Ethan
Quality assurance
No bio...
User ID: 2275
Ethan
Quality assurance
4d ago
That's the price for entry in reading Dostoyevsky. It requires a suspension of disbelief when characters go on impossibly long monologues while other characters listen with impossible patience.
Ethan
Quality assurance
1mo ago
If you say you can't function in the morning without coffee people will act understanding, if not sympathetic. Say the same thing about booze and people will start giving you pamphlets.
You mentioned the relative severity of alcohol, but I think it's good and natural to treat addictions with greater or lesser severity based on their risks. I mean, how much concern would you want people to have if you tell them that you're crabby and irritable without coffee?
I think a more apt comparison might be made to nicotine, cigarettes specifically. Of course cigarettes, too, are more dangerous than coffee. But nicotine withdrawal won't literally kill you like alcohol withdrawal can. And if someone says "don't talk to me until I have my cigarette," everybody sees that this is a problem. But there won't be any pamphlets handed out. It's pretty clear that our responses to addiction run on a gradient. As they should.
Ethan
Quality assurance
1mo ago
Some bridges you just have to cross when you get to them. Planning out your whole life, or even a medium to long-term project, will make you paralyzed.
Ethan
Quality assurance
4mo ago
Just now rereading this for like the fourth time. It's fantastic, and Lewis himself called it his best book.
Ethan
Quality assurance
5mo ago
Batman: Arkham City is identical to RDR2 in this regard after Batman is poisoned. The only side mission which organically makes sense for Batman to prioritize is the Mad Hatter one, because it's predicated on Hatter tricking Bruce with a fake cure. But then it doesn't make sense if you wait till after the main storyline is done to complete the mission, because Bruce is already cured.
Ethan
Quality assurance
7mo ago
I think the point of the Motte is that such opinions can be expressed within reason. If you think something needs to be addressed then why not do it yourself?
Ethan
Quality assurance
8mo ago
I think there's an earnestness to good adventure movies which no amount of navel-gazey arthouse stuff can match. Sure, people tell themselves that the latter kinds of movies are more realistic or incisive about the human condition. But that's a cheat, really. Top Gun shows its artifice on its sleeve, and asks of us that we believe in heroes. And of course heroes exist. How could we have been so blind, with our vain and subtle navel-gazing? Top Gun clarifies the obvious truths about living, and does it in a way which delights people. That probably takes a lot more skill than putting a clever idea to screen poorly. I will gladly side with the plebians here.
Ethan
Quality assurance
8mo ago
I'm very quick to judge music based on, like, the first minute. I don't think that's unreasonable as a song's beginning sets the tone for pretty much the whole thing.
Ethan
Quality assurance
8mo ago
I think the recommendation is to drink enough to loosen your inhibitions. Not enough to get drunk.
Ethan
Quality assurance
8mo ago
Putt putt is classic, if a little cheesy. But I think that can be worked to your advantage.
Ethan
Quality assurance
8mo ago
Chicks rather enjoy being sex objects
I think so, too. I think women often want excuses to show off their clothes or bodies. They're very coy about admitting these things even though it's obvious to all.
Ethan
Quality assurance
8mo ago
I'm near Cambridge. When I first saw it I knew it was a good date idea. Of course, coffee or ice-cream or lunch are easy to tack on afterward, especially if the day is hot and we want a break from the weather. So changing venues shouldn't be an issue.
Ethan
Quality assurance
9mo ago
Ender's Game remains excellent even years after discovering it as a teenager. You'll also like Ender's Shadow, best read as a companion to the original.
Ethan
Quality assurance
9mo ago
It's a shame because I liked both Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow. Speaker for the Dead, the sequel to Ender's Game, I remember reading when I was younger -- too young, I think, to understand much of it. I believe I gave up on the Ender series after Xenocide.
As for the sequel to Ender's Shadow, called Shadow of the Hegemon, I was hopeless to comprehend it. I remember it being nearly entirely about the various machinations of warring states, masses of soldiers led from here to there, what this genius kid might be thinking at this time, etc.. It lacked so much of the human drama which made the initial novels good.
Ethan
Quality assurance
9mo ago
Sometimes I'll play music when writing. But if the music has lyrics I prefer to listen to it when the writing is not labor-intensive -- more like the initial, stream-of-consciousness stuff that goes into the first draft of an essay. But instrumental music, like classical, goes with doing anything.
Ethan
Quality assurance
9mo ago
The Summa is a big 'un and unless you seriously mean to delve into mediaeval logic and theology, better to just look up particular queries in it (e.g. what did Aquinas say about X?)
On the other hand, a good introduction to Thomism would help clear up a lot of the confusion a modern person would have going into Aquinas. Edward Feser is a good contemporary Catholic philosopher whose books are very illuminating.
For a broader book on medieval thought, Etienne Gilson's Reason and Revelation in the Middle Ages is tough to beat.
Ethan
Quality assurance
9mo ago
Edward Feser's The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism is a great introduction to Thomism. It gives good Aristotelian arguments for the existence of God.
Ethan
Quality assurance
10mo ago
That's a shame, I enjoyed the first animated Spider-Man and I was thinking of seeing that one. Life's just been too busy lately.
Beyond the Spiderverse, which is the sequel to the animated one, is pretty damn good.
Ethan
Quality assurance
10mo ago
If I had to guess, those Democrats hadn't given any significant thought to the issue beforehand. So when it became a culture war topic, their first exposure to it was through the lens of the party-approved messaging. Thus, Democrats can credibly say that as long as they've been considering it, they've been in favor of giving "trans kids" hormone treatments.
The reason they hadn't considered it beforehand, of course, is that it's so completely insane that it would never enter an average person's mind except in the most cartoonish dystopian cartoons.
Ethan
Quality assurance
10mo ago
That sounds like quite a story. Have you shared the whole thing it anywhere before?
Ethan
Quality assurance
10mo ago
R.L. Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. For some time I've been thinking of writing an effort-post on Stevenson's nonfiction, specifically his essays, as they're very good. I'm a fan of Pulvis et Umbra, though Crabbed Age and Youth for a while was my favorite.
Why not just solve the related problems? Do practice exercises until you perform well consistently.
More options
Context Copy link