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Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

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Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#251

This seems to be a major epidemic nowadays. I suspect that mechanistic, meaningless, purely mimetic pursuit of success has some pretty negative consequences on society. I suspect it might explain why so many people are interested in engaging in politics (or company politics) and zero-sum value extraction schemes instead of just adding value... They're not interested in the process at all, only in the outcome; financi…

>They have no intrinsic pride in the work they do; it's all about status, money and power the guy with status,money and power is obviously more attractive than the guy who, although he loves his work, is more or less unsuccessful on those parameters. it's intraspecific selection at play. One of the only remaining factor influencing human evolution today. People understandably value what increases their SMV. Konrad Lo…

As bad as it sounds, I think this does seem to describe the situation correctly.

This is the kind of attitude which helps the individual at the expense of the group. When the group is too dumb to see through bullshit, the people who produce bullshit have a huge advantage within that group.

I've seen this dynamic at play first hand in groups and communities of various sizes. It's just incredible how sometimes individually smart people can form a group but somehow, as a group, they act really dumb and they fall for obvious BS over and over... And the people selling BS within the group keep screwing the group over and over again and group members just ignore all the evidence that they are being screwed. Meanwhile those who are working in the interest of the group are shunned because the group ignores the tangible evidence and believes the BS narratives which paints those people as harmful.

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also seem to remember that the story went on to say that Crowley at one point had been praised for his work in the Spanish Inquisition. That was the first he'd actually heard of it--humans had come up with it on their own--so he went and had a look, and then went and got blind drunk, because there are some things even demons would rather not think about. That kind of abrupt tonal slam, from comedy to horror, leavin…

> I also seem to remember that the story went on to say that Crowley at one point had been praised for his work in the Spanish Inquisition. That was the first he'd actually heard of it--humans had come up with it on their own--so he went and had a look, and then went and got blind drunk, because there are some things even demons would rather not think about. Well, it makes sense that demons wouldn't want to think abo…

If you think the main thing of the Spanish Inquisition was strict judicial procedure and rules of evidence, you might want to seek treatment.

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with your take. The article is exactly about finding what you ACTUALLY WANT to achieve and then not getting distracted with eating frogs.

> finding what you ACTUALLY WANT to achieve and then not getting distracted with eating frogs. That's precisely the bad piece of advice. Nobody knows what they really want, most of the time, because people change, you change, and the environment changes. It's better to have a system that makes you do something to progress in your skills or your ongoing projects every single day, than coming up with a goal since you h…

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Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#254
Amazing piece. I always read such types of fiction with some white, but slightly darkening, sense of envy. Especially parts like "We humans are, deep down, lazy and gluttonous creatures. If left to our own devices, we will do nothing but eat Pringles and watch Netflix." I left my job in February with enough take to not work for another 10 years keeping my gluttonous lifestyle and 20 or more without it. I kept myself busy with moving across the country (and then pushed a little further) for a couple months but 6 months later I ended up with a side project that I have an itch to productize, another project that I want to do for money, a consulting company and I talk to prospective employers at least once in 2-3 weeks. I don't remember when I was watching Netflix online, not downloaded while on the plane. These are the people from another universe. Somehow I believe their existence is a figure of speech for brilliant writers like Adam.

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Negative - as mentioned in a couple other comments here, a different industry. Not a really large company either, like 1700 people, which is a good place as a private firm with a 60% margin on professional services and low overhead… I worked at Best Buy so I recognized the signs immediately. The expression was “man he/she really bleeds blue” and if you hung out with the managers after work - because they all hung out…

Why is this downvoted? It is a good post.

I was speaking about my Best Buy Retail experience but they do have other large operations that are different.

I’m not sure what drugs the Shipping people are on though - we routinely shuffled 40+ unsold copies of The Benchwarmers into a bye bye crate and they’d show back up a month later but 50+. They were inventory gaming and probably doing some book cooking now when I look back on it.

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with your take. The article is exactly about finding what you ACTUALLY WANT to achieve and then not getting distracted with eating frogs.

> finding what you ACTUALLY WANT to achieve and then not getting distracted with eating frogs. That's precisely the bad piece of advice. Nobody knows what they really want, most of the time, because people change, you change, and the environment changes. It's better to have a system that makes you do something to progress in your skills or your ongoing projects every single day, than coming up with a goal since you h…

So people are generally incapable of governing themselves, and require goals to be imposed on them to make meaningful progress?

I sure as hell hope I'm reading you wrong, because yikes that is a frightening ideology.

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I also seem to remember that the story went on to say that Crowley at one point had been praised for his work in the Spanish Inquisition. That was the first he'd actually heard of it--humans had come up with it on their own--so he went and had a look, and then went and got blind drunk, because there are some things even demons would rather not think about. Well, it makes sense that demons wouldn't want to think abo…

If you think the main thing of the Spanish Inquisition was strict judicial procedure and rules of evidence, you might want to seek treatment.

I think it's a joke, the punchline being the suggestion that that's what offended the demon in the story

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#259
post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless I misunderstand you I think you're talking about the story (or perhaps that chapter) as a whole, and I'm talking about one particular passage in that story

> I'm talking about one particular passage in that story Gaiman’s initial draft may have included more by the time they had the conversation, but the moment I remember from the interview was specifically about that conversation amongst the demons. It stuck with me because I found the idea funny and it’s what made me want to take a look at Good Omens.

Oh wow, really? Heh, guess I underestimated Gaiman then! That could explain why it appealed to Pratchett though :D
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