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“Lives rent-free in my head” is a horrible cliche. By now, it has the same effect as saying “it’s nice” but uses lots more letters.
by blowski 2y ago
“Lives rent-free in my head” is a horrible cliche. By now, it has the same effect as saying “it’s nice” but uses lots more letters.
- rnmmrnm 2y agoI didn't finish yet but I was thinking he's talking about memorizing the algorithm to calculate sines in your head.
- Der_Einzige 2y ago[flagged]
- __MatrixMan__ 2y agoWhat kind of Marxist keeps their ideas in line by collecting rent from some of them but not others?
- junon 2y agoAnd what does this pedantry solve, exactly? It clearly is something the author thinks often enough about and enjoys talking about. Let people enjoy things.
- wodenokoto 2y agoI never liked that phrase either. So what exactly lives in your head and pays rent?
- sublinear 2y agoKnowledge work
- __MatrixMan__ 2y agoKubernetes, which I would evict if it stopped paying rent.
- pynappo 2y agothe "rent" in the saying is the effort to learn and upkeep a certain piece of knowledge in your head, to the point where you can recall it as needed living rent free generally means that you are able to easily recall a piece of knowledge (and often do, even if you don't want to). something that pays rent might be like an important concept for an upcoming school test, for a class you're not interested in.
- strken 2y agoI always thought rent was utility, and a piece of knowledge or an opinion that didn't pay rent was one that provided little or no practical benefit to you. The term in its original use described an obsession with a particular group or thing and called it out as pointless. I don't think it would make sense for rent to mean effort in this original sense, nor in the broader way it's used here.
- junon 2y agoI have no idea what pseudo-intellectual discourse this is trying to be but the phrase "X lives rent free in my head" means only that "I think of X a lot because I enjoy thinking about it". Nothing more.
- strken 2y agoGo read https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/rent-free https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/rent-free and learn the origins and predominant usage of the phrase. In addition, it literally says "rent free". There's nothing intellectual or pseudo-intellectual about reading the phrase "rent free" and concluding that the information does not pay anything to live in your head. This is basic reading comprehension.
- junon 2y agoJFC nothing pays rent to live in your head. I don't see the point of analyzing something so literally, completely sidestepping the content of the article in question. Get a hobby.
- alexjplant 2y ago> “Lives rent-free in my head” is a horrible cliche. Yes it is, much like "dumpster fire" or "toxic" or "gaslighting" or any other contemporary Reddit-isms that are associated with hyper-reductionist cultural hot takes. My personal distaste for them, however, has no bearing on the fact that they have very real meaning and people enjoy using them. > By now, it has the same effect as saying “it’s nice” but uses lots more letters. The commonly-held meaning of this is that it describes a pervasive, intrusive thought, not a nice one. This particular turn of phrase is often used to describe how politicians devote energy to talking about other politicians that they don't like, for instance.
- kevindamm 2y ago"Lives rent free in my head" lives rent free in my head. Hey it's a quine, too!
- B1FF_PSUVM 2y agoI take it as short for the "why are you still carrying her?" parable https://medium.com/@soninilucas/two-monks-and-a-woman-zen-story-c15294c394c1 https://medium.com/@soninilucas/two-monks-and-a-woman-zen-st... - something you should have let go and forgotten. Doesn't seem to be what the author meant in this case.
- magicalhippo 2y agoHaving never heard the expression before, I thought it meant it wouldn't be forgotten, like learning to ride a bicycle kinda thing.
- beefnugs 2y agoI thought it was more often "negative" like you cant stop thinking about some dumbass getting disproportionate affect on the world
- sfink 2y agoIt's a fine phrase, evocative, that I agree has become cliché. But that's not the problem here. The problem here is that it's being misused. It works when there's something that is problematic for taking up space in your head. It colors the way you think in a way you wish was not the case. While I could strain and make that sort of make sense here (eg it uses up some capacity that would otherwise allow the author to remember other more immediately useful algorithms), it's clear from the article that the author only means "I still remember the CORDIC algorithm" and nothing more. Not a big deal, but it momentarily annoyed me as a "clickbait and switch" headline.