this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2023
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Most of the time when people say they have an unpopular opinion, it turns out it's actually pretty popular.

Do you have some that's really unpopular and most likely will get you downvoted?

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[โ€“] rufus@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Unpopular opinion follow-up: You should be using proper units of measurement.

Don't get me wrong. I can perfectly infer from the story what you're saying. But 150 or 250 lbs just doesn't mean anything to me. Neither does the height or what people write in the other comments.

[โ€“] squaresinger@feddit.de 6 points 1 year ago

Totally agree, but at least they don't measure in stones. Pounds is at least relatively easy to convert to real units.

[โ€“] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Proper units of measurement"? Come on man, don't be a pretentious ass. We all know metric is better, but don't shame the man (or woman idk) for using the system of measurement they're most familiar with!

[โ€“] rufus@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Hehe. I hope I phrased it nicely enough for them to understand i wasn't yelling at them. I think it's mildly ignorant to comment on the internet and not to translate it into proper units. They even edited the comment and it made me ashamed a bit. This is not the job of one individual.

What I was really trying to do is shaming you, the people of Myanmar, Lyberia and the US. And your culture. For living in the 21st century and not even adopting the proper system that would make lots of things easier for you. And for being ignorant towards all the people on the internet who are not offended by progress. (or at least their ancestors hadn't been...)

[โ€“] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)
  1. I appreciate your inclusion of Myanmar and Liberia
  2. The cost of switching measurement systems is larger than you think. Primarily in the manufacturing sector.
[โ€“] rufus@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

cost of switching

Ahem. Didn't several spaceship explode so far? Planes crashed... People died. And I think many US scientists have already switched to metric and many engineers have not. I bet they currently waste large sums of money for doing double the work when working together. Combined the sum of not switching is already a ludicrous amount of billions and billions. And the world isn't getting less globalised. So true. It costs money to switch. And it's probably yet another man's pocket that money comes from. But the sooner you do it, the more money it'll save you and everybody in the long run.

Edit: And after a while even your engineers might thank you for the easier calculations. And it's not that a two-by-four has two by four inches anyways.

[โ€“] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Tragedy of the commons though. It's in nobody's individual best interest to switch, even if the cost was justified.

[โ€“] rufus@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Isn't tragedy of the commons when you share something and it for example gets overused and destroyed in the process? Tragic referring to the part where everyone is trying to get the max out of it for them individually and causing the demise?

This is something else. And also it IS in everybody's best interest. I'd assume it's not the most fun activity to learn your feet in a mile, yards... And translating recipes is just madness. I imagine you need all sorts of little helpers, the measuring cups, smear butter everywhere to measure it by volume... and need to whip out a calculator if someone stays for dinner. I think it costs money and people are lazy and fail to see the bigger picture. Because they haven't tried thinking about this for 5 minutes and are already complaining. It's not that they wouldn't also benefit.

Disclaimer: I'm also not perfect and sometimes fail to see some bigger picture.

That's fair! I dislike that the US still hasn't adopted metric for most things, myself. I'll edit my comment.