41–50 of 153 posts
This is shallow thinking. Facebook and the various other social apps do in fact address serious societal problems and needs. There's been a trend for several decades of people in modern society growing further apart. It's been lamented at great length in numerous studies and publications. It's a natural consequence of the other choices our societies are making, becoming more mobile in both work and home. People move…
Reading this resonated with me. I knew that the responses here would pretty much rip it apart, but I'm surprised that as of right now only one of 15 comments is positive. It's pretty easy to find ways to criticize this post. It's not particularly well written, it's not inspirational, and of course you can poke holes in any kind of argument this vague. But if you don't agree, I think it's worth it to stop and be hones…
I half-joked about it with friends before, saying that people should only be allowed to do jobs that weren't "bread and circus" (to borrow a phrase) from 5-9, then after work hours could do what they pleased. Realistically though, this poster probably contributes to the bottom line of many bread and circus businesses. And so do I.
Today I bought a box of hot tamales (the candy) and a cherry coke - these are all bread and circus and only serve for my enjoyment. I ate a steak dinner on Saturday night - totally bread and circus, as I could get my nutritional value through better methods. The people who work to produce these things could be put to work doing something better, while the government provides a tasteless, odorless, white paste for all our nutritional value.
Some of the most enjoyable parts of life tend to be surrounded by bread and circus. But if they were never invented in the first place, I guess I wouldn't know what I was missing.
This is shallow thinking. Facebook and the various other social apps do in fact address serious societal problems and needs. There's been a trend for several decades of people in modern society growing further apart. It's been lamented at great length in numerous studies and publications. It's a natural consequence of the other choices our societies are making, becoming more mobile in both work and home. People move…
Many of the apps we have nowadays — the successful ones, at least — revolve around game mechanics, addiction, self-reference, and narcissism. Even apps I use and actually like quite a lot fall into this category."
A more charitable reading would take it to mean that the problem of social connection is important, but it's been adequately addressed by Facebook, and /new/ startups shouldn't focus on it.
Baloney. I worked in the CA community college system. It's $26 per unit. TWENTY SIX dollars. Oh, and if you're poor, it's nothing.
A college education is accessible to just about everyone in the US who wants it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those were just example problems. A way to represent a class of problem. The real problem might not even be that Americans need a healthier lifestyle, it might be that it's really difficult to live that healthier lifestyle in the face of a food system designed to make you live the unhealthy one.
The real problem might not even be that Americans need a healthier lifestyle... You just did the exact same thing Jolie O'Dell did - you picked an action, identified a problem that the action solves, and declared that new problem to be the original problem.
More importantly, the possible root cause could conceivably be mitigated by a variety of solutions we know how to build - webapps for improved meal planning, recipes, health information, and so on.
This is shallow thinking. Facebook and the various other social apps do in fact address serious societal problems and needs. There's been a trend for several decades of people in modern society growing further apart. It's been lamented at great length in numerous studies and publications. It's a natural consequence of the other choices our societies are making, becoming more mobile in both work and home. People move…
The OP is talking about getting "work" done, like solving cancer. The "togetherness" stuff can be defined as entertainment. Watching movies and playing games is meaningful, as is staying in touch with friends, but these things don't make the trains run on time.
I find it really difficult to read such an argument (whether I agree with it or not), if it doesn't come from someone who is actually out there trying to solve these problems himself or herself. "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marre…
So you're saying OP isn't allowed to point out that the emperor wears no clothes, or that roger ebert is useless.
FWIW I tend to agree with the opinion.
I don't know who roger ebert is so I can't comment on whether he is useless, but I guess he has no relevance to me.
Problem: People in developing countries have to work for 3rd world wages, selling products and services to people who really can't afford to buy anything. Thus, they are doomed to remain poor by western standards.
Solution: Jason's website that lets them teach Spanish online to rich Americans, and doesn't let them pay themselves less than ten bucks an hour.
Dodged a bullet there!
"Many Americans can’t afford a decent education" Baloney. I worked in the CA community college system. It's $26 per unit. TWENTY SIX dollars. Oh, and if you're poor, it's nothing. A college education is accessible to just about everyone in the US who wants it .