131–139 of 139 posts
I felt a strong resonance with the line: “If I had made a different choice back then, how would things be now?” It’s a question everyone has asked themselves in some quiet moment. I remember when I was going through a tough time in my entrepreneurial journey — I felt like I couldn’t go on, crushed by the weight of it all. In those moments, I always thought: if only I had chosen differently, maybe I wouldn’t be suffer…
AI?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree but I'd add that there is nothing to fix. Life is just tough and sometimes you cry because it hurts, and sometimes it fills you with joy and you rejoice. Rinse and repeat until you time has passed and it's now our descendants turn in this world. Maybe it's clearer in the form of a question: how are you completely sure you are NOT enlightened if you don't know what it is to be enlightened?
Because you don't just hurt, you suffer. Across the spiritual spectrum people report that "enlightenment" brings a radical reduction or elimination of self-inflicted suffering, and a profound inner peace. This jives with my limited experience of it as well. Someone kicks you in the shin, it causes pain. If it triggers a whole internal loop of fear and worry and anger and revenge and trauma and suffering, then you've…
Brilliant!
And this is why there is nothing to fix, because it doesn't change anything external. If it doesn't change anything external, if it's only an internal loop, it's the same as the ascetic attitude that Nietzsche describes. You can beat yourself until you're in line with your expectations for your ego, or you change your whole relationship with yourself, more accepting of your flaws and more trusting that you are able to overcome this internal loop eventually, but not today.
I have always found this question haunting. I would imagine if I had the ability to forever banish a single though from my head, this would be it.
Maybe an alternative perspective helps. If you could always do it over, an infinite redo so to say, nothing would matter. Every choice and outcome would become insignificant, because you could just redo it until it was just right. On the flip side, there's always going to be something that you miss out on, no matter how many times you could do it, some choices simply exclude other outcomes and you can't have both. Th…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because you don't just hurt, you suffer. Across the spiritual spectrum people report that "enlightenment" brings a radical reduction or elimination of self-inflicted suffering, and a profound inner peace. This jives with my limited experience of it as well. Someone kicks you in the shin, it causes pain. If it triggers a whole internal loop of fear and worry and anger and revenge and trauma and suffering, then you've…
Are you able to sustain that? Or was this one off experiences?
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It's true that life can always evolve and change, new opportunities open, responsibilities appear, etc. But in other ways it's not true. For example, there's no way to be 19 again and be in college, date the person who, looking back was clearly into you. Study the thing you really wanted to study (not what you thought would be best for your career), etc. I think the fantasy of going back isn't about being unable to c…
Central to the plot of Back to the Future Part II (for some reason not referenced in the New Yorker) is the sports almanac with information about future results. Any fantasy of going back and getting it right hinges on this kind of transfer of knowledge back into the earlier situation. The problem is then whether the information is subtle enough to be interesting, that is, to prevent the fantasy from devolving into a…
Of course with sports betting, investing etc. most people would decide to get rich to make sure they don't struggle materialistically. But after that?
I think a lot of things would be extremely boring because you already know it's going to work.
It's adjacent to the idea that if you could live forever, nothing would have meaning because you can live in any city for a thousand years, marry anyone for a thousand years and do any hobby, job etc. for a thousand years. And if you can choose any option and have zero opportunity cost for it, then does any option really matter?
A long quote, but one I love:
> “Let's suppose that you were able every night to dream any dream that you wanted to dream. And that you could, for example, have the power within one night to dream 75 years of time. Or any length of time you wanted to have. And you would, naturally as you began on this adventure of dreams, you would fulfill all your wishes. You would have every kind of pleasure you could conceive. And after several nights of 75 years of total pleasure each, you would say "Well, that was pretty great." But now let's have a surprise. Let's have a dream which isn't under control. Where something is gonna happen to me that I don't know what it's going to be. And you would dig that and come out of that and say "Wow, that was a close shave, wasn't it?" And then you would get more and more adventurous, and you would make further and further out gambles as to what you would dream. And finally, you would dream ... where you are now. You would dream the dream of living the life that you are actually living today.”
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Central to the plot of Back to the Future Part II (for some reason not referenced in the New Yorker) is the sports almanac with information about future results. Any fantasy of going back and getting it right hinges on this kind of transfer of knowledge back into the earlier situation. The problem is then whether the information is subtle enough to be interesting, that is, to prevent the fantasy from devolving into a…
Plus the question is also whether things would actually be interesting, even if you could port over all of your knowledge and wisdom. Of course with sports betting, investing etc. most people would decide to get rich to make sure they don't struggle materialistically. But after that? I think a lot of things would be extremely boring because you already know it's going to work. It's adjacent to the idea that if you co…
In a limited way those arguments are all true: solve something and something else changes in its significance. The question of what to do next, "but after that?" can be bewildering. However, there are all kinds of obstacles that we are ready and interested to have removed. Personally I have no interest in the challenge of being routinely bored to tears, or the challenge of being doomed to die. I'm totally ready for my next thousand years of non-urgency.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Central to the plot of Back to the Future Part II (for some reason not referenced in the New Yorker) is the sports almanac with information about future results. Any fantasy of going back and getting it right hinges on this kind of transfer of knowledge back into the earlier situation. The problem is then whether the information is subtle enough to be interesting, that is, to prevent the fantasy from devolving into a…
It is an interesting thought experience, what would you do differently if you have your current wisdom, but not your current knowledge. This isn't a clean distinction, because people see different boundaries on what is wisdom and what is knowledge, but I think it is an interesting thought experience all the same. If I had my current wisdom but not my current knowledge, there are still some big differences in what I w…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do I be free? I have tasted the freedom for a short time but I can't sustain it. A new ego has been formed after seeing through the old ego. And it also claims to be free of ego.
I'm not a guide, just a messenger. I'm also just a person. I can't tell you how you go about your pursuit of freedom, or the pursuit of what it means to live free. I can tell you what it means to me. I'm free when I can choose everyday to pursue what it means to live free. I'm also free when I choose the limitations in this pursuit, because I don't want the anxiety of the hyperpositive when everything is possible. I'…
What’s that rule about question titles? No. unless you also change my starting conditions.
One day I'm going to write an article headlined "Is Betteridge's Law Correct?" and watch the heads of people like you explode.