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Leaving the Physical World

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Re: Leaving the Physical World

#81

Post by justonceokay »

yoyohello13 wrote: post #79
justonceokay wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t have to be privileged to live in the physical world. I quit programming to make candles for years, then apartment maintenance, now in the trades. I make 1/3 what I was making doing digital work, and I’d take a pay cut before returning. The reasons I had for leaving were manifold, but the big two were wanting to quit Adderall and having read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It’s a hard road to live…

Thanks for sharing your experience. I've been working toward transitioning from software to para-medicine. Spending my days working on random bullshit to 'increase shareholder value', which is at best neutral for society, is depressing. Actually doing something useful for real people in the real world seems like a way out. But I feel very scared, and sort of stupid and ungrateful, to be considering taking a job with…

The trade-off is real, and a hard one. For people that have a family and kids it’s probably worth it to stay at the “horrible” job. At least more worth considering.

For me though the peace and presence of mind is nigh invaluable. Because I’m working on something that doesn’t make me depressed, I get to be grateful in all of the little moments of the day. I work with brass-tacks people who do a good job and go home. I don’t have to pretend to like anyone. I spend a lot more time outside. My skills are useful wherever I go, and more likely to be directly useful to loved ones. I don’t need a gym membership. I find myself to be a lot more present and unbothered. My time outside of work is truly my own, an even though I am often more physically tired I’m able to show up better for my family and friends.

When it comes to “physical” jobs, do consider the downsides though. For me, paramedic would be a bad fit because I don’t think I could get over hearing the siren so often. There’s a reason nurses are often “mean”, the job requires a very thick skin.

Re: Leaving the Physical World

#82

Post by justonceokay »

cestith wrote: post #80
hirvi74 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I quit programming to make candles for years, then apartment maintenance, now in the trades. I make 1/3 what I was making doing digital work, and I’d take a pay cut before returning. This honestly brings me hope in a sort of fantasy way. I want to do this, but I do not have the courage to do it. > The reasons I had for leaving were manifold, but the big two were wanting to quit Adderall This hits even harder for me…

There’s a very powerful question to be asked when one hears about someone wanting to quit Adderall. Are you on it because you need it for who you are, or are you on it because you need it to meet the expectations of your employer?

For me (OP) The “question” was more straightforward: I became an addict to various drugs and having a perscripton to uppers is a very bad idea for me.

Re: Leaving the Physical World

#83

Post by taneliv »

deepsun wrote: post #61

There's no date in it. What it was written?

1992 and 1993 are argued in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48136937.

Article mentions:

> That this approach works was demonstrated during last summer's coup in the Soviet Union.

I don't think it can mean anything else than the coup attempt in August 1991.

Re: Leaving the Physical World

#84

Post by tasuki »

justonceokay wrote: post #29
jdw64 wrote: post #3

Reading this essay brought tears to my eyes. To me, the physical world is a realm permitted only to those with wealth. The author beautifully romanticizes the evaporation of tangible labor, but the physical labor I actually experienced meant unpaid, stolen wages. It meant working through the night, dozing off on the early morning subway until the very last stop, and enduring endless contempt, humiliation, and the tox…

You don’t have to be privileged to live in the physical world. I quit programming to make candles for years, then apartment maintenance, now in the trades. I make 1/3 what I was making doing digital work, and I’d take a pay cut before returning. The reasons I had for leaving were manifold, but the big two were wanting to quit Adderall and having read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It’s a hard road to live…

> If you want to jump into the physical world, become a janitor. The work is surprisingly satisfying. You spend all day fixing tangible problems that increase everyone’s quality of life.

Hah, first time I hear this piece of advice, but I totally buy it.

But... why are you here on this orange website? Isn't a part of you longing for the ones and zeroes still?

Re: Leaving the Physical World

#85

Post by funimpoded »

RickJWagner wrote: post #49
erikerikson wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please explain.

I’ve lived much of my life in the upper Midwest and have close relatives in Wyoming. Nobody behaves like that. Ever. The environment is harsh and people unfailingly help each other. Law and order is respected. The culture is one of independence, but rooted strongly in public good. What the author wrote must surely have been an attempt at humor in the Patrick F. McManus vein.

