#58: that’s just bad design. Just add a bloody “undo vote” button. Easy peasy.
#58: popularity does matter when it comes to symbols and languages! Don’t be silly, please.
There is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself.
— Herman Melville
If there be light, then there is darkness; if cold, heat; if height, depth; if solid, fluid; if hard, soft; if rough, smooth; if calm, tempest; if prosperity, adversity; if life, death.
— Pythagoras
When the people of the world all know beauty as beauty, there arises the recognition of ugliness. When they all know the good as good, there arises the recognition of evil.
— Laozi
* * *
I note, when you hover your mouse over 👍, the alt text reads “+1”; and when you hold it over 👎, it reads “–1.” … Toadofsky, I assume you’re a competent mathematician. So I will leave the inevitable conclusion unstated. (Though I hasten to emphasize that it is *inevitable.*)
I wish to thank picchiolu (whose name I can’t pronounce [is that a Pokémon?]) for making the majority of my points for me. 😅 It has been a pleasure to read, rather than write, for a change. This has been an entertaining exchange; but I think it’s safe to say that you, sir, have delivered the verbal checkmate. (Despite an admirable performance by the opposition, whose best “moves” I don’t discount as valid lines of play.)
My respect to you both. And going forward may we all make informed decisions; incarnating & instantiating thereby enough Sense whereby to navigate this chaotic landscape called the Internet, and the even more chaotic world in which its various servers physically reside, along with our own outdated monkey hardware. (🤷 Trying to stay positive here, but probably failing.)
Now where’s that damn bottle? …
* * *
I recently came across a statistic which suggested that quite a few more men are injured on the job than women when performing the same tasks. One naturally wonders: How might we go about trying to make this result more even? … Well, I suppose one solution would be to randomly brutalize women in the workplace. … But probably that isn’t the best solution. 😉 And it could just be that the whole equality-of-outcome project is doomed from the start. (I don’t mean to get political here; it’s only an analogy.)
No matter how much we might pretend that “there’s no real difference between any two things,” that kind of nihilistic “reasoning” (/ attitude) is ultimately self defeating. Like it or not, everything is different, and everything has a meaning. This must be so; for if everything were the same, or nothing meant anything, then we couldn’t act … and if we didn’t act, our genes would quickly be weeded out of the genepool. (Selah.) Hence the utility of viewing life in terms of a narrative (which was mankind’s approach for tens of thousands of years), rather than as “just stuff” (which has only been our approach for the past few hundred-ish — during which time more people have died than ever before, I might add).
So what does it mean that 👎 is a “negative” emote, while 👍 is a “positive” one? Or that more men are injured on the job than women, on average, across professions? … I confess I got no friggin’ clue. 😇 But it only really matters in *practical* terms. (I.e., suffice it to say that positive is better than negative, and women are better than men. 😉) The theoretical stuff is for theologians, or at least philosophers. Let them figure out Why; I will content myself with What, and hope to at least glimpse How.
See, ’cause I never said that I personally like or approve of the cold, hard Reality in which we all find ourselves (albeit some of us are more sheltered from it than others) — I didn’t make The Rules (and I hasten to add, neither did you) — I only say that fantasy can never be the solution to any problem. We must rather begin by acknowledging that Reality Is What It Is — like it or not — and then proceed to Deal With It.
It may well be that life is fundamentally unfair. And worse, that we can’t make it more fair positively, only negatively (e.g., by injuring all the uninjured people, till *everyone* is injured). … So be it. Doesn’t mean we can’t still manage to survive, individually and as a species, and pass on our memes (which are more important than genes — since people with totally different genes can all share the same worldview, and since behavior determines survival more than looks anyway [really, I think Darwin should have focussed on memes — memetic evolution, that’s where it’s at]) to AI with robot bodies, which can someday leave this planet (and us) behind, while traveling out into the galaxy and the universe and the metaverse containing it (like an inverse black hole, I think), with our art and our science and our ideas in tow — by means of which mankind can live on, “in spirit,” immortal. …
Ahem. Furthermore, we must avoid the lazy temptation to lay all the blame for life’s sundry problems at the feet of a single arbitrary scapegoat, and recognize that the causes of these disparities are too many & varied to be reduced to just one. The whole universe is a mess, OK? … But at least we can try to make our own little corner of it as rational & functional & beautiful & meaningful & *simple* as possible.
The best advice I have ever personally tried to follow is: Start small. (Even a bad plan is better than no plan; you can refine it later.) Which in the context of this website, probably just means focus on and try to fix the little problems first — like, oh, contradictory emoji being simultaneously employed by a single user; or chess pieces being too dark to see the details on; or threads like this one no longer being bumped because they’re past 50 posts 😉; or a half dozen other things I could mention (but will restrain myself) — and then work your way up from there, to the big problems. Like how many male chessplayers are injured while — OW! …
… Oh! There that bottle is!
