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I wanna live an NPC life

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Re: I wanna live an NPC life

#261

Post by watwut »

savolai wrote: post #236
spoiler wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very tangentially related but I've seen the word escapism used a couple of times in this thread... I can't tell what's happening here... Did we all extract a different conclusion/meaning from the piece? Did a bunch of people discover the same new word recently, and are learning to use it? Did people not read the full post perhaps, and jumped to conclusions? I don't think the author is advocating or engaging in escapi…

These are the cultural projections previous western generations were built upon. My reading is that that is what’s happening, that is why they are so predominant.

What does that even means in this context? Is "western" now synonym for "people exactly like me"?

Re: I wanna live an NPC life

#262

Post by jplusequalt »

idle_zealot wrote: post #42
Exoristos wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Hades, yes. Vanishingly few of us actually control our fates or societies even to a small extent. The modern tendency to think like we do is a form of mania. By indulging it, we damage the only control we really have, our relative health and peace of mind.

Pretending that you don't have a part to play in the fate of society is escapism at best, and learned helplessness at worst. Democracy is explicitly a system that functions off of the sum of individual participation, and if the quality of that participation is poor it will produce bad outcomes even barring subversion by other powers. Pessimism like yours cedes control entirely to those who would take it through undem…

>Democracy is explicitly a system that functions off of the sum of individual participation, and if the quality of that participation is poor it will produce bad outcomes even barring subversion by other powers

We don't live in a democracy. We live in plutocracy where people with capital and influence have an outsized influence on policy.

Re: I wanna live an NPC life

#263

Post by uncivilized »

saghm wrote: post #239
uncivilized wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parent commenter means “we” as in humans. Their comment is not meant to speak for others’ individual preferences.

Humans are a bunch of individuals though with an incredible amount of diversity. If their claim is biological, it would be helpful to pin down more precisely what they mean, because right now it's pretty vague. I'm dubious that there's a rigorous claim here though because pretty much every time I've seen a claim like this before it's essentially just protection of one's personal beliefs about psychology without more…

Great. I couldn’t care less. Was just clarifying the comment in case the commenter wasn’t a native English speaker. Reply to them not me.

Re: I wanna live an NPC life

#264

Post by SoftTalker »

BeetleB wrote: post #258
SoftTalker wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except you've got to cut the grass, weed the flowerbeds, wash the car, do the laundy, cook dinner, do the dishes, etc.

It's telling that you include totally unnecessary things like yard and car stuff. I mean, sure, I wash the car every so many months because I take a road trip and can't get stuff off my windshield. Washing cars is one of those absolutely pointless things people do that the article is alluding to. It is not supposed to be clean.

Those things were really just meant to be examples of the sorts of routine, daily things that have to get done if you have any responsibilities above and beyond your own immediate gratification. You might generically call them "chores." Just the routine, boring, regular responsibilites that are part of being an adult who is taking care of his life and family.

The guy who takes a bike ride after work until sunset has either done some planning and dealt with the chores to free up that time, or he's a selfish inconsiderate who's letting the other people in his life shoulder the externalities of his self-indulgence. Sure most chores can wait a bit, so some amount of spontaneity is OK, but it can't be a regular way of living.

Re: I wanna live an NPC life

#265

Post by bee_rider »

sodapopcan wrote: post #110
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) Probably not totally relevant, but a several years ago I was out for one of my best friend's very low-key bachelor party (just a few friends/family members bar-hopping, no strip clubs). We went to a bar that was recommended by one of us and the dude who greeted us was so insanely charismatic that I assumed he was someone my buddy knew and…

It is a fun story. Not everything needs to have a point!

If the guy was incredibly charismatic and managed to sort of join the group despite lacking a properly developed backstory, maybe he was a DMPC (dungeon master player character).

