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Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

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Re: Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

#161

Post by seppin »

_zamorano_ wrote: post #77
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You gotta earn it with a cat. Dogs are for people that need the reassurance of the unconditional love Cats are for people who have the kind of levels of self-confidence that makes the unconditional love of a dog both suffocatingly annoying and suspicious.

A cat is a dumb version of a human. Who needs a cat when you have your couple and friends? A dog is something different and special

Seriously, I get enough passive aggression from coworkers and romantic partners, why would I want more?

Re: Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

#162

Post by seppin »

romanoderoma wrote: post #95
mrfox321 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What effort and cost? They're so cheap and easy to take care of. Maybe I'm being too generous since I am using dogs as a reference point.

Not cheap nor easy They are incredibly annoying But are funny That's why people keep them (I got two) Edit: if they can roam freely they are also a threat to many other life forms and bio diversity

> Edit: if they can roam freely they are also a threat to many other life forms and bio diversity

They are the most prolific mass murderers of animals in the western world. My vegetarian (cat owning) friend got very upset when I pointed this out.

Re: Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

#163

Post by cyberdrunk »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #144
cyberdrunk wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worrying about and preparing for ever more elusive contingencies can be poison in itself. Kafka's short story "The bunker" pictures this state of mind very well.

Perhaps you're referring to "The Burrow?" [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burrow_(short_story)

Yes, thanks for the correction.

Re: Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

#164

Post by wolfgke »

collyw wrote: post #140
wolfgke wrote: post #79

> Why Life Can’t Be Simpler Because of the politicians and lawyers with their complicated, convoluted laws.

You are doing life wrong if you are letting that sort of thing get you down.

> You are doing life wrong if you are letting that sort of thing get you down.

I am not the person who demands of me that I obey all these stupid laws.

Re: Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

#165

Post by lallysingh »

mrfox321 wrote: post #41
lallysingh wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My cats are a pain the ass. They provide nothing for the effort and cost put into them.

What effort and cost? They're so cheap and easy to take care of. Maybe I'm being too generous since I am using dogs as a reference point.

We have 3 cats and just got a puppy. The dog is already much more beloved and worth the higher effort than the cats have ever been. Cats are basically dry goldfish that you can play with and pet a bit. Dogs are part of the family.

Re: Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

#166

Post by kortilla »

rpastuszak wrote: post #151
adwn wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's proven that "doing nothing" helps with creative thinking. The inventions you are talking about are a product of both hard work and laziness. The kind of "doing nothing" that helps with creative thinking is very different from the kind of "doing nothing" that results from laziness. > On a less serious note, I'd say that 90% of my programming work is driven by laziness. For instance, I test things in advance or…

Yeah, that was supposed to sound tongue-in-cheek, but actually distorts the meaning of the rest of the post. I wish I didn't add that example and kept only the first part of the post. Thanks for pointing that out. (Now, I wish I kept only the bullet points) > The kind of "doing nothing" that helps with creative thinking is very different from the kind of "doing nothing" that results from laziness. I agree, but that's…

You read the parent post (my post) wrong. I’m refuting that laziness is “the driver” for innovation.

You then went on a tangent about downtime being responsible for thinking. That has zero relationship with laziness.

You only need to look to students to see how spending intellectual effort exploring ideas requires energy. Huge chunks complain about anything that requires open ended problem solving. You become blind to this as a knowledge worker who has honed that skill in the same way a plumber becomes blind to the difficulty of sweating pipes together.

Again, the high bypass turbofan and OLED were not created out of laziness. Many critical ideas were likely matured during downtime, but that’s not laziness.

All math proofs pushing the boundaries of the field of math have approximately no practical application leading to inventions to help mathematicians be lazy. Nobody is taking a crack at the Riemann hypothesis because they’re too lazy to do the dishes.

Re: Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

#167

Post by kortilla »

sgillen wrote: post #91
kortilla wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Lazyness is a big driver for invention What? I can’t see it being a good invention driver for anything other than the category of “tools for lazy people”. How was the invention of the OLED driven by laziness? How about the high bypass turbofan?

So many tools take a job that was possible without the tool and make it much easier, and in that sense many tools are “for lazy people”. Examples include: autocomplete, spell check, version control, undo, in-house running water, washing machines, Zoom. Just to name a few random examples, the list is obviously gigantic.

Zoom is not for lazy people. The main use case is to allow people to have meeting who could not otherwise. The percentage of zoom users who could meet otherwise is vanishingly small.

Making a tool that helps people do work more efficiently is not targeting lazy people. A person is not lazy if they want to do a job more efficiently and eliminate wasted effort. A person is lazy if they don’t want to do work at all.

A smart writer uses spellcheck because people make mistakes and spellcheck is a lot cheaper than a proofreader. A lazy writer doesn’t bother writing in the first place.

Re: Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

#168

Post by kortilla »

hamilyon2 wrote: post #98
kortilla wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Lazyness is a big driver for invention What? I can’t see it being a good invention driver for anything other than the category of “tools for lazy people”. How was the invention of the OLED driven by laziness? How about the high bypass turbofan?

OLED: Performing in theater live is laborious. Also, getting there and waiting for actors. Turbofan is way out of my area of expertise. Still, I guess planes are less hard than breeding, riding a thousand horses, sailing ships, and so. And waiting, waiting is not for lazy.

OLED did not come after theater, it came after LED.

High bypass turbofans did not displace the horse either. Planes were flying before they came into use.

You’re not making the point you think you are.

Re: Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

#169

Post by crusso »

seppin wrote: post #157
crusso wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no escaping Maslow's Triangle.

Sure there is, once you have your basic needs met, you opt-out of any further status games.

The whole point of Maslow's triangle is that first, people meet their basic needs before moving higher up in the triangle. So how are you escaping the triangle when you stipulate "once you have your basic needs met"

Re: Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

#170

Post by seppin »

crusso wrote: post #169
seppin wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure there is, once you have your basic needs met, you opt-out of any further status games.

The whole point of Maslow's triangle is that first, people meet their basic needs before moving higher up in the triangle. So how are you escaping the triangle when you stipulate "once you have your basic needs met"

Because you need foot/water/shelter. You can't just ignore those needs.

Status is something we choose to opt-in to. You can choose to ignore it as well.

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