer areas. At floor level, it was 4C.
Working in the cold sucks.
But at the same time, I also think that people are becoming so "climate controlled" that the bands of variation we can deal with are narrowing. I remember getting into a car in the summer where it was seventy or more degrees, winding down the window and driving away - with no air-conditioning. And growing up in an old farmhouse, parts of the house were very cold for weeks on end, like the bathroom, and the tiled floors numbed the toes.
But, that was normal.
These days, where everything is adjustable and on-demand, we have developed oversensitivity to variation, and are unable to cope with change. It presents in many ways of course, but I see people complaining about having to wait two seconds for a page to load, or 15 seconds for their PC to startup. I hear people complaining about the food they are served, even though the same food twenty years ago would have been considered incredibly good. And of course, the comparison of everything to the best known form of it, so that nothing compares, nothing holds up to the judgement.
People have low tolerance levels.
It seems to pervade everything these days, where people can't even hear a wide range of words without becoming triggered. Triggered isn't even the right word for it anymore, perhaps injured, maimed, or traumatized are better descriptors. An image of a fit person is abusive to the unfit, because it makes them feel bad about their own condition. It is like we have to pad and censor the world like an insane asylum, because everything is considered dangerous to someone, a weapon, or just a spiky bit that they might cut themselves upon. We are conditioned to be soft.
The weather can be undesirable. Things break. Food can taste bad. Traffic jams happen. Orders are wrong. Words get said. Mistakes are made. Jobs can suck. Bosses can be dicks. People can let you down.
Harden the fuck up.
Life can get a lot worse. And while that sounds like a pithy statement, the softer we make ourselves the worse things are going to get because we have conditioned our selves to be delicate, fragile, soft, and thin-skinned. We used to work barefoot through forests, across deserts, and over glaciers - now we can't even stand being a bit cool in the relative comfort of our own homes, surrounded by all the gadgets we have bought to make our lives more convenient and to entertain us - yet we can't afford to turn on the heater.
We are accustomed.
We are consumers.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Delicate fragile, soft and thin-skinned describes today's society to a tee. Not everyone, of course, but the populace in general. Personally I can take any number of discomforts in stride, but I am in love with my air conditioning. It runs around 9 to 10 months out of the year. I do not have heat so for the few months of coldish weather, we just deal with it. That being said, I do my best in the event a hurricane or tornado wipes out the power and I am a hot, sweaty mess lol.
We don't have to be martyrs, but we also don't have to be so sensitive to the world either. Small discomforts likely make small comforts, greater.
Honestly bro, we've become so used to climate control and convenience that even minor inconveniences can feel unbearable. Imwe certainly need to toughen up and appreciate what we have. Thanks for this, it's a big motivation. Tough times don't last but tough people do right hehehehe. Great lesson you taught your wife brother
I agree with his idea that we are living in a time when we complain for any reason. I listen to the stories of my grandparents and the conditions in which they lived and I think: They did live a more complex life than mine! And here I am complaining about this small thing 😁.
More complex and also simpler. They had to do far more for themselves, but they only needed to survive.
It seems like every summer when we hit the really high temperatures my ac at work goes out. I complain about it each year, but it keeps happening. When it is working correctly it is a virtual icebox in my office because of the network equipment I have in there. I'd still rather work there than from home. The only time I work from home is when I am sick or the roads are too dangerous to drive the twenty miles to work.
I like the separation of having a workplace, rather than only from home. I have the freedom to work from wherever I want though, so if I need, I will stay home - but in general, I get my ass to the office. Many people complain about their working conditions, like they are in coal mine.
I agree with all of that. My office at work is kind of my safe space.
Did, ah, Grandpa Simpson guest-write this post, haha?
I don't know where you're hearing so many complaints about everything... I honestly rarely hear complaints in my life. I don't know if I'm just not looking for it or the people I roll with are solid.
LoL XD
I don't hear too many either but it's mostly because I don't really talk to too many people or read much outside of my interest areas (which does result in me being generally clueless about a lot of things). I don't know if it's similar for you :)
Yes! I immerse myself...
