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Interview with Bob Odenkirk

nytimes.com

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Re: Interview with Bob Odenkirk

#131

Post by swed420 »

OhioMan2943 wrote: post #113
dang wrote: post #144

[stub for offtopicness] [article authors don't write these headlines, you guys - let alone interview subjects]

This is a very new york times headline.

For real. The headline ought to be "NYT would like to remind you that life is a meaningless farce":

Interviewer: There’s a holistic observation I want to make about our conversation. You talked about how the best times in your life were when your kids were little. Those times are over. You said the art form you love the most, sketch comedy, is a young man’s game. That’s over for you. Life? It’s a farce.

Odenkirk: Yeah.

Re: Interview with Bob Odenkirk

#132

Post by kjshsh123 »

dang wrote: post #144

[stub for offtopicness] [article authors don't write these headlines, you guys - let alone interview subjects]

You can really tell from the comments those who didn't read the article and who are taking the headline extremely literally.

He quoted Shakespeare's MacBeth, "It is a tale, Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing." when talking about he thinks sketch comedy is the greatest form of self expression, even moreso than poetry from people like Shakespeare.

It's not that deep.

Re: Interview with Bob Odenkirk

#133

Post by swed420 »

kjshsh123 wrote: post #132
dang wrote: post #144

[stub for offtopicness] [article authors don't write these headlines, you guys - let alone interview subjects]

You can really tell from the comments those who didn't read the article and who are taking the headline extremely literally. He quoted Shakespeare's MacBeth, "It is a tale, Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing." when talking about he thinks sketch comedy is the greatest form of self expression, even moreso than poetry from people like Shakespeare. It's not that deep.

It was forced by the interviewer for a clickbait flair. The headline ought to be "NYT would like to remind you that life is a meaningless farce":

Interviewer: There’s a holistic observation I want to make about our conversation. You talked about how the best times in your life were when your kids were little. Those times are over. You said the art form you love the most, sketch comedy, is a young man’s game. That’s over for you. Life? It’s a farce.

Odenkirk: Yeah.

Re: Interview with Bob Odenkirk

#134

Post by thrance »

mapontosevenths wrote: post #71
nozzlegear wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the zeitgeist is overwhelmingly nihilist, dare to be an absurdist.

I came here to say this. Once you realize that life has no meaning, except that which we arbitrarily assign, you can only go a few ways with it. Of all the 'ism's you could choose in that moment, absudism is perhaps the least worst. "Credo quia absurdum est."

What you're describing is "existentialism", and Camus's absurdidm is a reaction to it. The difference is subtle, but important to Camus.

Re: Interview with Bob Odenkirk

#135

Post by throwitall1 »

ryandrake wrote: post #130
chomp wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, and some people are able to buy nicer seats on the ride with plush seats and air conditioning, and some people have to sit on hard backed plastic that hurts, and some people around you don’t get a seat at all and fall off and die routinely, and the ride keeps moving.

Yea. "Life is an amusement park ride" is a pretty privileged take. If life is like an amusement park ride, there are about 500-1000 people in the world actually riding it, and the remaining 8 billion or so of us are operators, maintenance staff, concession stand workers, and groundskeepers keeping it fun for those 500-1000 riders.

Do you really need to be a billionaire to feel like life is like an amusement park?

Re: Interview with Bob Odenkirk

#136

Post by sdwr »

saberience wrote: post #56
lukewarm707 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the only thesis/proposition i see in the comment would be: "poor people don't think about it" no other claims

Well, I didn't expect I would have to spell it out. But seriously think about it. Why doesn't your pet dog sit around thinking about what a farce life is? How many people who were living in the 1700s do you think sat around thinking life is a farce? Ponder on that question. Out of everyone living in the world today, how many people do you think sit around thinking life is a farce, who are those people? Why do you thi…

So poor people and historical people are in the same bucket as dogs, got it.

How lucky we are to be the only generation in history capable of thinking and reflecting!

Re: Interview with Bob Odenkirk

#137

Post by sph »

thesamethrowawa wrote: post #42
sph wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Desire is the root of all suffering" — Buddha You'll have a hard time finding more suffering than in Wall Street. Meanwhile I haven't found more content, relaxed people than when I visited my distant family in sub-Saharan Africa, taking life as it comes. My point still stands.

> Meanwhile I haven't found more content, relaxed people than when I visited my distant family in sub-Saharan Africa, taking life as it comes. My point still stands. You seem to be arguing against the point "only happy people can be rich". This isn't what the GP comment said. It said only rich people come out with things like "life is a farce". Which I think is true. Are any of your sub saharan african relatives givi…

> Are any of your sub saharan african relatives giving interviews to press pontificating on such things? I assume no.

No, but the first thing they say to a Westerner like me is "what are you fretting about? You white people are always stressed and busy. Just take a breath. The world isn't going anywhere."

It takes a lot of energy and effort to be rich and to chase money; these are not the people that say "life is a farce".

Your comment is borne from the idea that money does create happiness, so only rich people can enjoy life and have a laugh about it. This is not a universal maxim, just a cultural artefact of the protestant ethos that finds in maximum expression in the American capitalist society. In the rest of the world, it's the complete opposite.

Re: Interview with Bob Odenkirk

#138

Post by mapontosevenths »

thrance wrote: post #134
mapontosevenths wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I came here to say this. Once you realize that life has no meaning, except that which we arbitrarily assign, you can only go a few ways with it. Of all the 'ism's you could choose in that moment, absudism is perhaps the least worst. "Credo quia absurdum est."

What you're describing is "existentialism", and Camus's absurdidm is a reaction to it. The difference is subtle, but important to Camus.

It's been a very long time since I studied it, so you're likely right... but I thought that existentialism was the problem statement (life has no inherent meaning so we bring our own) and that absurdism and nihilism were both responses to it?

My understanding has always been that Absurdism says that while the search for meaning is absurd we should search anyhow if we feel like it (our happy friend Sisyphus). Whereas Nihilism's answer was more along the lines of Bukowski's "Don't Try." They both recognize that Sisyphus's job is pointless, but the absurdists suggest we keep pushing the boulder anyhow.

Am I missing something?

Re: Interview with Bob Odenkirk

#139

Post by standardly »

reactordev wrote: post #103
hyperhello wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not just X, it’s Y. It’s not rude, it’s hackneyed use of language.

You’re absolutely right! It’s not just X, it’s Y. /s.

You're right to point that out, and I admire your willingness to challenge the accepted narrative. That writing style not just unique to AI — all humans write like that. That's not annoying — it's refreshing. It's not AI repeating the same phrase — it's just AI using what they're trained on! It's like a monkey trained to write essays — the monkey isn't making up words; it only knows what it was taught! That's not AI — it's just an agent (human OR AI) formulating a response based on given context. That's not exhausting — it's informative!

Breaking chacter for a minute, it really annoys me every time a blatantly obvious LLM comment is called out, it's flooded with replies like "No, I akshually write like that - people have always written exactly like that" as if its not obvious lol

Re: Interview with Bob Odenkirk

#140

Post by Hikikomori »

Rooster61 wrote: post #128
Hikikomori wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't believe that Heidecker keeps getting away with murder.

Oh boy, another one of these jackoffs. Rosetti the Rat couldn't get him convicted because HE DID NOTHING WRONG. You people need to let it go.

We all know what happened. Toni the drunk was hammered for the whole trial and deliberation and had the hots for Heideckers rock aura and endless supply of chardonnay.
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