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Life Is Short (2016)

paulgraham.com

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Re: Life Is Short (2016)

#141

Post by concordDance »

brutusborn wrote: post #50
epicureanideal wrote: post #39

...but it doesn't need to be. There are people working on real, scientific, anti-aging technology, like the Longevity Escape Velocity (LEV) Foundation, SENS Foundation (I prefer LEVF though), and the many individuals involved, but especially Aubrey de Grey. One of the reasons I got into software development was to try to make enough money to contribute to these causes, or to work on the problems directly in bioinform…

What got you interested in life extension? And how long would you want to live for? I’ve never understood the philosophy behind life extension research, because to me it seems like a case of spending a lot of resources in the hope of improving something that isn’t really broken. However I love people with passion and I value freedom, so I’m glad that people get to work on it even if I feel like it’s probably a bit of…

> it seems like a case of spending a lot of resources in the hope of improving something that isn’t really broken

This puzzles me. Ageing is extremely expensive to society. Healthcare and care for the elderly is often >10% of total expenditure. Surely that's pretty broken?

And of course there's all the pain they're in, the things they wish to enjoy but can't (like football) and things like covid lockdowns that have to be done because the elderly are at risk (a 20 year old has a risk of death from covid under 0.005%). Lockdowns severely damaged the mental health of many people I know and being housebound due to age related infirmity causes depression in the elderly.

Re: Life Is Short (2016)

#142

Post by eternauta3k »

msie wrote: post #73

At 51, I am trying to come to grips with wasting my life in my 20s, 30s and 40s. I don't remember doing anything memorable during that time. I spent too much time doing bullshit programming or doing the same old comfortable things with friends. I wish I dated more. Tried more things that young people can do. I was too scared to make mistakes. Now I can't go back. It's driving me nuts.

What things do you wish you'd done, besides dating?

Re: Life Is Short (2016)

#143

Post by fsflover »

stormking wrote: post #133
fsflover wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't think it works well, or better than religion for many people.

Re: Life Is Short (2016)

#144

Post by jstimpfle »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #59
selfawareMammal wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still a social construct. As knowledge and science advance, the need for religion decreases and it's really on us to accept there are some questions we cannot answer.

>As knowledge and science advance, the need for religion decreases Citation needed, massively! If anything, the powerful technology and knowledge we now wield (weapons of mass destruction, mass surveillance, modern logistics and coordination, global communications) only makes it more important that we don't forget the hard-earned scoial and moral lessons of our pre-scientific ancestors - lessons that were often encod…

Taking Christianity specifically as that's the only religion I know at least a little.

A lot of the more specific day-to-day life advice in those texts are outdated because they're based on societal circumstances of the time, which have changed by now. Or they are explanations of phenomena that we have a much better grasp on now. Or they make claims that are implausible given today's understanding.

Religions teach us some valuable high-level concepts, like love and compassion. Those values are extremely important, but also not terribly interesting. You can totally arrive at them through other means.

I don't see how those high-level values help at solving modern crises of global scale. Believers searching for specific advise on modern day problems need to work hard and read though a lot of "code" to find a few nuggets - ultimately failing to get specific enough answers.

If I do a web search on what the bible says to homosexuality, for instance, I get walls of text discussing precious few bible verses. In effect the bible, being what it is, allows those in charge to impose their individual preferences and opinions on their believers by means of laying out suitable interpretations of the code.

I am tempted to conclude that there is less collected wisdom in the bible than you might think, and more potential for harm than you like to admit.

Re: Life Is Short (2016)

#145

Post by yef »

An antidote to bullshit (e.g., unproductive meetings that you still have to go to) is journaling. When you're writing to yourself, for no other audience but yourself, you can be 100% honest. So that helps serve to counteract it and give strength, sometimes you also see things from another person's perspective. e.g. the meeting may have some value to your boss, which has follow-on benefits to you that you hadn't considered.

Re: Life Is Short (2016)

#146

Post by odiroot »

kubb wrote: post #38

This makes you think that Paul would be interested in fighting for a world where people don't waste most of their short lives in bullshit corporate jobs because the market demands it, and instead can focus on important things like their families.

Citation needed. Not everyone finds happiness in a life that you describe.

Re: Life Is Short (2016)

#147

Post by matbatt38 »

twblalock wrote: post #64
kubb wrote: post #38

This makes you think that Paul would be interested in fighting for a world where people don't waste most of their short lives in bullshit corporate jobs because the market demands it, and instead can focus on important things like their families.

If everyone behaved like that, our society wouldn't have the wealth needed to make anyone's lives comfortable and secure, except for the lives of the rich. A job that provides an income to a worker, and generates wealth for society, is not bullshit -- even if all it involves is making crappy consumer products, or working on an assembly line, or doing paperwork all day. In fact, such jobs are the reason the majority o…

Yeah beacause the system we live in does provide wealth and security for the poor, for sure!

Re: Life Is Short (2016)

#148

Post by Tade0 »

ThePadawan wrote: post #120
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.

I was interviewing for a job in the middle and towards the end of 2020, and regardless of my chances of success or interest, I asked the interviewers how work from home had gone for them so far. I encountered this sentiment most of all - 40 year old dads who were suddenly stuck at home with the wife and kids, working from an improvised home office. When I asked about returning to the office, most of them were clearly…

I found that most such people didn't originally plan for work from home, so their experience was predictably horrible. Also during the pandemic daycare/schools were closed, adding to the problem.

Meanwhile me and other young dads who did plan for remote work have now a designated room for an office and children at daycare/kindergarten for most of the day.

Until my child was old enough to attend daycare it was indeed chaos, but with just one you can get used to this. It's much like having a co-worker who likes to chat a little bit too much.

Re: Life Is Short (2016)

#149

Post by unity1001 »

twblalock wrote: post #64
kubb wrote: post #38

This makes you think that Paul would be interested in fighting for a world where people don't waste most of their short lives in bullshit corporate jobs because the market demands it, and instead can focus on important things like their families.

If everyone behaved like that, our society wouldn't have the wealth needed to make anyone's lives comfortable and secure, except for the lives of the rich. A job that provides an income to a worker, and generates wealth for society, is not bullshit -- even if all it involves is making crappy consumer products, or working on an assembly line, or doing paperwork all day. In fact, such jobs are the reason the majority o…

> If everyone behaved like that, our society wouldn't have the wealth needed to make anyone's lives comfortable and secure, except for the lives of the rich

The society today already has the means to make only 1% of the population work, and still keep the comfort level for everyone as it is.

We are making people waste their lives away creating imaginary wealth to bump up the stored imaginary wealth in financial institutions only to keep the existing economic system going.

Re: Life Is Short (2016)

#150

Post by unity1001 »

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

> when it's proven

Don't invent false realities. Nobody proved nothing as such. The Finnish experiment and others showed that there is no relation in between ubi and unemployment.

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