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Sacrificing everything for my dog. How I became a programmer

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Re: Sacrificing everything for my dog. How I became a programmer

#51

Post by Spearchucker »

Afforess wrote: post #41
Spearchucker wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Philosophical perspectives on karma notwithstanding, I'm not sure I agree. You can ignore the less fortunate whether you believe in Karma, god or other imaginary friend. Second, at times it should be your obligation to be a jerk to others. Not saying always, but where not doing so puts you into a worse place than you would otherwise be, you should. To explain (followed by an extreme example): consider the most import…

So Karma is right some of the time is your defense? A broken clock is right two times a day. I still wouldn't advocate replacing your functional clock with a broken one. Similarly, I don't advocate Karma because it's an extremely flawed philosophy.

As opposed to... religion? Most of which endorse stoning, slavery and mutilation?

Re: Sacrificing everything for my dog. How I became a programmer

#52

Post by precisioncoder »

dapz wrote: post #25
precisioncoder wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the wonderful and horrible thing about the US. There are a myriad of high risk high reward options like credit cards and student debt. For some people they pay off, for others they end up drowning in debt. There are some wonderful success stories and some terrifying stories of lives reduced to abject poverty.

I think it is mostly wonderful. In the part of the third world my parents are from unless your family is independently wealthy then you simply won't be able to afford to go to college and thus are destined to (at best) have some very low-paying menial labor job. Contrast this with the US, you can get federally-backed, low-interest loans, go to school majoring in engineering and move from poverty to middle class in on…

Well it's a huge difference with Europe. Specifically in Austria where I'm living everyone gets an education for free, there's free health care, even menial jobs are well paid. Everyone lives a pretty solid middle class life but there are much fewer people struggling to change the world. Fewer success stories but everyone is taken care of. It's an interesting situation, hell there's not even credit card debt since if your credit isn't paid by the end of the month it's locked until you pay your balance down to zero.

Re: Sacrificing everything for my dog. How I became a programmer

#53

Post by eshvk »

flyinRyan wrote: post #48
eshvk wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I have heard of that narrative; Steinbeck did say “Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”. I still find it patronizing; it is reductive. The model assumes a caricature of a poor man who votes for slavery in the hope of owning a slave one day. Maybe, he just doesn't like black people? Maybe, he worries tha…

Interesting that not a single one of your proposed counter-options is any nicer than the one you dislike.

You are missing the point; I don't dislike or like any of the reasons. I am merely pointing out that a simplistic model is crude.

Re: Sacrificing everything for my dog. How I became a programmer

#54

Post by drrotmos »

flyinRyan wrote: post #45
eshvk wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with a flowery eastern concept misinterpreted and adopted in the west is that the original meaning gets distorted. Karma is merely a way of understanding "cause and effect". > This kind of belief is what causes so many people in America to vote squarely against their own interests for their entire lives. That is patronizing. There is a wide spectrum of reasons why one might say vote for lower/higher taxes…

>That is patronizing. There is a wide spectrum of reasons why one might say vote for lower/higher taxes between "they worked hard, so they deserve it" and "fuck you, I want mine". Since I never clarified what I meant and you came up with such a specific notion, it would appear you're projecting some defensiveness here. But I will go ahead and clarify my position: The fact of the matter is, the US is a combative syste…

I strongly disagree.

In my mind, the only way to vote is to vote your conscience, not what happens to give me the greatest personal gain. "The God Delusion" by Dawkins includes a great (and somewhat Rawlsian) rule, 'Always devise your rules as if you didn't know whether you were going be at the top or the bottom of the pecking order.'

E.g., as a libertarian, I consider taxes to be unethical regardless of whether I gain a net profit from them or not.

Re: Sacrificing everything for my dog. How I became a programmer

#56

Post by gadders »

Afforess wrote: post #31

I like the story, but I feel it's important to mention that the authors stated opinion on Karma is terrifying . Karma is essentially the worst sort of belief, in that superficially it seems to reward good behavior and punish bad behavior. This appeals to a lot of people because of its clear "carrot/stick" mentality and overall simplicity. This is the "Just-World" hypothesis. In reality, this kind of thinking means th…

I would have thought it meant if you were a jerk to someone, then that would generate bad karma.

Re: Sacrificing everything for my dog. How I became a programmer

#57

Post by nicholassmith »

rl3 wrote: post #16

The author's opinions on incurring credit card debt strikes me as naive with a hint of survivorship bias. > As long as you use the money properly, and investing in yourself is the best possible way to use money, credit cards can give you a new life. If by using the money properly he meant investing in his business, then, what would have happened if his business instead failed (as most do)? Incurring high-interest deb…

I was a bit struck by this: > I see credit cards as being the saving grace which prevented another great depression during the recent economic collapse.

Partly because the economic collapse was driven by banks allowing high-risk credit on mortgages, loans and credit cards, and thinking they staved off a true great depression is a very weird way to approach it.

Re: Sacrificing everything for my dog. How I became a programmer

#58

Post by gbog »

zobzu wrote: post #28

A dog is a living creature, just like a child is. Sounds good enough to attempt to make it happy. I wouldn't worry about what others think. ;-) (note: I don't have a dog.)

> A dog is a living creature, just like a child is.

Ok, mosquitoes are too.

I'm really worried for those people equating their prefered pets with human beings.

I remember those technokids playing the beggars in front of a somethingmarket in France, they had four enormous dogs and wanted money supposedly for their pets' food.

Bullshit. If you like dogs, you do not chain them allday long to some grocery entrance, and then bring them back in some small stinky appartment. You either live with them in the countryside and go hunting rabbits with them in the morning, or you just don't breed them.

Re: Sacrificing everything for my dog. How I became a programmer

#59

Post by hoggle »

anigbrowl wrote: post #35

There are probably a lot of people out there who balk at the idea of personal sacrifice for a dog. It’s easy to spot these people, however. They are cat people. I spent $1000 last month so one of my cats could get an abcessed tooth removed on Memorial day, out of about $2500 that I took in. You're not special.

That closing remark was obviously tongue-in-cheek! :)

Re: Sacrificing everything for my dog. How I became a programmer

#60

Post by tluyben2 »

I live in a village of 40 people in the mountains a large part of the year for my dogs. Programming from home. Living in a city and working in an office I thought was horrible for animals so we changed our lives 6 years ago radically to not go to 'the office' (office at home now) and live on a large (30000 m^2) plot of land where dogs can be outside without us worrying about cars.

I don't have the karma thing; I just moved because I thought dogs should be able to run around all day instead of sit in a small apartment (the apartment costing actually 4x as much as the villa + large plot of land making it really insane to me now that people actually choose and like living on 80m^2 vs 200m^2+30000m^2 for 4x as much money, but he, I loved it in the city; I'm not sure if that feeling grew or was always there). We would never move back to our previous life; there is no stress anymore and money is simply worth a lot more in the countryside.

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