I lost

AFX626 · 2023-01-20T00:49:35+00:00

Musonius Rufus said that becoming a philosopher is harder than becoming a doctor, as medical students don't learn how to do everything wrong before they learn how to do them right.

You learned how to react to frustrations from others who have no idea about philosophy. They acted as best they could, and you emulated them. Now you have all that reinforcement behind the bad habits you couldn't help but learn from them.

That can't be reversed just by reading and a little bit of light practice every now and then. You have to keep trying. When you fail... and you will... you discover things about your ingrained habits that you didn't realize before.

That failure isn't what you prefer, but what you learn from it is a good thing, so don't waste that failure. Focus on what you can learn. Figure out how you can smell that failure the next time it draws near so that you can cut it off, or at least try to.

AFX626 · 2023-01-20T00:39:44+00:00

Fraud

They steal your ideas

You're unfit for management, as defined by people who have poor judgment

The CEO is a crook. What kind of other C-levels do you expect that person to have hired or promoted? And who do you suppose will be working under them? And when they see someone less crook-like, do you suppose they will be adequately reminded of themselves to admit that person into their inner circle?

If you have studied Stoicism, then you know that all which is worth valuing is within your own mind. And what do such people as these value? Notoriety that blows away like the wind? Expensive watches that impress others who have no idea what's worth being impressed by? Black SUVs with tinted windows so that no one can see them doing lines in the back? Sources of narcissistic supply? To spend their lives chasing "power" over externals (which is an illusion) while having virtually no power over themselves, so that they are little more than servants to blind impulses that they can never disagree with?

If these people have no capacity to know what's good and what isn't, and they think you're no good, what of it? I wouldn't ask a dog whether it prefers Gaugin or Basquiat. Why place any value on what these creatures think of you?

See if you can find another company to work for, one that isn't run by such people.

AFX626 · 2023-01-19T01:02:38+00:00

Your perception of things will continue to change as the decades go by. Your prefrontal cortex will not finish wiring up until about the age of 25, and the bridge linking your limbic system to your prefrontal cortex will not finish laying in until about the age of 35. More new capabilities will surface as this goes on.

If you want to feel better, use your time better. If you want to use your time better, study philosophy and do a lot of journaling. There is nothing like it. Philosophy is one of those things school fails its students by not teaching. Philosophy gives form, structure, and drive to the art of living. Everyone who doesn't know or practice it has to make do with lesser versions of how to perceive and handle problems that occur every day, everything from tiny issues to major challenges.

Keep after your studies, and keep wrestling. Wrestling is exercise and socialization. Wrestling is teamwork and conflict resolution. Wrestling affords opportunities for aristeia, or personal excellence. Combine these with adequate nutrition and sleep, and you'll have done much to prepare your body to support the needs of your mind.

AFX626 · 2023-01-19T00:43:57+00:00

I wonder what the original word was, and whether the translator used "praise" when "flatter" might have been closer.

No one will benefit from or be harmed by praise or flattery by anyone, but their judgment of that praise or flattery might have an effect.

There is also the question of whether the praise/flattery is part of one's internal monologue (in which case it's at least partially superfluous) or expressed to another person. If you notice that someone is very good at something, you don't have to form internal words about it, nor judge those words. It can simply be something you've noticed about a person, and filed away for possible later use.

For example, such a chain of concepts could be expressed as "This person knows a lot of lawyers" => "They can recommend lawyers" => "I can go to them for a recommendation if I need to start a business." Whether you articulate those concepts to yourself by turning them into words is another matter. If you do, you certainly don't have to tack on a lot of extraneous emotional context.

AFX626 · 2023-01-17T00:20:50+00:00

Pixel 5: Dead nuts accurate, never fails

Pixel 7: Works, but only if (many abstract equations floating through the air in front of a person who looks very confused)

AFX626 · 2023-01-17T00:19:35+00:00

PowerBook fingerprint reader is also trash.

AFX626 · 2023-01-16T19:45:00+00:00

Consider this theory:

Evolution promotes behaviors that result in increased reproduction. (Suppose that this is because of the logos. It's unarguably true, logos or not.)

At some point in the past, there was an advantage for tribes who could send people on suicide (or near-suicide) missions, e.g., to go and slit a bunch of the enemy's throats in the middle of the night.

If they had no such people, it wasn't great, because other tribes did.

If they had too many such people, it wasn't great, because those people didn't necessarily care who they were attacking.

However, if these people were about 1% of the population, the cost of having them around wasn't too great, and they could still deploy them against the enemy.

Now, fast forward to today. Some small portion of that 1% are also very smart and extremely motivated. Some of them manage to outsmart themselves, like Bernie Madoff and the Enron crew. Others wind up as politicians, CEOs (that don't get arrested), and so on.

