Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by dijit 3 days ago
Yeah, absolutely.

At least to my British ears, Americans rarely sound authentic.

Its always grandiose statements and elaborate smiles.

2 comments

Ah yes British, the famously direct people who say things like "Maybe I haven’t explained this very well", "I’ll bear it in mind", or "How interesting!" which anyone unfamiliar with the culture would interpret to be the opposite of what was actually meant.

"I may be wrong", but perhaps 'Americans rarely sound authentic' to you simply because you're just more familiar with your own culture's idiosyncrasies?

Anyway, I love the Brits; no flame intended. I come in peace! :-)

As a Brit, at Apple, I once got dinged on a performance review because I apparently wasn't a team player - I was apparently always putting down people's projects in the group meetings.

"But, I've never done that. I'm pretty much always positive about things people present. I even said some of them weren't bad"

Yeah, high praise comes in subtle flavours if you're a Brit.

Sure but occasionally that attitude leads to men walking on the moon.
I think this “awesome”, “amazing”, “super exciting” phase came much later than the moon walking era. Remember it’s been over 50 years since humans walked on the moon. Much has changed.

See these old videos, where people talk in a straightforward way:

Car transmission https://youtu.be/JOLtS4VUcvQ

How to dial your phone https://youtu.be/PuYPOC-gCGA

The dial comes to town https://youtu.be/p45T7U5oi9Q

Now go watch that Apple video again and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Great selection, another of my favourites: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yYAw79386WI

This is the type of people that sent us to the Moon. No non-sense engineers.