Anonymous
06/09/2025 18:27
Subject: Turtles all the way down’. Do you know or use this expression?
F 56
I had never heard the phrase until the John Green book and even then, I didn't know it was a common idiom until the last few months when it seems to be everywhere.
I had never heard the phrase until the John Green book and even then, I didn't know it was a common idiom until the last few months when it seems to be everywhere.
Anonymous
06/09/2025 17:52
Subject: Turtles all the way down’. Do you know or use this expression?
Anonymous wrote:Only from the title of the John Green book.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_All_the_Way_Down_(novel)
Same.
Anonymous
06/09/2025 17:44
Subject: Turtles all the way down’. Do you know or use this expression?
Sturgill Sumpson song.
Anonymous
06/09/2025 17:15
Subject: Turtles all the way down’. Do you know or use this expression?
I believe I first ran into it reading Terry Pratchett book in high school. But I have also read the John Green book and A Brief History of Time.
Anonymous
06/09/2025 17:10
Subject: Turtles all the way down’. Do you know or use this expression?
Anonymous
06/09/2025 13:34
Subject: Turtles all the way down’. Do you know or use this expression?
Yes, use it frequently, female, 43
Anonymous
06/09/2025 12:56
Subject: Re:Turtles all the way down’. Do you know or use this expression?
Yes. Female, 50
Anonymous
06/09/2025 12:41
Subject: Turtles all the way down’. Do you know or use this expression?
Isn't it the name of a John Green book? Millennial, no "gender identity."
Anonymous
06/09/2025 12:28
Subject: Turtles all the way down’. Do you know or use this expression?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:If yes, explain and what is your age and gender identity?
It's a lower class saying.
Yeah. Stephen Hawking and Supreme Court justices are so low class.
Anonymous
06/09/2025 11:51
Subject: Turtles all the way down’. Do you know or use this expression?
Anonymous wrote:If yes, explain and what is your age and gender identity?
It's a lower class saying.
Anonymous
06/09/2025 11:40
Subject: Turtles all the way down’. Do you know or use this expression?
Never heard it before, F, 58
Anonymous
06/09/2025 11:36
Subject: Turtles all the way down’. Do you know or use this expression?
Anonymous wrote:55, Male. Computer programmer. I've known the expression for at least 20 years or more. It, or variations, are common used by programmers when talking about infinite regression, like another poster said.
Re: siblings. I remember when my older son (maybe 5 at the time) told us we should have another son so his younger brother could too have the experience of having a younger brother. We told him no -- that it would be little brothers all the way down.
This, only I'm a 41 year old female programmer. I've also heard it in philosophical and theological contexts.
Anonymous
06/09/2025 11:34
Subject: Turtles all the way down’. Do you know or use this expression?
Anonymous wrote:Fascinated by this question. I love this phrase. You can use it to reference something particularly deep/intricate/confusing or even a conspiracy theory of sorts.
When I was a kid, I heard the (probably apocryphal) story about someone confidently telling a scientist that the universe is actually built on the back of a turtle, and underneath that, another turtle, and another, and so on. I’m 35 FWIW.
Stephen Hawking is who shared this story in “A Brief History of Time.”
Other versions are “rocks all the way down” or “tigers all the way down.”
Anonymous
06/09/2025 08:37
Subject: Turtles all the way down’. Do you know or use this expression?
Yes, and coincidentally one of my coworkers quoted this during lunch last week and we all got it. So there are many of us that know this expression. Age range: 40-60s; male and female group.
Anonymous
06/09/2025 08:34
Subject: Turtles all the way down’. Do you know or use this expression?
Anonymous wrote:Yes I know it. 41, male. If I didn't know it before I'd know of from the Sturgil Simpson song "Turtles All the Way Down," but I don't remember when I actually learned it.
Love is the only thing that ever saved my life.