161–170 of 340 posts
I decided to share this article with my teenage child. We had a very fruitful discussion, which we will use to make changes to improve both of our senses of agency. This prompted me to realize that Factorio has become a refuge from my sense of lack of agency. I love solving little problems that won't come back and bite me years later if I get it wrong. Thanks for posting, and the discussions it prompted, both here an…
One of the biggest tragedies isn't just that the childhood is wasted, but that many people never learn to have agency once it is available. I'm not saying you need to start your own business or anything like that, but it seems like most people live their lives never questioning the scripts that are given to them. The basic life script we all seem to have in western society seems pretty awful when you think critically…
If you look at what people do in life, very few pick professions or businesses with high agency. Pretty sure that is not just some function of upbringing but risk tolerance and attitudes vary and not everyone wants to be a surgeon, trader, entrepreneur, racing driver, etc.
A lot of high paying professions actually are fairly agency free, e.g. consulting and other professional services - so as far as putting a price on it, agency is not necessarily rewarded much
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I went and did the other side, living nontraditionally and trying to be what I wanted. I just applied for a regular job. Because to be honest, it’s gonna be pretty sweet having a fat bank account, even if it’ll take till I’m 50 to have FU money. My current hypothesis is that the team is all that matters. The work can be the most boring, crud-type work. As long as you’re working with people you like on something vague…
> No one will probably remember us the way they’ll remember pg. The older I get, the more the whole "legacy"/impact issue seems overhyped; pg (and everyone alive today) is not going to be remembered for long either; perhaps 2 more generations, and it's a wrap. No one is remembered forever. That thought keeps me rooted firmly in the present and on the immediate impact I can have. I have never been into poetry, but bot…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Amen. I’m a sober alcoholic, and if I died tomorrow I’d be content knowing that I did at least one worthwhile thing with the time I had: I helped another alcoholic, a 23 year old man who tried to kill himself shortly before I met him, get sober and start working and move out of his mom’s basement and stand up straight and look other people in the eyes and then go and help a few other people stop drinking. Not a singl…
That brings up an old memory for me: I used to work as a lifeguard at a pool for three or four years as I was going through uni. Nothing glamorous in that work, it's just very loosely managing young males showing off in front of young females. Except this one time some kid jumped in the deep end and whilst he surfaced, he couldn't reach the top of the side of the pool in order to stay at the surface, he was clutching…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suspect we are all the prisoners of long-dead economists. Their ideas of people as atomic resources were useful abstractions in some ways (I agree with the point below that their work has led to great material prosperity), but they have also influenced entire generations of overly bureaucratic and inhumane policies. People are treated as "things" to be "managed," and as a consequence they develop learned helplessne…
Economists just try to explain things. They don't make economics. The nation and enterprises big small in concert make an economic system. But, go back far enough in the past before nations and businesses and economics were still in play. It's like numbers, it exists even if we are ignorant of it.
I immediately wrote down "autonomy"*. I learned nothing at all about pitching that day, as no-one I spoke to needed any convincing whatsoever: everyone had the same response: "Oh! I never thought of that. That's much more important to me than what I wrote down."
* I know "autonomy" and "agency" are technically a bit different from a philosophical perspective but hey.
One of the biggest tragedies isn't just that the childhood is wasted, but that many people never learn to have agency once it is available. I'm not saying you need to start your own business or anything like that, but it seems like most people live their lives never questioning the scripts that are given to them. The basic life script we all seem to have in western society seems pretty awful when you think critically…
Because risk. Rich, privileged people can try different things with zero risk of becoming destitute. And that's how they practically stumble into new opportunities. Adam Neumann was making collapsible heels and toddler knee-pads before he decided to try the pyramid that is WeWork, which ultimately bought him a private jet and multiple houses. Me? I didn't have a chance to "try" things. My room for error was zero . Mu…
I would prefer just taking every 21 year old and saying "here is 15 grand, go do something amazing".
I don't know what the results will be, but a fair number will be worth the risk.
One of the biggest tragedies isn't just that the childhood is wasted, but that many people never learn to have agency once it is available. I'm not saying you need to start your own business or anything like that, but it seems like most people live their lives never questioning the scripts that are given to them. The basic life script we all seem to have in western society seems pretty awful when you think critically…
Because at the end of the day everything gets old - every act, job, etc. (hedonistic treadmill).
And having complete freedom isn’t a solution. You’re still trapped within your own head 24/7.
Taking time to pursue meditation and other activities that help you be happy no matter what the circumstances of the external world seem like the best choice of activity when younger in order to build agency.
One of the biggest tragedies isn't just that the childhood is wasted, but that many people never learn to have agency once it is available. I'm not saying you need to start your own business or anything like that, but it seems like most people live their lives never questioning the scripts that are given to them. The basic life script we all seem to have in western society seems pretty awful when you think critically…
I went and did the other side, living nontraditionally and trying to be what I wanted. I just applied for a regular job. Because to be honest, it’s gonna be pretty sweet having a fat bank account, even if it’ll take till I’m 50 to have FU money. My current hypothesis is that the team is all that matters. The work can be the most boring, crud-type work. As long as you’re working with people you like on something vague…
History is a highly aggressive compression algorithm. Entire industries are forgotten, let alone people.
So, yes, the correct answer is, "relax and enjoy yourself."
If you happen to contribute to the world in a way that escapes the compression algorithm - congrats.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> No one will probably remember us the way they’ll remember pg. The older I get, the more the whole "legacy"/impact issue seems overhyped; pg (and everyone alive today) is not going to be remembered for long either; perhaps 2 more generations, and it's a wrap. No one is remembered forever. That thought keeps me rooted firmly in the present and on the immediate impact I can have. I have never been into poetry, but bot…
This is all broadly true, but the fact that 'Ozymandias' is frickin' Ramesses II does undermine the message of the poems a bit. Or more generously, it adds another level of depth to the point that someone's future fame can't easily be predicted by looking at their current fame.
We know him in the very abstract, not all much different to how we know the Ozymandias of the poems.
Does that level of being remembered matter?