R U OK? • Hacker News Board

Re: R U OK?

#201

Post by justforyou » Fri, Sep 11, 2020, 2:01 PM UTC

swyx wrote: post #101

ericmcer wrote: post #96

Something I am struggling with recently is less am I ok, but more do we as humans deserve to be ok? When I look at the freeways full of cars, streets lined with overflowing garbage cans, homeless encampments, grocery stores with row after row of cheap meat under fluorescent light. Am I supposed to feel ok? It many times feels as though we are a virus decimating our host environment. The constant flood of bad news com…

there's a lot of bad in the world, but also keep in mind the Steven Pinker argument that we have progressed a lot compared to human history as well. as for dealing with it - personally i embrace the idea of "keep your circle of concern as small as possible to your circle of influence". practically, it works out to "stop giving a crap" which i know is not responsible en masse. i guess the only thing to do if you feel…

Steven Pinker's work is disingenuous and riddled with inaccuracies.

I suggest reading Chris Ryan's Civilized to Death to correct the intellectual damage inflicted by Pinker.

Re: R U OK?

#202

Post by justforyou » Fri, Sep 11, 2020, 2:05 PM UTC

Ma8ee wrote: post #175

ekianjo wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We can get rid of cars and build more beautiful cities! We don't have cars because we love driving and waste hours in traffic or something. They have a purpose and solve problems.

Yes, but most of those problems have other, less wasteful solutions. We don’t have to live sprawled out far away from our workplaces, and we don’t each and every one need to move our own 1500 kg vehicle to get somewhere in urban areas.

The notion of vehicles ro travel distances is not the problem. Engineering said vehicles as mechanically inefficient depreciating status symbols is the problem.

Re: R U OK?

#203

Post by justforyou » Fri, Sep 11, 2020, 2:09 PM UTC

eulers_secret wrote: post #151

ericmcer wrote: post #96

Something I am struggling with recently is less am I ok, but more do we as humans deserve to be ok? When I look at the freeways full of cars, streets lined with overflowing garbage cans, homeless encampments, grocery stores with row after row of cheap meat under fluorescent light. Am I supposed to feel ok? It many times feels as though we are a virus decimating our host environment. The constant flood of bad news com…

I feel the same way. Humanity is going to reap what it has sown. I think we do not deserve to be OK. Warning, my very cynical viewpoint below. We've destroyed or are destroying (not exhaustive by any means): flying insect populations by 75%, wild animal populations, coral reefs, numerous fisheries, both poles of the Earth, rain forests... Climate change is not going to stop or be stopped. Check page 8 of this PDF for…

Humanity !== Capitalism

Re: R U OK?

#204

Post by justforyou » Fri, Sep 11, 2020, 2:23 PM UTC

52-6F-62 wrote: post #74

a5withtrrs wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world is a strange place right now and I often wonder if the people of generations past felt equally out of place in the various turmoils of their time. Disinformation, willful ignorance and mass manipulation by anyone that can control the discourse of online communities is taking over the web that I grew up using and loved. I fear all countries are slowly trying to become more isolationist at the expense of the…

> The world is a strange place right now and I often wonder if the people of generations past felt equally out of place in the various turmoils of their time. I think they did.. Not going too far back, I've heard tales from within the music sphere about much of the wanton drink/drug/smoke/sex culture and its general tie to the persistent feeling that the world was on the brink of nuclear war and collapse, and the lac…

Drink/drug/smoke are all the same thing and faux nihilism is often an excuse for hedonism.

Said faux nihilism was also a product produced by the music industry and sold a lot of records.

Re: R U OK?

#205

Post by justforyou » Fri, Sep 11, 2020, 2:28 PM UTC

throwaway_ruok wrote: post #42

Not okay. It's a worrying time being a Chinese person. On the one hand, I don't support CCP (hence the throw away); I find the dictatorship very troubling. Furthermore, the growing patriotism and nationalism makes me anxious about the next generation of Chinese. On the other hand, many people outside tend to treat Chinese people and CCP as a whole, and denounce and dismiss everything we do. More and more people sugge…

No apologies necesaary.