Can confirm, that kind of thing (murder that the jury decide was OK because they had it coming, or a town collectively deciding and sticking to “we didn’t see nothin’” so a prosecution can’t proceed) happens, but it’s so rare most rural-dwellers never see it anywhere near them in a lifetime. Unless it’s cops covering up for other cops or their pals, but I mean, even that’s not exactly an everyday occurrence (at least at the level of things like murder). Approximately nowhere in the US is this normal among ordinary folks.

Re: Leaving the Physical World

#86

Post by js2 »

cb321 wrote: post #21
fredoralive wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would presumably be the August 1991 coup if it were the Soviet Union, as it was one of the factors leading to the USSR dissolving at the end of the year. The Autumn 1993 coup was in the Russian Federation (and the geriatric plotters in the Kremlin kinda won that one). So 1992?

That's what I thought, too, but the top of the article says "For the Conference on HyperNetworking, Oita, Japan" which was in '94. So, I thought maybe "last summer" was internally even off by a couple years? I'm really not sure, but someone around these parts probably knows. Worth mentioning that also in the early 90s people did refer to the Russian Federation as the Soviet Union sometimes as a shortening of "the for…

FWIW, Claude followed a similar trail and honed in on Spring 1992:

Three internal anchors line up tightly on 1992:

- EFF's age. Barlow writes that EFF, "after almost two years of operation," now thinks of itself as building "the united Mind of Humanity." EFF was founded July 10, 1990, so "almost two years" puts the writing at roughly spring/early summer 1992.

- "Last summer's coup in the Soviet Union." The August 1991 Moscow coup. Read naturally, "last summer" was written sometime between fall 1991 and the end of summer 1992.

- Internet size. Barlow says the Internet "connects some 800,000 (mostly UNIX) computers." Per RFC 1296, the host count was 727,000 in January 1992 and reached ~992,000 by July 1992. 800,000 sits squarely in spring 1992.

He also doesn't mention Mosaic, which launched in January 1993 — by 1993 it was almost a reflex in Barlow's writing — which is weak supporting evidence that this predates that release.

https://pastebin.com/LFdWS2SQ

Re: Leaving the Physical World

#87

Post by HerbManic »

block_dagger wrote: post #10
davidwritesbugs wrote: post #4

His "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" was the most unintentionally comical thing I read at the time. Like his lyrics and prose it was woefully pretentious & leaden. I also met him once. A more unpleasant, up his own ass, person I can barely recall.

Yeah, well, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.

I think he is saying Barlow is more of a Walter than The Dude. ,;)

Re: Leaving the Physical World

#88

Post by [deleted] »

bpoyner wrote: post #26

He's describing my great grandmother's childhood in territorial Arizona, down to the riding a horse to a one-room school house. Her family were all tough ranchers living a lifestyle most of us can't really comprehend.

[deleted]

Re: Leaving the Physical World

#89

Post by whall6 »

snozolli wrote: post #76
samothrace wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Checks out. I could barely make it past the first paragraphs. "Like very few Americans of my generation, I come from the physical world. ...earning a living from things I could touch and smell." What is the majority of the workforce doing, then? People working in fast food, welders, plumbers, carpenters, laborers, people working in slaughterhouses, janitors, cooks, waitstaff, the people working at the grocery store a…

What is the majority of the workforce doing, then? People working in fast food, welders, plumbers, carpenters, laborers, people working in slaughterhouses, janitors, cooks, waitstaff... While I think he's pretty obviously speaking to an audience of office workers, I'll point out that there's a significant difference between cooking or building something a thousand times per day and shipping it out versus seeing the o…

No true Scotsman fallacy. Just because a cook does something multiple times a day doesn’t mean he or she can’t find pleasure in making each meal as high quality as possible.

Re: Leaving the Physical World

#90

Post by [deleted] »

Tomte wrote: post #63
virgildotcodes wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, yeah I'm confused, they said "as a citizen of the third world" but then noted working in Korea and Japan.

Third world is historically outside the American (first world) and Soviet bloc (second world). I don‘t think it‘s terribly relevant today, but why beat around the bush? Let‘s call it how we mean it: Poor.

[deleted]
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