And depending on which country he lived in, this whole episode either cost nothing or has saddled him with crushing debt for the rest of his life
The Fight
111–120 of 140 posts
Re: The Fight
#112This, as any would be, is certainly a valid way to respond to a brush with death. But implying that this is somehow a lesson to be learned by everyone, suggesting that others should live their life this way, seems misguided to me in context. Contemplating your mortality shouldn't necessarily convince you to double down on your current priorities (especially if those priorities are centered around banal platitudes lik…
Really well put. But to me, you bailed out, or at least contradicted yourself with the phrase, "instead of contributing to humanity." You set up a nice concise statement of Sartrean pointlessness, and then you appear to invalidate it completely with such a broad notion full of Big-Picture-Feel-Good-Meaningfulness as "contributing to humanity." You just kind of slipped that in there as if we all Know What You Mean. As…
It isn't necessarily clear that ForrestN advocates "contributing to humanity." I think that was more of a statement that while goals like "fight the status quo" are ostensibly for the purpose of "contributing to humanity," they're actually motivated by "love, insecurity, and fear of death," without making any value judgments on these goals. That is, ForrestN is explaining how fighting the status quo doesn't even fulfill the stated motives of those who wish to fight against the status quo.
Re: The Fight
#113This really reminds me of Paul Graham's post from a while ago, talking about things people in the future will think are weird about our time.
One of the things that struck a chord with me from pg's post: In the future, people will get regular health checkups to prevent problems before they happen. I don't know about this particular case, but it makes a lot of sense to me that many people who seem to be in perfect health, might not be. Today, the extent of checking up on yourself is mostly taking a blood sample, talking to a doctor, etc. And it's not done that often, either.
In pg's future world, people would check themselves out several times a year (maybe more), with machines that catch many of the most basic problems. In fact, I'd wager that one of the most promising avenues for advancing humanity is to develop better, more affordable tests to check for common problems that we can cure with some foresight.
Re: The Fight
#114This, as any would be, is certainly a valid way to respond to a brush with death. But implying that this is somehow a lesson to be learned by everyone, suggesting that others should live their life this way, seems misguided to me in context. Contemplating your mortality shouldn't necessarily convince you to double down on your current priorities (especially if those priorities are centered around banal platitudes lik…
I mainly disagree with this. It is extremely hard to comprehend how short life is. Most people actively avoid knowing. They tell themselves stories about eternal life, or they act like they have all the time in the world. When circumstances conspire to wake us to the transitory nature of life, it can be incredibly valuable. I violently disagree with the notion that the heat death of the universe "means that it really…
I interpreted ForrestN's statement much differently: "it really, really doesn't matter what you accomplish." Given that emphasis, I don't think what ForrestN said is incompatible with your analogy.
The point is that the heat death of the universe means that some things, like the drive to "contribute to humanity" are not goals that are inherently superior to other goals, such as "cooking a beautiful meal."
This point is clear when ForrestN says "there's no reason to adhere to anyone else's values, or to feel pressure to do anything in particular. You should do what you want, what makes you happy, even if it's humble." Cooking a beautiful meal certainly falls under the category of "humble things that make you happy."
Re: The Fight
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
The helmet must be removed for unconscious injured. If the person is fully able to respond you should leave the helmet on unless asked otherwise, but you must remove the helmet when the injured looses consciousness. Not taking the helmet of may have the injured die of blood or puke inhaled or just his tongue blocking respiration. So you're damned if you do and more damned if you don't. Be careful when you remove the…
Without the means or training to manage the victim's airway, there's no advantage to removing the helmet. Leave it for trained rescuers.
By the time a trained rescuer arrives, the biker is dead or has massive brain damage from oxygen loss. So whatever you do can only be better than doing nothing.
Re: The Fight
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
We have that. In germany the Berufsgenossenschaft mandates that every company with more than 2 and up to 20 employees has at least 1 person trained in first aid on site. Companies larger than that need 5% - 10% of the personal trained, depending on what work is done. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unfallverh%C3%BCtungsvorschrift...
What is the consequence if 3 co-founders start a company, and only find out about this requirement a year later? See item 7 of http://www.paulgraham.com/america.html to know why I asked it.
Good question.
* First: It's employees. Founders don't need to be employees. In fact, I'd say most are not.
* Second: You have to go through a basic first-aid course when you get your drivers license. So most people actually are basically trained. I think you have to refresh that course every two years to comply with the regulation, but that's a refresher only. It's really a basic first-aid class that's required if you're a small company.
* Third: This is the kind of regulation where you get a slap on the hand the first time you violate it. So I'd assume the answer is "Basically nothing"
Btw: Paul Grahams view on the regulations in germany is a bit outdated. SAP started in a garage. And you don't need 20k to start a startup. You need 25.000 Euro to form a GmbH which is one kind of a LLC. There's a lot of reasons why big startups mainly happen in the USA, but the garage issue is none of them.
Re: The Fight
#117I agree, i believe we should not forget death to help us fight the ordinary vain reality.
Thanks for sharing this.
Re: The Fight
#118This, as any would be, is certainly a valid way to respond to a brush with death. But implying that this is somehow a lesson to be learned by everyone, suggesting that others should live their life this way, seems misguided to me in context. Contemplating your mortality shouldn't necessarily convince you to double down on your current priorities (especially if those priorities are centered around banal platitudes lik…
The crux of your argument is the claim that, if the universe becomes a field of equidistant neutrinos, no action or thought in the meantime matters. The implicit assumption behind this view is that events only matter to the extent that they leave a legacy. In particular, it asserts that things only have ultimate meaning if they extend to temporal infinity. I believe that how one reacts to Curtis's post, and to your s…
ForrestN is not (as I interpret) saying that nothing matters. Just that evaluating the "matter-ness" of something based on some objective like making a difference to humanity is baseless. If staying passive makes you happy, then take that route. If proving mathematical theorems makes you happy, then take that route.
You seem to be saying that the pursuit of a goal in of itself matters, something that is not really at odds with what ForrestN implies, which is that the end product (the result of accomplishing a goal) doesn't really matter, given that all paths end at the same destination.
I especially take issue with your last sentence, which feels like a cop-out. "You may as well move" is a poor reason to move. "You may as well stay put" has just as much validity.
Re: The Fight
#119Some time ago I came across an elderly man in some difficulty lying in the street in London. While waiting for an ambulance he 'died' (no heart beat, no respiration, no signs of life at all, blue lips and gums) and I immediately did CPR on him until the ambulance arrived. Months later I learnt that he survived. Any brush with death makes you seriously think about your own mortality. I know that watching this stranger…
How was it life-changing?
It made me change focus on my own health and the health of my family. It was one of the factors that caused me to change job and the sort of work I was doing and make other changes in my private life.
Re: The Fight
#120I never really understood what those words meant, "Live life fullest, live like its your last day, etc"
Can anyone tell me what that really means?