
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows - shadowfiend
http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com
======
TeMPOraL
Ah, so it's called "vemödalen". Good to have a name for the feeling that keeps
coming back to me whenever I think about new ideas to build. It's already been
done, likely better than I could ever have. It's probably just one Google
search away. It makes me fear searching. I'll just take few more minutes, few
more hours, few more days, to toy with my new idea. It's probably been done
already. But I don't have to know about it _right now_. Do I?

Sometimes it's already done 20 times. Otherwise, it truly isn't. Or at least
it isn't visible on-line. I think that with age I managed to learn how to
invent new flavours of old ideas, things that have not been done before in the
exact way I want them to. Is this just me lowering my expectations?

I often find myself resenting tourists. I see all those people taking the same
pathetic photos at the Tower of Pisa, photos that have been taken a million
times before. Like they couldn't just go to Flickr. But here I am, coding my
own hobby project, a thing that has been done a thousand times before. I do it
in a different language, using different approach, personalizing it in every
way I can, and yet I what I'm doing is nothing but taking yet another photo of
the Pisa tower.

Some people say "think locally". Just because it has been done before
somewhere else, doesn't mean it's been done near you. Narrow your scope. To
your country. To your city. To your family. To yourself. But it feels wrong.
The world is connected, and being limited to a subset of it feels...
incomplete. Do it full-scale, or don't do it at all. That's what I keep
thinking.

I guess many a HNer knows this feeling too. Maybe some of you found a way to
make peace with it. I think so, after all, many have probably done it before.
If you did, please share.

I apologize for venting out.

\----

Anyway, it's interesting that I couldn't find any reference to the word
"vemödalen" other than The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. Did they invent this
term? Or at least the name, since like everything else, the identification of
the phenomenon has been already done before.

~~~
pimlottc
The credits on the video versions all include "Coined by", so yes, they appear
to all be neologisms. In one sense, it would be neat if these really were
existing words plucked from obscurity. But they're good words, and useful, so
I hope they stay.

~~~
TeMPOraL
I agree. The first step to be really able to talk about something is to have a
single word for it. It seems that's the way our brains work.

------
stcredzero
You're in a nearly empty building after hours and you get into an elevator. As
the door is closing, you decide to let out a long, voluminous, and smelly
fart, and it's at just this moment that a beautiful person of your preferred
gender walks into the elevator.

Needs to be a word for that.

~~~
DanBC
That sounds like something that would be defined in the Meaning of Liff - the
dictionary created by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd.

~~~
teddyh
See also the “Sniglets” by Rich Hall, collected in a series of books.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sniglet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sniglet)

------
jarboot
I really don't care if it's somebody on tumblr making youtube videos, but we
need more words! Great website, but I wish it was more active.

------
mirimir
I'm struck by "lachesism". I do not "desire to be struck by disaster".
However, I do recall feeling far more present and alive after near-death
experiences. Even with the pain. But only for a while.

Also, I found what seems to be a poetry contest about lachesism, which
apparently started 2015-04-13.[0] And then there's "23 emotions people feel
but can't explain".[1]

[0]
[http://hellopoetry.com/words/691456/lachesism/poems/](http://hellopoetry.com/words/691456/lachesism/poems/)

[1]
[http://imjustalonelyfandom.tumblr.com/post/123649660455](http://imjustalonelyfandom.tumblr.com/post/123649660455)

------
Dorian-Marie
His YouTube channel:
[https://www.youtube.com/user/obscuresorrows](https://www.youtube.com/user/obscuresorrows)

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monster_group
Just want to draw attention that most of these are made up words. They don't
appear in the dictionary. Use these words wisely.

~~~
frisco
There is no _Académie française_ for English - the borders of our language are
fuzzy and based on drifting actual usage. Or, in other words, English
dictionaries are a lot like open source: based on running code and rough
consensus. OED just added "Redditor", "shareable", and "butthurt" to its pages
this year.

So, if you like them, use them. Don't get hung up on the fact that some of
them may be new.

------
sakopov
Learned about this site a year or so ago while browsing Jason Silva's "Shots
of awe" videos. Not directly related but also highly recommended for those who
dabble in philosophy.

------
domador
How about a word for the realization that one isn't as unique as one thinks?
(It's a common reality, but probably a rare realization.)

~~~
andyl
Vemodalen

[http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/post/102182393150/...](http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/post/102182393150/vem%C3%B6dalen-
n-the-fear-that-everything-has)

------
andyl
Very nice - thanks to whoever posted this.

