QC Profile picture
5 Apr, 6 tweets, 2 min read
might fuck around and start using etymologies as a form of divination
hmm so you say you want a girlfriend? well. let's see what the entire history of the english language has to say about that, shall we?
"girlfriend" is of course "girl" + "friend". the etymology of "girl" is... unknown? welp, sucks. let's check the etymology of "friend" then Image
"friend" is derived from a proto-indo-european root meaning "to love." from this we infer that even in friendship, but especially in girlfriendship, one must be prepared to love and be loved Image
the same PIE root is also present in "friday". friday is the day of frigg, the germanic goddess of married love; from this we infer that friday is the most auspicious day to meet one's future wife, perhaps the most auspicious day to marry ImageImage
the same PIE root is *also* present in "free". delicious. in order to love and be loved one must be free, and it is in love that one finds freedom; seek not to bind your lover with chains, lest ye crush what is lovely in them

(unless that's what they're into i guess) Image

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with QC

QC Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @QiaochuYuan

6 Apr
chicago deep dish pizzas are lasagnas or casseroles, not pizzas. the archetypical pizza is the costco slice. i will also accept a greasy new york slice
cheesecakes are neither cakes nor pies, they are tarts
Read 5 tweets
5 Apr
why the ass did they teach us about greek and latin roots in school and not about the even cooler and more badass proto-indo-european roots
might do a PIE root thread. i’ve been looking up a ton of stuff on etymonline but haven’t been able to figure out the most amusing way to structure it into threads
Read 5 tweets
5 Apr
part of the reason everyone has a million tabs open all the time is because browser bookmarks are legitimately an extremely awful way to save links. the underlying design metaphor hasn’t changed in, what, over two decades? it comes from a much smaller and simpler internet
folders are completely the wrong structure. what you really want is to be able to throw a link into a service that will spit it back out at you *when it becomes relevant*, and/or *when you’re in the mood to read it*. folders don’t capture context- and mood-dependence
i’ve started thinking about “context- and mood-dependence” using the word “tuning,” so far only in conversations with @Malcolm_Ocean - the original motivation was wanting to “tune” twitter to specific moods and contexts but i increasingly realized i want tuning *everywhere*
Read 6 tweets
5 Apr
it’s “how you remind me” and i’m gonna die on this hill
it was a banger in middle school and it’s a banger now

ah shit but i forgot about "someday". someday might be a close second. also love the comments on this video

Read 5 tweets
4 Apr
increasingly noticing that when my friends say “i keep getting this negative insane feedback from other people” i used to default to assuming they know that the feedback is insane

but seems more like a part of them doesn’t and i do actually need to say “this feedback is insane”
yud wrote this thing once i won’t be able to find about how sane discourse requires 4 layers of feedback: people say things, people give feedback on those things, feedback on the feedback, feedback on the feedback on the feedback
i don’t remember why 4 and not 3 but 3 is a lot better than 2. the structure of the internet broadly and twitter specifically privileges the 2nd layer of feedback i think. lets bad feedback run rampant
Read 4 tweets
4 Apr
i complained about a thing so much i got tired of my own complaints which i think is my new favorite self-improvement strategy
i think i was undervaluing boredom as a force for change. run the existing strategy into the ground enough that you get bored of it and after the boredom space opens up for something else. repeatedly experiencing the strategy helps me notice how dead vs. alive it feels
one of the funnier symptoms of anxious attachment from the attachment course is “talks too much and goes off on tangents a lot” and i’ve been thinking about that

i think this is an attempt to process past stuff that doesn’t really get a chance to complete most of the time
Read 6 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!