Re: I wanna live an NPC life

#266

Post by saghm »

uncivilized wrote: post #263
saghm wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humans are a bunch of individuals though with an incredible amount of diversity. If their claim is biological, it would be helpful to pin down more precisely what they mean, because right now it's pretty vague. I'm dubious that there's a rigorous claim here though because pretty much every time I've seen a claim like this before it's essentially just protection of one's personal beliefs about psychology without more…

Great. I couldn’t care less. Was just clarifying the comment in case the commenter wasn’t a native English speaker. Reply to them not me.

They didn't explicitly say they were trying to speak for all of humanity. I'm responding to the specific interpretation of it directly because as the comment you were responding to pointed out, it was ambiguous.

Re: I wanna live an NPC life

#267

Post by BeetleB »

SoftTalker wrote: post #264
BeetleB wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's telling that you include totally unnecessary things like yard and car stuff. I mean, sure, I wash the car every so many months because I take a road trip and can't get stuff off my windshield. Washing cars is one of those absolutely pointless things people do that the article is alluding to. It is not supposed to be clean.

Those things were really just meant to be examples of the sorts of routine, daily things that have to get done if you have any responsibilities above and beyond your own immediate gratification. You might generically call them "chores." Just the routine, boring, regular responsibilites that are part of being an adult who is taking care of his life and family. The guy who takes a bike ride after work until sunset has…

Again, your comment only highlights the original post.

Cleaning the (exterior) of the car is something so many people do primarily because of judgmental folks like yourself. They don't care about a lot of dust on their cars, but they feel they have to because of what others think. The point of the post is to stop caring what such folks think. They definitely are not your friends.

His sentiment is a common one amongst much older folks. "Don't care too much what others think" is a fairly common advice they give. You'll put in a lot of effort and get very little in return.

Same goes for yard stuff. One of the things I looked at when I bought my house was how the neighborhood's yards were. Some were very "well kept". Others were clearly not. I bought the house because of the latter - it told me the neighborhood doesn't care that much, which is a good thing. Maintaining yards is one of the more wasteful acts in life (unless it happens to be your hobby).

https://blog.nwf.org/2024/04/why-we-shouldnt-have-lawns/

(My yard is actually well maintained, because I pay a guy to do it - if I can't afford him, though, it's going downhill).

> or he's a selfish inconsiderate who's letting the other people in his life shoulder the externalities of his self-indulgence.

Hey, if my dusty car bothers you - by all means come over and clean it.

Re: I wanna live an NPC life

#268

Post by [deleted] »

spoiler wrote: post #226
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…

Very tangentially related but I've seen the word escapism used a couple of times in this thread... I can't tell what's happening here... Did we all extract a different conclusion/meaning from the piece? Did a bunch of people discover the same new word recently, and are learning to use it? Did people not read the full post perhaps, and jumped to conclusions? I don't think the author is advocating or engaging in escapi…

[deleted]

Re: I wanna live an NPC life

#269

Post by SoftTalker »

BeetleB wrote: post #267
SoftTalker wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those things were really just meant to be examples of the sorts of routine, daily things that have to get done if you have any responsibilities above and beyond your own immediate gratification. You might generically call them "chores." Just the routine, boring, regular responsibilites that are part of being an adult who is taking care of his life and family. The guy who takes a bike ride after work until sunset has…

Again, your comment only highlights the original post. Cleaning the (exterior) of the car is something so many people do primarily because of judgmental folks like yourself. They don't care about a lot of dust on their cars, but they feel they have to because of what others think. The point of the post is to stop caring what such folks think. They definitely are not your friends. His sentiment is a common one amongst…

Again, they were examples. Stuff has to get done. It doesn't specifically have to be washing the car or cutting the grass. Maybe it's helping kids with homework, or cleaning the toilets, or shopping for groceries, or taking your wife out to a nice dinner, or watching the kids while she goes to a movie with her friends.

I don't care about your dusty car. By all means don't wash it for me. But if your wife cares, and she's driving a dirty car because you go bike riding after work every day, then you might want to reconsider. Again, that's just an example.

I'm reminded of a quote, something along the lines of "if we all did the little things we know we are supposed to do, most of our big problems would take care of themselves"

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