patrick.net

Haha great answer! Godspeed

gabbar says

Attention management is key. That's why I limit my patrick.net use ;)

“Similarly, though the United States is one of the world’s richest economies by per capita income, it ranks only around seventeenth in reported life satisfaction. It is superseded not only by the likely candidates of Finland, Norway, and Sweden, which all rank above the United States but also by less likely candidates such as Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. Indeed, one might surmise that it is health and longevity rather than income that give the biggest boost to reported life satisfaction. Since good health and longevity can be achieved at per capita income levels well below those of the United States, so too can life satisfaction. One marketing expert put it this way, with only slight exaggeration: Basic Survival goods are cheap, whereas narcissistic self-stimulation and social-display products are expensive. Living doesn’t cost much, but showing off does.” ― Jeffrey D. Sachs, The Price of Civilization

Ed Sheeran

The economy does not look great right now. Things are slowing down. You are seeing layoffs in many, many sectors of the economy. If we are not in a recession right now, we are likely to be in one very soon. The probabilities in this economy tell you to batten down the hatches. If you are an individual and you are thinking about buying a large-screen TV, maybe slow that down, keep that cash, see what happens. Same thing with a refrigerator, a new car, whatever. Just take some risk off the table. - Jeff Bezos, November 2022

Preaching is the ultimate grift, they don't have to pay taxes, the product they sell is invisible, and if it doesn't do what they claimed it would do then they just blame it on the consumer for not believing in the product enough.

❛Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.❜

—Robert Louis Stevenson

"The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot."

DD214 says

"The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot."

attribution? I know we can intarwebs it, but still . . .

stereotomy says

DD214 says

"The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot."

attribution? I know we can intarwebs it, but still . . .

Carl Sagan. I guessed that because it sounds like him, but I also looked it up and I happened to be correct:

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/512725-think-of-the-rivers-of-blood-spilled-by-all

Any 6 words you hear, is either a quote, or never spoken before. I think this should be the basis for passwords. A fun thing to do is pick out 10 words from a "news" article, and enter it into a search engine, to see how "news" articles work. Quite often, you'll see the same exact story from dozens of sources, from dozens of authors, which gives the illusion that these are actual points of view rather than what they really are, propaganda.

Interest rates are meaningfully below where they are going to go. We think that is, of course, a risk for equities. And part of our thesis is we think inflation is going to be structurally higher. We do not believe that it is likely the Federal Reserve is going to be able to get inflation back to a consistent 2% level. Supply chain risks that people have become extremely experienced with in the last year or so have made nearly every U.S. CEO rethink outsourced or distant supply chains. A lot more of that is going to come closer to home, and it is more expensive to do business here. Rising wages globally, the transition to alternative energy, de-globalization, and a shift to domestic sourcing and production will all weigh on the Fed's ability to bring down inflation - Bill Ackman, Pershing Square, November 18, 2022

For most Americans, especially now, striving and insecurity are likely to be rewarded with more striving and insecurity; you can do everything right and still have little to show for it. ~ Amy Chua, Jed Rubenfeld, The Triple Package: What Really Determines Success: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups

DD214 says

"The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot."

Humans are both good and a fucked up species.

gabbar says

DD214 says

"The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot."

Humans are both good and a fucked up species.

The purpose of making a better, and easier world is to eliminate this struggle, but what is left behind are the sociopaths, and we neglect to remove them.

I want you to consider this. You have a more comfortable home than a king did in 1800. You can travel to any part of the world, and a king couldn't. On a $20 SD card you can contain a library of books that would put the Library of Alexandra to shame. You have an indoor toilet, a dishwasher, a vacuum cleaner, a laundry washing machine, your life is EASY compared to the RICHEST king in 1800.

Yet we still have to deal with the sociopaths.

Your life really isn't hard, it's just not guaranteed. That's your only trouble, uncertainty.

I am so fucking old that I was able to talk to people born in 1900 and before. Life is so easy today. You don't need to beat rugs, you don't scrub clothing to clean them, you don't get up in the middle of the night stoke a fire to warm the house, you don't have an outhouse, you don't take care of horses for the carriage - everything is trivial today.

You know, the rules of perception. If they’re Black, then it’s a gang. If they’re Italian, it’s a mob. If they’re Jewish, it’s a coincidence and you should never speak about it. - David Chapelle, November 2022