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“People simply empty out”

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Re: “People simply empty out”

#471

Post by qu4z-2 »

nnoitra wrote: post #146
blackhole wrote: post #5

I feel like too many people get sucked into the idea of furthering their career, to the point that they forget to further their own life. What is the point of existence if we never get around to experiencing it? "It's not the things we do in life that we regret on our death bed, it is the things we do not." - Randy Pausch

I will totally regret not robbing a bank.

The quote isn't "You'll regret every single thing you didn't do."

OK, so you're unlikely to regret not robbing a bank, but do you think you're any more likely to regret robbing a bank? Bear in mind that requires you to a) rob a bank and b) regret it. Sure, given a) it seems plausible you'd regret it, but it also seems exceedingly unlikely you'll actually rob a bank, even following that advice.

It's the actions that we toy with but never get around to that count, not the things that we know full-well are terrible ideas.

Re: “People simply empty out”

#472

Post by qu4z-2 »

badman_ting wrote: post #369
newnewnew wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every argument is ad hominem nowadays. It is the sickness of the post-modern era[1]. Thomas Jefferson was a slave owner. Charles Bukowski kicked a woman. Paula Dean once used a racial slur referring to a man that robbed her at gunpoint. Leonidas probably opposed women in the military. Let's throw out all of human history and art and listen to the pious, sniveling PC morons of the last 10 years. That is the modern wor…

> Every argument is ad hominem nowadays. Careful... http://plover.net/~bonds/adhominem.html

In fairness, the form

  Thomas Jefferson said that [some well reasoned argument or opinion]

  Yeah, but Thomas Jefferson was a slave owner. 
  [and thus we shouldn't consider his argument]
is pretty clearly ad hominem.

Re: “People simply empty out”

#473

Post by kokotko »

gaius wrote: post #441
kokotko wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think more and more Gen Y people in advanced European countries see owning a car as a failure - you are a fool for wasting money, when transportation can be done cheaply and also often for free. You are basically penalized for owning a car by high taxes, and for those few occassions in a year when you need a car (moving stuff) it's easy enough to rent. Spending your life in traffic jams is just a plain fail. Having…

I think you may need to recalibrate your idea of failure. I own a car specifically so I can load it up with gear at the weekends and go diving or camping. I know a few people who are rabidly anti-car and ride fixies. They spend their weekends bar-hopping and nursing hangovers. Fair enough, but that's not the lifestyle that particularly interests me. Having to wear a nice suit is not failure either. Both cars and suit…

Fair enough point of using a car for outdoor hobbies - I'd call it an exception to the rule, an appropriate use of technology. But let's face it, in most cases it isn't like that.

Regarding my suit comment, it's about looking into the mirror in the morning and thinking whether the person you see is really who you once aspired to be.

Some people like to wear suits. One of my friend's greatest days was when just off high school he got straight into finance and finally could wear a suit 24/7. It genuinely makes him happy, it's an extension of his personality. He wants to be the big-shot-80s-New-York-cocaine-snorting-penthouse-owner-investment-banker type of guy.

But for me and I guess many others, to walk the earth in a suit would be, I don't know...perhaps the antithesis of existence. I think most people never think about it and even enjoy the office culture in a perverse way. Perhaps it's some form of a groupthink empathy, a we're-all-in-this-together style of getting a kick out of this masked suffering. I remember being a small kid and swearing I'd never be like an office manager or the bankers I saw, all wearing the same suits and becoming an empty shell that just assumes whatever of a corporate idenitity, becoming an embodiment of a foreign entity. Really just a zombie or a host for a parasite until it chews you out.

Because it does chew you out exactly as stated in this Bukowski letter, you're not really getting out. All the prices, the whole economy is set upon this 40-hour workweek, wage slave reality. All value is derived from this standard. I saw this very clearly 20+ years ago without even knowing the proper vocabulary to understand it. It's surprising how simple and clear it is, yet it's collectively decided that we don't want to look at it, we don't want to face it. You want out? The only way is to become the embodiment of the hope of getting out - a well-known star that can sell us the dream. And we'll gladly pay for it!

