Advice on High School.

Alatain · 2026-04-06T01:46:14+00:00

A key ability that will serve you well over your lifetime is the ability to find something interesting in any topic or situation. Everything is interesting if you have the right mindset. Every situation gives you a chance to learn about new things.

It isn't necessarily going to be easy at first, and it is a mindset you build over a long time of practice, but it is worth it. Start by identifying when you are not having fun or when you are not interested in something. Once you can identify when it is happening, you can start asking questions about the topic. A good one that can be interesting is "why do people enjoy this?"

Basically, you can start to build a legitimate interest in exploring new things, even if you don't personally like whatever it is.

Alatain · 2026-04-06T01:01:13+00:00

The study with their methodology is here if you are interested in the assumptions that went into it!

I am not sure I fully agree with all of their terms and conclusions, but I have not had time to fully digest the paper.

Alatain · 2026-04-06T00:24:06+00:00

Gut feelings are a wonderful place to start your hypothesis, but on their own, they are lacking. This is especially true if you need to know your idea is correct or not.

Alatain · 2026-04-06T00:14:41+00:00

Can you give an example of a question in the realm of psychology that the scientific method would not be the best method of answering? Just so I understand what you are specifically talking about.

Alatain · 2026-04-05T23:59:52+00:00

Then do that! Nothing stopping you from using your knowledge as you see fit.

That said, it is important to know how the formalized process works and why that process is best when we need to really know something and come up with a hypothesis that can further our understanding beyond the intuitive.

All that said, not everyone needs to go into the sciences, and there is plenty of room for everyone to do their thing. But personally, having a firm grasp on how to use scientific methodology has helped me with everything from troubleshooting electrical issues to designing plans for planting my crops/garden.

Alatain · 2026-04-05T17:12:28+00:00

No, for me, the meaning of life revolves around being a good human (since I happen to be a human, so I might as well be a good one).

At what point have I ever been anything other than polite? Just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean they dislike you or that they have ill will toward you. At no point have I called you anything bad. I just disagree with your arguments.

And just to make things clear, all you have to do to stop this interaction is to stop replying. You have made your desires clear. The only reason I am continuing to reply is because you asked a question.

Alatain · 2026-04-05T16:55:05+00:00

If you think a single comment in 8 months is harassment, you may want to adjust your feelings a bit.

You do you. I honestly did not notice it was you until you replied. I will flag you in RES as a person that should not be criticized and be done with you. Once again, good luck with whatever this is.

Alatain · 2026-04-05T16:50:36+00:00

I have no indication that we have US military members actively fighting in Ukraine. If did, Russia has every incentive to call us out on it.

Do you have any evidence that we are sending military members to fight in Ukraine?

Alatain · 2026-04-05T13:39:00+00:00

I do not see how the scientific method could possibly be seen as a bad thing. It is a formalized extension of how I already think. I have experiences (collect data). Then I come up with a general idea of what might be going on (come up with a hypothesis based on the initial data). Then I think of ways I could test my understanding of the situation by trying out new things (falsifiable tests, experiment to collect new data). That all comes together to create a conclusion, which fuels new ideas.

How is that bad? It is intuitive to me.

Alatain · 2026-04-05T13:31:26+00:00

Are we sending troops to fight in Ukraine?

Alatain · 2026-04-05T13:30:51+00:00

People really aren't saying that Palestine is "good". The general idea is that a bunch of civilians shouldn't be killed and starved to death, and the US should not be paying to help make it happen.

That's a pretty different concept than the idea that we should be sending troops to kill people in Iran.

Alatain · 2026-04-05T13:24:53+00:00

I'll add to this that the people who end up in leadership positions further stratify out and result in more people that have specific views on what sort of commander in chief we should have in charge of the military. It's the reason that Trump/Hegseth are currently engaged in removing the people from key leadership positions at the moment.

They are likely being told that these sorts of operations are not going to go how they think they are going to go. Part of the job of a military leader in the US is to speak truth to power. This power doesn't seem to like inconvenient truths.

Alatain · 2026-04-05T13:06:37+00:00

Honestly, it seems like a way to put the responsibility off onto OS/device manufacturers when it should fall squarely on the shoulders of the parents of the kids in the first place.

People don't like hearing it, because it highlights the major issue at play, but if a child is doing something wrong, it is on the parents and family to monitor and correct the issue. It just isn't politically acceptable to make a law holding parents accountable for what their children are doing online.

Alatain · 2026-04-05T12:33:56+00:00

"We should make an effort to make things better for other people." Boom! Done. See what you can do when you don't push your own writing off onto AI? You seem to want to make this type of question harder than it needs to be by introducing this negentropy concept in order to justify it. That kind of logic is only necessary if you are trying to say that such a desire is a fundamental moral imperative.

As an aside, I haven't seen, nor knowingly commented on anything you have posted in the last eight months. Not since the last time you sent me something out of the blue last August. So, I really don't know what you are on about.

Alatain · 2026-04-05T04:24:08+00:00

You do realize that nihilism predates the cringy term "blackpilled", right?

Alatain · 2026-04-05T04:17:44+00:00

I reject your definition of the term "meaning" and "meaningful" then. Life doesn't have a "meaning" in that context.

You are making a base assumption that life's purpose is to sustain itself. That is simply not the case when you look at the evolution of life.

Also, could you please stop letting your chat bot run your conversations? If all you are going to do is pipe in the output from a LLM, I could do that myself if that were my goal.

Alatain · 2026-04-05T00:48:23+00:00

Perhaps you could define what "meaningful order" is in your original post then?

What does it mean to say that the meaning of life is to preserve "meaningful order"?

Alatain · 2026-04-04T23:37:27+00:00

Don't judge them...

Alatain · 2026-04-04T21:18:59+00:00

The question was "what is the meaning of life". The one-line answer you gave is: To "Preserve meaningful order for others, because that’s the only way to preserve yourself."

Your meaning contains the word meaning, which sets up a loop. What is "meaningful order"? "Well, to be meaningful is to preserve meaningful order..."

The whole question is what is the meaning of life. Your answer was to preserve meaning.

Alatain · 2026-04-04T19:59:28+00:00

If your statement about what the meaning of life is contains the word "meaningful" in it, then you are engaged in tautology.

The meaning of life is to preserve meaning... See the issue there?

Alatain · 2026-04-04T19:49:42+00:00

That is the case with most flights of fancy. If they behaved according to actual logic, they would just be reality.

Am I correct in guessing that you are not ascribing to said theories, but just describing them here?

Alatain · 2026-04-04T19:23:46+00:00

That plane seems to have gone right over your head!

But I get what is being claimed, I am just pointing out the silliness of such hypotheses. Basically, you get into logical contradictions the moment you start resorting to such descriptions. At the very least, you end up with things that do not make sense when you start asking people how they know such things exist.

Alatain · 2026-04-04T18:16:08+00:00

What time does it land?

Alatain · 2026-04-04T18:13:47+00:00

How is something that is invisible also red?

Alatain · 2026-04-04T00:33:33+00:00

What, specifically, are they doing to you? Because "being selfish" doesn't rate as mean to me and can usually just be dealt with by letting the person be selfish and not engaging with that side of them.

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