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How will the miracle happen today?

kk.org

181–190 of 285 posts

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#181
post #25

Sounds like someone who takes and does not give

Exactly. People taking advantage of other peoples' kindness systematically and at scale is the reason why people are less kind today.

I do like that the article touches exactly this, and even though I'm a stranger to the entire concept, it makes sense:

>Hardly anyone hitchhikes any more, which is a shame because it encourages the habit of generosity from drivers, and it nurtures the grace of gratitude and patience of being kinded from hikers

I can see how it becomes a healthy feedback loop

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#182

In summary, a wealthy westerner travels the world, asking the poor for favors. He eventually comes to believe that enlightened spirituality rests primarily on gratitude. (One can't imagine why.) He then proceeds to passive-aggressively browbeat readers who aren't as grateful as he is for the "lucky ticket called being alive." Has it occurred to him that perhaps it was his ticket that was lucky? It certainly seems luc…

Yeah, while the article is beautifully and poetically written (he's a reputed magazine editor after all), it comes across naive to extrapolate his good fortune to "you just have to be open enough to let the miracle happen to you". (I know, I'm simplifying here a bit.)

Obviously, there's some truth to it, but there are many unspoken variables that worked in his favor that he doesn't bother to acknowledge them. Some other comments also touched on it.

I'm not being cynical here. I myself have had incredibly good fortune in experiencing the kindness of strangers, both in the East and the West, and I do my best to reciprocate. But I'm acutely aware of how invisible factors that are not in my control helped facilitate some of the good fortune that came my way. I can't merrily attribute it all to my own "openness to experience"!

KK inhales his own good fortune too deeply.

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#183
Before I quit riding my motorcycle, I recalled one important thing: all the way from the Oakland Hills to downtown San Francisco, many (I dare say 'most') drivers would step their cars to the edges of their lanes to make room for me to lane-split. I know there are lots of people who use their phones will driving, but this was clearly intentional, and a large number of people would do it. I was riding a Ducati but in a modern car you won't hear me. So that means that this large number of people were:

* checking their mirrors

* deciding to make room for me

You don't have to make room for me. I can lane split with a car in the center of its lane and I can slow and stop if its close to this side. But people would do it. It's just an everyday kindness - a small measure of friendly consideration and I appreciated that.

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#184
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You realize I'm talking about the author (KK), not the people he was basically grifting? I have edited my comment to make it more clear.

I did not realize, thanks for the clarification. I think you're leaning a little too hard on Kevin though. Grifting is putting a bit of a fine point on it.

I saw him as a content creator doing some research, like pewdiepie or mrbeast. He's a good writer though. The article was a fun read.

> Your goal here is to make the best YOUTUBE videos possible. That’s the number one goal of this production company. It’s not to make the best produced videos. Not to make the funniest videos. Not to make the best looking videos. Not the highest quality videos. It’s to make the best YOUTUBE videos possible. Everything we want will come if we strive for that. Sounds obvious but after 6 months in the weeds a lot of people tend to forget what we are actually trying to achieve here.

- mr beast

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#185
post #5

This reminds me of a video I watch recently of a comfortably off guy who decided to try and do a long-distance cycle with just £100. He could afford not to rely on others, but instead he let people buy him food, give him a bed, etc. This didn't sit well with me. If you can pay your own way, but choose to instead let others pay for you, you're just sponging off people.

An interesting question would be - have I helped people more well-off than me? and how did I think about it?

I think there is no reason for him to write this article for free, or any of his articles, but I am glad he did us the kindness.

(I did like amish hackers https://kk.org/thetechnium/amish-hackers-a/ )

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#186

Radical openness can slide into naïveté if it ignores power, incentives, and bad actors. “Be vulnerable and good things will happen” is only true in constrained contexts, where norms, reciprocity, and consequences exist. Outside those, vulnerability can absolutely be exploited. Ina perfect world openness is not surrender; humility is not passivity; trust is not indiscriminate access.

Your comment makes me think about my situation. I am an open person that likes to try to make strangers laugh and people often are comfortable striking up conversations and opening up to me.

Recently I was essentially conned by a guy who I thought was being friendly but he ended up walking off with my phone and PIN (that I’m guessing he saw me enter earlier) and emptied my bank account. This was my payment for being open and obviously too trusting of strangers.

It seems more recently whenever I spend time out in public all I see are people on their phones, people driving around not paying attention, no one doing anything with any actual care and I seem to keep literally stepping in other peoples dog shit. I now have quite a negative view of the general public and I tend to think they are mostly morons that don’t give a fuck about anybody or anything but themselves.

I don’t actually want to be like this. I liked the authors idea of “pronoia” but I don’t see any way there for me. I’d say I’m still a positive and open person really but inside I hold quite a bit of hate for people in general.

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#187
post #165

Lots of interesting things in this miraculous story, but I can assure you none of these miracles would happen without the two words completely left out of the article: white privilege

Take that as a lesson for the benefits of building a great reputation for your race to bless your decendents that even in foriegn lands your kind are respected.

I do think it is a stretch to say that such a reputation was responsible for every single act of kindness he received.

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you can pay your own way, but choose to instead let others pay for you, you're just sponging off people. I was particularly perturbed at the mention of someone emptying their bank account to help this guy, who has more money than the person emptying their account. I'm no ethics expert, but there is an idea that the unbounded acceptance of generosity becomes a form of exploitation, which I agree with.

I thought the eaay was creepy but that section just gave me the heebie-jeebies. "Sympathy vampire" is the term that came to my mind unbidden. It reads like an essay by someone aromantic describing love purely in terms of going to restaurants to eat exquisite food, and the mutual benefits of filing taxes jointly.

indeed the author sounds like an alien visiting a human zoo

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#189
For those in the thread worrying that KK may have been mooching off people, and would not reciprocate: many years ago, I opened up our back yard for people who wanted to come to O'Reilly's Emerging Tech conference, but could not afford the sky-high hotel prices in Silicon Valley (this was before AirBnB or couchsurfing).

I was surprised when Kevin Kelly appeared. He'd been my (very distant) boss at Wired, was a published author of one of my favorite books, a very well-known figure and a smiling but disarmingly calm manner. He sat and amicably talked for hours with a yard full of people, many of whom have become some of my closet friends. Then, as the evening closed, he asked if he could sleep in my yard too. Others had brought tents, and burning men structures, and it had begun to rain. Kevin pulled out a camping sleeping bag from nowhere, struck out, and I saw him later, in the soaking, muddy garden, quietly curled up under someone's geodesic dome structure.

Decades later, after Covid, I mailed him out of the blue, and asked him for advice. He immediately remembered me, invited me to his home, and talked to me, again, for an hour or so, about AI, optimism, and how to change the world.

To be frank, I never emailed him thank you, and I still feel guilty about that, but now I feel like it was never needed or asked for. I may mail him anyway. Maybe there's a miracle or two still left in the day.

Re: How will the miracle happen today?

#190
post #183

Before I quit riding my motorcycle, I recalled one important thing: all the way from the Oakland Hills to downtown San Francisco, many (I dare say 'most') drivers would step their cars to the edges of their lanes to make room for me to lane-split. I know there are lots of people who use their phones will driving, but this was clearly intentional, and a large number of people would do it. I was riding a Ducati but in…

I like moving over for motorcycles. It's a little thing, but costs me nothing and is totally available as a recognition. Maybe it's like saying, "I see you." I had wondered if it was helpful. Now that you told me it's not necessary, I guess I'll continue doing it anyways.
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