Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Anti-mimetic tactics for living a counter-cultural life (2021)

epsilontheory.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 59 posts

Re: Anti-mimetic tactics for living a counter-cultural life (2021)

#2

Post by Zetice »

Of all the things humans participate in to try and forget we eventually die, rejecting the one thing that makes humans special (our society, culture) seems to be to be among the most myopic viewpoints to take.

Mostly because it's so self-defeating. Counter-culture is a culture, just a different one. All of the stuff you hated about human culture and want to eschew also exists in the "counter" culture!

Re: Anti-mimetic tactics for living a counter-cultural life (2021)

#3

Post by ttctciyf »

> The sooner you kill this beast within yourself, the sooner you can get to the real work of creating something that the market itself will validate

Highly anti-mimetic then, so long as you're committed to entrepreneuring and being validated by the market. Wait, what?

Re: Anti-mimetic tactics for living a counter-cultural life (2021)

#4

Post by asplake »

ttctciyf wrote: post #3

> The sooner you kill this beast within yourself, the sooner you can get to the real work of creating something that the market itself will validate Highly anti-mimetic then, so long as you're committed to entrepreneuring and being validated by the market. Wait, what?

To be fair there was an “–or not” at the end of that quote, and I assume that the dash was for emphasis. Not clear what was meant by it though

Re: Anti-mimetic tactics for living a counter-cultural life (2021)

#5

Post by inconceivable »

i've heard ben hunt (epsilon theory) talk on various podcasts and he can spend literally 2 hours talking about something that can be said in one sentence.

i'm sure he's very smart but all of his material is such a slog i don't even bother anymore.

a lot of these ex-hedge fund podcast guys just love to hear themselves talk for hours on end. especially about how bad the current finance industry is, and of course when they did it, it was different, they were good, don't you see?

finance is 99% bullshit artistry until you get to stochastic calculus and linear algebra. i recommend everyone just sit down and learn all the jargon. it's extremely complex language talking about extremely simple shit.

Re: Anti-mimetic tactics for living a counter-cultural life (2021)

#6

Post by dtx1 »

Counter Culture is not valuable in and itself. Sometimes your government is doing the right thing. Sometimes corporations create new things that have immense value for society and the individual. Being opposite of the main narrative doesn't mean you are closer to the truth.

Re: Anti-mimetic tactics for living a counter-cultural life (2021)

#10

Post by xyzelement »

Zetice wrote: post #2

Of all the things humans participate in to try and forget we eventually die, rejecting the one thing that makes humans special (our society, culture) seems to be to be among the most myopic viewpoints to take. Mostly because it's so self-defeating. Counter-culture is a culture, just a different one. All of the stuff you hated about human culture and want to eschew also exists in the "counter" culture!

Maybe off topic to what you meant but I find the "to forget we will die" an unfortunate frame.

I find some of the best people are motivated by the knowledge that they will die and therefore try to make good and impactful use of their limited time here.

I recently had a thought : I know a rabbi who has 11 children. If all of his children follow suit, he will get to meet 121 of his grandchildren in the next 20-30 years.

Now imagine you are on your deathbed and you are surrounded by your 11 children and 121 grandchildren and they are all good and strong people. Do you really lament your own death or do you have a feeling of 'I will be continued.'

A new thought for me...

Post reply on HN