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RMS lifestyle

stallman.org

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Re: RMS lifestyle

#111

Post by pjscott »

suhastech wrote: post #95
rtpg wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I try reading this while assuming the benefit of the doubt. I don't think he's doing it on purpose (it feels like he isn't even aware that he's doing it). It makes the entire thing easier to read.

This kind of thinking did happen to me when I tried to generate a consistent world view. At this point, there are just too many contradictions, I'd rather forget and simply accept the absurd . For example, being an atheist, I don't particularly believe in holidays myself. I do enjoy myself with my family even if it mean a few capitalists make a little more money during the season. On the whole, a meaningless event ma…

I don't see the absurdity. You like having holidays because you find them fun. You're happy to go along with religious and/or relentlessly capitalistic holidays for the sake of expediency, because (as mentioned in the previous sentence) holidays are fun for you. There's not a single part of this that doesn't make sense.

Re: RMS lifestyle

#112

Post by belorn »

Xcelerate wrote: post #88

Since this is a thread about his personal preferences, I will add my personal commentary of them. He seems to hold very strong opinions about certain things, but it appears (at least to me) that not a lot of thought went into forming these. Some are just arbitrary ("Not all my shirts are red or purple, but many are. I like those colors.") and some are just wrong ("I am an Atheist, for scientific reasons"). He's a ver…

> no law of nature that supports his statement that atheism stems from any scientific reason.

when people talk about scientific reasoning, I assume it also includes the scientific method. As such, atheist and it tend to agree that any prevailing theory should be abandon as soon as a better theory is suggested. This however is strictly contrary to faith, in that faith is the constant belief no matter what other theories exist. (also see The God Delusion for an expanded version, and other arguments of scientific reasoning and atheism.)

Re: RMS lifestyle

#113

Post by skore »

simonsarris wrote: post #13

It's Stallman's own title, but a much more accurate title would be "RMS Opinions" I think it's interesting for that reason though, because it doesn't say as much about his actual lifestyle as it does what he thinks about other people. For instance: > As a matter of principle, I refuse to own a tie. Tells us more about an opinion he's made about other people. If he wanted to be more descriptive of his lifestyle, he co…

> > As a matter of principle, I refuse to own a tie.

> Tells us more about an opinion he's made about other people.

This being HN, jokes have to be pointed out. So to you - This is a joke:

"The first time I visited Croatia, that country had a major PR campaign based on being the origin of the tie. ("Cravate" and "Croat" are related words.) You can imagine my distaste for this — therefore, I referred to that country as "Tieland" for a while."

Come on. It's funny, lighten up.

Re: RMS lifestyle

#114

Post by pjscott »

laureny wrote: post #85

Stallman on Harry Potter: > I don't say you shouldn't read these books. That I leave to the author. I only urge you not to pay for them. Quite the upstanding citizen. His justification for this is even more bizarre, he accuses JK Rowling of something hypothetical: > Suppose that the mistakenly sold Harry Potter books had been ebooks: then instead of ordering her fans not to read her books, Rowling could have ordered…

At least link to the page you're quoting snippets from, for context:

http://stallman.org/harry-potter.html

Re: RMS lifestyle

#115

Post by IvyMike »

belorn wrote: post #107
IvyMike wrote: post #2

It annoys me how willing he is to push the externalities of his decisions onto other people. ("I won't carry a cell phone, but fortunately everyone else does and I can just mooch off of them"). It's like that friend who won't own a car but sure as hell will mooch a ride. This reminds me of a story my friend told me. Back in the early 90's(?) my friend had his lunch eaten by RMS, several times. I don't think it was ma…

I know many people who do not own a car. Somehow, the argument here is that those shouldn't now be allowed to use a buss, taxi, train, or go with a friend somewhere in a car? forever doomed to walk and always only walk? Given the city where I live, only about 10-20% of people I know has a car. That would make it kind of depressing if we dictated their lives in the way described. Thats just don't make any sense. The f…

> the argument here is that those shouldn't now be allowed to use a buss, taxi, train, or go with a friend somewhere in a car?

