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Life Is Short (2016)

paulgraham.com

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Re: Life Is Short (2016)

#131

Post by stormking »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #65
tobylane wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humanism fills that need. It doesn’t matter that it’s new, Islam and Christianity were new once, and corrupted since.

There's an argument to me made that the age/popularity of a belief system does correlate with validity, given that their individual memes are subject to Darwinism. Of course it's not everything, but I don't think humanism on its own would work without an older religion as its "bootstrap".

> There's an argument to me made that the age/popularity of a belief system does correlate with validity, given that their individual memes are subject to Darwinism.

Absolutely not, because the fitness, in an evolutionary sense, of those memes does not correlate with their truthfulness but with how easy they are to believe because they appeal to our fears, hopes and dreams.

Take that "life after death" trope. The hard truth is that there isn't any, when you die, everything that made up "you" will be gone for good. But no religion based on that truth would ever thrive because the thought is just too scary and bleak.

Re: Life Is Short (2016)

#132

Post by Glawen »

nly wrote: post #70
ablatt89 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny enough, I know some engineers who go to work, non-remote, to escape from their wife and kids for a bit and work becomes an avenue to relax! And having to take care of an aging parent who lives with me, I can understand.

Can totally see that. I see.work colleagues who are new parents who seem to enjoy spending as many hours at the office as possible.

When my kids were small, I used to work away 3 days a week. It was my resting days as I could sleep normally and recharge myself. I did not realize it until I spent 7 days a week at home.

Re: Life Is Short (2016)

#133

Post by stormking »

fsflover wrote: post #66
tobylane wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humanism fills that need. It doesn’t matter that it’s new, Islam and Christianity were new once, and corrupted since.

Why should one choose humanism instead of personal prosperity (egoism)? Religions have an answer. Humanism AFAIK doesn't.

The answer is a family of simple heuristics like the "Golden Rule", "tit-for-tat" etc.

Re: Life Is Short (2016)

#134

Post by Glawen »

markus_zhang wrote: post #123
ablatt89 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny enough, I know some engineers who go to work, non-remote, to escape from their wife and kids for a bit and work becomes an avenue to relax! And having to take care of an aging parent who lives with me, I can understand.

40yr old dad can relate. I need to leave the family and chill a bit once or twice a week and hybrid is a god send.

Hybrid is the way to go! I do not like full remote because you get out of touch with the teams and office politics. When I'm full on site I cannot get my work done properly. Hybrid mode allows me to manage my schedule better, get shit done while remote, and keep up with office's politics while on site.

Re: Life Is Short (2016)

#136

Post by Glawen »

alexeichemenda wrote: post #113
eastbound wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

France has UBI in the form of “RSA” since 1981. It is proportional to the number of children, so you can live with children on it, and use the state-provided accomodations. For now it rather seems that it has created two sorts of populations: Those who live off it, and those who work, the two forever opposing each other, the latter literally enslaved by the masses of the former. The enslavement in a society which is…

France’s RSA does not meet UBI standards that we’re considering in the US / California because the amount paid is so small. If you live alone with 2 kids, RSA would be 899€/month in 2022, far below minimum wage.

RSA is not only the monthly amount paid, the recipients also live in social housings paying next to nothing in rent, heating, healthcare and transportation.

A similar thing exists in other country like UK or Germany

Re: Life Is Short (2016)

#137

Post by gptadmirer »

sinlar-multiple wrote: post #81
yarrowy wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Universal Basic income would solve those problems. Eventually AI and automation should perform all the mundane jobs which is a good thing but we need to provide basic sustenance for everyone.

lmao @ UBI I can't understand how educated people can still gobble ubi propaganda up when it's proven that such model is completely unsustainable economically and socially

Because The educated is synonymous for woke politics bullshit these days. They got knowledge but they lack wisdom. They got their privilege living in safe 1st world environments but they forgot true human nature that 3rd worlders see daily.

Re: Life Is Short (2016)

#138

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

gabaix wrote: post #77
yarrowy wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Universal Basic income would solve those problems. Eventually AI and automation should perform all the mundane jobs which is a good thing but we need to provide basic sustenance for everyone.

We can do much better in automation. Entrepreneurs I know are reluctant to hire because it does not scale. Yet they do hire, slowly and surely. They need these jobs, as they cannot grow without it. Similarly they complain about the lack of talent. Most of the people they value do not want the regular job that they offer. They need the people who want the regular jobs. I am sure this will change. Yet today it is the r…

> Similarly they complain about the lack of talent.

...of people I want to have around me...

It's been my experience that "cultural fit" has been a much more important coefficient, than "talent."

In my case, it's a bit of sour grapes, and I'll be the first to admit it. I have the talent and experience to pretty much singlehandedly "make" a smallish startup (I'm doing exactly that, right now, but for a nonprofit, for free), but found that my gray hair terrified prospective employers so much, that they ran screaming.

There's plenty of talent out there, but it may come with things like self-assurance, confidence, and an unwillingness to put up with childish BS, or be a galley slave.

Re: Life Is Short (2016)

#139

Post by carabiner »

Holy god this is terrifying. It gives way to a mindset of desperate minmaxing, when conventionally we are supposed to maintain a view of abundance towards life. How can we think life is abundant when it is in fact scarce?

Re: Life Is Short (2016)

#140

Post by sriku »

Somewhat related and somewhat tangential. Slavoj Zizek on the "tautological emptiness of the master's wisdom" -

""" The tautological emptiness of a Master's Wisdom is exemplified in the inherent stupidity of proverbs. Let us engage in a mental experiment by way of trying to construct proverbial wisdom out of the relationship between terrestrial life, its pleasures, and its Beyond. If ones says, "Forget about the afterlife, about the Elsewhere, seize the day, enjoy life fully here and now, it's the only life you've got!" it sounds deep. If one says exactly the opposite ("Do not get trapped in the illusory and vain pleasures of earthly life; money, power, and passions are all destined to vanish into thin air - think about eternity!"), it also sounds deep. If one combines the two sides ("Bring Eternity into your everyday life, live your life on this earth as if it is already permeated by Eternity!"), we get another profound thought. Needless to add, the same goes for it's inversion: "Do not try in vain to bring together Eternity and your terrestrial life, accept humbly that you are forever split between Heaven and Earth!" If, finally, one simply gets perplexed by all these reversals and claims: "Life is an enigma, do not try to penetrate its secrets, accept the beauty of its unfathomable mystery!" the result is, again, no less profound than its reversal: "Do not allow yourself to be distracted by false mysteries that just dissimulate the fact that, ultimately, life is very simple - it is what it is, it is simply here without reason and rhyme!" Needless to add that, by uniting mystery and simplicity, one again obtains a wisdom: "The ultimate, unfathomable mystery of life resides in its very simplicity, in the simple fact that there is life." """

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