Just listen to people talk about situations. It is there. I might also work with some sales divas ;d
I've been living here for most of my life now and I still haven't "acclimatised" and it's not that cold in the grand scheme. J's favourite taunt for me when I'm freezing to death is "we're in Perth not Siberia" XD Similarly I've met someone who grew up in Scotland (where it's apparently cold all the time) and basically moved to Australia because it was warm. I've just accepted the fact that I don't do cold. The kids are all able to deal with colder temperatures than I can, and youngest is actually the opposite in that he loves the cold and hates the heat.
and I have the heater going right now because the air is "cold" enough that my lungs have decided they don't want to work anymore, J just asked me if he could turn it down and got a glare
This simultaneously feels over the top and also doesn't surprise me in the slightest given that I've heard similar but different in lamentations of what people just shouldn't have to put up with.
I'm generally sympathetic, stuff happens and sometimes you just need to get something off your chest, but if they complain too much/constantly I do like to remind them how much worse it could be
We aren't "that far" from siberia here at times... though -50 is insane. It is interesting how we get used to conditions so fast though and I think that because we can temperature control our world, we likely aren't going to notice the subtle variations as much, until it is too late.
It isn't much of an exaggeration. Whenever there is the slightest technical difficulty, people will complain. Like hearing frustrated people complaining about the speed of the internet in a plane, eleven km above the ground.
Finland or Siberia or both are mobile?! :O
XD
Like I said I still haven't acclimatised, and apparently you might also have a hormone advantage with the cold weather.
Though thinking about it I have reaalised that a lot of people work in offices which are easier to climate control. We're just in our very old little house and I work in what's basically structurally a warehouse.
The people whining about the internet on the plane would not cope with the flights that are still telling you to switch to aeroplane mode XD
People complain, that's the way things have been forever. Back from the stone age to now, everyone complained about something. I think it is the level and type of complaint that is interesting. A lot of these heating complaint or traffic problems are first world problems that those in the third world would like to have instead. There are people dying of hunger, facing flooding, having no home, and they complain about those.
I have seen people get better in life and their complaints changed as their lifestyle improved too. On the other end of the spectrum, I would think those in Ukraine had trivial complaints too before the war, but now, they probably have pressing concerns like their safety, their food, and other things.
So I'm not really against those complaints you mentioned above. I'm also not going to tell them to harden the fuck up. People complain all the time and it is based on their current predicament. I'm actually happy for them that that is their biggest concern. If they are put in the same situation as Ukraine, they will harden the fuck up. But for now, I want them to enjoy their peaceful lives, with their biggest problem being too lazy to go to work and the heating.
The complains are all relative to experience, aren't they? Experience conditions us and when we live our lives being fed experience, consuming what we don't directly experience, we lose perspective.
Exactly. Except, I am not sure they will harden up until they are in terrible conditions. and it is being weak that will lead them there.
It is a cycle.
I’m sure a lot of people will now prefer to go to work because of the heater than to stay at home. One thing I know about is that it is usually good for everyone to get prepared for the season ahead of them
Also, your wifey is just like my mum. I think she’s fragile…
Maybe your wife has low tolerance level even though women are quick to adapt to something.
Well, we’d get to see so many people who will get heaters in their houses due to the cold
I be telling her to keep the air conditioning off for as long as possible into May/June for the same reason! Don't get so used to being so cool so quickly. Melt a little bit! I prefer taking off layers of clothing before turning on the air conditioning. Now I'm sitting in bed under two blankets because I am COLD in my apartment when it is over 85 degrees outside! It doesn't even make sense.
I see this in my students all the time. Nobody wants to make mistakes anymore. Everyone wants to be safe, to get it right the first time. I've learned more doing things myself, making mistakes and LEARNING from them to make sure I do it better/right the next time. Without the formative learning experience of doing something wrong, I don't feel like the lessons stick as well. Rarely any of my students want to try things themselves the first time, rather they just want to be told how to do something. Then they desperately try to remember how to do it to the point that they just commit it to memory through sheer force of repetition.
Air-conditioning? What is that? Most homes aren't airconditioned here - the summer is too short to spend the money on it. Cars are though.
They are used to getting the answer from the internet, not working it out for themselves. Google knows all - but it has no skill. Knowledge isn't power, nor is it valuable, because it is freely available - it is what you can do with it that matters.
Keep up the good work. 👏
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