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Life is Short

paulgraham.com

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Re: Life is Short

#91

Post by zappo2938 »

numlocked wrote: post #67

And for a completely different perspective, we have Kurt Vonnegut: [Vonnegut tells his wife he’s going out to buy an envelope] “Oh, she says well, you’re not a poor man. You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a…

"You are the music while the music lasts." --T. S. Eliot

I am looking forward to twenty years from now when I will have time to read all the Kurt Vonnegut, T. S. Eliot, and Charles Bukowski I missed when I was younger. Fortunately, for now, I need to get some work done.

Re: Life is Short

#92

Post by cryoshon »

vcarl wrote: post #36
anunumoose wrote: post #3

Mr Graham, I respect you and you've accomplished more that I will in my life, but I sincerely hope that this essay against "bullshit" and "arguing online" isn't you declaring that you'll be "bubbling" yourself after your last essay was met with wide disagreement. It's possible that sometimes, no matter how smart you are, your experiences have been limited in a way and you're missing a part of something everyone else…

I read some "rebuttals" to the previous essay, and while there were definitely some valid points brought up, a lot of them seemed to me to have misinterpreted a lot of what was said. PG tweeted about feeling like a lot of his side of the "debate" was pointing out that he hadn't said something. [1] [1]: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/688044252744527875

I quoted PG paragraph by paragraph in my response... seems hard to misinterpret things that way. I think PG probably had more thoughts on the issue of income inequality which perhaps he thought were clear in his essay, but in fact were not clear to readers primed by awkward wording at the start.

It's pretty hard to misinterpret a lot of the things he wrote, though.

Re: Life is Short

#93

Post by alexashka »

ajju wrote: post #72
numlocked wrote: post #67

And for a completely different perspective, we have Kurt Vonnegut: [Vonnegut tells his wife he’s going out to buy an envelope] “Oh, she says well, you’re not a poor man. You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a…

I often feel much like Vonnegut, and yet, I don't think it contradicts the ideas in the essay. Vonnegut really enjoyed "farting around" and didn't think it was bullshit.

The difference is it sounds like Vonnegut was quite content to go for a stroll and chat up the sales clerk.

This is in stark contrast with 'I wish I spent more time with person X'.

When you live a simpler life, you have simpler pleasures.

When you live a high-brow life, all of a sudden you grasp at experiences because you're not sure when the next one is going to come around the corner.

Hence missing people, or feeling like you will never get to do X again.

When you enjoy the smell of 100 flowers, the absence of a couple doesn't inspire your mind into a frenzy of 'optimizing away the bs' because you know, when you're a multi-millionaire who doesn't have to work another day in his life, is it really spending time on bs that's the problem?

Maybe it's the bs ideas in the mind and in this essay :)

Re: Life is Short

#95

Post by bansarefun »

I had the same thought as the parent. His last essay was, by a wide margin, his least well considered, most nonsensical, and most widely criticized essay. It was, by a wide margin, his worse ever work.

And now, suddenly, his next essay is on life being too short for bullshit and arguing on the internet?

Yes... this seems to me like one thing: it seems like Paul Graham knows he wrote a god-awful, indefensible, steaming turd of an essay; and he's running away. He wants to stand by his self-entitled beliefs. He wants to stand by his ridiculous mischaracterizations of those he attacked. He wants to stand by all that bullshit.

And he's standing by his awful essay by claiming engaging with critics of his steaming turd would be a waste of his life.

Yes. This is another new low point for pg.

pg, you're over. You used to be important... and you'll continue to think you're important. But you are now the past, and the future will be found somewhere else.

Enjoy your bubble where everybody tells you that everything you say is gold. Enjoy never growing or learning again, because you've sealed out voices that are willing to tell you when you're wrong. Enjoy pretending you're perfect.

You're done.

You're a joke.

pg. you're the past.

Re: Life is Short

#96

Post by dennisgorelik »

sjg007 wrote: post #41

Obligatory: http://www.theonion.com/article/open-minded-man-grimly-reali...

Bingo:

---

While Richman has vowed to cease being open-minded to absolute horseshit, acquaintances reflected on his approachability.

"I love Blake," coworker David Martin said. "He's such a good listener. A lot of people are closed-minded and self-absorbed, but Blake always makes an effort to hear where I'm coming from. The world could use more people like him."

---

Re: Life is Short

#97

Post by kjhughes »

japhyr wrote: post #38

My father's death taught me to finish the things I start. He was a software engineer in the 70s and 80s, and he taught me how to program when I was a little kid. When he died in 2011 I went through his computer, looking at the projects he was still working on. It was profoundly sad to think that these projects were frozen, that no one would ever use them. The experience of looking through his unfinished projects led…

Your father's still around, recognizing the value of completing projects, and sharing inspirational stories with us. Thank you for your post.

Re: Life is Short

#98

Post by datashovel »

My take on this is the essay exposes a pretty significant flaw in the human condition. The more capable a person is to ignore the bullshit (ie. enough money to retire comfortably immediately) the less likely they should be doing so. And yet having the ability to "ignore the bullshit" is an integral component of what we've all come to recognize as "living the dream".

In way too many cases the "bullshit" exists because too many capable people are ignoring it.

That is unless "bullshit" is defined as all things that don't matter to anyone. In which case why would we assume anyone is focusing on those things anyways?

Re: Life is Short

#99

Post by erikpukinskis »

numlocked wrote: post #67

And for a completely different perspective, we have Kurt Vonnegut: [Vonnegut tells his wife he’s going out to buy an envelope] “Oh, she says well, you’re not a poor man. You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a…

The best computer software is the kind that reminds people to dance and shows them some steps.

Vonnegut, like so many people, imagines computers can only suck the life out of things. I suppose we deserve that reputation, since so many of us write software that does.

Re: Life is Short

#100

Post by pasbesoin »

People telling me to stick it out. Wait for things to improve. Wait until grad school. That the onus was always on me to adapt to the system and its (their) practices.

Worst. Advice. Ever.

If I have one thing to contribute, one iota of value to extract and pass on from my life, this may be it.

P.S. Substitute "extortion" for advice, in many circumstances, for a sense of how it really worked.

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