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Redlining (selectfromwhereand.com)
34 points by sschnei8 on Nov 19, 2023 | hide | past | favorite | 24 comments


What is redlining? Wikipedia says it's a discriminatory practice of denying credit to minorities.

Edit: OK got it in the article, it's driving a car too fast.

Except your car is your brain and so it's burning yourself out I guess. A little confusing


Bad analogies are like bananas in a swordfight.

As a “petrolhead” this instantly triggered me: most cars won’t redline at 100mph, actually they won’t even break a sweat (at like 2.5krpm, when redline starts at 5-8krpm depending on engine type and model). Redlining is _accelerating_ too fast, not _driving_ (this means you cannot “redline” indefinitely long, only for short bursts, even if you are a racing or overly aggressive driver).


American? :)

In the manual-driving world, you can easily redline a car even below 100km, by just not switching to a higher gear in time (to get faster accelleration)


You can also redline a car in neutral without moving at all. Even an automatic. What's your point?


Pretty much noone redlines a car in neutral, but reaching the redline with fast acceleration is a thing that even a casual driver might do every now and then (eg. when overtaking)


Redlining is nothing to do with acceleration. The article has the right definition:

Redlining: drive with (a car engine) at or above its rated maximum rpm.


I understand this one anime movie's title, which I saw years ago, now!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redline_(2009_film)


Well I’ll tell you something my lad. When you’re walking home tonight and some great homicidal maniac comes after you with a bunch of loganberries, don’t come crying to me!


You can when the car is in neutral (hopefully some rev limiter is in place to prevent you from destroying the engine in a relatively short amount of time).


Basically, pushing (e.g. revving) an engine beyond its structural limit.


Wiktionary has a good example photo of a tachometer: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/redline

I also think of the movie "Redline": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FZ0AXNldV8

(But yes, depending on context, the word has the other meaning you note.)


In motorcycle world, it's revving your engine so hard it gets into the red line on the tachometer


Redlining is also the process of editing a legal document, and can in some cases be generalized to editing any document.


To function at such a level that it is ablative, and impairs sustained performance (or even standard performance)


Yep.. I thought this article is about internal combustion engines.


>Spending more time investigating and figuring out why something is needed ~is this actually valuable~ is worth way more in the long run than solving useless problems.

I tried doing this a few times. It's hopeless. Responses to questions range from "I don't know, I was just told" to "Let me get back to you", with the occasional impression that the person being asked is thinking "Why is the worker thinking about the task instead of doing it".

I've come to the conclusion that it's easier to just do the task and leave the why of it to the people who are supposedly paid to worry about that.


Fair point, I think I’m approaching that view of just doing it, but I’m not quite there yet. You said it yourself that at least it makes them question the value of said task… and I don’t think bringing it up shines back on me negatively. Regardless I appreciate your thoughts.


>You said it yourself that at least it makes them question the value of said task…

I'm not quite sure I said anything closely approximating that?


“Responses to questions range from "I don't know, I was just told" to "Let me get back to you"”

I assumed you meant that this created a sense of reflection in the requester as to the value of their ask.


Yeah I can see that now, but for me "I don't know, I was just told" = "Don't know, don't care" and "Let me get back to you" = "I am ending this line of discussion. Don't bring it up again".

If there's a sense of reflection in the requester, it doesn't survive past the end of conversation with me.


Actual therapy is required for this, it's a very serious issue.


I inadvertently (from time to time) practice a different style more akin to high-altitude training. I'll try doing relatively challenging tasks on little sleep or otherwise non-optimal (e.g. had been drinking) conditions. Sometimes I'm surprised by how complex a task I can do and other times which I can't. Either way it's good to know your limits and push them sometimes, there may be a situation where being high-functioning can save you.


Presumably this was intended to link to the post by that name (https://selectfromwhereand.com/posts/redlining/) and not all posts (where it currently points).


Changed now from https://selectfromwhereand.com/posts/. Thanks!




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