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I got paid minimum wage to solve an impossible problem
(tiespetersen.substack.com)
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this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2026
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Probably could've mentioned at some point in that whole article that Albert Heijn is a supermarket chain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Heijn
It's one of the major supermarket chains in NL, which I guess isn't that obvious to most people, but I miss shopping there because the chains where I am have rotten, moldy produce and AH always had fresh produce and packs of relatively cheap stroopwafel.
Also, related to the post, I'd almost rather be sweeping the floor there. I don't want to sweep floors, but it'd mean I live there, so yeah.
it doesn't matter. Also if it was Walmart would you also have suggested it?
My problem was that "Albert Heijn" is a dude's name. It does not exactly scream "we're talking about a real physical building".
For all I knew, the impossible problem we're solving could've been on a mathematical plane, named after mathematician Albert Heijn. "Sweeping" just as well can be used in an abstract sense.
Obviously, I did think of physically sweeping a physical floor first and foremost, but especially with the rest of the blog post being so entirely abstract, I had doubts on that for far too long, which did not make it easier to understand.