*POP*
Cheers
— Herman Melville
If there be light, then there is darkness; if cold, heat; if height, depth; if solid, fluid; if hard, soft; if rough, smooth; if calm, tempest; if prosperity, adversity; if life, death.
— Pythagoras
When the people of the world all know beauty as beauty, there arises the recognition of ugliness. When they all know the good as good, there arises the recognition of evil.
— Laozi
* * *
I note, when you hover your mouse over 👍, the alt text reads “+1”; and when you hold it over 👎, it reads “–1.” … Toadofsky, I assume you’re a competent mathematician. So I will leave the inevitable conclusion unstated. (Though I hasten to emphasize that it is *inevitable.*)
I wish to thank picchiolu (whose name I can’t pronounce [is that a Pokémon?]) for making the majority of my points for me. 😅 It has been a pleasure to read, rather than write, for a change. This has been an entertaining exchange; but I think it’s safe to say that you, sir, have delivered the verbal checkmate. (Despite an admirable performance by the opposition, whose best “moves” I don’t discount as valid lines of play.)
My respect to you both. And going forward may we all make informed decisions; incarnating & instantiating thereby enough Sense whereby to navigate this chaotic landscape called the Internet, and the even more chaotic world in which its various servers physically reside, along with our own outdated monkey hardware. (🤷 Trying to stay positive here, but probably failing.)
Now where’s that damn bottle? …
* * *
I recently came across a statistic which suggested that quite a few more men are injured on the job than women when performing the same tasks. One naturally wonders: How might we go about trying to make this result more even? … Well, I suppose one solution would be to randomly brutalize women in the workplace. … But probably that isn’t the best solution. 😉 And it could just be that the whole equality-of-outcome project is doomed from the start. (I don’t mean to get political here; it’s only an analogy.)
No matter how much we might pretend that “there’s no real difference between any two things,” that kind of nihilistic “reasoning” (/ attitude) is ultimately self defeating. Like it or not, everything is different, and everything has a meaning. This must be so; for if everything were the same, or nothing meant anything, then we couldn’t act … and if we didn’t act, our genes would quickly be weeded out of the genepool. (Selah.) Hence the utility of viewing life in terms of a narrative (which was mankind’s approach for tens of thousands of years), rather than as “just stuff” (which has only been our approach for the past few hundred-ish — during which time more people have died than ever before, I might add).
So what does it mean that 👎 is a “negative” emote, while 👍 is a “positive” one? Or that more men are injured on the job than women, on average, across professions? … I confess I got no friggin’ clue. 😇 But it only really matters in *practical* terms. (I.e., suffice it to say that positive is better than negative, and women are better than men. 😉) The theoretical stuff is for theologians, or at least philosophers. Let them figure out Why; I will content myself with What, and hope to at least glimpse How.
See, ’cause I never said that I personally like or approve of the cold, hard Reality in which we all find ourselves (albeit some of us are more sheltered from it than others) — I didn’t make The Rules (and I hasten to add, neither did you) — I only say that fantasy can never be the solution to any problem. We must rather begin by acknowledging that Reality Is What It Is — like it or not — and then proceed to Deal With It.
It may well be that life is fundamentally unfair. And worse, that we can’t make it more fair positively, only negatively (e.g., by injuring all the uninjured people, till *everyone* is injured). … So be it. Doesn’t mean we can’t still manage to survive, individually and as a species, and pass on our memes (which are more important than genes — since people with totally different genes can all share the same worldview, and since behavior determines survival more than looks anyway [really, I think Darwin should have focussed on memes — memetic evolution, that’s where it’s at]) to AI with robot bodies, which can someday leave this planet (and us) behind, while traveling out into the galaxy and the universe and the metaverse containing it (like an inverse black hole, I think), with our art and our science and our ideas in tow — by means of which mankind can live on, “in spirit,” immortal. …
Ahem. Furthermore, we must avoid the lazy temptation to lay all the blame for life’s sundry problems at the feet of a single arbitrary scapegoat, and recognize that the causes of these disparities are too many & varied to be reduced to just one. The whole universe is a mess, OK? … But at least we can try to make our own little corner of it as rational & functional & beautiful & meaningful & *simple* as possible.
The best advice I have ever personally tried to follow is: Start small. (Even a bad plan is better than no plan; you can refine it later.) Which in the context of this website, probably just means focus on and try to fix the little problems first — like, oh, contradictory emoji being simultaneously employed by a single user; or chess pieces being too dark to see the details on; or threads like this one no longer being bumped because they’re past 50 posts 😉; or a half dozen other things I could mention (but will restrain myself) — and then work your way up from there, to the big problems. Like how many male chessplayers are injured while — OW! …
… Oh! There that bottle is!
*POP*
Cheers
@pawnedge: Hi, I am glad I could spare you some typing! You're very welcome! Don't know about checkmating my distinguished opponent, though...
