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> Maybe it’s because I spend some number of hours a week looking at trees, but it never ceases to amaze me how stupid the average technical person is around the

by joemi 6y ago

> Maybe it’s because I spend some number of hours a week looking at trees, but it never ceases to amaze me how stupid the average technical person is around the word “forever”. If you truly want to be pedantic, the word "forever" does not appear in the post at all. Less pedantically, I believe most people have the ability to understand that nothing lasts forever. From reading the post, the emphasis was on "free" and not on the longevity. Also the title of the post could easily be interpreted to mean "Why Lichess will be free for as long as it exists".

hinkley 6y ago
What’s the difference between “always” and “forever”? Do you think that’s a valid sticking point for people? I’m willing to rephrase as I don’t see a distinction that matters to any of my points. > “Why Lichess will be free as long as it exists.” Same problem. It’s built entirely on wishful thinking. Do you agree with all the choices you made when you were twenty? Do you agree with all of the choices you made after the first time you remember disagreeing with 20 year old you? What makes you think you aren’t going to disagree with half of what you think now? Current you is going to have to win arguments with future you if you insist on any sort of concept or permanence. Especially since 75 year old you is going to think the concept of permanence is bullshit. If you’re not going to take any steps in that regard, or even plan to make them in the future, then you really don’t understand human nature very well, and probably not yourself either. That alone is worth some hours of quiet contemplation.
- deleted 6y ago
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- joemi 6y ago
  From https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/61436/always-vs-forever https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/61436/always-vs-... > In some contexts they mean the same, but differ syntactically [...] In other contexts there's a difference in that always usually means continuously, at all [relevant] times, whereas forever usually means for an infinite amount of time into the future. See the link for examples that might further clarify it for you. Obviously stackexchange is not a definitive answer space, but you can verify the differences from the linked post by looking the words up in a detailed dictionary, like the OED.

by joemi 6y ago

hinkley 6y ago

What’s the difference between “always” and “forever”? Do you think that’s a valid sticking point for people? I’m willing to rephrase as I don’t see a distinction that matters to any of my points. > “Why Lichess will be free as long as it exists.” Same problem. It’s built entirely on wishful thinking. Do you agree with all the choices you made when you were twenty? Do you agree with all of the choices you made after the first time you remember disagreeing with 20 year old you? What makes you think you aren’t going to disagree with half of what you think now? Current you is going to have to win arguments with future you if you insist on any sort of concept or permanence. Especially since 75 year old you is going to think the concept of permanence is bullshit. If you’re not going to take any steps in that regard, or even plan to make them in the future, then you really don’t understand human nature very well, and probably not yourself either. That alone is worth some hours of quiet contemplation.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
joemi 6y ago
From https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/61436/always-vs-forever https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/61436/always-vs-... > In some contexts they mean the same, but differ syntactically [...] In other contexts there's a difference in that always usually means continuously, at all [relevant] times, whereas forever usually means for an infinite amount of time into the future. See the link for examples that might further clarify it for you. Obviously stackexchange is not a definitive answer space, but you can verify the differences from the linked post by looking the words up in a detailed dictionary, like the OED.