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The happiest I've ever been

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Re: The happiest I've ever been

#111

Post by jebarker »

idiotsecant wrote: post #94
nvarsj wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s an entire generation of mostly childless adults who are shocked to find they enjoy contributing to others’ happiness. I have friends like this, their only purpose in life is to have no responsibilities, FIRE, and never give to anyone but themselves. Seems like a terribly depressing way to live but pretty common in tech/upper middle class circles.

It's always funny how many people think that the only font of altruism is taking care of children who have your DNA , like that's some kind of selfless act. It is, in fact, the ultimate vanity of which humans are capable. Raising little variations of yourself might make you feel good, but if you think it's a unique path to a fulfilling life I suggest you are the one in the little bubble.

> It's always funny how many people think that the only font of altruism is taking care of children who have your DNA, like that's some kind of selfless act

This is a strawman position in my opinion. I don't think there's that many people who think they're carrying out some selfless act by having children. It's simply biologically true that the children you'll probably have the easiest time raising are your own and, assuming we want to continue as a species, we do need people to have children. It's fine to have them, fine to not, neither side has some moral high ground.

Re: The happiest I've ever been

#112

Post by samiv »

DougN7 wrote: post #18
reconnecting wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. I've long had the feeling that the internet could somehow help the world, but honestly, I don't feel that's the case anymore.

There is a whole lot of crap out there. But I think the Internet HAS been a game changer in lifting people out of poverty and increasing standards of living. Communication is awesome. And although there is a lot of propaganda (which there has always been) there is now also a lot of truth and counter claims. It’s no longer just the rich that have access to information (think of farmers guessing at what their crop was…

Technology doesn't do anything by itself. The result of it on the fabric of the society depends on how it is applied, whether the benefits are distributed to everyone (to some extent) or not. It's possible that taby technology is just used to displace people who lose their livelihoods and income while the benefits flow the capital owning class. In fact all the great productivity boosts that have taken place over the last decades since WW2 have mostly befitted the capital class. That's why a worker still grinds away 8h a week and barely scares by while the "elites" splurge on yacths, mansions and space travel for leisure.

Re: The happiest I've ever been

#113

Post by lm28469 »

cheema33 wrote: post #75
lm28469 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're retiring later and later, working more per week, purchasing power is going down, quality of goods is going down, life expectancy is decreasing, child mortality is increasing, teenage suicide is increasing, illiteracy is increasing, &c. But trust us this time we'll do incredible things, the same things but more of it, faster and cheaper, will automatically make things amazing!

> We're retiring later and later, working more per week That may be true. But, if somebody offered me a time machine to travel back in time and live at any point in history, would I take it? Hell no. > purchasing power is going down That is not a new thing. > quality of goods is going down Phones are better. Computers are better. Cars, planes, washing machines ... > life expectancy is decreasing On the whole, this is…

Not globally, just in the place we let these things run at full speed without regulations: the US

Re: The happiest I've ever been

#114

Post by lm28469 »

lstodd wrote: post #47
lm28469 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're retiring later and later, working more per week, purchasing power is going down, quality of goods is going down, life expectancy is decreasing, child mortality is increasing, teenage suicide is increasing, illiteracy is increasing, &c. But trust us this time we'll do incredible things, the same things but more of it, faster and cheaper, will automatically make things amazing!

[flagged]

It's the part where you stop being a wage slave and can enjoy some freedom, I know, such an alien concept

Re: The happiest I've ever been

#115

Post by light_triad »

Every generation of builders believed their tools defined their value. Then the tools got easier, faster, automated, and the definition had to change.

But programming didn’t disappear. Writing didn’t disappear. Designing didn’t disappear.

AI flips the equation: when creation becomes cheap, value shifts from how much you can produce to what changes because you showed up. The ability to have a positive impact has actually expanded.

Re: The happiest I've ever been

#116

Post by lm28469 »

lstodd wrote: post #57
anamexis wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Retirement is the withdrawal from active working life, i.e. having a job. It is not a US concept.

[flagged]

So you're telling me that if you won $1b tomorrow you wouldn't know what to do besides continuing your 9 to 5 until you die?

Re: The happiest I've ever been

#118

Post by satvikpendem »

nvarsj wrote: post #40
bengale wrote: post #35

In the nicest possible way, this is basically the oldest lesson there is. You weren’t happy because you optimized your feelings or had the right opinions. You were happy because you stopped focusing on yourself and became responsible for other people. Six kids needed you, in the real world, every week. That kind of outward focus kills emptiness fast. Chasing happiness, moral righteousness, or political engagement jus…

There’s an entire generation of mostly childless adults who are shocked to find they enjoy contributing to others’ happiness. I have friends like this, their only purpose in life is to have no responsibilities, FIRE, and never give to anyone but themselves. Seems like a terribly depressing way to live but pretty common in tech/upper middle class circles.

I want to do that some of the time, not all the time, that's the difference.

Re: The happiest I've ever been

#119

Post by internet2000 »

tadfisher wrote: post #77
internet2000 wrote: post #11

The moving tiny rectangles framing is interesting, it gets to the heart of why I find all the anti-AI takes so difficult to comprehend. If you never made any effort to connect what you do with what value is added in real life, then it's no wonder better tooling is leaving you lost. Programming (other than code golf) has always been an implementation detail for solving problems IRL.

Carpentry has always been an implementation detail for making furniture. They have been able to purchase flat-pack chairs for all of their lives, but for some reason there are people who learn this skill and have fun slowly making things that factories already make at scale. A subset of those people have made lucrative businesses out of the very human craft that is carpentry, and are able to create custom pieces on-d…

This analogy falls flat because

a) Carpentry already happens in the real world

b) There's a clear problem being solved (you need furniture).

Stretching your analogy to fit my point: pretend that programming is manually sanding wood, while AI-assisted programming is using a belt sander. If you're focused on the chair being built, getting a belt sander to help is great! If you're sanding for the craft (?) of it, focused on the wrist mechanics of rubbing sandpaper up and down, you'd be disappointed.

Re: The happiest I've ever been

#120

Post by pixl97 »

xantronix wrote: post #108
pixl97 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>when considering what the purpose of life is. And what is that exactly? At best we seem to be rather large containers to ensure that genes get replicated.

That's for us to decide as individuals.

How can something be both wrong and subjective?
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