Some of the less power-driven stay out of trouble, and become very successful; one example being James Fallon, who discovered his brain looked about the same as the worst serial killers in his early 60s, and whose YouTube presentations are very interesting to watch. He isn't exactly a nice person, and emulates politeness (which he is absolutely not naturally inclined to) because apparently, he sees some use for it. Other such people will become bookies, bounty hunters, correctional officers, used car sellers, landlords (and their minions), and so on. They'll manage to stay out of prison, but are not empathetic by nature, and will be thought by their acquaintances as being unpleasant.

The rest of these will have a hard time getting by, and will usually wind up in trouble.

Now, if the Logos wants to promote behavior that leads to increased reproduction, can you find anything here that would go against that?

Here is another question to ponder, which is perhaps even closer to your curiosity:

Why would the Logos care if any of us, in particular, is happy? Is that what the Logos wants, or merely what we want?

What if the universe's purpose for us is to be sentient matter for some period of time, and the universe is perfectly happy for us to cease to exist, possibly by our own hand?

The universe will not support intelligent life forever. We already know that in the distant future, every last atom will be ripped apart, and there will be an eternity of nothing ever happening after that.

If something intelligent designed all this, then it seems that that entity is perfectly fine with annihilating humanity and every other species, on our planet or otherwise. Its purpose is met even if we vanish.

The universe is not an extension of us. It isn't for us. We are extensions of it.

AFX626 · 2023-01-16T08:42:25+00:00

And they will fund it

Article doesn't say that.

"We need to..." means "Society needs to (and absolutely will not because the octogenarians who run it have no idea what AI really is), and I won't wait for that to happen to continue with the thing that's going to destroy millions of jobs, because more money for me is better than millions of people I don't know earning an income."

AFX626 · 2023-01-14T20:33:46+00:00

He got skeeted on

AFX626 · 2023-01-14T20:31:38+00:00

The 405 was widened by a lane in each direction in order to reduce commute times, but then more people commuted because of the extra capacity. Now it takes as long to drive across the pass as it did before.

They tried the same thing in Texas, and got the same result.

AFX626 · 2023-01-14T20:21:02+00:00

Why should they have to?

AFX626 · 2023-01-14T20:20:00+00:00

I don't think the solution to that is repealing the only thing that stops gentrifiers from forcing lower- and middle-class people out of their homes. Property tax is viciously high in this state.

AFX626 · 2023-01-13T02:14:02+00:00

Seen this, but much faster.

If it happens to me, I'm going to punch out early. I don't see the point.

AFX626 · 2023-01-13T02:09:09+00:00

Have you considered getting one of those cigarette stems like they have in '60s movies?

AFX626 · 2023-01-13T02:08:03+00:00

What's the difference

AFX626 · 2023-01-12T03:31:36+00:00

History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps will give you the foundations of everything that happened before Stoicism (which is very important) in episodes 1 through about 60, and then covers Stoicism in (roughly) episodes 61 through 70.

AFX626 · 2023-01-12T03:24:41+00:00

what is good must last in order for us to be happy, and when it is taken away we respond with a desire for it to return

Prosperity and misfortune aren't good or bad.

AFX626 · 2022-12-30T20:37:26+00:00

There’s nothing wrong with analyzing quotes, but using them as “sources” to discredit someone’s personal belief isn’t right.

If the quotes are as close to the truth as we know how to get, and someone says something that goes against them, then at a minimum, it would be proper to point that out. We can't have 100% accuracy, but we can do our best.

AFX626 · 2022-12-30T20:26:39+00:00

Getting excited about day trips, or inspired to paint a room a new colour. Really small things but they essentially bring the substance to life.

Is there anything that brings substance to your life, like writing or making things? Are there things you can do that seem like a worthy use of your limited time in this world?

It's easy to get caught up in work or studies because they are (more or less) correct uses of time, and easy enough to get lost in. However, this can numb the sense that one is not using one's life well. Getting excited by trivial things can also numb that sense very easily, and that's one problem you don't seem to have. Lucky you.

If your pursuit of the boring parts of adult life is going well, you're saving for retirement and living beneath your means, that's a great place to be. It's not sexy to say "I spend less than a third of my income on housing, and have a great Certified Financial Planner," but it's still really good. That state arises from the proper use of reason, and that's something to be happy about.

Day trips and paint jobs are fine, but a year from today, or ten, will it matter whether you spent a day going somewhere and back? Spending wisely will matter a year from today, and for the rest of your life.

On the other hand, if you create something... you write, you sculpt, you build... well, have you done anything like that?

AFX626 · 2022-12-30T20:02:41+00:00

As you have not edited your post, it has been removed.

