I always thought kuro5hin had better, more thoughful and thought-provoking pieces than /., and today there is yet more prove..

First, there was the piece about the art of packaging to improve package survivability through the rigors of shipping. Mind you, most of the
recommendations given both in the article and in the subsequent comments are common-sense to me, so I won't reiterate them to you. The interesting thing that struck me is the one-liner made by the author, regarding poor packaging vs. damaged shipped goods:


My apathy towards [the] cargo ... is simply this: If you don't care about your package, why should I?


and the "rebuttal" offered in one of the comments regarding the author's distaste towards wooden crates used in packaging (wood = splitters):


My apathy towards my package's convenience is not ... because I derive joy from causing needless splinters. It is simply this: If you don't care about my package, why should I care about you?


I am not sure why it piqued my interest.. I guess in addition to putting a nasty smile on my face, it reminded me of the student / marker dilemma: When answering a question on an exam (especially one that involved either an essay-type answer, or one that is left relatively vague and open for interpretation), a student tend to write as much as possible. On the other hand, a marker of an exam (the poor, underpaid teaching assistant) would much prefer a short, concise, easy-to-tell-if-it-was-right-or-wrong-or-missing-something answer... This struck me when I first started my job as a TA back in my grad-school days -- of course, I was one of the worst offender in the overtly-too-long answers to exam questions. When the tables are turned and I was on the receiving end of such an answer, the most frequent thought was "get to the point..." :)

The second post on kuro5hin was the series written by a person with Schizoaffective Disorder.. haven't finished reading it yet, just thought I'd mention it here because it is certainly an eye-opener for me.