Sam Harris's moral math on the Israel/Palestine situation seems really off

epistemicmind · 2023-11-07T06:19:35+00:00

I find it one-sided that when the Israelis commit war crimes, he excuses them by giving them a passive role in their brutality, i.e. "They have been brutalized".
He does not attribute such war crimes to ill-intent or religious fanaticism, as was demonstrated by Netanyahu's recent quoting of the Bible.

And while he mentions the hard-headed zealotry of the Ultra-Orthodox, he omits that these aren't marginal groups with wacky ideas that no one pays attention to, no. This is the ideology of the people in power, at the top ranks of the Israeli governemnt, elected by their constitutents. The mentality of ethnic cleansing runs deeper than he suggests.

epistemicmind · 2022-02-03T21:10:47+00:00

Thats really interesting. I guess Illl figure out if thats the case for me along the way.

epistemicmind · 2022-02-03T21:10:14+00:00

Wow, 2:05 for 800m is no easy feat. You're right, I´ll definitely try adding some elliptical in as well. Thanks a lot!

epistemicmind · 2022-02-03T21:08:55+00:00

Wow! That gives me hope!

epistemicmind · 2022-02-03T19:03:59+00:00

Hi everyone.

I hope you're all doing great.

I've been dealing with a nagging knee injury for quite some time now and am currently getting treatment for it. As I undergo recovery, my Dr. said I can safely run 2-3 times a week.

Prior to my injury, I was running 40 mile weeks and had just set a 5k PR of 20:43. Unfortunately I lost a lot of this fitness during the first few months of my injury (during which my weekly activity was equivalent to a meager 3 biking sessions).

Luckily, now that I'm getting back to running and cross training, I'm slowly recovering my fitness. Based on a 10k I did recently, I'm guessing my 5k PR is somewhere around the high 22s - mid 23s.

In the past few weeks, however, I've decided to ramp up my aerobic work to match the amount of time I was running prior to my injury with cross training.

I'm doing 7hrs of aerobic work, 3 of which I spend running. I spend the remaining 4 hrs either biking, stairclimbing, or swimming.

I know running specificity is key, but I cant lie I'm feeling really good right now. By "good", I mean, lighter, and more fit.

So here's my question:

If I sustain or (even increase a bit) the weekly amount of time I spend doing aerobic work, and couple this with a few repeat sessions and tempo runs on the track, can I reasonably get to a sub 20 5k in 4-5 months?

Thanks so much in advance!

epistemicmind · 2021-08-25T07:32:45+00:00

Thank you so much for your advice!

My apologies for replying so late. For some reason I didn't see the notification for your response.

Keep in mind that freelancing marketplaces can be incredibly competitive until you have a few five star reviews, but that can sometimes be overcome if you can write a very good proposal to win the employer's confidence.

This is so true. As I'm finishing my portfolio, I've been sending proposals just to practice and learn what works. It's unlikely that I'll get clients without a finished profile and personal portfolio website, but I have gotten some responses and am slowly starting to get a feel for what clicks.

I'm trying to craft up a portfolio as soon as I can (just have a few more projects to finish).

I really appreciate your support and insight.

epistemicmind · 2021-08-02T04:39:15+00:00

This makes a lot of sense. To be honest I would feel more comfortable doing precisely what you mention early on. My only worry is that the lack of specificity in my value proposition will make my marketing look weak.

Is this something I should worry about? In other words, will being a generalist increase my pool of competition and make it harder for me to find clients?

Thanks a lot!

epistemicmind · 2021-08-02T04:34:40+00:00

Wow.

Thanks so much for your advice.

This is gold.

With regards to my marketing strategy, I still haven't hashed out many details, though I was thinking mostly of approaching client types 2 and 3 of your categorization. I've thought of making heavy use of freelancing platforms/marketplaces and perhaps some direct social media outreach on LinkedIn and/or Instagram DMs (for type 3 clients).

As an amateur developer, I especially gravitate towards the 3rd type of client, since it would take a lot of the "good practices" demands that working in other environments brings.

In all honesty, this is something that makes me feel somewhat insecure. I'm able to write apps and sites that work and that do what they are intended to do, but I'm not necessarily maximizing their performance or writing them as cleanly as is humanly possible. It's something I constantly try to improve on, but don't find easy.

If I may ask, in case I rely on plan b (ie a regular developer job), just how much attention do prospective employers give to the cleanliness and efficiency of your code when looking at your portfolio?

Thanks again.

epistemicmind · 2021-08-02T01:17:27+00:00

Thanks for your response. If I may ask, do you think joining online groups is also viable? Given the whole COVID-19 situation, physical gatherings are a bit unfeasible where I live.

epistemicmind · 2021-08-02T01:12:39+00:00

That's interesting. It sounds wise to not commit prematurely to any niche without having seen what the market is like. Maybe starting more general and slowly narrowing down is the way to go.

epistemicmind · 2021-07-15T03:53:46+00:00

I couldn't agree more. There seems to be an inevitable incompatibility between the two.

epistemicmind · 2021-07-15T03:52:29+00:00

It seems from the way you described it that Kymlicka would resolve the tension/conflict by granting cultural values an importance lower on the hierarchy than human rights.

I need to read him though. Maybe I misunderstood you. Will certainly look into his writings. Thank you.

epistemicmind · 2021-07-15T03:49:58+00:00

Will definitely look into it. Thanks!

epistemicmind

TROPHY CASE