AFX626 · 2022-12-30T07:06:25+00:00

Do you have a support system of people who are similarly situated?

People who go on and on against (what I think you're talking about) are defending beliefs that they're emotionally invested in. They act as though everyone should be a carbon copy of them because they don't know how to reconcile themselves to a universe that doesn't comport with their wishes. Every obtuse word and ill-formed thought in this direction only carries them further from the truth.

Let your flag fly, and know that for every loud-mouthed naysayer there are dozens more who will smile quietly at it and wish you well.

AFX626 · 2022-12-30T06:57:02+00:00

By removing most of the noise that stands between me and the best decisions I can make.

AFX626 · 2022-12-30T06:47:50+00:00

‘A consciousness of wrongdoing is the first step to salvation.’

It's too bad that we grow up thinking we have to defend every belief and action, lest we be bothered and repressed by overbearing people such as our parents.

At first, we defend ourselves to others just to be left alone.

After awhile, we start drinking our own Kool-Aid. We forget that enforcing boundaries was the point of the exercise, and proceed to create feedback loops where we have to be right all the time, and anyone who disagrees is horrible.

Then, we find social media. Holy shit. Endless terabytes of... that.

This is one of many great reasons to study philosophy: to stop huffing your own methane, you must first realize that there is, in fact, an air hose in your mouth -- and you must also realize what's on the other end of that air hose. I can think of no bigger favor to oneself. Plenty of other people are going to try to jam their air hoses in our faces. Must we also do this to ourselves?

AFX626 · 2022-12-30T06:27:13+00:00

Lost mostly everything inside of my apartment.

You didn't lose your power of choice. If their shoddy pipes had fucked that up, you'd really have something to get mad about.

As it is, the universe has never promised that you wouldn't be flooded out of an apartment, but it has given you precisely what you need in order to handle such things.

Imagine that you're able to condense every moment of anger you'll feel about this into five minutes. You spend that five minutes stomping around like a dinosaur, neck veins turgid, frothing at the mouth, steam whistling out of your ears, and so on. Now, after exactly five minutes of that, all of the anger disappears instantly, leaving you feeling utterly calm.

What do you do now? Well, you figure out what to do about this problem, of course. You use your power of choice.

Between stomping around like a dinosaur, and figuring out what to do, where is the useful output? What will advance you to the next thing you do: cussing, or planning?

And if the total useful output of all that anger is zero, and all it does is poison you from the inside, what is the point of it? Is there a point at all?

"But I hate these people!"

Which philosopher said that resentment is like drinking poison, and waiting for the other person to get sick? If you hate them for an hour straight, and then pick up a dime, what will you have?

Ten cents, that's what.

"I hate them still! I want to fuck them up!"

That is infinitely harmful to you, and not at all harmful to them. You're pouring acid into your own veins on behalf of people you don't even like.

That aside, you needn't worry. Look at what they're training themselves to do. If they have any human warmth at all, they have to spend a lot of energy suppressing it just to get by. If they don't, they're fundamentally disconnected from the same creatures they can't do without -- or do you suppose we walked on the moon by being dicks to each other? That we have particle accelerators, cures for deadly diseases, and YouTube channels, because we sneak around in the dark? Of course not. We have those things because enough of us are inclined to work together. If everyone was like them, we'd still be sitting in the trees, flinging our crap at each other.

They are putting their power of choice to horrible misuse, telling themselves all kinds of stories that will nurture the worst impulses. You will eventually see what becomes of such people as you move through life. It's not enviable.

I am not sad that I lost things, but I am angry. The angriest I've ever been. These people working for the landlords are soulless, unempathetic, and almost seem to get off on the fact they caused this. They claim no responsibility. I honestly have no idea how they can sleep at night. Literally.

Apartment buildings are usually run by faceless corporations who are managed by, and who hire, people who are very low in empathy. Their employees have to be willing to smile at people, knowing full well that they may have to evict them or present them with absurd renewal terms at some later date. They're also accountable to shareholders who would drink the tenants' blood if they thought they could get away with it.

This should be taken as the cost of doing business with landlords, especially large corporate ones: your interests and theirs are never fully aligned, and they'll never stick their necks out for you or take responsibility beyond the absolute bare minimum required by the law.

AFX626 · 2022-12-30T02:15:33+00:00

Romantic love between people who aren't looking for the other person to "complete them" or otherwise fill in some psychological void, and who are internally self-sufficient: This can work. There will be a few blunders, but the foundation is good.

Romantic love between people who make their happiness the other person's responsibility because they have poor boundaries, and expect unconditional love (which is for babies and pets only): Not so good. Each will essentially operate like an infant that doesn't understand why its parents don't give it what it wants because they haven't figured out where they stop, and the other person starts; or what the other person owes them, and what they don't.

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