dark
Veritas vos liberabit
No bio...
User ID: 1132
We understand that mathematics is a very non-central case of artistic or aesthetic achievement.
How widely appreciated are Beethoven or Caspar David Friedrich nowadays?
the decay of aesthetic standards assumed to be common sense
Consensus building.
I'll bite that many countries in development are less likely to invest in architectural aesthetics and maintenance, but this has always been the case for politically/economically unstable regions. Is there evidence that Indians in the United States who become Americanized (2nd, 3rd generation immigrants) and wealthy continue to neglect aesthetic construction?
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
8mo ago
Modern architecture is mostly horrific for reasons elaborate upon a myriad times. Usually having to do with architectural schools, snobbery and that the last pre-apocalyptic generations have died.. generations ago.
Define modern. The Louvre pyramid for example, widely decried at conception, is now a architectural monument to modernism at the heart of one of the pinnacle achievements of Renaissance work. Niemayer in Brazil? Le Corbusier? Art Deco in the 30s?
You can't argue we are not decaying.
Chill with the consensus buliding.
Collapsing industries due to energy costs
This is temporary nonsense due to geopolitical machinations. Gasoline is more expensive in the US than it historically has been, but electricity has fallen almost 100% since 1900, despite machinery and tools becoming vastly more efficient (not to mention the exponential compounding of computing power for fixed energy use). CPI-adjusted electricity has continued to fall since 2000, from 0.172 to 0.159 $/kWh.
I was vaguely amused to see this pop up in the janitorial duties, this is probably one of the most eloquently written comments that's not there for 'Quality Contribution'.
That said, is there really a need for a fallacy in every sentence? The whole first paragraph is just bad blood coagulated into an ugly scab that's regurgitated ad hominem.
Next, I don't see @atokenliberal6D_4 suggesting mathematics is beautiful or a salve for diseased slums, just a counterpoint to the general narrative of decay and deterioration that permeates contemporary (and perhaps all human) rhetoric. You prop up a straw Colossus and then toss it ad populum, for them to supposedly tear apart with their physical, homeostatic hands.
As a crown of thorns for this cute little sophistical sermon, you conjure up some bizarre racial slippery slope whereby lack of aesthetic compatibility is leading to the decay of civilization.
The tone and style had me err on Bad, but after writing this up this I think it honestly deserves a warning it's so grotesquely specious.
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
8mo ago
Sorry for the facile response, but your initial question lacked details.
Are you looking for a community, or a particular discipline in which to practice your faith?
Community fishing probably has the same guidelines as usual - class, tribe, values, culture - with the caveat that Churches tend to transcend (at least a bit) class boundaries more than other social groups.
Changing Churches for religious reasons is a lot more technical, what exactly do you object to in your current liturgy?
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
8mo ago
Get toothpaste with nano hydroxyapatite, and mix it with your regular fluoride toothpaste. It'll do wonders for reminiralization and sensitivity.
It's essentially the same mineral form of calcium that's already in your teeth, in a form that easily bonds with your enamel.
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
8mo ago
Some form of spiritual practice, or exercise.
Whenever you feel overcome by desire/anger, seek the comfort of meditation/prayer or a nice jog/pushups to clear your head. It channels the negativity into less destructive pursuits.
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
8mo ago
Don't you just start attending Mass on Sundays and holidays/volunteering for small stuff?
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
8mo ago
This. Once you get beyond hypertrophy rep ranges into endurance (8-12+), it becomes crucial to do few sets of strength once in a while (4-6 reps).
If you can do 3x9 you should be able to do 25 lbs 3x4. This can be done easily with junk in a backpack. Once you get into higher weights (75-100lbs), you'll likely need to invest in plates and a weightbelt, or one of those modular vests.
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
9mo ago
Does protected sex/whoring contribute to real world development? What about pickup artists who go to bars every night to try to find women? Does that provide real meaning?
What I'm trying to get at here is that real meaning is ill-defined and most philosophers do include some form of pleasure and hedonism as an intrinsic value.
