• betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Y.T.’s mom decides to spend between fourteen and fifteen minutes reading the memo. It’s better for younger workers to spend too long, to show that they’re careful, not cocky. It’s better for older workers to go a little fast, to show good management potential. She’s pushing forty. She scans through the memo, hitting the Page Down button at reasonably regular intervals, occasionally paging back up to pretend to reread some earlier section. The computer is going to notice all this. It approves of rereading. It’s a small thing, but over a decade or so this stuff really shows up on your work-habits summary.

    Snow Crash

    • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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      3 days ago

      Incredible book. Takes a chapter or two to get used to the writing style (2d person present tense if I recall).

      Correction: 3rd person. Somehow the present tense throws a different reading rhythm that you have to get into first.

      • hobovision@mander.xyz
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        3 days ago

        Wouldn’t 2nd person be more like

        “you decide to read the memo slowly…”

        The snippet above read like 3rd person present tense to me, which is still definitely unusual.

        • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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          3 days ago

          Yeah, 2nd person is pretty rare. the “Broken Earth” books by NK Jemisen are 2nd person, if i recall.

          • dalekcaan@feddit.nl
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            3 days ago

            Interesting, only instances I can think of for 2nd person writing are those old “choose your own adventure” books.