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The most precious resource is agency

simonsarris.substack.com

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Re: The most precious resource is agency

#71

Post by BLKNSLVR »

jkhdigital wrote: post #40
sillysaurusx wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went and did the other side, living nontraditionally and trying to be what I wanted. I just applied for a regular job. Because to be honest, it’s gonna be pretty sweet having a fat bank account, even if it’ll take till I’m 50 to have FU money. My current hypothesis is that the team is all that matters. The work can be the most boring, crud-type work. As long as you’re working with people you like on something vague…

Amen. I’m a sober alcoholic, and if I died tomorrow I’d be content knowing that I did at least one worthwhile thing with the time I had: I helped another alcoholic, a 23 year old man who tried to kill himself shortly before I met him, get sober and start working and move out of his mom’s basement and stand up straight and look other people in the eyes and then go and help a few other people stop drinking. Not a singl…

That brings up an old memory for me: I used to work as a lifeguard at a pool for three or four years as I was going through uni. Nothing glamorous in that work, it's just very loosely managing young males showing off in front of young females. Except this one time some kid jumped in the deep end and whilst he surfaced, he couldn't reach the top of the side of the pool in order to stay at the surface, he was clutching at the side with that unmistakeable, wide-eyed panic face. I reached down, pulled him out, and he ran off to his mum / friends / whatever, I never saw him again. Was a three second interaction from seeing it to him being back on dry land.

Possibly the best thing I've ever done in my life, and it was in my late teens. I get satisfaction from my intellectuality and general smarts, but for it really brighten my soul, it has to positively affect other people.

The bottom line is a demanding bitch and no matter how much you give it will ask for ever more. A positive change in a fellow human being is intrinsically, life-affirmingly satisfying; even just a single-serve in a lifetime.

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#72

Post by human »

paulpauper wrote: post #56

this article was not that good. came across as vague and lacking of a point and filled with poor examples. There was nothing special about the examples he gives or in any way predictive except for Nabokov. it was not uncommon in Carnegie's era to leave school early. Same for Walt Disney. it was common back then for kids to deliver newspapers, and what does that have to do with animation.

I agree with you. The article has no substance. We can talk about how today’s schools don’t produce shining stars or bright minds, but the path followed by these legends (Carnegie, Da Vinci, etc.) were not out of the ordinary and I really don’t think they formed their character. If anything, I believe these people had a bias for action, took risks and were hyper-focused. Same recipe works today.

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#73

Post by Aunche »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #42
eikenberry wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The basic life script we all seem to have in western society seems pretty awful when you think critically about it. Not if you've studied much history. Modern western society is awesome compared to what nearly all of our ancestors lived through. Wanting more is good, but denigrating things that nearly anyone from history would kill for doesn't sound right.

>Modern western society is awesome compared to what nearly all of our ancestors lived through. Any sane person would agree with you in the sense that it's definitely better to be alive in 2021 than 1621. If you you shorten the timespan and only look at cultural changes since, say, the 1970s, though, it seems we've sacrificed a lot of what makes us human (community, interconnectedness, a sense of wonder about the futu…

>If you you shorten the timespan and only look at cultural changes since, say, the 1970s, though, it seems we've sacrificed a lot of what makes us human (community, interconnectedness, a sense of wonder about the future etc.) at the altar of free market economics

Free market economics didn't tell people to spend less time with their families and more time consuming entertainment media. Moreover, the argument that we have culturally regressed since the 70s only makes sense from the perspective of a white male.

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#74

Post by BLKNSLVR »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #61
jkhdigital wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Economics is the new god, the god of materialism. At some point in the 20th century we decided that material prosperity is really all you need for a happy and healthy society. Doesn’t seem to be working out so well…

By what measure? (Not sure I disagree just curious)

If I may attempt to answer it: Because it works for politicians, and the line of people behind the politicians with their left hands offering $X and their right hands demanding special treatment worth 100x$X.

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#75

Post by ryloric »

qqtt wrote: post #68
esperent wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in a non-western low income country. Life is not "nasty, brutish and short". Honestly, it makes me pretty angry when I hear people from the west espouse this sentiment. Have you ever lived in a non-western country, to state that with such assurance? Life here is beautiful, the sense of community is so much stronger than it is in the west and overall I'd say that people are less stressed. On the flip side, many…

"Bubbles of comfort" are not unique to Western countries, that is true. Every country on the planet offers a subset of their population a great life style, the only variable is how much of the country actually gets a) to partake in that lifestyle b) has the tools to reach that lifestyle when starting outside of it Doesn't matter if you are talking about North Korea or the United States. And yes, you can find abject g…

I think you missed what the parent poster might be saying, it's not about "Bubbles of Comfort". I too live in one of those countries like you put it, and while I live in the bubble to some extent, I know people who've never used internet or a smartphone/computer in their entire lives and live a decently happy stress-free life. Their lives are not nasty or brutish, they're not leading less-fulfilling lives as a result. On the contrary, I think most of them are happier, more content and wiser than me.

What you might be doing I think... is making the assumption that technology, 'things' like gadgets or better cars and modern medical health is central to human life. Yes, life would objectively improve if you have those, but if I have to work 60 hours a week doing something I don't really care about, then is that really a good trade-off? I think the answer is not the same as yours for everyone.

