Hang in there my friend -- operating at yield stress is how your mind gets shaped. (Which was seriously true for my engineering education. You feel dumb during the process, and then you look back at all the concepts you now understand that you didn't before.)
As a former nursing student who failed...twice...and ultimately had to give up the dream...resulting in my wife and myself losing our home and her having to spend the last year of her life in a dreary little apartment...it speaks to me quite powerfully. I spent the time we had making her happy as best I could. It was what I could do, since I could not make her prosperous.
"There are five things we cannot change: 1) everything changes and ends, 2) things do not always go according to plan, 3) justice is not guaranteed, 4) pain is a part of life, and 5) people are not loving or loyal all the time." -- David Richo This is why there are no written lists of tolerances for the human machine, why we are destined to suffer and break and fail -- and why, if we accept this reality, we are able to survive and find peace anyway.
The assumption that there are no specs for humans is disingenuous. We just have not seen them. How often do you show a table of stresses to a girder? Or throw a textbook into a concrete mixer?
@@gabrielstrong2186 Even if no exact specifications existed. If we really wanted to we could simply make the tolerances and clearances have the most leeway possible. Assume the greatest amount of error, give the most amount of slack. But humanity seems not smart enough for that.
Are you familiar with the Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer, which Kipling was asked to create? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritual_of_the_Calling_of_an_Engineer I have never witnessed it in person (never having earned the privilege by, perhaps, being the parent of an engineer), but the description makes it sound quite powerful.
The careful text-books measure - Let all who build beware! The load, the shock, the pressure material can bear So, when the buckled girder lets down the grinding span The blame of loss, or murder, is laid upon the man Not on the Steel - the Man! But, in our daily dealing with stone and steel, we find The Gods have no such feeling of justice toward mankind To no set gauge they make us, for no laid course prepare - In time they overtake us with loads we cannot bear: Too merciless to bear The prudent text-books give it in tables at the end - The stress that shears a rivet, or makes a tie-bar bend - What traffic wrecks macadam - what concrete should endure - But we, poor Sons of Adam, have no such literature To warn us or make sure! We hold all Earth to plunder - all Time and Space as well - Too wonder-stale to wonder at each new miracle; Till in the mid-illusion of Godhood 'neath our hand Falls multiple confusion on all we did or planned - The mighty works we planned We only in Creation - how much luckier the bridge and rail! - Abide the twin-damnation, to fail and know we fail Yet we - by which sole token we know we once were Gods - Take shame in being broken, however great the odds - The Burden or the Odds Oh, veiled and secret Power, whose paths we seek in vain Be with us in our hour of overthrow and pain That we - by which sure token we know Thy ways are true - In spite of being broken, or because of being broken Rise up and build anew Stand up and build anew!
I've never felt so much shivers as when I found out the lyrics of this song... Seriously, this might be like the only poem of Kipling I've ever stumbled across that actually made me reconsider to read Vedic literature again. I mean, it may not be obvious for some, but in here I can find references and interpretations to multiple texts, like the Mahabarata or the Bhagavad Gita, that actually had never passed through my mind before. If you want a mind blown too, I suggest you read them. In the end you won't be disappointed, I guarantee. Saubhāgya everyone, and take care... Sincerely: SIMIO
Listened today to remember the crews of Apollo 1, STS-51L, and STS-107. Hymn of Breaking Strain stands the test of time. "Oh, veiled and secret Power Whose paths we seek in vain, Be with us in our hour Of overthrow and pain; That we - by which sure token We know Thy ways are true- In spite of being broken, Because of being broken May rise and build anew Stand up and build anew." Ad astra per aspera.
@@kimhealy1446 That was the doctrine of Earthseed, a church founded by a character in *_The Parable of the Sower_* by Octavia Butler. Earthseed is now a real religion.
Favourite fragments of the lyrics: The prudent textbooks giveth on tables on the end ... what concrete should endure... The mighty works we plan... the twin damnation... however great the odds! Rise up and build anew, stand up and build anew!
