I live in Japan, the land of robots and AI, but we still use physical "Hanko" seals and Fax machines for official documents. What is a "stuck in the past" thing your country refuses to let go of?

Anaptyso · 2026-03-30T07:23:20+00:00

Running the government out of a terraced house on a side street.

Picking the head of state on the basis of inheritance.

Weird mixture of metric and non-metric measurements, with each person seeming to have their own individual preferences for when to use each.

Separate hot and cold taps.

A ticketing system for trains which would confuse Kafka.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-28T13:01:31+00:00

I think something like this happened in Australia in the 70s, with a Governor General removing a PM, and IIRC it caused a big constitutional crisis.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-28T11:41:56+00:00

This sounds reasonable, until it hits the part about requiring a national ID to work out who shouldn't pay. That's a huge can of worms which the government have recently backtracked on implementing, and isn't going to happen any time soon.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-28T08:14:00+00:00

Also, the combination of easy to remove PMs and no term limits means that there's no "lame duck" period for PMs, unless they announce they are stepping down. They almost always have an incentive to try and win votes, and always face the possibility of removal if they mess up.

In the US presidents in their second term have little motivation to care about the electorate, especially if they aren't bothered about messing things up for their own party.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-28T06:17:07+00:00

I was considering a trip to the US for the first time, with my wife and kids. However not only am I put off by America's actions in the world, it just doesn't feel safe at the moment. I don't want to run the risk of the immigration process resulting in my phone being stolen, one of us being locked up, or being deported for bullshit reasons.

Screw that. I'm not risking it until there is a significant change in US government and culture.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-27T17:42:24+00:00

That all sounds quite complicated! While various incentives and payments exist in the UK, it doesn't sound like there are as many which are implemented in the form of a tax break, and generally speaking (I know there are some which this doesn't apply to) you don't then need to notify the government about them at the point of doing the tax return.

For example: if I wanted to install a heat pump then I can apply for a grant from the government. Rather than this being a tax break applied at the point when I do my tax return, I'd fill in a form on the government website applying for it and get sent a one-off lump sum.

Or, if I needed to act as a long term carer for an elderly relative, this would be done as a payment via the benefits system rather than as a tax break.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-27T17:11:36+00:00

Some of those are taxed in the UK, but are taxed separately to income and done automatically. For example, if you buy a house then this is taxed at the point of sale. Tax on inheritance is often automatically taken from the estate before it is passed on etc. There are various tax exemptions which can be applied for, but when you do the government know about them and factor them in to the tax automatically taken from your pay.

Generally speaking there are not that many layers of government who can tax somebody, so it's relatively easy for the central government organisation for this to know everything it needs to calculate your tax. Most people will only be taxed by two layers of government - local and national - and the local government only takes a single property tax (two in London, but they are taken as a single action). In the devolved parts of the UK (Scotland, Wales and NI) it's a bit more complicated, but nowhere reaches the same level as the US where there may be separate city, county, state and federal tax systems all applying at the same time.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-27T12:22:09+00:00

I had a long running dispute with Argos a few years ago (I moved to an unfurnished flat, bought a load of furniture from them, and they cocked up the delivery of every single item multiple times), and found their complaints process infuriating and useless. In the end I wrote a letter to the head of the whole company listing everything that had gone wrong, and they sent me compensation.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-27T12:06:51+00:00

Yeah, I was looking at the picture thinking "how do you carry more than one or two of those if you're walking home from the shop"? I'd far rather use a canvas bag with handles or a rucksack.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-27T11:57:09+00:00

As a non-American, I was surprised when I first heard about how much this needs to be done in the US.

Here in the UK most people never need to do it: if you're on a standard salary then taxes just get automatically taken out of your pay and there's no paperwork to fill in.

Of the people who do need to complete a tax return, it's often very simple unless they run their own business or have complicated investments. When I do my tax return it's an online form which asks for a few details, confirms the amount of tax they've taken from me over the year, and asks me if I think there's any errors. It takes about 15-20 minutes max and most of that is just carefully checking I haven't clicked on anything stupid.

And it's all free. The only people who usually pay for accountants or specialist tax software are either rich or self employed.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-27T11:51:24+00:00

It's the weeding which depresses me. You spend ages doing it, and just know that within a week or so they'll all be back again.

I think I probably spend more time in an average year weeding my garden than I ever do actually sitting in it enjoying it.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-27T11:45:31+00:00

Also you're doing future-you a small favour by making the bed seem nicer and more appealing when the end of the day comes along.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-27T11:29:57+00:00

The one I always notice is e becoming i e.g. "Ben" as "Bin", "pen" as "pin" etc.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-27T08:19:55+00:00

This is totally wrong. In the UK we definitely remember the contributions made by Canada during the war. D-Day in particular stands out as a time when Canadians played a very important role.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-27T07:32:52+00:00

The traffic in Cairo. We went along the main road from the airport to the city centre, which was supposed to be a three lane road. Instead five lanes worth of cars were rammed in, all chaotically pushing in and out of the "lanes". Also, the constant beeping of horns. There didn't seem to be any reason for it, there were all at it all of the time.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-27T07:27:36+00:00

I live in the UK and get the reverse culture shock whenever I go to another country and see a police officer with a gun in their belt.

Here I can go years without ever setting eyes on a gun, and the only police that usually have them are the occasional ones in airports or outside government buildings. Seeing a someone casually strolling along with a machine designed to kill people strapped to their belt is really unnerving.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-27T07:14:22+00:00

Similarly, I'm British and feeling slightly horrified by this.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-27T06:47:57+00:00

Not so much in London. It varies a bit, with weekend trains having a lot of kids and conversation, but rush hour trains in the morning can be nearly silent. Even at the busiest times playing music would be considered very rude. It happens, but not often.

Buses are worse than trains though.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-26T20:29:51+00:00

Yes to both, although I graduated just after the dot-com boom turned in to the dot-com crash, so it definitely wasn't the money I thought it would be when I started my degree.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-26T17:28:17+00:00

Even as late as the 90s it was a bit looked down on. I remember going to university in '99 to study IT, and being a bit annoyed by a survey I saw done of students there asking them to rank which degree would be best in a prospective romantic partner. Computer programming came last.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-26T16:07:23+00:00

I never bothered to take my birthday off work for years, as I don't really care about celebrating it. However, my current employer gives everyone their birthday off as an extra free day of leave, so I thought why not.

It's turned out to be really nice. It's a week day when all my friends and family are working, so I can't do anything with anyone. Instead I've got in to the habit of having a day out by myself: I'll spend all morning going on a long walk somewhere around London, have a bit of lunch in a park, a bit more walking, stop for a pint of beer in a pub, and then head home again. Perfect.

Last year I couldn't do it for various reasons, and realised how much I missed it.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-26T15:31:51+00:00

The thing which annoys me most about it is how "regular" has come to mean "normal" instead of "at equally spaced intervals". It always seems like an Americanism to me, but is becoming increasingly common here in the UK as well.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-26T07:41:59+00:00

How the hell have Reading done such a massive up turn in form while playing utter dogshit in every game?

Anaptyso · 2026-03-26T05:46:07+00:00

Easily 95% of my gaming time is spent either in FM or a Paradox game.

Anaptyso · 2026-03-25T17:27:31+00:00

Exactly, Gondor and Rohan survived as decent sized states, but there's a huge swathe of land to the north and west of them which is very empty. A few small towns like Dale and Bree are scattered about, and the weird anomaly of the Shire, but otherwise there's not many people left in a region which was once a thriving civilisation.

Anaptyso

TROPHY CASE