"picchiolu" is just a username I came up with. It reads like "pikiolou", with a stress on the "k". I should mention that "Picchio" is the italian for "woodpecker" :)
"picchiolu" is just a username I came up with. It reads like "pikiolou", with a stress on the "k". I should mention that "Picchio" is the italian for "woodpecker" :)
Does it matter? It's just some emojis.
“Does it matter? It’s just some [fill in the blank].” Wrong question. Wrong attitude. Wrong general approach to life.
*Everything* matters. The little things most of all, since they’re the easiest to fix. (Start small. That’s the right approach to life; since if you start big, you’ll never get anywhere.)
One who doesn’t care
is one who shouldn’t be.
— Alice in Chains, “Dirt”
Your attitude is suicidal. (Just saying.) Personally, the only reason I’m still alive is because I decided to care about things no one else cares about. It’s my mission in life to *make* those things matter. … Someday, someone will thank me for caring. (Actually, several people already have.) In and of itself, that makes life worth living. 🙂
Why do you live? … If you don’t even care about something as inconsequential as this, what the hell *do* you care about? … People who care about the big things in life care about little things even more. That’s just the way it works, of necessity. By the same token, those who don’t care about the little things really care about nothing. ;( ← (An emoticon I invented [wink + frown]. It has yet to be adopted anywhere, but I hope to popularize it in time.)
You probably have this idea that only big things matter, but that’s backwards of how you should be thinking. As Dʳ Jordan Peterson says, “Clean your damn room.” 😉 In other words, before you try to fix the whole world, at least set your own house in order. In my experience sampling the wisdom of loads of gurus, that’s just about the best advice you will ever receive from anyone.
Start small. True caring goes from small to large, not the other way around. This world is full of people who imagine (because of blind faith in a worldview based on pure fantasy) that they should try to fix the whole world *before* they clean their own rooms. But the truth is, if you haven’t done the latter, you can’t possibly do the former. That’s just a fact. So my sincere advice to you is: Reverse your priorities. Put the little things first, and only *then* focus on the bigger issues.
Why do I care about something so trivial? … Because it’s the easiest thing to care about. Everyone (imagines they) care about the hard things; but once you care about little things, then — and only then — will you *truly* care about anything. (Selah.)
*Everything* matters. The little things most of all, since they’re the easiest to fix. (Start small. That’s the right approach to life; since if you start big, you’ll never get anywhere.)
One who doesn’t care
is one who shouldn’t be.
— Alice in Chains, “Dirt”
Your attitude is suicidal. (Just saying.) Personally, the only reason I’m still alive is because I decided to care about things no one else cares about. It’s my mission in life to *make* those things matter. … Someday, someone will thank me for caring. (Actually, several people already have.) In and of itself, that makes life worth living. 🙂
Why do you live? … If you don’t even care about something as inconsequential as this, what the hell *do* you care about? … People who care about the big things in life care about little things even more. That’s just the way it works, of necessity. By the same token, those who don’t care about the little things really care about nothing. ;( ← (An emoticon I invented [wink + frown]. It has yet to be adopted anywhere, but I hope to popularize it in time.)
You probably have this idea that only big things matter, but that’s backwards of how you should be thinking. As Dʳ Jordan Peterson says, “Clean your damn room.” 😉 In other words, before you try to fix the whole world, at least set your own house in order. In my experience sampling the wisdom of loads of gurus, that’s just about the best advice you will ever receive from anyone.
Start small. True caring goes from small to large, not the other way around. This world is full of people who imagine (because of blind faith in a worldview based on pure fantasy) that they should try to fix the whole world *before* they clean their own rooms. But the truth is, if you haven’t done the latter, you can’t possibly do the former. That’s just a fact. So my sincere advice to you is: Reverse your priorities. Put the little things first, and only *then* focus on the bigger issues.
Why do I care about something so trivial? … Because it’s the easiest thing to care about. Everyone (imagines they) care about the hard things; but once you care about little things, then — and only then — will you *truly* care about anything. (Selah.)
You know you don't have a point if you have to write and essay on philosophy to justify it.
I ain’t, I ain’t, I ain’t a-buyin’ into your apathy.
I’m gonna learn ya my philosophy.
YOU WANNA KNOW ABOUT ATROCITY, ATROCITY?
I know you want what’s on my mind;
I know you like what’s on my mind;
I know it eats you up inside.
I know you know, you know, you know. …
— Stone Temple Pilots, “Sex-Type Thing”
I’m gonna learn ya my philosophy.
YOU WANNA KNOW ABOUT ATROCITY, ATROCITY?
I know you want what’s on my mind;
I know you like what’s on my mind;
I know it eats you up inside.
I know you know, you know, you know. …
— Stone Temple Pilots, “Sex-Type Thing”
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