There's a little throwaway thing in the book (or maybe it was in the prequel) that I always liked, re understanding human tendencies. They're still using Unix time, starting in Jan 1st 1970, but given that their culture is so space-travel-focused they assume the early humans set it to coincide with man's first trip to the moon.

That's from the prequel, A Deepness in the Sky. (Which is also excellent.)

Deepness in the Sky is probably the first Sci Fi alien I read who didn't feel like a human wearing an alien suit.

Fantasy sometimes does this better but usually with specific tropes.

If you liked that and you haven't read it yet, give "Dragon's Egg" by Robert L. Forward a read.

I wish he could have seen the current state of GenAI. Several times in the book he talks about how the ship understands context clues and sarcasm, and that effective natural language translation requires near-sentience.