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Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

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Re: Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

#61

Post by BLKNSLVR »

nathanvanfleet wrote: post #58
mStreamTeam wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is funny because the most unhappy and anxious people I know are cat owners.

I remember talking to a coworker friend of mine who was a cat owner. She said that she didn't understand dogs. They just loved you unconditionally all the time no matter what. So I guess she liked the life with the cat where it was just randomly mean or not interested in her sometimes. Kind of illustrated things to me.

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.

Re: Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

#62

Post by [deleted] »

vffhfhf wrote: post #59

Life is simple.. If you aim lower. There was a psychology research on how people even billionaire form a baseline similar to a homeless dude. All the stress, pressure you have is the same as everybody else and it will never change. So the goal should be do whatever you enjoy while doing the minimum effort.. Of course this type of thinking would immediately hamper progress everywhere.

[deleted]

Re: Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

#63

Post by deanCommie »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #61
nathanvanfleet wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember talking to a coworker friend of mine who was a cat owner. She said that she didn't understand dogs. They just loved you unconditionally all the time no matter what. So I guess she liked the life with the cat where it was just randomly mean or not interested in her sometimes. Kind of illustrated things to me.

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.

Depends on the dog.

Get a terrier. Best of both worlds. You have to earn their love, and they're as prickly as cats sometimes.

But you can also take them hiking, skiing, biking, or just chilling by a campfire growling at hypothetical bears in the dark forest at night.

Re: Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

#64

Post by canjobear »

skmurphy wrote: post #21

“Whether something is complicated is in the mind of the beholder.” Don Norman In the same way that a probability represents your state of information about an event or action your assessment of the complexity of a task or problem is a function of your state of information and relevant expertise. I think this has implications for models like cynefin where the assignment to a domain (simple, complicated, complex, chaot…

> “Whether something is complicated is in the mind of the beholder.” Don Norman

Only up to a constant. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolmogorov_complexity

Re: Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

#65

Post by jacobush »

XorNot wrote: post #29
cgriswald wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend did that. His cat ate all the food in a single sitting and was both fat and almost dead from not eating for two days.

It doesn't work if you normally don't let your cat choose their meal times. But cats do develop food intelligence unlike dogs and will only eat what they need - the key is they have to have a reliable expectation that food is always available. An automatic feeder helps - since getting one there's always good in my cats bowl but she only eats a little at a time.

Not unlike dogs. Dogs are the same.

Re: Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

#66

Post by onion2k »

catallergies wrote: post #17
carabiner wrote: post #15

I see this all around me. People are fixated on careers, hobbies (FOMO), spread thin by family obligations and errands. The truth is, happiness does not derive from these things. This "busyness" is an invention. Life is simple, and happiness actually derives from having cats.

I'm allergic to cats. Pets also add complexity to life, e.g. when you want to go away for any length of time.

I'm also allergic to cats. I have two of them and live on antihistamines. It's worth it.

Re: Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

#67

Post by hackerfromthefu »

XorNot wrote: post #29
cgriswald wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend did that. His cat ate all the food in a single sitting and was both fat and almost dead from not eating for two days.

It doesn't work if you normally don't let your cat choose their meal times. But cats do develop food intelligence unlike dogs and will only eat what they need - the key is they have to have a reliable expectation that food is always available. An automatic feeder helps - since getting one there's always good in my cats bowl but she only eats a little at a time.

Ahem, my dog will not eat and save his food for later when he's had too much food lately - I think that's what you're referring to as food intelligence.

He often does this by burying the chicken drumstick under dirt and leaves, which I think is not uncommon for dogs.

Re: Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

#68

Post by tonyedgecombe »

Animats wrote: post #12
pwinnski wrote: post #2

There are many things in life that cannot be simpler without losing some level of choice that we value, I'll grant that. Nobody who has ever dealt with the United States Government, or any US State government, can tell me with a straight face that the principle is absolute. Or, put another way, I'll gladly give up all the choices that lead to misery every time I deal with the IRS or DMV in exchange for things to be a…

"Hello. Welcome to the Automated DMV, Mr. Smith. Your car registration needs to be renewed. Since you're here, and we recognize you, and your car is in the parking lot, and we recognize that, too, renewal will be $122. You have three parking tickets outstanding, so we will add $150 to that. You have one red light violation, and we're sending video of that to your phone if you want to contest it. But since the face an…

We haven't gone that far but a lot of those sort of interactions have moved online in the UK. The obvious one for me is filling a tax return at the end of the year. It's automated for all but the most cmplex of cases.

Re: Why Life Can’t Be Simpler

#70

Post by chmod600 »

While there is often a trade-off between internal and external complexity, the article goes too far.

For instance, having a zillion inter-related modes creates internal and external complexity without improving functionality at all. Using orthogonal controls helps a lot.

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