John Siracusa and Merlin Mann try to figure out exactly how they got this way.

Navigation

Links

Support this show

Join for $7/month Join for $70/year
Get an ad-free version of the show, plus a monthly extended episode.

#232: Ham Means One

April 11th, 2024 · 104 minutes

John guides Merlin through an unusual form of communication.

This episode of Reconcilable Differences is sponsored by:

  • Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code DIFFS.

Stream this episode

Download: MP3 (95.65 MB)

Links and Show Notes

John guides Merlin through an unusual form of communication.

So unusual is this form of communication that its interrogation continues through the members-only bonus episode.

Remember, you can sign up today to hear all the member episodes, get more bonus stuff, and, yes, support this program.

(Recorded on Tuesday, April 2, 2024)


Credits

You Ruined Everything, by Jonathan Coulton
Kottke's post about Waffle House’s Magic Marker System
Waffle House's Pull Drop Mark Order Calling Method - YouTube
Waffle House's Food Safety Training - YouTube
Waffle House Marker System Poster
"…wheat" - YouTube
Multimodal Literacy and the Myth of Low-Skilled Labor at Waffle House

The learning curve for a Waffle House server can be steep, and even steeper for a cook. The process by which an order cycles from the customer-menu interaction to the final presentation of food is complex, multimodal, and reliant on code-switching.

Hamming code

John mistakenly used this name instead of the correct one. (See next link.)

Huffman coding

This is what John should have said.

The XKCD comic about generalized systems
Merlin's pegboard
Julia Child's kitchen