Wasn’t that Charles Proteus Steinmetz fixing a generator at one of Fords factories? “1 $ for the piece of chalk, 9,999 $ for knowing where to put the mark”.

Search for “Ford” on the linked page to see the story as given there :)

This bothered me too much, I caught it here so you don’t have to.

I was thinking the same thing! Those expressions are so real and intense… I rarely see a painting that hits home like this one does.

If I’m on a bike, notice a car coming up behind me, and don’t think it’s safe for them to pass, I will put myself in the middle of the road to block them.

If they try some stupid and dangerous passing, I’m the one getting pulped. Putting yourself in the middle of the road is a very effective way of communicating “don’t even try to squeeze past me, there’s not enough space.” The most dangerous situations I’ve been in on a bike have been due to cars trying to squeeze past me when there isn’t enough space, it’s terrifying.

I definitely agree with the sentiment, my top priority is to not get run over. I still walk confidently onto the crosswalk without pausing, while keeping a close eye on the approaching car so that I can get out of the way if they don’t stop.

My experience is that if you hesitate, way too many drivers will just floor it in front of you, while if you give the impression that they’ll hit you if they don’t stop, they’ll hit the breaks.

The kamikaze cyclists give all of us a really bad time. I’m honestly surprised at how some people behave in traffic, knowing that they’re an unprotected meat bag moving at speeds far higher than what the human body is built for.

I bike or walk pretty much everywhere I go, so my take on roads and traffic is that they’re usually far too car-centric (Norway). Even when I drive, I’m so used to thinking like a cyclist that I become very aware of how poorly roads are often designed around biking.

With that said… The amount of cyclists with an apparent death wish is just staggering. Just two days ago I passed a cyclist in an 80 km/h zone. No issue there. Just around the next turn, I caught up to a second cyclist that I couldn’t immediately pass due to oncoming traffic. I’m behind this second cyclist, going downhill at maybe 50 km/h, with oncoming traffic on a relatively narrow road, when I notice that the first cyclist has caught up to us. Instead of placing himself behind me, he decided it was a brilliant idea to squeeze himself into the ≈ 1.5 m gap between me (a 6m long, 2-ton car going at 50 km/h) and the guard rail. At this point, I’m just sitting here terrified that I’ll end up accidentally squeezing him into the guard rail and killing him if I happen to move a couple centimeters too close to the edge of the road. I’m seriously afraid of breaking to let him in front of me, because I’m afraid he could hit my side-view mirror if I break unexpectedly (for him). There’s oncoming traffic, so I can’t move over to give him more space.

To be honest, even when I’m biking myself I far too often find other cyclists to be absolute assholes with no respect for traffic rules. Of course, this doesn’t apply to everyone (by a long shot), but man those people cause the rest of us a lot of stress by being a danger to themselves and others.

I’ll betcha that one Greek dude was just the first to write it down. The trees and mountains know what kind of depraved shit our ancient ancestors were doing when everybody was living semi-naked in caves without showers to wash away the pheromones…

^{doest’t sound too bad}

Societies that run on neighbours, friends, acquaintances, and that guy over there helping each other out in exchange for sharing pizza and beer afterwards are wholesome societies.