@RichMatarese Song of the Red War Boat may be my favourite Leslie Fish song, but right now Hymn to Breaking Strain is still strong in my mind. It was nice to hear this. Thank you for posting.
LOL, I was like "Wow, those are some really, really good lyrics for some semi-professional, semi-comedic musicians who mostly write sci-fi parodies and things", but then I realized it's actually one of Kipling's poems. That explains a lot! Still, kudos for excellent execution. Although I suspect Leslie Fish was thinking of "the breaking point of man" in more of a hopeful anarchist way, while Kipling was thinking more of an "ultimate moral strength" kind of way. I think she just liked the sound of those words. I assumed that's what the song was about at first, "how far can man be pushed before he snaps and The Revolution comes, etc".
Approximate translation of @dinisreibeiro8728: Mega class. Wonderful voices and genius in general. Approximate translation of @@gewuerzwanze5627: It's a pity you can't get the tapes anymore. Especially not in Europe.
When Germany unified, they should have adopted East Germany's anthem: _Rising from the ashes, overcoming the shame of the past,_ _For the sake of our children, we shall build again, higher, brighter, better, more beautiful...._ That should be the anthem of Germany...of Europe...of the human race.
@RedwoodTheElf - Another vote for the Song of the Red War Boat." "Shove off from the wharf-edge, steady! / Watch for a smooth, give way / If she feels the rough already / She'll stand on her head in the bay! / But we hold with all disaster / Of shipwreck, storm or sword / A man must stand with his master / When once he has pledged his word." Or so I remember from years of singing that damned song.
@doctorpsycho1960 rhico was a bleeding heart optomist. On every point...for instance. The ending is just the begining viewed the wrong way. The only thing you can count on is that there are no guarantees and that all incoming has the right of way.
"Without death life has no meaning" is such nihilistic bullshit. If you suddenly found out you're immortal, would you just lie down and wait for the universe to end? Unless you're an idiot, the answer should be "no". As long as the idea of "death gives life meaning" is perpetuated, all that awaits us is stagnation.
*sighs* since (and yes, I know I am like... more than a decade out of date, so the rest of you just (deleted) DEAL!!!!!) it seems like, even though I got in contact with Ms Fish even before I knew about Ms Ecklar (mostly because of the number of songs she wrote in conjunction with Ms L.Fish.) AHEM!!! (and a sigh, to be honest) Right. It does not matter if you ascribe to the 'original' version (which, in my opinion is after the 'movies' but before the 'Encounter at Farpoint') Right. I feel the timing others care about is secondary to preserving both ms L. Fish's visions as well as Ms. Ecklar's vision over and above Ms Lackey's visions. However, SINCE I believe... Oh wait. Anything I believe is wrong. Stepping out of the conversation for the next 48 hours folk. The GL people can find me, the rest can.. ahem... pound extraterrastrial sand?
Ah, and his work was included in jingoistic starship troopers, and yet some of his inspires so much, as this work does. People are filled with contradiction, Hes long past now.
@@atari947 You rather missed the mark on Heinlein if you think that Starship Troopers was straight-faced endorsement of jingoism or fascism. The entire segment of the novel dealing with the Federation's war of aggression against the Skinnies is full of callous, casual violence which rather undermines any attempt to glorify the system he portrays. Besides, Sixth Column is a much better target for that sort of assertion, with the additional layer of really horrendous racism.
As an engineering student who has had struggles with stress and failure a lot during my studies this song speaks to me on several levels.
Hang in there my friend -- operating at yield stress is how your mind gets shaped.
(Which was seriously true for my engineering education. You feel dumb during the process, and then you look back at all the concepts you now understand that you didn't before.)
i know im late....but now i understand....college is a bitch
I once mentioned to a friend of mine that there is a song for literally any topic. He said, "Engineering," so I started singing this to him.
