When I was in school there was a maths aural test. The teacher read out questions and you wrote the answers, with no calculator. Basically a stupid name for a mental arithmetic test. The funny thing was the teachers were so at pains to differentiate between two words that sound basically the same in our local accent, aural and oral, that they insisted on pronouncing aural as "ow-eral' the ow being pronounced like a pain reaction sound. The smarter kids took to teasing the teacher with words like aura and aurora, and asking how to pronounce them...

I feel like I should write an article now.

Aspects that impressed me, off the top of my head.

1) constantly explaining his general strategy, so that one the fog of war decended Captains could act without orders

2) Giving Captains confidence to employ ingenuity. At the Nile a Captain saw an opportunity to break through the French line and attack from both sides. Many other Admirals demanded strict obedience

3) Praising all Captains rather than just his favourites in despatches. Being praised could make an officers career, conversley not being mentioned could really hurt.

4) Looked after his men. Sending constant orders on things like quality food. He was very soft on flogging. The men loved him. He was known for talking with his lower deck crew on familiar terms, which was unheard of in his day.

5) Took on risk himself. By the time of Trafalgar he had lost an eye and an arm. He led from the front.

6) Was supremely good at his craft. This engendered respect. Sailing a ship was incredibly technical.

I hope that gives you a flavour. The country loved him, and had amazing faith in him. When he left for Trafalgar the army had to be called out to try and contain the crowds!

One of his last words (there were quite a few) were 'thank god I did my duty'. Imagine that being in your mind when you know you are dying. That tells you a lot about his dedication.

>He admits himself that the journalism is only the surface of his awful character.

And we are to take it literally? That sounds like English self-deprecation to me.

>I read novels on the subject

If I write a novel that shows Patrick O'brien as a tortured genius whose family didn't understand him, and drove him away, presumably you would change your mind on him too?

Did the novel talk about Renoir's antisemitism? His misogyny towards female painters? His stubborness? His nostalgia for Bourbon France? His treatment of models?

See it's pretty easy to do a character assassination.

The unhappiness caused by ADHD and Autisms friction against the modem world has a cure already. Make a more accommodating world. My ADHD/Autism does not make me unhappy. Being in trouble because I work differently to everyone else does make me unhappy though, and that could change. I have lost count of the conversations like 'you are doing brilliant work, 20 years we have been looking for a solution to that, and you stopped up all night one night and fixed it. Amazing, but I can't have you coming in at 9.15, everyone else will think it's ok'. Change that to, 'That's Amazing work, a gamechanger, and since you worked so late, take it easy today, do you need to go home?', and all of a sudden I'm not ill anymore. It is not a disease, just a difference. Do I wish I didn't get upset by things people find normal, yes. Would I have surgery to 'fix' it, no. That is not a path to contentment.

I used to love Millais' 'Ophelia', but he now seems arrogant and even bedded his patrons wife. The scandal. On the fire.

I used to love the Rolling Stones, but it seems they took drugs and held concerts organised by an organised crime group. On the fire.

Master and Commander was one of the most touching and uplifting reads of my life, all at a tragic time for me. But he left his wife, didn't like talking about his past and wrote under a book de plume, it seems. On the fire.

I loved Oscar Wilde's work, but the rogue was a jail bird, and very arrogant. On the fire

Can we compile an approved list of quality works from faultless individuals? I don't want to be sullied by their human faults...AI slop to the rescue

Whereas Jack's feats trials and tribulations very much come from Cochrane. Almost verbatim.

Nelson and Cochrane were true heroes, the finest. Ant yet both had very visible flaws of character. I personally admire their achievements more than we criticise their faults...

I see Jack as his own unique character though. He doesn't quite have the talent for making enemies that Cochrane did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cochrane,_10th_Earl_of_...

I can't bring myself to be so judgemental. He once lost his temper in a restaurant, he left his wife (and maybe she was lovely, maybe she did something terrible), he wrote under an assumed name (and the point?). Which one triggered you? Is hardly a character assassination. His son from his first marriage was estranged, as if that is unique.

Do yourself a favour, if you like the arts, I seriously recommend not finding out what the artists are really like at home. I think you will find many are not the people they appear to be.

It reminds me of the idea that 'curing' people's homosexuality would make them happier. Turns out it is not possible, but in the civilised world we made things so much better for them by just not being shitty and oppressive.

I think the reason for the animosity is the assumption that it is it a disease or disorder in the first place. It presumes that rather than being different, it is wrong.

Perhaps what is wrong, is neurotypical people insisting that the more gifted people have to be bent and twisted and forced to conform to the world as they want it. Perhaps because their boring and unimaginative minds can't stand the idea that someone else could lead a different life to them. Or, and have heard this, they are annoyed that the talented person with different needs gets to come in late some days... and they feel they are missing out themselves on a lie-in.

If you had a superpower, but it came with a curse, that you couldn't always get to work on time, would you trade it in for a normal life?

On the other hand, i don't see why a company wouldn't accommodate someone's minor quirks to get access to a superpower.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49133799

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