But you're right, the binge-drinking, fixed-bike urbano hipster thing is also a joke. We're all a joke in the end. But at least we could maybe strive to be funnier than we are because the joke is getting old.

Re: “People simply empty out”

#474

Post by kristiandupont »

emwa wrote: post #189
VexXtreme wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's human nature, we're designed to always keep climbing up and striving for more. It is not healthy to constantly compare yourself with people who are worse off. Sure, it induces a sense of gratitude to know that you have clean drinking water and no threat of being killed by a warlord today (unlike many people in Africa, for instance), however if we settled for that, there would never be any incentive to impr…

>and no threat of being killed by a warlord today (unlike many people in Africa, for instance) Another stupid American misconception.

How is this a misconception? Clearly there are countries in Africa where people do in fact live under such threats?

Re: “People simply empty out”

#475

Post by ctdonath »

_flag wrote: post #468
ctdonath wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure I can justify this. You present 10,000,000 employed people working jobs which could, conceivably, be automated. Do you seriously think that given technology currently applicable, their employers would not replace those people with machines in a heartbeat if the latter were cheaper? Sure, you can hypothesize about how that should be the case, but you would overlook a multitude of realities that indeed render the…

I gave an example of an automated checkout, but my point was not that the jobs I mentioned could all be automated -- my point was that they are not necessary. When I say "necessary", I don't mean that they aren't necessary to increase corporate profits (salesman, which I mentioned, certainly are), I mean they are not necessary to ensure a stable and functioning society. The example I gave with automated checkouts is…

Simple wrap-up: society won't move to a 20-hour work week because those who do will become jealous of those who don't, desiring unto "necessity" those things the 40- (and 60-, and 80-) hour worker can afford.

You can live on a very very small income right now. I figure an intelligent frugal life can suffice at $10/day. But you don't, because you won't give up what you don't need.

Re: “People simply empty out”

#476

Post by lsc »

inthewind wrote: post #243
dalek_cannes wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a way out of the looking-the-part problem. Cultivate an image of an eccentric genius (and work hard to actually have genius level skills) and people will start to focus more on what you can do and less on what you look like you can do . In fact, that's why the tech industry seems to get an exemption -- they're mostly perceived as eccentric geniuses. Also, spend lavishly on the best clothes, eat lavishly, but…

This thread is showing the US bias of the forum again. Some of aren't earning enough to run a car let alone a modest one.

>This thread is showing the US bias of the forum again. Some of aren't earning enough to run a car let alone a modest one.

Really? huh. My experience has been that even foreign workers demand $10+ per hour, which is enough for a shitty car in a low cost of living area in the US. Good English is a reasonable multiplier.

Re: “People simply empty out”

#477

Post by pyoung »

resu wrote: post #315
pyoung wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vangaurd low cost index funds. Supposedly, you can count on 8-10% annual return. I also did/do some occasional stock picking which has gotten good results (but I wouldn't count on that being sustainable). I probably spend about 20k a year, and have savings in the low 6 digits. I waited until I had 5-10x my annual expenses, but obviously you can do it with less. My main recommendation would to be have at least an extr…

You can also count on index funds to lose 50% of their value in two years in an upcoming crisis. The roaring 90s and mid 2000s isn't a pattern that will continue to repeat itself. The fed can't keep printing the S&P500 up forever. I think made a great decision, but you ought to diversify your nest egg.

I agree that there is some risk, but I am not sure how I would be able to diversify any more than I already have. I have my money split into about 6 different index funds, primarily diversified globally, although I have a few industry/sector specific funds. And then I have about 30% of my savings in stocks that I picked, most of which are pretty stable companies with fairly long term future/outlook (so they would, in theory, come out of a recession in good shape, even if they took a few hits).

If there is some other asset class I am missing, let me know. In the meantime, I think I will take my chances with the market. Worst case, if things get bad, I can just go back to work (left my old company, in a fairly recession proof industry, on good terms)

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