Interesting Times
by Terry Pratchett · first published 1994
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"May you live in interesting times" is the worst thing one can wish on a citizen of Discworld -- especially on the distinctly unmagical sorcerer Rincewind, who has had far too much perilous excitement in his life. But when a request for a "Great Wizzard" arrives in Ankh-Morpork via carrier albatross from the faraway Counterweight Continent, it's he who's sent as emissary. Chaos threatens to follow the impending demise of the Agatean Empire's current ruler. And, for some incomprehensible reason, someone believes Rincewind will have a mythic role in the war and wholesale bloodletting that will s
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I read it first in the "Interesting Times" by Terry Pratchett. I don't know did he invented this phrase or borrowed it somewhere.
on “Ask HN: Am I crazy or is Android development awful?” ↗…Pratchett / Discworld fans from the name of the associations. For non french speakers, Deuxfleurs is the french traduction of the Twoflower character appearing in The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic and Interesting Times from Terry Pratchett's Discworld books series.
on “Garage, our self-hosted distributed object storage solution” ↗…Empire's got something worse than whips all right. It's got obedience. Whips in the soul. They obey anyone who tells them what to do. Freedom just means being told what to do by someone different.” From Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett
on “China Bans the Word 'Leica' on Social Media” ↗There's also a book based on this quote by the legendary Terry Pratchett: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interesting_Times
on ““May You Live in Interesting Times”” ↗No, I'm not. I'm familiar with the curse (it's referenced extensively, and even influences the title, of Pratchett's "Interesting Times"). I'm even making a similar statement with my comments on JS; hence why "too clever" is a bad thing.
on “Choose Exciting Technology” ↗…associated with "their way". Although, to be fair, I did go through my own period of foolishness in ... say, "venerating" this particular "methodology". Your comment did prompt thought of Pratchett's book "Interesting Times". Specifically, passages like "... It had come as a revelation to Lord Hong when he looked at the problem the Ankh-Morpork way and realized that it might just possibly be better to give the job of Auspicious…
on “Why Lisp Syntax Works” ↗…dead. Grand Viziers were always scheming megalomaniacs. It was probably in the job description: "Are you a devious, plotting, unreliable madman? Ah, good, then you can be my most trusted minister.” -- Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett
on “Malleable Software in the Age of LLMs (2023)” ↗https://drmaciver.com/2022/05/learning-to-walk-through-walls... Citing Terry Pratchett’s “Interesting Times”.
on “eMudhra to exit global SSL/TLS certificate business” ↗