Nope, that was not the argument.

> I have a small distrust

Ha. At best this is a friend-of-a-friend story from 20 years ago, posted on the internet. If there's any consequence to you trusting this story, I'd highly recommend against it.

Re: RMS lifestyle

#116

Post by pjscott »

hoodoof wrote: post #91

With all due respect, and acknowledging many other bright people with a similar situation (i.e Bill Gates), he comes across as being on the autism/aspergers spectrum.

That's hardly disrespectful -- and Stallman himself has agreed with you, describing himself as "borderline autistic". The label certainly seems to fit.

Re: RMS lifestyle

#117

Post by belorn »

dylangs1030 wrote: post #54

Genius or not, is he a misanthrope? Yes, he has a splendid list of cool things he's done, and he's a luminary. But why compile a list of things that basically says, "I generally don't like people, the things most people do or have, or the silly rituals most people enjoy." I can respect his opinions, but he comes across as very condescending... That said, I do admire how much of a diehard he is about his beliefs. Not…

I assume you haven't read many biographies of famous people. The only thing that strikes me as uncommon is that RMS writes it on a website in condensed form rather than having it written by a biographer for a physical book. Many historical famous people had extreme opinions, and was very dismissal of "silly rituals", newspapers, cats, workers, and street music to name a few.

Re: RMS lifestyle

#118

Post by [deleted] »

pjscott wrote: post #109
foobarbazqux wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Copy pasta much? > But here on Hacker News (of all places), let's instead criticize his personal preferences on fucking ties. So someone writes about their personal life, and then people discuss it. What the heck does a whole bunch of honorary doctorates from Latin America have to do with this? Obviously the people in Latin America like him. As far as I'm concerned, a single actual doctorate is worth more than all of…

Do you honestly think that he would face such intense criticism if he were just some guy on the internet? You seem to be defending a double standard by arguing that there shouldn't be a double standard.

[deleted]

Re: RMS lifestyle

#119

Post by gonvaled »

Xcelerate wrote: post #88

Since this is a thread about his personal preferences, I will add my personal commentary of them. He seems to hold very strong opinions about certain things, but it appears (at least to me) that not a lot of thought went into forming these. Some are just arbitrary ("Not all my shirts are red or purple, but many are. I like those colors.") and some are just wrong ("I am an Atheist, for scientific reasons"). He's a ver…

EDIT: I read your sentence as "regardless of the fact that I am neither a theist or an atheist". So my comment here is a reply to that sentence, which is probably not what you implied.

Sorry to disappoint you, but you are probably an atheist. An atheist does not believe that god does not exist: an atheist does not believe, period. An atheist recognizes that reason can not answer that question. That the question "does this invisible, untouchable thing exist?" has no meaning whatsoever.

The only difference between an atheist and an agnostic, is that the latter is utterly concerned with the impossibility to prove the existence/non existence of god. An atheist accepts that fact as self-evident, and goes on with his life.

You are right that atheism does not stem from science (atheism predates the scientific method by some millennium). But the scientific method reinforces the atheist point of view.

Re: RMS lifestyle

#120

Post by belorn »

simonsarris wrote: post #13

It's Stallman's own title, but a much more accurate title would be "RMS Opinions" I think it's interesting for that reason though, because it doesn't say as much about his actual lifestyle as it does what he thinks about other people. For instance: > As a matter of principle, I refuse to own a tie. Tells us more about an opinion he's made about other people. If he wanted to be more descriptive of his lifestyle, he co…

I quite disagree that the tie comment is guarantied to be about other people rather then personal opinion.

Someone once told me that they disliked tattoos because they didn't like the idea of getting branded like people in Auschwitz or cattle on the field.

Question one: Is that an opinion about tattoos, or about other people who wear tattoos? Should those people be offended?

Question two: What was intended by the person who said it?

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