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Re:Why are German numbers backwards? by nicoburns on Sunday November 28, 2021 @12:29PM (#29370820)
> That being said. I wonder how much of those kinds of complications lead to higher IQ and higher education test scoring. Simplification also dumbs down, stunts the mind.

I would say more that simplification makes the boring bits easy and allows the mind to concentrate on more interesting higher-level concepts. As someone who has attended a range of educational institutions for the same courses, one thing that really stood out to me about the "top-level" ones was that there was none of this "life must be hard" attitude. For the core material, the teaching was excellent and designed to make it as easy to learn for students as possible to learn. Then while "lesser" universities were examining students on those core materials (often with questions they'd seen before), the top universities asking novel questions on material that hadn't even been explicitly covered, but which the students could reasonably be expected to answer on because they had a really solid grasp of the core stuff.

Re:Why are German numbers backwards? by hutzlibu on Sunday November 28, 2021 @01:48PM (#29371636)
"life must be hard"

Ah yes, this is very german.

If it is not a grind, it is not really work you are doing.

And it is still kind of a honor badge to moan about how little you sleep, as this shows how hard you are working all day and the ones sleeping the most less, are the hardest.

(But I do see some healthy change in that regard)

Re:Why are German numbers backwards? by DenisM on Sunday November 28, 2021 @02:51PM (#29372278)
> the ones sleeping the most less

Good god, this is beautiful. Is this a German idiom?

Re:Why are German numbers backwards? by hutzlibu on Sunday November 28, 2021 @04:06PM (#29373033)
Not literally, as far as I know (I am also still wondering, of whether it was correct grammar), but there are plenty of:

"Morgenstund hat gold im Mund"

morning time is gold

(to which I agree at times)

or

"Der frühe Vogel fängt den Wurm"

The early bird catches the worm.

(to where I say, maybe the worm should have slept in that day)

Re:Why are German numbers backwards? by hamburglar on Sunday November 28, 2021 @04:31PM (#29373243)
I think the poster you are responding to is referring to the “beauty” (sarcastically, I assume) of the phrasing “most less” instead of “least.” It would be right in line with the confusing way numbers are spoken.
Re:Why are German numbers backwards? by ce4 on Sunday November 28, 2021 @06:57PM (#29374617)
I guess it is just an english grammar issue Germans often make (less, lesser, least and so on for single syllable words and x, more x, most x for the rest). The german equivalent of least is also just one word: wenigsten.
Re:Why are German numbers backwards? by DenisM on Sunday November 28, 2021 @11:15PM (#29376293)
I don't do sarcasm (and it's against the HN guidelines, btw).

"Sleeping the most less" is a beautiful turn of phrase, even if ungrammatical. Or maybe because of it.

Re:Why are German numbers backwards? by hutzlibu on Sunday November 28, 2021 @06:38PM (#29374461)
Yeah, I feared as much.