[Tutor] Ways of removing consequtive duplicates from a list

[avi.e.gross at gmail.com]

I will try a short answer to the topic of why some of us (meaning in this
case ME) react to what we may see not so much as cultural differences but to
feeling manipulated.

I have had people in my life who say things like "You are so smart you can
probably do this for me in just a few minutes" and lots of variations on
such a theme. As it happens, that is occasionally true when I already happen
to know how to do it. But sometimes I have to do lots of research and
experimentation or ask others with specific expertise. Being smart or
over-educated in one thing is not the same as being particularly good at
other things. How would you feel if asked to write a program (for no pay)
and after spending lots of time and showing the results, the other guy says
that this is pretty much how they already did it and they just wanted to see
if it was right or the best way so they asked you? What a waste of time for
no real result!

I have found there are people in this world who use techniques ranging from
flattery to guilt to get you to do things for them. One of these finally
really annoyed me by asking if I knew of a good lawyer to do real estate for
a friend of his about 25 miles from where I live. He lives perhaps a hundred
miles away and neither of us is particularly knowledgeable about the area
and I don't even know lawyers in my area. We both can use the darn internet.
So why ask me? The answer is because they are users.

Note many people ask serious questions here and we ask the same question.
Did you do any kind of search before asking? Did you write any code and see
where it fails? 

So next time we get a question like this one, how about we reply with a
request that they provide their own thoughts FIRST and also spell out what
the meaning of words like "best" is and only once they convince us they have
tried and really need help, do we jump in. I am not necessarily talking
about everyone with a question, but definitely about repeaters., 

-----Original Message-----
From: Tutor <tutor-bounces+avi.e.gross=gmail.com at python.org> On Behalf Of dn
Sent: Monday, July 18, 2022 1:34 AM
To: tutor at python.org
Subject: Re: [Tutor] Ways of removing consequtive duplicates from a list

>> ... you just asked any
>> women present to not reply to you, nor anyone who has not been 
>> knighted by a Queen. I personally do not expect such politeness but
clearly some do.
>>
> 
> I confess it took me longer than it should have to figure out to what 
> you were referring in the second half of the above but eventually the 
> light came on and the smile blossomed!
> My next thought was that it wouldn't necessarily have had to have been 
> a Queen although anyone knighted (by a King) prior to the beginning of 
> our current Queen's reign is unlikely to be even alive let alone 
> interested in this sort of thing.
> Thanks for the morning smile!

I've not been knighted, but am frequently called "Sir". Maybe when you too
have a grey beard? (hair atop same head, optional)

It is not something that provokes a positive response, and if in a
grumpy-mood may elicit a reply describing it as to be avoided "unless we are
both in uniform".

Thus, the same words hold different dictionary-meanings and different
implications for different people, in different contexts, and between
cultures!

I'm not going to invoke any Python community Code of Conduct terms or insist
upon 'politically-correctness', but am vaguely-surprised that someone has
not...

The gender observation is appropriate, but then how many of the OP's
discussions feature responses from other than males?
(not that such observation could be claimed as indisputable)

Writing 'here', have often used constructions such as "him/her", with some
question about how many readers might apply each form...


The dislocation in response to the OP is cultural. (In this) I have
advantage over most 'here', having lived and worked in India.
(also having been brought-up, way back in the last century, in an
old-English environment, where we were expected to address our elders using
such titles. Come to think of it, also in the US of those days)

In India, and many others parts of Asia, the respectful address of teachers,
guides, and elders generally, is required-behavior. In the Antipodes, titles
of almost any form are rarely used, and most will exchange first-names at an
introduction. Whereas in Germany (for example), the exact-opposite applies,
and one must remember to use the Herr-s, Doktor-s, du-forms etc.

How to cope when one party is at the opposite 'end' of the scale from
another? I'm reminded of 'Postel's law': "Be liberal in what you accept, and
conservative in what you send".

Is whether someone actually knows what they're talking-about more relevant
(and more telling) than their qualifications, rank, title, whatever - or
does that only apply in the tech-world where we seem to think we can be a
technocracy?

Living in an 'immigrant society' today, and having gone through such a
process (many times, in many places) I'm intrigued by how quickly - or how
slowly, some will adapt to the local culture possibly quite alien to them.
Maybe worst of all are the ones who observe, but then react by assuming (or
claiming) superiority - less an attempt to 'fit in', but perhaps an intent
to be 'more equal'...


> I may be getting touchy without the feely, but I am having trouble 
> listening to the way some people with cultural differences, or far 
> left/right attitudes, try to address me/us in forums like this. Alex 
> may have been amused by my retort, and there is NOTHING wrong with 
> saying "Dear Sirs" when

Disagree: when *I* read the message, I am me. I am in the singular. When
*you* write, you (singular) are writing to many of us (plural). Who is the
more relevant party to the communication?

