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What game are you playing?

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Re: What game are you playing?

#71
post #14

> [...] and Edgar is the worst football player he has ever seen. [...] After Brad leaves the stadium, Edgar hits a home run, winning the game. The irony. Or the sarcasm. This is comedy gold on so many levels.

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Re: What game are you playing?

#72

There was a comment on HN about a year ago by somebody that grew up in India, and being Pakistani i relate to it a lot as well. Specifically, it mentioned that these 'games' and people choosing one or two games out of a great number of games available out there seems like a uniquely North American thing (as far as we can tell from our own limited exposure to other societies). So while you folks had the jock, the nerd…

I'm from the EU, and after moving to North America with my partner I realized you can't just part-time anything in NA.

No matter what you are (goth/nerd/cyclist/painter/activist/etc), you have to dial it to 11 and be Really Serious about it. It was weird feeling like a wannabe at all of my hobbies, because I merely liked them, I wasn't serious about it with a goal-oriented diet+exercise regimen aimed for fast gains

Re: What game are you playing?

#73

There was a comment on HN about a year ago by somebody that grew up in India, and being Pakistani i relate to it a lot as well. Specifically, it mentioned that these 'games' and people choosing one or two games out of a great number of games available out there seems like a uniquely North American thing (as far as we can tell from our own limited exposure to other societies). So while you folks had the jock, the nerd…

I'm from EU, and I agree with you that this is a North American thing.

When you say North America, does that include Mexico and Cuba and Canada? Or are we talking the USA here?

Re: What game are you playing?

#74
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Whatever your pursuit, if you’re being judgmental of most other people, then you’re probably missing something big Sure, but this may very well be intentional and good; an entire community can become pathological, and it then makes sense (and is good) for principled people to trust their judgement, even if it makes them an outcast. Liberal-minded people often had this reaction to the mid-century rise of fascism, to…

> it then makes sense (and is good) for principled people to trust their judgement, even if it makes them an outcast. I don't get this. Being judgemental always seemed immature to me. Being curious and trying to understand why individuals or groups do seemingly irrational things: yes. Being judgemental (or "principled" (is this synonymous?)): no. To me, that was always a sign of someone who hasn't made sense of thems…

Most people are not deep or interesting, and are easy to plot on a database. If silicon valley companies know being a consumer - for instance - is a wretched lifestyle, then so can the average person.

I don't need cutesy ways to understand it, I resent it. Having to send your kids to school with fancy clothes and shiny toys - what a setback in society.

At some point you need to have a set of axioms to ground yourself so that you do not shift from your optimal lifestyle. At some point, you should only be interested in people better than you.

Re: What game are you playing?

#75
post #41
post #5

Science and technology and other nerdy pursuits can be really valuable, and certainly don’t require you to be judgmental of others. The problem, as I’ve seen it is that people who are bad at some of the other ‘games’ that make a meaningful life lean too heavily on science and technology as a coping mechanism. That coping mechanism could be many things: nerdy pursuits, alcohol, video games, etc. Whatever your pursuit,…

Im guilty of being rather judgmental of others who performed worse than me in academics. I don’t really want to go into the reasons but, yes its very unhealthy to think that way. People have their reasons for why they choose to focus on some things and not others. Perhaps the most important goal of a good society is to be able to assign people to things they’re most suited for.

It seems like such an outdated world view that "person X is born to do Y. His ancestry is such." Everyone can put efforts to adapt and learn new concepts and skills and isn't that the point of university? I'm confident out of 100 somali pirates, one of them is the most apt to learn python.

Re: What game are you playing?

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm from EU, and I agree with you that this is a North American thing.

When you say North America, does that include Mexico and Cuba and Canada? Or are we talking the USA here?

USA. No idea that Canada has this same mentality. Good thing I didn't use "America" ;).

Re: What game are you playing?

#77

Good thought. My immediate response is "yeah, I really didn't get the games other people were playing in junior high," which is the time frame the article evokes for me. I feel like the gotcha is you have to realize - at least sometimes - that there are still games you don't get. It's easy to feel like, "at ${year - 1} I was such an idiot, glad that's over now." You'd be surprised how many years in a row you can feel…

Indeed, as well as learning to accept that there are some games you'll just never be good at. Personally, I've never been good at playing the political game at work so I don't attempt to. There are times when I can tell it's being played, but maybe not even who exactly is playing, let alone what their strategy is or what a strategy might look like.

It seems difficult and not fun at all though, so I'm ok with this inability.

Re: What game are you playing?

#78

There was a comment on HN about a year ago by somebody that grew up in India, and being Pakistani i relate to it a lot as well. Specifically, it mentioned that these 'games' and people choosing one or two games out of a great number of games available out there seems like a uniquely North American thing (as far as we can tell from our own limited exposure to other societies). So while you folks had the jock, the nerd…

Reminds me very strongly of http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html.

Why is the distinction so high in pg's high school? Is this at par with everyone's experience?

Re: What game are you playing?

#79

Good thought. My immediate response is "yeah, I really didn't get the games other people were playing in junior high," which is the time frame the article evokes for me. I feel like the gotcha is you have to realize - at least sometimes - that there are still games you don't get. It's easy to feel like, "at ${year - 1} I was such an idiot, glad that's over now." You'd be surprised how many years in a row you can feel…

> You'd be surprised how many years in a row you can feel that way before the meta realization sinks in.

I think that meta feeling comes quite quickly, it’s just that you cannot yet grasp the full scope of your naivete. Every year I feel more cynical and look back on my younger self with a mixture of awe and horror.

It’s becoming more and more apparent to me why it is young people that change the world.

Re: What game are you playing?

#80

There was a comment on HN about a year ago by somebody that grew up in India, and being Pakistani i relate to it a lot as well. Specifically, it mentioned that these 'games' and people choosing one or two games out of a great number of games available out there seems like a uniquely North American thing (as far as we can tell from our own limited exposure to other societies). So while you folks had the jock, the nerd…

Interesting point. I came to Canada from India just before high-school. My friends and I were into car stuff then and I remember saying that I prefer British auto magazines over American ones because the British ones were more general interest whereas the American ones were much more nerdy and specialized.
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