Nationstates, ideologies and those who profit off their miasma are all bastards, but there are still actual people out there and you're one of them. If it all amounts to nothing --- it has still been great hurtling through the cosmos on a wet rock screaming in terror with you brother.

Re: R U OK?

#206

Post by delinquenz » Fri, Sep 11, 2020, 3:04 PM UTC

josuepeq wrote: post #54

The U.S. needs this day, especially this year. With the unmitigated disaster of 2020, I’m “probably not ok,” but I am not in any danger to myself or others. Quite the opposite - I’m optimistic that things are moving in the right direction. I mean, it can’t get worse: - Shutdown my consulting Business in February because I didn’t feel comfortable with being around new people constantly with a t-cell deficient immune s…

Feel hugged..

Re: R U OK?

#207

Post by erikpukinskis » Fri, Sep 11, 2020, 3:35 PM UTC

parliament32 wrote: post #148

ericmcer wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite example of this comes from my ~10 years working at grocery stores before I made it into the tech industry. An older lady would come in and just clean us out of our cheap ground beef. This was at trader joe's, we sold 1 pound plastic wrapped cubes for $2.99. She would come in and buy ~20 every week. I finally asked her what she was doing with all this ground beef and she explained how it was for her two bi…

I don't want this to sound like an attack but what's the issue? Heaven forbid someone feeds their pets the food they're supposed to eat instead of some hyper-processed and unregulated sawdust pellets.

That’s a great question...

I am not an expert, but the dog food cookbook I have cooked from didn’t prescribe 100% meat, it had you combine meat, grains, vegetables, and oils (and eggs? I can’t remember).

And there are more sustainable meats than beef which are just as healthy for dogs.

Also using parts of the animal other than the prime cuts is good for an overall more sustainable plan. (And probably good for the health of the animal too)

Re: R U OK?

#208

Post by AlwaysRock » Fri, Sep 11, 2020, 3:43 PM UTC

abnercoimbre wrote: post #159

AlwaysRock wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had an ambulance called for me years ago when I passed out in public (nothing serious) and it was fairly difficult to convince the EMT's that I didn't want to nor needed to go to the hospital.

If it's okay to ask, was not wanting to go related to financial concerns too?

Mostly I knew I didn't need to go so it was time but yes money was a large factor as well. I had no idea what the bill would look like. I tried to get away so they wouldn't try to charge me just for coming out.

Re: R U OK?

#209

Post by b0rsuk » Fri, Sep 11, 2020, 7:05 PM UTC

Erwin wrote: post #55

b0rsuk wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Europe. China is often hard to understand and seen as a monolithic block. In Poland if something doesn't make any sense it's common to say "it's Chinese to me". The language, especially the characters, is probably the biggest barrier. I vaguely know that China contains a bunch of peoples and languages, regions with distinct cultures. But very little beyond that. People fear what they don't understand. I thi…

On a more fun note, what is considered "Chinese" varies greatly by language (it's Greek in English): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_to_me#In_other_languages In German, wikipedia claims "Polish in reverse" (though there's no other reference to that phrase on the Net, other than Reverse Polish Notation).

I'm not surprised at all - it turns out Polish is one of the hardest languages to master. Norman Davies, a British historian fascinated by Central/Eastern Europe with a particular interest in Poland makes a couple of errors per several minutes of speech. Typically with noun genders.

https://donald-static.s3.amazonaws.com/userimage/8cabf28c970...

Re: R U OK?

#210

Post by silicon2401 » Fri, Sep 11, 2020, 7:43 PM UTC

rzzzt wrote: post #164

silicon2401 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People often think realism sounds negative.

There is a theory that non-depressed people are the ones who go about their way with rose-tinted glasses on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depressive_realism

> Although depressed individuals are thought to have a negative cognitive bias [...] depressive realism argues not only that this negativity may reflect a more accurate appraisal of the world but also that non-depressed individuals' appraisals are positively biased.

Makes sense. Unless you have some kind of solid evidence to suggest that things will go well, there's no basis for being positive. At most you could argue that being positive can increase motivation, confidence, etc. But you have to weigh that against the risk for disappointment, discouragement, etc in the long run if you encounter repeated failure or disillusionment. And motivation aside, being realistic can be more helpful than being positive for some people.