Accordingly, "Dear Sir" not "Sirs" - unless you are seeking a collective or
corporate reply, eg from a firm of solicitors.
(cf the individual replies (plural, one might hope) you expect from multiple
individuals - who happen to be personal-members of the
(collective) mailing-list).


> done in many contexts, just like someone a while ago was writing to 
> something like "Esteemed Professors" but it simply rubs me wrong here.

Like it appears do you, I quickly lose respect for 'esteemed
professors/professionals' who expect this, even revel in it.

However, if one is a student or otherwise 'junior', it is a
career-limiting/grade-reducing move not to accede!

That said, two can play at that game: someone wanting to improve his/her
grade (or seeking some other favor) will attempt ingratiation through more
effusive recognition and compliment ("gilding the lily"). whither 'respect'?


I recall a colleague, on an International Development team assigned to a
small Pacific country, who may have been junior or at most 'equal' to myself
in 'rank'. Just as in India, he would introduce himself formally as "Dr
Chandrashekar" plus full position and assignment. In a more relaxed
situation, his informal introduction was "Dr Chandra". It was amusing to
watch the reactions both 'westerners' and locals had to this.
Seeing how it didn't 'fit' with our host-culture, we took sardonic delight
in referring to him as "Chandra". (yes, naughty little boys!) One day my
(local, and non-tech, and female) assistant, visibly shaking, requested a
private meeting with another member of the team and myself.
Breaking-down into tears she apologised for interrupting the urgent-fix
discussion we'd been having with senior IT staff the day before, even as we
knew we were scheduled elsewhere. Her 'apology' was that Chandra was
(twice) insistent for our presence and demanded that meeting be interrupted,
even terminated - and that she had to obey, she said, "because he is
Doctor". (we tried really hard not to laugh) For our part, knowing the guy,
we knew that she should not be the recipient of any 'blow-back'. After
plentiful reassurance that she was not 'in trouble' with either of us, and a
talk (similar to 'here') about the [ab]use of 'titles', she not only
understood, but paid us both a great compliment saying something like: I
call you (first-name) because we all work together, but I call him "Doctor"
because he expects me to do things *for* him! Being called by my given-name,
unadorned, always proved a 'buzz' thereafter!


> Back to topic, if I may, sometimes things set our moods. I am here 
> partially to be helpful and partially for my own amusement and 
> education as looking at some of the puzzles presented presents 
> opportunities to think and investigate.
> 
> But before I could get to the reasonable question here, I was 
> perturbed at the overly formulaic politeness and wrongness of the 
> greeting from my perhaps touchy perspective for the reasons mentioned 
> including the way it seeming assumes no Ladies are present and we are 
> somehow Gentlemen, but also by the mess I saw on one wrapped line that 
> was a pain to take apart. Then I wondered why the question was being 
> asked. Yes, weirdly, it is a question you and I have discussed before 
> when wondering which way of doing something worked better, was more 
> efficient, or showed a more brilliant way to use the wrong method to do
something nobody designed it for!

Yep, rubs me the wrong way too!
(old grumpy-guts is likely to say "no!", on principle - and long before
they've even finished their wind-up!)

BTW such is not just an Asian 'thing' either - I recall seeing, and quickly
avoiding, the latest version of a perennial discussion about protocol.
Specifically, the sequence of email-addresses one should use in the To: and
Cc: fields of email-messages (and whether or not Bcc: is "respectful"). Even
today, in the US and UK, some people and/or organisations demand that the
more 'important' names should precede those of mere-minions. "We the people"
meets "some, more equal than others"!

Yes, and the OP does irritate by not answering questions from 'helpers'.
He does publish (for income/profit). I don't know if he has ever
used/repeated any of the topics discussed 'here' - nor if in doing-so he
attributes and credits appropriately (by European, UK, US... standards).


> I am not sure who read my longish message, but I hope the main point 
> is that sometimes you should just TEST it. This is not long and complex
code.
> However, there cannot be any one test everyone will agree on and it 
> often depends on factors other than CPU cycles. A robust 
> implementation that can handle multiple needs may well be slower and 
> yet more cost effective in some sense.

Another source of irritation: define terms-used, eg what is the metric for
"better" or "best"?

Frankly, the succession of 'academic questions' with dubious application in
the real world (CRC-checks notwithstanding) have all the flavor of someone
writing an old-fashioned text-book - emphasis on facts, with professional
application relegated to lesser (if any) import, and perhaps more than a
little "I'm so much smarter than you".

NB the Indian and many Asian education systems use techniques which are
regarded as 'old', yet at the same time they are apparently effective!


--
Regards,
=dn
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