Re:Good Books for a Lousy Year
by rob74 on Wednesday December 09, 2020 @05:29AM
(#25357200)
There's an (apparently untranslatable) word in German for people who are only interested in amassing knowledge in their own domain and totally ignorant of anything else: "Fachidiot" (see also https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/327748/is-there-...) - it's not really a flattering term. So, in my book, expanding your horizons is a good thing. Of course, Sherlock Holmes would disapprove (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3605300).
[ Parent
| on HN ]
>Of course, Sherlock Holmes would disapprove
Ah, No! As a lifelong Sherlockian/Holmesian i cannot allow you to cast my hero in a unflattering light :-) That was Holmes being flippant. Over the timeline of the stories, it turns out that Holmes is actually very well and widely read and has a large personal library into which he often dips for some long forgotten fact which has suddenly become relevant to his current case.
Further in that thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3605851
Re:Good Books for a Lousy Year
by codetrotter on Wednesday December 09, 2020 @06:40AM
(#25357597)
It's translatable to Norwegian though. The Norwegian word for it is fagidiot.
IPA: /faːɡ.i.di.uːt/
Re:Good Books for a Lousy Year
by newdude116 on Wednesday December 09, 2020 @08:11AM
(#25358098)
Sorry could not resist: Kraftidioten
Fascinating... "Kraftidioten" could also be a German word, but with a different meaning. In Norwegian, the "kraft" ("powerful") refers to the idiocy, whereas in German it refers to the idiot. That's why the film was called "Einer nach dem anderen" in German - "Kraftidioten" wouldn't have gone down well with bodybuilders...
In English was that person a 'Fachingidiot'.
Re:Good Books for a Lousy Year
by gibspaulding on Wednesday December 09, 2020 @12:32PM
(#25361146)
This was my first thought as well. It looks like "Fach" translates to something like compartment, or subject, which I suppose makes sense in the context: