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Leaving the Physical World

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Re: Leaving the Physical World

#71

Post by aerodexis »

jdw64 wrote: post #3

Reading this essay brought tears to my eyes. To me, the physical world is a realm permitted only to those with wealth. The author beautifully romanticizes the evaporation of tangible labor, but the physical labor I actually experienced meant unpaid, stolen wages. It meant working through the night, dozing off on the early morning subway until the very last stop, and enduring endless contempt, humiliation, and the tox…

> I simply envy those who were privileged enough to experience the 90s cyber-romanticism

Why would you envy the opportunity to believe in a fiction that has been shown to be wrong, and that exacerbated the problems that the guy is trying to escape from in the first place?

Re: Leaving the Physical World

#72

Post by storus »

akudha wrote: post #23
jdw64 wrote: post #3

Reading this essay brought tears to my eyes. To me, the physical world is a realm permitted only to those with wealth. The author beautifully romanticizes the evaporation of tangible labor, but the physical labor I actually experienced meant unpaid, stolen wages. It meant working through the night, dozing off on the early morning subway until the very last stop, and enduring endless contempt, humiliation, and the tox…

My guess (and hope) is that next generations will find more meaning in physical labor, communal living etc, partly out of necessity (what young person can afford to buy even a small, simple home these days?) but mostly because they seem to understand that we've screwed the environment enough at this point and the novelty with things like social media is beginning to wear off. As much as kids are glued to their iPads,…

Soil has degraded mineral-wise so much that you won't survive even off grid and develop mineral deficiencies quickly.

Re: Leaving the Physical World

#74

Post by redanddead »

virgildotcodes wrote: post #58
stavros wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Korea is hardly the developing world, but they're from not-US, basically, which might as well be the developing world as far as the conversation is concerned.

Hmm, yeah I'm confused, they said "as a citizen of the third world" but then noted working in Korea and Japan.

The third world in 2026 is a high bar

Re: Leaving the Physical World

#76

Post by snozolli »

samothrace wrote: post #38
davidwritesbugs wrote: post #4

His "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" was the most unintentionally comical thing I read at the time. Like his lyrics and prose it was woefully pretentious & leaden. I also met him once. A more unpleasant, up his own ass, person I can barely recall.

Checks out. I could barely make it past the first paragraphs. "Like very few Americans of my generation, I come from the physical world. ...earning a living from things I could touch and smell." What is the majority of the workforce doing, then? People working in fast food, welders, plumbers, carpenters, laborers, people working in slaughterhouses, janitors, cooks, waitstaff, the people working at the grocery store a…

What is the majority of the workforce doing, then? People working in fast food, welders, plumbers, carpenters, laborers, people working in slaughterhouses, janitors, cooks, waitstaff...

While I think he's pretty obviously speaking to an audience of office workers, I'll point out that there's a significant difference between cooking or building something a thousand times per day and shipping it out versus seeing the ongoing function of something you made with your own hands.

I've worked in food service, and I've done metal fabrication as a hobby. I can say that I get ongoing satisfaction from using something that I've invented and built with my own hands, versus all those sandwiches and fried foods that I passed to customers.

I've occasionally lamented that I didn't pursue civil engineering instead of software. Most or all of the software that I wrote for companies has disappeared from the world. I believe that I would've taken great satisfaction from seeing a bridge or other infrastructure that I might've had a hand in creating.

Re: Leaving the Physical World

#77

Post by hirvi74 »

justonceokay wrote: post #29
jdw64 wrote: post #3

Reading this essay brought tears to my eyes. To me, the physical world is a realm permitted only to those with wealth. The author beautifully romanticizes the evaporation of tangible labor, but the physical labor I actually experienced meant unpaid, stolen wages. It meant working through the night, dozing off on the early morning subway until the very last stop, and enduring endless contempt, humiliation, and the tox…

You don’t have to be privileged to live in the physical world. I quit programming to make candles for years, then apartment maintenance, now in the trades. I make 1/3 what I was making doing digital work, and I’d take a pay cut before returning. The reasons I had for leaving were manifold, but the big two were wanting to quit Adderall and having read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It’s a hard road to live…

> I quit programming to make candles for years, then apartment maintenance, now in the trades. I make 1/3 what I was making doing digital work, and I’d take a pay cut before returning.

This honestly brings me hope in a sort of fantasy way. I want to do this, but I do not have the courage to do it.

> The reasons I had for leaving were manifold, but the big two were wanting to quit Adderall

This hits even harder for me. I desire this too, but it's a necessary evil so long as I remain in tech.

Re: Leaving the Physical World

#78

Post by hirvi74 »

I lived a similar life to this growing up in TN about 16 years or so ago. I didn't necessarily enjoy the labor, the loneliness, etc.. Though, as I age I become more and more thankful for the environment I grew up in. Wrangling horses, dropping trees in the summer for wood for the winter, and all kinds of other arduous tasks.

My father grew up on a much larger farm, and I can tell that despite leaving it during his adulthood, he always wanted to return. He made it his life mission to impart as much of his wisdom and knowledge onto me as possible, and that is perhaps what I am most thankful for.

Re: Leaving the Physical World

#79

Post by yoyohello13 »

justonceokay wrote: post #29
jdw64 wrote: post #3

Reading this essay brought tears to my eyes. To me, the physical world is a realm permitted only to those with wealth. The author beautifully romanticizes the evaporation of tangible labor, but the physical labor I actually experienced meant unpaid, stolen wages. It meant working through the night, dozing off on the early morning subway until the very last stop, and enduring endless contempt, humiliation, and the tox…

You don’t have to be privileged to live in the physical world. I quit programming to make candles for years, then apartment maintenance, now in the trades. I make 1/3 what I was making doing digital work, and I’d take a pay cut before returning. The reasons I had for leaving were manifold, but the big two were wanting to quit Adderall and having read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It’s a hard road to live…

Thanks for sharing your experience. I've been working toward transitioning from software to para-medicine. Spending my days working on random bullshit to 'increase shareholder value', which is at best neutral for society, is depressing. Actually doing something useful for real people in the real world seems like a way out.

But I feel very scared, and sort of stupid and ungrateful, to be considering taking a job with worse hours and benefits for a 1/4 of the pay.

Re: Leaving the Physical World

#80

Post by cestith »

hirvi74 wrote: post #77
justonceokay wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t have to be privileged to live in the physical world. I quit programming to make candles for years, then apartment maintenance, now in the trades. I make 1/3 what I was making doing digital work, and I’d take a pay cut before returning. The reasons I had for leaving were manifold, but the big two were wanting to quit Adderall and having read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It’s a hard road to live…

> I quit programming to make candles for years, then apartment maintenance, now in the trades. I make 1/3 what I was making doing digital work, and I’d take a pay cut before returning. This honestly brings me hope in a sort of fantasy way. I want to do this, but I do not have the courage to do it. > The reasons I had for leaving were manifold, but the big two were wanting to quit Adderall This hits even harder for me…

There’s a very powerful question to be asked when one hears about someone wanting to quit Adderall.

Are you on it because you need it for who you are, or are you on it because you need it to meet the expectations of your employer?

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