As a former nursing student who failed...twice...and ultimately had to give up the dream...resulting in my wife and myself losing our home and her having to spend the last year of her life in a dreary little apartment...it speaks to me quite powerfully.
I spent the time we had making her happy as best I could. It was what I could do, since I could not make her prosperous.
@@bernadettedurbin1396 lmao thats amazing
No song has ever made me want to do math homework more than this.
As an engineer, I'm deeply touched by this poem and this song version is just awesome !
"There are five things we cannot change: 1) everything changes and ends, 2) things do not always go according to plan, 3) justice is not guaranteed, 4) pain is a part of life, and 5) people are not loving or loyal all the time." -- David Richo
This is why there are no written lists of tolerances for the human machine, why we are destined to suffer and break and fail -- and why, if we accept this reality, we are able to survive and find peace anyway.
You forgot number six "Humanity will raise hell and burn heaven to ensure the above are false."
lets hope we can acept that then and perhaps survive
The assumption that there are no specs for humans is disingenuous. We just have not seen them. How often do you show a table of stresses to a girder? Or throw a textbook into a concrete mixer?
@@gabrielstrong2186 Even if no exact specifications existed. If we really wanted to we could simply make the tolerances and clearances have the most leeway possible. Assume the greatest amount of error, give the most amount of slack.
But humanity seems not smart enough for that.
@@DisplayLine6.13.9 when dealing with humanity I always assume the greatest amount of error. It seems safest, and most likely
RIP Arecibo... You will be missed
Missed terribly, until the Really Big Dish grows in orbit, or in a crater on the Farside.
I've been trying to find another poet who can capture engineering the way Kipling does.
You probably can't. McAndrew's Hymn is another gem, though.
Teacher: Do you like Kipling?
Me: I don't know I have never Kippled.
Teacher: ...
Me: ...
Teacher: Get out!!!
@@gabrielstrong2186 that made my day lol
@@gabrielstrong2186 Look, Officer, if you'd have heard what he said, you'd have done it yourself.
Are you familiar with the Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer, which Kipling was asked to create?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritual_of_the_Calling_of_an_Engineer
I have never witnessed it in person (never having earned the privilege by, perhaps, being the parent of an engineer), but the description makes it sound quite powerful.
The careful text-books measure - Let all who build beware!
The load, the shock, the pressure material can bear
So, when the buckled girder lets down the grinding span
The blame of loss, or murder, is laid upon the man
Not on the Steel - the Man!
But, in our daily dealing with stone and steel, we find
The Gods have no such feeling of justice toward mankind
To no set gauge they make us, for no laid course prepare -
In time they overtake us with loads we cannot bear:
Too merciless to bear
The prudent text-books give it in tables at the end -
The stress that shears a rivet, or makes a tie-bar bend -
What traffic wrecks macadam - what concrete should endure -
But we, poor Sons of Adam, have no such literature
To warn us or make sure!
We hold all Earth to plunder - all Time and Space as well -
Too wonder-stale to wonder at each new miracle;
Till in the mid-illusion of Godhood 'neath our hand
Falls multiple confusion on all we did or planned -
The mighty works we planned
We only in Creation - how much luckier the bridge and rail! -
Abide the twin-damnation, to fail and know we fail
Yet we - by which sole token we know we once were Gods -
Take shame in being broken, however great the odds -
The Burden or the Odds
Oh, veiled and secret Power, whose paths we seek in vain
Be with us in our hour of overthrow and pain
That we - by which sure token we know Thy ways are true -
In spite of being broken, or because of being broken
Rise up and build anew
Stand up and build anew!
Thank you.
Great Architect, Son of the Carpenter, and Sapient Spirit, have mercy on us.
I've never felt so much shivers as when I found out the lyrics of this song...
Seriously, this might be like the only poem of Kipling I've ever stumbled across that actually made me reconsider to read Vedic literature again. I mean, it may not be obvious for some, but in here I can find references and interpretations to multiple texts, like the Mahabarata or the Bhagavad Gita, that actually had never passed through my mind before.
