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This is a good example of humans' inherent bull-headed conservatism and hostility to change. The desire to keep something the same, simply because that's the wa
by nmeofthestate 8y ago
This is a good example of humans' inherent bull-headed conservatism and hostility to change. The desire to keep something the same, simply because that's the way it is, regardless of the downsides.
I actually saw someone defending this as the villagers preserving their "cultural distinctiveness" - people believing it's a key part of their identity that they have an awkward error-prone addressing system in their village! It's quite something.
- raxxorrax 8y agoI think this is the only reasonable decision. My sons 43213 and 44123 and my wife 38431 agree with me.
- thaumasiotes 8y agohttps://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1963/10/04 https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1963/10/04
- C1sc0cat 8y agoReminds me of the NIST codes in the cryptonomicon
- 24gttghh 8y agoI am trying to like that book. Does it pick up at all after the first 50-100 pages?
- xxs 8y agoLikely the numbering model follows a sequential scheme which reveals a bit too much (at least some side channels) The numbers should be wholly random. --- Also the genders (sons - male) and wife (female) reveals too much, should be replaced with gender neutral forms.
- kome 8y agoso german.
- dazc 8y agoIt's the problem with democracy, it tends to create results some people don't like.
- mcny 8y agoThere are some things where we don't allow democracy to work at a local level. There are things we do allow but I think we should discuss ways too eliminate: like nimbyism and efforts to increase property taxes without fear of a population drain to unscrupulous counties/states that are waiting to pounce. I'd argue that for a resident in California, it doesn't matter when jobs go away whether it goes to China PR or to Texas if the jobs go away because of a more LAX, fast and loose labor laws or just simply corporate welfare. I don't have any answers but there are some things beyond the basics of life and liberty of individuals who belong to a protected class. Is there a good solution to this "race to the bottom" (other than a Central world government)?
- monadgonad 8y agoIt is a part of that town's identity, and the inconvenience to courier corporations is no good reason why they should give up on that. It's not about individual people's identity, it's about the town's identity. This bit of cultural distinctiveness - no need for scare quotes as that's exactly what it is - makes it of historical interest and attractive to tourists.
- C1sc0cat 8y agoOk so the postal workers deliver to a designated central point an you pick up your own mail :-) I am surprised that Germany of all places doesn't have a centrally planned and enforced addressing scheme like the UK post code or the USA's zip code
- lb1lf 8y agoFor -ahem- historical reasons, Germans have a healthy skepticism to anything which may let the powers that be know more about them than what is strictly necessary; it is not my impression that this is the case here, my point is merely that Germans on average are quite privacy-conscious. They do have postcodes in Germany, though - the gist of this story was that the lack of street names (identifying houses only by their (not quite sequential) numbers.)) caused delivery services much grief. Basically not enough granularity on the micro level - they know what town you're in, but finding the house you reside in is cumbersome.
- nwellnhof 8y ago> For -ahem- historical reasons, Germans have a healthy skepticism to anything which may let the powers that be know more about them than what is strictly necessary If this was true, Germany surely had abandoned the compulsory resident register (Meldepflicht) introduced by the Nazis.
- wsy 8y agoThe data from these local registers is not collected and merged, so there is still enough decentralization in the system to make abuse very difficult.
- bjourne 8y agoGerman inefficiency at its best. :)