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Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

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Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#91

Post by hprotagonist »

vanderZwan wrote: post #38

> For legal reasons, I’m not saying the people who write this stuff are literally Lucifer in human skin. It’s just that, if I wanted to maximize human misery, I would 100% try to convince people to spend more time doing things they hate When Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett wrote Good Omens thirty years ago they already hit upon this idea when Crowley, a demon and one of the main characters, tries to explain to his fe…

And then crowley’s utter and abject horror at the discovery of what we can do to ourselves, no Hell involved at all.

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#92

Post by hprotagonist »

db48x wrote: post #54
vanderZwan wrote: post #38

> For legal reasons, I’m not saying the people who write this stuff are literally Lucifer in human skin. It’s just that, if I wanted to maximize human misery, I would 100% try to convince people to spend more time doing things they hate When Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett wrote Good Omens thirty years ago they already hit upon this idea when Crowley, a demon and one of the main characters, tries to explain to his fe…

I bet he had read The Screwtape Letters though.

and, considering to whom the book was dedicated, some other famous english apologists as well.

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#93

Post by samatman »

galangalalgol wrote: post #86
samatman wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would we describe the state of standing and waiting for all eternity? Being in limbo, perhaps?

Inthinkblimbo would be waiting alone. This is waiting with people you can communicate with. Thats right. Hell is other people.

I would suggest double-checking this intuition with Dante.

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#94

Post by bsenftner »

db48x wrote: post #54
vanderZwan wrote: post #38

> For legal reasons, I’m not saying the people who write this stuff are literally Lucifer in human skin. It’s just that, if I wanted to maximize human misery, I would 100% try to convince people to spend more time doing things they hate When Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett wrote Good Omens thirty years ago they already hit upon this idea when Crowley, a demon and one of the main characters, tries to explain to his fe…

I bet he had read The Screwtape Letters though.

Any claimed author who's not read The Screwtape Letters has no business writing modern literature.

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#95

Post by istinetz »

tuyiown wrote: post #71
istinetz wrote: post #37

I strongly disagree with the author. What brings me pleasure is playing strategic computer games. I was addicted to playing dota. I was playing 12-16 hours a day, which left no place for socializing, career, family, even basic self-maintenance suffered. Anything meaningful, art, self-improvement was cut. It's a disgraceful, shameful life. The meaning of life is not the blind pursuit of pleasure. We are humans precise…

Maybe you've lost access to a confortable middle ground, and I'm very sorry for you, but hopefully the vast majority of humans still can find balance between exclusive pursuit of pleasure and doing things things you hate every single minute of the day.

Cool. I'm not the one making sweeping generalizations, OP is.

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#96

Post by nicbou »

taneq wrote: post #81
nicbou wrote: post #63

The topic is nice, but above all I thoroughly enjoy the writing. I feel like I get a lot more done precisely because I don't like to eat frogs. I sleep until I'm rested. I don't touch my computer until I've had tea on the balcony. I work on what feels right, when it feels right, for as long as it feels right. If the weather is nice, I'll hop on my bicycle and forget about work. But when something sparks my interest,…

Sounds nice to either have no real outside demands upon your time, or to sufficiently lack emotional attachment to anything you do such that it can’t exert pressure on you. That said, I don’t know if I’d actually want to live that dispassionately.

That's a very uncharitable take. What part of my comment makes you think that I live dispassionately?

The whole point is that my work is almost single-handedly defined by passion. When that runs dry, I take a break and do other things. It's easier to do good work with a well-rested mind full of ideas.

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#97

Post by bsenftner »

6stringmerc wrote: post #62
jongjong wrote: post #56

This seems to be a major epidemic nowadays. I suspect that mechanistic, meaningless, purely mimetic pursuit of success has some pretty negative consequences on society. I suspect it might explain why so many people are interested in engaging in politics (or company politics) and zero-sum value extraction schemes instead of just adding value... They're not interested in the process at all, only in the outcome; financi…

A friend recently got what he thought was a great gig with an engineering firm - turned out it was more of a cult - rah rah sessions, after work bowling, softball - and they weren’t shy about shunning anybody who didn’t want all in right away. He got bullied and saw others bullied too - we figure it’s why they prefer to intern pipeline and hire and retain - a lot easier to brainwash when young. I mean it’s not a bad…

I wish I could say this is not normal, but I see this everywhere: employers want cult-like fiefdoms, and many are successful creating them. These companies are filled with young developers who completely drink the kool-aid and become no less than fan-boys for their oppressor, as anyone that has had more than 1 job would look at the environment as darkly Orwellian.

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#98

Post by jongjong »

6stringmerc wrote: post #62
jongjong wrote: post #56

This seems to be a major epidemic nowadays. I suspect that mechanistic, meaningless, purely mimetic pursuit of success has some pretty negative consequences on society. I suspect it might explain why so many people are interested in engaging in politics (or company politics) and zero-sum value extraction schemes instead of just adding value... They're not interested in the process at all, only in the outcome; financi…

A friend recently got what he thought was a great gig with an engineering firm - turned out it was more of a cult - rah rah sessions, after work bowling, softball - and they weren’t shy about shunning anybody who didn’t want all in right away. He got bullied and saw others bullied too - we figure it’s why they prefer to intern pipeline and hire and retain - a lot easier to brainwash when young. I mean it’s not a bad…

Having worked for many different tech companies, the concept of 'cult companies' seems like a trend. Though I can't say for sure if this is only affecting the tech industry or all industries.

One of my ex-colleagues was hired straight out of university by a company and he did not take a single holiday in 4 years because his boss would always try to make him feel guilty or would imply that there would likely be negative consequences for him as an employee.

After he eventually quit and changed companies, he had very low expectations and he couldn't believe how much better that second company was... It was a startup so it wasn't exactly low-stress by my standards; it goes to show how extreme the differences can be between companies that even a job which I considered challenging seemed like a walk in the park to him given what he had experienced before.

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#99

Post by gsk22 »

jiggywiggy wrote: post #43

I like some points of the article, but stating we are not naturally anything, and then in the next paragraph claiming: '"your base instincts" deserve more credit.', is very illogical.

Even the assertion that humans aren't naturally anything is absurd. We're naturally many things: social, food-motivated, curious, horny. Those traits are not cultural, and are common to humans as far back as we can trace (many shared with our ape ancestors as well).

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#100

Post by _0ffh »

jaclaz wrote: post #83
somenameforme wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just French. They're popular in many parts of the South US as well, particularly in areas with Cajun/French influence. And delicious. And yeah, just the legs.

Also in some areas of Italy, there used to be restaurants where frog (only legs, usually fried) were the main dish, though I believe they are little by little becoming more rare. Also they once were a very "poor" (please read as cheap) meal, while nowadays they tend to be "gourmet".

Same thing as with oysters, then.
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