If you want a mind blown too, I suggest you read them. In the end you won't be disappointed, I guarantee.
Saubhāgya everyone, and take care...
Sincerely: SIMIO
was listening to this and had to remember the fall of the Hyatt Regency walkways back in the 80s. It fits that so much!
What a tragedy that was. A stark warning of the cost in pain and lives if an engineer fails to do one more seemingly simple check of sums.
Listened today to remember the crews of Apollo 1, STS-51L, and STS-107. Hymn of Breaking Strain stands the test of time.
"Oh, veiled and secret Power
Whose paths we seek in vain,
Be with us in our hour
Of overthrow and pain;
That we - by which sure token
We know Thy ways are true-
In spite of being broken,
Because of being broken
May rise and build anew
Stand up and build anew."
Ad astra per aspera.
Blessed St. Leibowitz, keep them dreaming down here.
@@kimhealy1446 It is the destiny of Earthlife to take root among the stars - but not every seed will blossom.
@@arcadiaberger9204 Amen.
@@kimhealy1446 That was the doctrine of Earthseed, a church founded by a character in *_The Parable of the Sower_* by Octavia Butler.
Earthseed is now a real religion.
Favourite fragments of the lyrics: The prudent textbooks giveth on tables on the end ... what concrete should endure... The mighty works we plan... the twin damnation... however great the odds! Rise up and build anew, stand up and build anew!
keep coming
back to this song
@RichMatarese Song of the Red War Boat may be my favourite Leslie Fish song, but right now Hymn to Breaking Strain is still strong in my mind. It was nice to hear this. Thank you for posting.
Great song. Great artists.
Working with high voltage, and making sure that it did not kill me, this is what I lived with.
Think of how they do it in China, dangling from a helicopter, working on live high-tension wires.
This is so beautiful
I love the harmony.
This was a great song.
Because of Julia.
LOL, I was like "Wow, those are some really, really good lyrics for some semi-professional, semi-comedic musicians who mostly write sci-fi parodies and things", but then I realized it's actually one of Kipling's poems. That explains a lot! Still, kudos for excellent execution. Although I suspect Leslie Fish was thinking of "the breaking point of man" in more of a hopeful anarchist way, while Kipling was thinking more of an "ultimate moral strength" kind of way. I think she just liked the sound of those words. I assumed that's what the song was about at first, "how far can man be pushed before he snaps and The Revolution comes, etc".
Kipling was an interesting artist. We can appreciate his songs of soldiering misery without agreeing with his more imperialist themes.
Thanks for posting this. That's some righteous guitar.
And it does hurt so much to break, and to bend. It hurts so Godawful much.
Be brave. Healing comes.
Total toll!!! Megaklasse. Wundertolle Stimmen und überhaupt genial :D
Fantastic!
Greetings from Germany
Ja schade dass man nicht mehr an die tapes kommt.
Vorallem nicht in europa
Approximate translation of @dinisreibeiro8728: Mega class. Wonderful voices and genius in general.
Approximate translation of @@gewuerzwanze5627: It's a pity you can't get the tapes anymore.
Especially not in Europe.
I have this tape!!
Build anew - rise up and build anew.
This could be Haiti's new national slogan.
They sure as heck suffered and died under those buckled girders
When Germany unified, they should have adopted East Germany's anthem:
_Rising from the ashes, overcoming the shame of the past,_
_For the sake of our children, we shall build again, higher, brighter, better, more beautiful...._
That should be the anthem of Germany...of Europe...of the human race.
@@johnburt7935 yeeeaaaah but east germany wasnt that great on that promise on their own so maybe they just wanted to put it all behind them
@@cpte3729 Could be. I think we could all do with some of that spirit, though.
@RedwoodTheElf - Another vote for the Song of the Red War Boat."
"Shove off from the wharf-edge, steady! / Watch for a smooth, give way / If she feels the rough already / She'll stand on her head in the bay! / But we hold with all disaster / Of shipwreck, storm or sword / A man must stand with his master / When once he has pledged his word."
