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Young people are flocking to astrology

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Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#521
post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of stereotypes, if anyone takes astrology seriously, I automatically assume they are not intelligent, irrational, and I find it impossible to take them seriously. I consider them beyond reason so I don't even try. If a person's logic and epistemology lead to him believing in astrology, it shows a deeper problem and I don't hope to have an intelligent discussion with them any more than I expect to have an int…

There is no qualitative difference between belief in astrology and any of the world's religions. Not saying you're not entitled in disregarding astrology believers but the cut-off point is completely arbitrary and dare I say irrational.

At least the world's great religions have a track record of acting as a code of conduct that helps to build and grow societies and nations. Astrology - not so much.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it varies a lot by where you live. In the US Apple seems to be much more popular, meanwhile where I live it's more seen as overpriced fashion brand for non-technical people. The few people in technical fields who actually use Macbooks tend to see it more as time-efficient alternative to Linux, at least that's my observation. I have met a lot of Apple haters in the past but not a single blind fan.

[flagged]

> but in Europe, pseudo-elitist nerds or CS students taunt Apple for being a "too overpriced toy for non-technical people". That's how I know they don't have a clue about software engineering, lol.

In my experience ("filter bubble"), the central reason for the insane hate on Apple is rather that with the iPhone, Apple made the "golden cage" fashionable. When Microsoft attempted to implement similar measures in the past (keywords: Trusted/Trustworthy Computing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trustworthy_computing), Palladium (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next-Generation_Secure_Computi...), Trusted Platform Module (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Platform_Module), ...), a huge outcry among users, and a shitstorm against Microsoft happened.

The acceptance of the golden cage of the iPhone showed that an insane amount of users are willing to be enslaved in a golden cage, and thus all the data activism to keep users in control of their devices was just a paper tiger. The fact that these Apple fanbois actively sabotaged this activism by their buying decisions is in my opinion a very good reason for this insane hate.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey! 35yo dev here. If you could go back and give your 35yo self some advice, what would it be? (Feel free to make it specific to yourself; I’m just curious.) You’re a bit of my hero since I aim to be a dev till at least 60. I barely survive Leetcode interviews now — in fact I can’t think of a single one I’ve passed. Having to interview at 60 plus sounds awful, mostly for the reasons you describe.

My advice would be (if you're in it to make a living) to get out and move into finance.

I don't get it. Do you think developers will experience some AI related job losses and finance people will not?

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That logic appears to be flawed though and involves a fair amount of hand-waving. https://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/13752 > Feser’s formalization of this argument appears around page 35. It has 49 premises. I shit you not. Most of them are uncontroversial on some interpretation of the words he employs (that doesn’t mean they are credible on his chosen interpretation of those words, but I’ll charitably ignore t…

I would not turn to Carrier if you wish to counter-argue Feser: > In an article at his blog, pop atheist writer Richard Carrier grandly claims to have “debunked!” (exclamation point in the original) Five Proofs of the Existence of God. It’s a bizarrely incompetent performance. To say that Carrier attacks straw men would be an insult to straw men, which usually bear at least a crude resemblance to the argument under c…

How about this:

https://ontologicalinvestigations.blogspot.com/2017/12/five-...

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#525

I had an argument with a girl the other day who was adamant she wanted to know my star sign. I said "you tell me" and after 10 guesses I finally told her. She then went on to tell me what I must like etc - most of which was complete bollocks obviously. I told her her beliefs were akin to racism. Just because of when I was born she thought it was acceptable not to bother to treat me as an individual but as automatical…

> I told her her beliefs were akin to racism

!!SPOILERS!!

There's an episode of The Orville where they encounter a relatively advanced planet with a government that classifies people based on astrological signs. People born under certain signs are better than others, and one astrological sign is considered to be so violent and dangerous that they lock them in concentration camps. Women intentionally induce labor early in order to prevent their kids from being born under the wrong sign, leading to a high infant mortality rate.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think that by studying engineering you see the world as it is?

More like I'm faced with realities when other people see magic. When the WiFi signal is spotty, the reality of the situation forces me to understand at least the basics of how it works and how the signal is getting blocked. When my database is acting slow, I can't just say "well the moon is half so..." I have to instrument and figure out what's happening and fix it. That at least pulls away a lot of the mystery.

>I can't just say "well the moon is half so..."

With a good BOFH excuse generator you could. https://bofh.d00t.org/

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m a 61-year-old software developer. It’s been interesting (and infuriating), experiencing some of the conclusions that younger techs have reached about me, due to my gray hair. I’m also a developer of Apple device software. That has resulted in even more abuse. There’s serious hate for Apple amongst techs. Human nature likes pigeonholing other people into simple “sort buckets,” and we have many ways to do that. It…

>There’s serious hate for Apple amongst techs. According to the StackOverflow developer survey, 33% of developers use macOS [0], which is approximately double its overall market share of ~15% [1]. In my experience, every tech company office I’ve ever been to has been a sea of MacBooks. [0] https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2023/ [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_sys... .

Yeah I actually see more hate towards Windows in the software development ecosystem. I spend my days on HN defending Powershell

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#528

I had an argument with a girl the other day who was adamant she wanted to know my star sign. I said "you tell me" and after 10 guesses I finally told her. She then went on to tell me what I must like etc - most of which was complete bollocks obviously. I told her her beliefs were akin to racism. Just because of when I was born she thought it was acceptable not to bother to treat me as an individual but as automatical…

I could imagine a much younger version of myself getting into an argument like this. Now days I just don't care, people like their own things and do stuff I disagree with or don't understand all the time. Live and let live, nod politely and try and steer the conversation to a topic of interest or even better find someone else to talk to. I like to think age has steadied me, but maybe I've just lost the will or become…

I could imagine a much younger version of myself saying something so stupefyingly patronizing like this.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#529
Astrology looks to me like one of those fourth-hand disciplines. (Like much religion. And even science if you get far enough away).

It was useful and empirically grounded at first. But by the fourth hand, a story of a story of a story, it's a bit of a mess.

But that's just me. I haven't delved into it very far.

Probably started as a nice model.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#530

Clearly I am not young, but over the last say 5 years I have been visiting a specific astrologer and has been very useful - primarily for decision making, managing stress. It is like therapy with dos/dont's and checks against any of your immediate worries. It basically helps you work out a near-term plan, typically 12-18 months, and helps to manage when things do not go your way. In a abstract way, it fits to the fat…

> It is like therapy

Then why not got to therapy?

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