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#76

Post by AussieWog93 »

Aunche wrote: post #73
AussieWog93 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Modern western society is awesome compared to what nearly all of our ancestors lived through. Any sane person would agree with you in the sense that it's definitely better to be alive in 2021 than 1621. If you you shorten the timespan and only look at cultural changes since, say, the 1970s, though, it seems we've sacrificed a lot of what makes us human (community, interconnectedness, a sense of wonder about the futu…

>If you you shorten the timespan and only look at cultural changes since, say, the 1970s, though, it seems we've sacrificed a lot of what makes us human (community, interconnectedness, a sense of wonder about the future etc.) at the altar of free market economics Free market economics didn't tell people to spend less time with their families and more time consuming entertainment media. Moreover, the argument that we…

>Free market economics didn't tell people to spend less time with their families and more time consuming entertainment media.

It literally did. I've probably seen tens of thousands of advertisements for games consoles, films and Netflix-style streaming services.

>from the perspective of a white male

Many women would disagree with you on the "male" part.

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#77

Post by theonething »

combatentropy wrote: post #30
idolaspecus wrote: post #20

My first child is due any day now and I’ve been thinking a lot about the central problems presented in this article. But I don’t know what to do about them. Should I keep my son home with me, allocate mornings to academics and afternoons to more practical endeavors? Should I teach him to cook? To garden? To build cabinets? To train a dog? To do his taxes? Should I send him to public school but supplement his learning…

You should let your child have lots and lots of freedom to do whatever he wants, even if that is often watching television or whatever. Ideally you would have a lot of outdoor places for him to roam --- whether that be a large amount of land that you live on or just a green neighborhood. This is based on my own experience, because I was allowed to manage my free time. When I got out of school, I had a chore or two, b…

> I've known a handful of adults who were homeschooled, and most of them have turned out very poorly. They basically are walking time bombs: quiet and obedient through childhood, then they get out of the house and explode.

I don't doubt your account of a handful of adults, but the research seems to point to the opposite conclusion:

> Homeschooled children are taking part in the daily routines of their communities. They are certainly not isolated, in fact, they associate with— and feel close to—all sorts of people. Homeschooling parents . . . actively encourage their children to take advantage of social opportunities outside the family. Homeschooled children are acquiring the rules of behavior and systems of beliefs and attitudes they need. They have good self-esteem and are likely to display fewer behavior problems than other children. They may be more socially mature and have better leadership skills than other children as well. And they appear to be functioning effectively as members of adult society. (Medlin, 2000, p. 119)

https://www.stetson.edu/artsci/psychology/media/medlin-socia...

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#78

Post by AussieWog93 »

krapp wrote: post #59
AussieWog93 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Modern western society is awesome compared to what nearly all of our ancestors lived through. Any sane person would agree with you in the sense that it's definitely better to be alive in 2021 than 1621. If you you shorten the timespan and only look at cultural changes since, say, the 1970s, though, it seems we've sacrificed a lot of what makes us human (community, interconnectedness, a sense of wonder about the futu…

People in the 1970s would have killed for smartphones (or any phone not physically tethered to a landline,) the advent of personal computers and the web making global information, communication, data and commerce available for practically nothing, and the convenience of Uber, or just e-commerce in general. Streaming media with access to an entire library of movies and television shows is qualitatively better than thr…

>People in the 1970s would have killed for smartphones...

Would they? Boomers are famous for being luddites, and a growing minority of millennials now would be more than happy to toss their smartphones if it didn't mean being pushed to the outer of all their social groups.

>Streaming media with access to an entire library of movies and television shows is qualitatively better than three analog tv channels and whatever happens to be showing at the movie theater at the time.

I agree, Netflix has a much better range than the old technology, it is more convenient and the picture/audio quality is fantastic. The more interesting question, though, is whether or not frictionless access to near-infinite vaults of that tailored entertainment actually makes your quality of life better.

>The 70's were some of the most cynical and violent years in recent American history.

I never said it wasn't violent (nor did I say American, in fact!). But kids in that era would play together in the streets, and families had closer bonds.

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#79

Post by ryloric »

mc32 wrote: post #38
planet-and-halo wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect we are all the prisoners of long-dead economists. Their ideas of people as atomic resources were useful abstractions in some ways (I agree with the point below that their work has led to great material prosperity), but they have also influenced entire generations of overly bureaucratic and inhumane policies. People are treated as "things" to be "managed," and as a consequence they develop learned helplessne…

Economists just try to explain things. They don't make economics. The nation and enterprises big small in concert make an economic system. But, go back far enough in the past before nations and businesses and economics were still in play. It's like numbers, it exists even if we are ignorant of it.

Explain things to what end? So that we can use those explanations to make economic decisions which they can explain again.

Even the least prescriptive economist is going to be a part of this cycle.

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#80

Post by BLKNSLVR »

jkhdigital wrote: post #36
IncRnd wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I almost certainly won’t have the time nor the persuasive powers to convince a (hopefully) rebellious 7 year old that, say, grammar matters and gardening is dope. Seeking any suggestions. Mine are grown up and have moved away, but I do have a suggestion. It's okay, and may be the best method, to just say, "grammar matters and gardening is dope," then stop talking while you gauge their reaction or listen to what…

> then stop talking This is so damn true… having a son has taught me that my words matter a lot , so choose them wisely and say no more than is necessary.

I've always (attempted to) live my life as if my words matter to everyone. I dislike speaking for the sake of conversation because it tends to lead me to say things I don't fully mean or intend.

This came about from possibly taking this old saying too seriously:

"90% of what people say is untrue"

My childhood self didn't want to be the sort of person with that kind of pointless conversation. Combine that with something I picked up more recently:

"People don't remember what you said, people remember how you made them feel".

Choose your words carefully. Words are cheap, but their effect can be expensive.

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