That’s my point. Lazy stereotypical reductionism is just that.
Not all of East Europe and Italy are trouble and not all US contractors are incapable of working to spec.
I know the real answer. Traditional Dutch houses have big windows because of property taxes. Wider house were more expensive, so build narrow houses with bigger windows.
For something along those lines, I watched a new Netflix release last night: Number 24. It’s a true story about the Norwegian resistance in WWII. It surprised me. Very well done. Touching in places. Tense in places. Sad in places. Brutal in others.
Highly recommended.
I’ll check it out.
I’ve seen Max Manus which is based on the Norwegian resistance leader.
Cool. You might want to add your reco in this thread:
Will watch it, definitely - thank you!
I grew up with WW2 stories (my grandfather was very high up in the Dutch resistance), and they have shaped me quite a lot…
Of course there are always exceptions.
But if you have to work with the realities of large complex projects that are expensive, time critical and multi-national, you learn a lot about mentality and education of different cultures. Not all countries are the same, and you have to take that into account.
In some cultures, time is relative. In other countries, skills/education are not valued as much. And then there are countries that have great sales people, but never fullfill expectations (or even contractual obligations).
Some countries don’t like jokes about religion, sex and politics … that’s the worst 
All this does not make the individual people bad or a counry per sé inferior. But you have to take into account culture in all business endeavours. To do otherwise would be unprofessional and damaging to business…
Hahaha, yeah … that sounds very calvinistic!
If you “like” those kind of movies, I would advice:
It’s pity that we Dutch seem to have forgotten, where we were in 1940/45 and how open our society was after WW2, until not so very long ago…
@Al1885
That’s a really interesting tv programme but the explanation of the structural stability is rubbish (confession-I am a chartered civil and structural engineer, I teach graduates structural dynamics and seismic design). The Richter energy based value is a simplified but misleading system, a large displacement low energy motion will be much more destructive than a small displacement high energy motion.
The roofs is so heavy, it acts like a mass damper (the structure moves under it) the four layers of beams clamped at the top of the columns create rigid sway frames that stop the building falling over but the genius element is that the columns are not fixed in the ground, that is something I really need to test on our shaker table.
That’s beyond my area of expertise but I can see both side of the arguments. It’s very nice to hear about the fact might be wrong and/ or disproven.
You mean, how it spawned from the Batavi, long ago and we sent them over the rhine to the Roman’s , cause that tribe showed no sense of humour?
The true origin of the world is in fact … Dutch-land and the actual name of Germany is, in fact, an eternal thank you from the European people for the greatness of history and everything that the Dutch have done for the world.
Wow … mindblowing
Hahaha - I would not go as far!
But Dutch archologist did find the remains of a culture that predated both the Egyptians and Sumer, with gigantic temples and an elaborated writing system … in Friesland. The vast northern region of Holland, with it’s arctic charme…
PS It’s a good to live in times of “alternative facts”, so you can say anything on the internet, no proof required
The dialect that they speak there is the closest living language to English.
Just googled it. You’re right!
I can’t understand the fries language at all. They are a different people within Holland, much like the welsh or scots in the UK.
I just read that they even have several sub dialects and a trick to find out if you a Fries or not: sjibbolet!
The Fries are a cunning people and feared among the rest of the Dutch!
I write that in my travelling agenda.
It’s related to the language that they spoke when the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes immigrated to England at the end of the Roman occupation of Britain. I’ve heard it spoken some, and its hard to understand but I could make out words that are the same. One of the big differences is that Friesian didnt absorb all of the old French words that were brought over with the Normans (although Holland was part of the duchy of Burgundy, I think).
Yeah, the Fries are known to be stubborn!
I quite like them, but I don’t dare to make fun of them. The average Fries is 10cm taller than the rest of the Dutch, and they have a violent past. Even the Vikings took a detour to avoid landing on the Fries coast, just saying…
Wow, they do have a lot in common with the English.
Except for size … the Englisch are at least 10cm smaller than the Europeans. Adorable hobbits!
Alright.
I admit, I was on vacation, but y’all just about broke me with that one.
Never had to go and weed out 100 posts before.
Well, welcome to the dedicated thread for all talent-and-skill related discussions.
I sure do love this place.
Hope 2025 finds you well, happy, healthy, developing your skills… or, um, talents? Practicing?
To finally reply to @MikeC - I’ve watched lots of people practice lots of hours. In my experience, popularity/genius/accepted-place-in-the-hierarchy of artistry is a real finicky thing, and as often as people with true genius are recognized, they’re ignored… or discovered 100 years later, or never.
I think popular culture sells a mythos of talent/specialness/the-chosen-one/destiny/genius that doesn’t apply to life much.
At least, not in the “if you’re great, the world will find you” kind of way.
It won’t.
If you’re really good, you also need to be attractive.
Or have a good PR team.
Or be lucky.
Or not care about anything.
Or die young.
Or practice more than everyone else.
Or attack everything with the persistence of a horny duck (duck owners know what I’m talking about)
Or have famous parents.
Or have rich parents.
Or… what? No one knows.
The craft is measurable. You can either play or not play.
The genius/talent/specialness/inspiration is so subjective, I don’t really know what to do with it.
I see it, I respond to it… but other people don’t necessarily respond to what I respond to.
I love these conversations. I feel us all in the cozy cafe sipping our respective beverages and having ourselves a good 'ol bass salon.
That’s french, though.
Is that allowed here?
I’ll pardon your French. Now pass the croissants. 
But I agree that talent alone is not a ticket to anything except probable obscurity.
I have a dear friend who is a ridiculously talented guitarist. He was one of the first two to earn a Masters Degree in Classical Guitar from the famed music school at North Texas State University.
The whole time he was in school, he played in up to five different rock and blues bands every night. He is and has alway beens multi-genre wickedly good. He even played all the Frank Zappa lead lines note-perfectly when he was lead guitarist and musical director for a Mothers follow-on band called the Grandmothers.
In short, he has talent to burn.
But he never made it for at least a few of the reasons you listed, @Gio.
He didn’t know how to promote himself. He didn’t understand business in any good or meaningful way. He didn’t know how to glad-hand or network with club scene movers and shakers. He didn’t… He didn’t… He didn’t…
And I truly believe there are fucking jillions of other extremely talented musicians out there just like him. It’s not a tragedy in the classic sense of the word, but it sure is a damn shame that folks like him live and die with the world not being aware they’re such great musicians.
Yeah, talent ain’t near enough to be noticed. In fact, there are so many more hack-y players that DO know how to play the glad-hand/promoting fame game.
And, it takes luck, too. Absolutely. Being in the right place in the right time hitting the right ear drums can create careers.
All this said, the fact is that native talent exists. It just needs to be directed, honed and combined with all the rest of the traits that make up a successful human in this cruel, cruel world. The Beatles were what they were when they were club-monkeys. It took Brian Epstein to first recognize, then manage, channel, hone and package their talents with showbiz skills in order to make them stars.