The worst fallacy, however, would be to try to argue meaningless work is more virtuous or valuable than meaningless pleasure. To argue that a substitutable office drone that shuffles emails around and does his 40 hours a week somehow is doing something intrinsically important than someone who plays MMORPGs all day. You can assign more value/respect to either of these activities, but I don't see how it's intuitively or aesthetically obvious that either is fundamentally superior.
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
9mo ago
Reading can most certainly be simulated: consider smut, or cheap fantasy and fiction.
Same goes for music, the distinction between popular and highbrow musical productions has nothing to do with productivity.
What about "games" that straddle the line between real-world activites and simulated ones? Poker, sports gambling? People make a living off such "games". And pushing that idea further, what about the gamification of financial markets? Is there any productive purpose to the microsecond race to the bottom with high-frequency trading?
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
9mo ago
I'd put them in the same category as sex: not to the detriment of your health or other activities, not instead of self-fulfillment, ideally social and not masturbatory, etc.
I was going to push the artistic analogy but found the sexual one more compelling: artistic endeavors have too much of a positive connotation, gambling and smoking too much of a negative connotation, whereas sex straddles the boundary between puritanism and appropriate hedonism.
Video games can make you gasp and shake your head in wonder, can bring friends together to laugh and share, they can be a portal into a universe of creation, where the only limits are of the mind and the machine.
They can also be addictive and predatory, think of the people found dead at their computers, or with 6 figure debts from Candy Crush addictions. Is that any different than heroin or slot machines, or prostitution and camgirls?
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
9mo ago
There are unloaded terms for these activities: census or polling statistics.
They are opt-in and don't infringe on privacy, and only the most hardline small government libertarians usually object to them.
People are generally uncomfortable with widespread/automatic surveillance because it's
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opaque; inspecting the methodology and ethics thereof can often only done post-hoc, often with leaks and after non-trivial social costs are already borne
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surprisingly effective and perceptive; see how much information can be gleaned from metadata with phone calls, or IP connections that are encrypted with TLS, but not routed over TOR
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susceptible to abuse; you want to shift the framing to gloss over this, but is that logically honest? is it reasonable to assume organizations have individuals best interests in mind? it is always tempting to label dissidents as terrorists and crack down on them with the full force of the state, but does that lead to a productive and free society? would you rather live in China, where discussions about the CCP are mired in doublespeak/downright avoided, or the US, which has pretty robust protections of speech that don't have clear National Security dynamics (see Snowden and Assange as obvious counterexamples)?
I think it's also important to understand the unease around privacy is not necessarily utilitarian and logically consistent: Alexa listening in on your sex life and giving you sex toys recommendations based on orgasm frequency is certainly useful, but would make almost anyone I know very uncomfortable.
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
10mo ago
You've captured something I've been feeling since the /r/SSC split. I've pondered and written drafts that I've discarded, because they never quite hit the nail right about what I felt had changed.
After reading this, I think you really got it. Optimism and hope are gone. That doesn't mean that verbal sparring isn't a worthwhile exercise, but the people who do genuinely see a hopeful vision for the future have mostly left (or are drowned out by the sunken masses).
Since the move from reddit, I've found myself almost exclusively posting on the WW thread.
Also mildly disappointed no one has picked up (or at least commented online about) Veritas vos liberabit, which, like Arbeit macht frei, gives me a sardonic reminder of what transpires here every time I post.
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
10mo ago
Amphetamines at therapeutic doses are indeed not euphoric, you're not having fun doing chores, but you also don't want to tear your hair and eyes out. They shift your reward curves just such that the delayed gratification and rhythm of work feel Sisyphean-esquely bearable.
Amphetamines at abuse doses/cocaine are euphoric, sure, pure dopamine, but affect your cognitive processes too much for genuine productivity.