Or so I remember from years of singing that damned song.
@puffin02 And damn good lyrics they are. Brother Kipling knew a thing or two.
Moar Kipplefish please! (Song of the Red War boat maybe?)
Listening tonight in memory of those who perished on the Titan.
I like my Fish Kippled. -:)
Smoke me a Kipple, I'll be home for breakfast!
@@TheKhopesh thanks Ace
lol i just figured out that this song come out 8 before i was born, i was so born
What
@doctorpsycho1960 Not really...realize my great great uncle finnegan often said "that beedin' murphy, always the optomist.
Murphy said that if there is any way for the system to fail, it will fail exactly that way - so eliminate that path to failure.
@doctorpsycho1960 rhico was a bleeding heart optomist. On every point...for instance. The ending is just the begining viewed the wrong way. The only thing you can count on is that there are no guarantees and that all incoming has the right of way.
For some reason I thought the title was "Hymn to breaking Stalin" XD
Post-cold war America be like:
(o; hello Filkers ;o)
Rise up and build a gnu?
Yes, because GNU-based operating systems are the only way to fight the tyranny of big tech corporations!
PRAETER SPATIUM
But you just have to get back up and build anew.
Or as RAH said: "Never underestimate the power of human stupidity."
One of the corollaries to Murphy's Law:
"Murphy was an optimist."
Don't forget #6 everything that lives must eventually die. For without death life has little meaning.
Most things end. A few things are not that lucky...
But... I'm INVINCIBLE (sound of liquid nitrogen tanks splitting..)
There's a short story called "the fable of the dragon-tyrant" that anyone who feels death gives life meaning aught to take a look at.
"Without death life has no meaning" is such nihilistic bullshit.
If you suddenly found out you're immortal, would you just lie down and wait for the universe to end?
Unless you're an idiot, the answer should be "no".
As long as the idea of "death gives life meaning" is perpetuated, all that awaits us is stagnation.
@@dydlus While I wouldn’t say it in quite the same way (I always strive for tact, admittedly even when it’s inefficient), I quite agree with you.
@GrigoriZhukov Funny, your aphorisms just sound like correlaries to Richo's, though you seem to think they contradict his.
Better to build a gnu, with hooves and horns and a sharp little bovine brain, than to remain a soft and feeble milk cow.
*sighs* since (and yes, I know I am like... more than a decade out of date, so the rest of you just (deleted) DEAL!!!!!) it seems like, even though I got in contact with Ms Fish even before I knew about Ms Ecklar (mostly because of the number of songs she wrote in conjunction with Ms L.Fish.) AHEM!!! (and a sigh, to be honest) Right. It does not matter if you ascribe to the 'original' version (which, in my opinion is after the 'movies' but before the 'Encounter at Farpoint')
Right. I feel the timing others care about is secondary to preserving both ms L. Fish's visions as well as Ms. Ecklar's vision over and above Ms Lackey's visions. However, SINCE I believe... Oh wait. Anything I believe is wrong. Stepping out of the conversation for the next 48 hours folk. The GL people can find me, the rest can.. ahem... pound extraterrastrial sand?
It's rough because he wrote this and then went and wrote White Man's Burden.
Ah, and his work was included in jingoistic starship troopers, and yet some of his inspires so much, as this work does. People are filled with contradiction, Hes long past now.
@@atari947 I just watched Starship Troopers. What of his was in there?
@@afriendofafriend5766 in the book they sing danny deever while at march.
@@atari947 Ah.
@@atari947 You rather missed the mark on Heinlein if you think that Starship Troopers was straight-faced endorsement of jingoism or fascism. The entire segment of the novel dealing with the Federation's war of aggression against the Skinnies is full of callous, casual violence which rather undermines any attempt to glorify the system he portrays.
Besides, Sixth Column is a much better target for that sort of assertion, with the additional layer of really horrendous racism.