Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

We've made the world too complicated

user8.bearblog.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

381–390 of 496 posts

Re: We've made the world too complicated

#381

Post by Cthulhu_ »

keiferski wrote: post #49

I think this feeling of everything being too complex is a natural consequence of work that is done for long-term abstract ends, rather than immediate and local ones. At least I think it is for me. Working remotely for an international software company is great for its lifestyle flexibility, but sometimes I just want to be a baker, chef, bike repairman, etc. that solves an immediate problem for a real person standing…

Personally I believe a lot of entertainment, especially games, scratch this itch for a lot of people. But it's good to be aware whether you actually enjoy it, or if it's an escape from your day to day drudgery.

Actually it's more complicated than that because for most people said day to day is essential to enable other objectives, like maintaining yourself and / or others.

Re: We've made the world too complicated

#382

Post by pixl97 »

qsera wrote: post #340
wallst07 wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, I agree if that is your hypothetical. But we have t define "if its happening" and what "everyone is more sick" means relative to before microplastics, or whatever your argument is. I get your point, just disagree that more people are sick now (depending on the definition of sick). If you die, you're not sick anymore.

>just disagree that more people are sick now.. There are more sickness inducing things in air, water and food. And it is not slowing down. We are adding more and more of it..Look up "Regrettable substitution", and that is exactly as hopeless as it sounds... So regulations are not doing shit. So given that, and the basic implication that consuming more sickness inducing stuff would make more people sick, why do you ne…

>There are more sickness inducing things in air, water and food.

I mean, just no. Unfortunately I don't have a time machine to kick your ass back 300 years ago to a city like London so you get to experience it for yourself.

Re: We've made the world too complicated

#383

Post by bethekidyouwant »

xedrac wrote: post #357
farley13 wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. If you walk through a forest there are billions of little things from creatures to bits of dna just looking to pass on their particular brand of biologic layout to another generation. They would love to involve you. on a world swirling through the chaos of hard and ephemeral matter one big rock away from a new trajectory. No, we in no way created the complexity. We have some baby complexities we've created som…

> I happen to subscribe to the general belief that we should aim to make life suck less for others in the future. In pursuit of this noble goal, one can do more harm than good, if not careful. Take for instance a wealthy parent that gifts their child with $5,000,000 so they never have to work, hoping their child's life will be easier than their own. What is the likely result of this gift? A child that never learns th…

“the likely result..” Disagree but also this is why trusts exist

Re: We've made the world too complicated

#384

Post by margalabargala »

lanyard-textile wrote: post #314
hariseldom wrote: post #305

> I used to want to do many things. Make great art, build great machines, solve important issues. Maybe our greatest gift to the world is to do as little as possible. To look at the birds, feel the wind and the water in our own hands, and ... nothing more. Eat when we are hungry, laugh when we are happy, cry when we are empty. And maybe that is the greatest gift to ourselves as well. This is not always true, it depen…

:) I think this very mindset is the one the article resists. How complicated. The best gift you can give yourself is enjoying the simple moments of life, no matter who you are and what your role is. And that's all this is about.

Going about your life without concern for how your actions affect those around you is what some might call selfish :)

You feel that's the best give you can give yourself. Others might feel the best gift they can give themselves, is a community.

Perhaps a war criminal might find equal personal fulfillment in seeing a wildflower as a doctor. But there's more than one ingredient in a happy life :)

Re: We've made the world too complicated

#385

Post by aliasxneo »

margalabargala wrote: post #384
lanyard-textile wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

:) I think this very mindset is the one the article resists. How complicated. The best gift you can give yourself is enjoying the simple moments of life, no matter who you are and what your role is. And that's all this is about.

