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I wanna live an NPC life

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Re: I wanna live an NPC life

#81

Post by Apocryphon »

lightedman wrote: post #40
bee_rider wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think when people use NPC as an insult (it is a dumb insult in my opinion), they are looking at it from the point of view of a player, someone outside the game who understands that the NPC is scripted (this is a silly and egotistical way of looking at the world). This post is looking from it from the point of view of the NPC instead, as if that was a living entity one could be.

"I think when people use NPC as an insult (it is a dumb insult in my opinion)" It's a great insult, because it is usually used to describe someone whose viewpoint is basically a brainwashed and braindead pre-programmed one (either through upbringing or other things) and clearly demonstrating a lack of self-conscious critical thought.

It's just "sheeple" for this decade. The hoi polloi. Same as it ever was.

Re: I wanna live an NPC life

#82

Post by wat10000 »

john_strinlai wrote: post #34
oilkillsbirds wrote: post #27

This is pure escapism. Numbing yourself to the burden of being. Likely from a stress tolerance so shallow and under-developed that the slightest inconvenience or expectation feels like a crisis. The truth is that after the brief initial relief of excusing yourself from being anything at all, you'll end up in a deep depression. It's a naive and immature fantasy. Remove all electronics from your life, they are a consta…

i dont think it's that deep. it's the age old advice of "dont give a fuck" dressed up in some modern terminology ("npc")

It even says “maybe this is just a retelling of stoicism.”

Re: I wanna live an NPC life

#84

Post by toomanyrichies »

kulahan wrote: post #79
savolai wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure at all you actually read the piece. Your responses about having a job or inconvenience or expectation seem entirely unrelated. The text does not, for instance, encourage not having a job. It also does not encourage being nothing at all. Being nothing special is quite different. Recommended movie: perfect days https://youtu.be/wqUT9hQd1XM?is=v1x85FdKOK_zfu60

> do nothing after work. why do you have to do something after work? do something because you feel like doing it, not because you feel like you have to. Escapism. You SHOULD feel like you have to do some stuff. Our bodies are always aiming to relax, because conserving calories is an extremely effective survival method. We are hardwired to do nothing, in order to escape the burden of instead doing something.

> You SHOULD feel like you have to do some stuff.

Gregor: It would be nice to do something.

Sam: We are doing something. We're sitting here, waiting.

"Ronin", 1998

Re: I wanna live an NPC life

#85

Post by phoghed »

orphereus wrote: post #71
phoghed wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not sure at all you actually read the piece. On my HN!? Surprised pikachu

Don't be patronising. I am pretty sure he has read the article because I agree with him, and I have read the article as well. Surprised pikachu :OOOO

You agree with him? Even the boomer coded armchair psychology? My comment isn’t even in the same realm of patronizing as that.

Re: I wanna live an NPC life

#86

Post by bluGill »

robomc wrote: post #62
bluGill wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, and there is very good reason you need to care about a lot of things. That Dragon will burn your village and kill you. You better be concerned about that - you will die. Your life isn't scripted. If have the option to not ignore the dragon. You can work with your town to setup a watch and places to flee to when the dragon is coming (even if only 50% make it that is an improvement). You can as a town fund adven…

This sort of a anxious hyper-vigilance is exactly the sort of main character bs you should let go of though. Spend some time with your kids or whatever. You actually can't plan and prepare for a hypothetical war with russia.

If it's me against Russia, no, I can't plan and prepare. - ALONE. Ukraine spent several years after 2014 planning for another war with Russia and there had reasonable success despite being in a apparently much worse situation. Ukraine is a large enough collection of people that they could usefully plan and prepare.

Which is part of my point. Don't live alone. You live in a community of people. You need to engage with your community to prepare for that dragon.

That doesn't mean don't go play with your kids or whatever. Do that too. But also prepare for life in ways that you can prepare because you live with other people

Re: I wanna live an NPC life

#87

Post by henk53 »

oilkillsbirds wrote: post #27

This is pure escapism. Numbing yourself to the burden of being. Likely from a stress tolerance so shallow and under-developed that the slightest inconvenience or expectation feels like a crisis. The truth is that after the brief initial relief of excusing yourself from being anything at all, you'll end up in a deep depression. It's a naive and immature fantasy. Remove all electronics from your life, they are a consta…

> We are wired to be needed, wanted, useful, accountable, social.

When AI eventually takes nearly ALL jobs, that will be a quite difficult thing.

Re: I wanna live an NPC life

#89

Post by ngriffiths »

In Lathe of Heaven by Le Guin, the main character George is famously frustrating because he doesn't do much. Bad things happen to him and he basically just lets them. He thinks his psychiatrist is totally evil yet keeps going back. He has a pitiful lack of control over his life. He doesn't seem to want control, which is the worst part. He isn't super happy, and you could take that as the main point, but I don't.

even George, perhaps the most boring and least reactive person you've ever read about or met, would just laugh at the goal of being "entirely unfazed by everything happening around you." Even he falls in love, experiences great joy and brutal heartbreak, finds his own small ways of making an impact, makes peace with difficult things. For a character who supposedly does nothing important, he does a hell of a lot.

Good luck, I guess!

Re: I wanna live an NPC life

#90

Post by GMoromisato »

I do agree with this attitude, but the epithet of "being an NPC" is about having someone else--the media, your tribe, your church--governing your behavior without you thinking about it.

It's not about being a main character in the world--it's about being a main character in your own life.

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