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
10mo ago
Many approaches to this:
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Pharmacological: Executive function in a pill, adderall, lisdexafetamine, modafinil, pick your stimulant (poison). Congratulations, spreadsheets and doing your taxes is now fun
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CBT-esque: Stop blaming yourself for failures, understand that most people are behind on their todo lists. If it wasn't urgent yesterday, it can't be that urgent today. If it's worth doing well, it's worth half-assing (perfectionism trap). This addresses the 'feel stupid' part of your procrastination loop.
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Mind hacks/habit building: Do this slowly, but maybe make a habit of 1 task at 6PM every night. Again re: CBT, don't blame yourself if you miss a night or two because you're sick. If it takes less than a minute to do, never put it off. Etc etc.
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
10mo ago
Of course, don't actually quit. But start leetcoding/pulling on network strings, so if the axe does fall, you collect severance and quickly find somewhere else.
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
11mo ago
Microplastics and EA (Estrogenic Activity) chemicals are somewhat orthogonal.
This paper is a decent introduction to how widespread EA chemicals are, especially when the polymer is stressed (UV, microwave, dishwasher, etc). I'd think it's fairly common knowledge not to microwave and use the dishwasher with plastic, but hey, if not, that's a low hanging lifestyle change.
Microplastics at this point are ubiquitous, and unless you're using your own filtration system (reverse osmosis or similar) that you have tested for all the water you use, you're going to have some level of exposure. What level is acceptable? Last I checked, the science hadn't really settled there, so let's wait while they make mice chug microplastic water to see if anything bad happens. My personal level of risk tolerance for microplastic lands around processed meats: unclear mechanism for harm, but if avoiding them is cheap and easy, why not?
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
11mo ago
You need to bear as much of the communication brunt as possible. Let the engineers focus on their jobs and protect them from whimsical business needs shifts, and protect the business from misguided but well-intentioned engineers.
Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity.
Inspire your reports to do their best work.
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
11mo ago
Nice to see a visual representation of how short something is, vs the usual how much money Elon Musk has.
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
11mo ago
Seconded, this screams mind-body connection/physical symptoms of anxiety.
Obviously, it could be some super rare disease no one can diagnose. Most likely though? Psychosomatic. Get a psychiatric consult ASAP.
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
11mo ago
This additional information really confirms my initial impression. Very few men, even model level attractive, will have attractive women just fall in their lap and do all the heavy lifting. You're clearly not that attractive. But your description doesn't sound hopeless, you appear fit, no deformities/scarring that evoke an immediate reaction of pity/disgust. Women can be attracted to other things than just physical hotness: kindness, humor, cleverness, wealth, success, prestige.
Indeed, no woman will ever want you for just your physique, but does that matter? Do you want women for only their physique?
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
11mo ago
You sound like you have severe self-esteem issues and maybe mild anxiety. Not as a clinical diagnoses, but as character traits that hinder you in fulfilling your social potential.
Living on the spectrum comes with its share of frustrations because you will be routinely misunderstood. It seems you have at least in part overcome that, as a medical student, which is on the path to a high status/well respected job anywhere in the world. In countries with arranged marriages, you likely would have no problem at all finding a partner.
My suggestion to you would be to find some activities, true to your identity and interests, which would help you enlarge your social circle. It could be volunteering (natural since you're a medical stundent), exercise/sport related such as yoga, spiritual such as temple or church. Don't worry about finding a partner, focus just on finding people who appreciate you for who you are. Don't be creepy, but don't let fear of being perceived as a creep prevent you from talking to and meeting people.
You managed to overcome the limitations of autism for your professional life, you can do so (with work and practice) for your social life as well. You may think differently from people but that doesn't mean you cannot learn to understand them.
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
1yr ago
Whether it's a placebo or not, does it matter if it works?
dark
Veritas vos liberabit
1yr ago
Flush tabs regularly. The visual and mental burden isn't fun.
If they're productive readings, try some form of Zettelkasten. Skim through an article you find interesting and make a note on it with appropriate tags and backlinks. You can then revisit it at an appropriate time when you're exploring the subject, and it frees you of the mental burden of "unread" or "things to do".
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