Going about your life without concern for how your actions affect those around you is what some might call selfish :) You feel that's the best give you can give yourself. Others might feel the best gift they can give themselves, is a community. Perhaps a war criminal might find equal personal fulfillment in seeing a wildflower as a doctor. But there's more than one ingredient in a happy life :)

[dead]

Re: We've made the world too complicated

#386

Post by freeopinion »

wolvesechoes wrote: post #379
freeopinion wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have spent my entire adult life getting paid for a particular skillset. At the same time I have donated that skillset to family, friends, neighbors, and strangers. Every single time I have been paid for my skillset I have guaranteed that the results of my labor were reusable by everyone on the planet, not just the party paying me. I am a very devout capitalist. I believe very deeply in contributing to society. I do…

> am a very devout capitalist. I believe very deeply in contributing to society. I don't think I am that unusual in this respect. I see people acting very capitalistic to operate community gardens with the maximum margins. I see highly trained experts volunteer as educators. I see well-paid doctors and lawyers raking up leaves for their neighbors. I see accountants freelancing to keep the blind center afloat. Charity…

Charity is the only thing that can save us. Tax is just a different take on charity. We all agree to pay into the community chest to provide for a pubic commons. Resistance to progressive tax is resistance to a type of charity. One important difference between charity and tax is who gets to decide on how it is spent.

If charity won't save us taxes never will.

Re: We've made the world too complicated

#387

Post by bethekidyouwant »

petre wrote: post #244
luqtas wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i don't know where you want to take this critic but there's a lot of learn that is meant to be forgotten. transfer of learning is a scientific phenomenon. how it's useful for the day to day is at least questionable, as it's pretty hard to measure. if you take with a pretty rational look it feels insane to teach kids nobel prize type of knowledge that can't be understood or figured out entirely by crytalized knowledge…

It's just that we don't get to enjoy so much time with our kids as we did in the past, that's all. And then we get upset for being thrown into elderly homes.

How much do you remember of being a kid? Teenagers naturally want nothing to do with their parents if you want to have a good relationship with your adult children and you have to reforge it once your kids are past puberty.

Re: We've made the world too complicated

#388

Post by macrocosmos »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #378
wolttam wrote: post #295

> Our internal intuition about right and wrong seems to leave us at an early age Well, mine didn’t. It’s called respect and love your neighbours, treat others as you would like to be treated. It’s pretty simple and feels deeply ingrained

I seen to remember Jesus talking about that. I wish more of those who claim to be Christians took those words to heart.

He actually said much more. One of his most radical statements was to love your enemy. Even your enemies love their neighbors so why feel good about yourself for doing that. Even some evil people love their friends and it is therefore really not a thing to be proud of. To love your enemy is what all people are called to do.

Re: We've made the world too complicated

#389

Post by scheeseman486 »

BirAdam wrote: post #125
j_maffe wrote: post #38

> I'm writing this with technology I will never fully understand in a building with rooms I can never enter, living in a country dictated by laws I can't control. We spend the majority of our waking hours and lives in an abstract world of compressed life. The moment I walk through my door I'm in a zoning area on a city-owned sidewalk, flanked by ugly metallic monsters, floating through a sea of strangers. This has be…

This isn’t entirely true. A stylus is easy to understand, as is paper. Buildings of stone are relatively easy to grasp as well. Being a polymath was once doable. Today to truly master anything requires a lifetime of dedication.

A stylus is crafted, paper in manufacturered. I suppose you can rip off some bark and scribble onto it, but what are you writing? Words. Do you know every word ever? Do you have comprehension of the meaning of every word? Building a structure of stone requires knowledge, otherwise it'll fall down and the knowledge that allows for that was accumulated over thousands of years. There were people who mastered pottery and nothing else, people who could do a little bit of everything but were master of none.

We only ever think we understand, we never truly do. There's infinite complexity to the universe we live in and there always has been, the illusion of simplicity is a false construct we create to feel more comfortable about our existence.

Re: We've made the world too complicated

#390

Post by dudul »

Hum, I don't know man, I'm always up for venting the stupidity of the world, but this looks very shallow and naive.

I can imagine that the world has always been complicated for "the normal guy kind of close to the bottom". I'm sure the vast majority of people throughout History have felt that they had no influence/control on anything surrounding them.

Without getting into an essay, I think we've made the world too fast and too superficial, that's for sure, and it's hurting our psyche big time. Complicated I don't know.

Post reply on HN