Shit I Find Interesting.

It's us. Humans. We are the weak link in the chain. Ultimately, there is nobody to blame. We are just born broken.

Human cognition is riddled with exploitable defects. Biologically we are basically just highly pretentious and neurotic monkeys. All of human history is full of people looking for someone to blame for their condition (gods, devils, spirits, corporations, etc) but it never changes. Keep in mind, from an evolutionary perspective we are exactly the same people who were burning witches at the stake and throwing people in lakes to determine their criminal culpability a few hundred years ago. We just have a different set of superstitions and delusions now.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19679860

#psychology

This.

I am not depressed but very disillusioned with the rat race, endless consumption, insane baby boomers, insane government, insane social media/device addiction. I just want to live in a cabin on my own land, grow cactus, play mandolin, and cook food/spend time with my kids. Literally all I want to do with the rest of my life. Turn 42 this summer.

https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/bdmgg4/indicators_of_despair_rising_among_gen_xers/el02lpx/

#politics #economics

High-def video is not the best friend of your average porn star. Zits and stretch marks jut out like a topographical map of the Himalayas.

#porn

What's the point of existence?

You only exist for this one moment. The past and future don't exist for you. Your body and brain will exist at other times (slightly altered), but those are different instances of consciousness, not you. All “you” are is the specific sense of self that you are feeling at this moment.

It will be an eternally true fact of the universe that you exist at this place and this time. So reflect on and appreciate your peaceful eternal now.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ba8x48/whats_the_point_of_existence_for_you/?ref=share&ref_source=link

#philosophy

Winner winner chicken dinner.

We will gladly pay higher taxes for the ability to have free healthcare, not own a car, and live somewhere that is not so polluted.

https://np.reddit.com/r/IWantOut/comments/qp0qk/im_just_curious_why_do_so_many_usians_want_to_get/c3zgnyj/

#economics #politics

I agree with the premise but a hand-wavy 'manage moar better' doesn't strike me as a feasible solution.

At a deeper (very generalized) level, we've been infected by production line, Deming style, efficiency focus.

If you are handling previously defined routines, great. Optimizing can help you.

As soon as you are working with adding value, be it in code, education, product development, metrics are /all/ premature optimization.

Promote the idea that you can't apply optimization techniques to creative steps and encourage managers to get off the numerical crutches and make value judgments. Takes a better manager but then that's the point anyway, right?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19541475

#management

Trump is a malicious clown but IMO he's got a real chance at a second term. It's the economy, stupid.

I was a classic victim of the great recession. I was successful and happy to live my little life. The worries started in 2008 when the financial company I was with had to close its doors rather suddenly. I had experienced hiccups in my career before, or moved jobs before, but this was like nothing I'd ever seen. For my talent and experience, I couldn't get arrested. I lost everything.

So went the next eight years.

I struggled and I moved around, place to place, trying to get back to good, but it felt like the opportunities that had once been there were gone and it felt like forever. I sold t-shirts for a while. I went from excess to floating bills, and trying to keep the lights on.

I always vote, but I didn't vote last round. I couldn't. I thought Trump was crazy and Hilary was ... well, no.

These past two years have seen a change that I would never have thought possible. The economy rebounded so fast that I wasn't sure what was happening. And then doors began to open again, and I walked through one of them and now I have my life back again.

I'm not a kid, I've seen presidents come and go, but I've never felt an effect as tangible as what I am experiencing now. This is deeply personal to me – my life has changed.

I still think Trump is a little crazy, but I'm down with it and I will literally run to the polls to re-elect him. And if you think I'm the exception, you're nuts. There are millions of me who have seen their worlds slowly come back again or get tangibly and personally better. That's a story that hasn't been told through politics in a very long time.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Conservative/comments/b76qb0/when_trump_was_elected_my_first_thought_was_yikes/

#politics #economics

Two things come to mind. First, complexity can be used as a wonderful shield against openness and accountability. You can be as open and accountable as anybody would like, but as long as most people find the situation impenetrable and you do not, it doesn't matter. It's the same thing as not being open at all.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19520514

#management

Channna ham nah channa channa OOOOoOOooOOOoeAaaAAaAAaaAAAhHHHhhHheeeEeEEeEAaAaeEEEEEeeEEeE AAaaEeeEeeeaaaaAAaAaaEEeEEoOoOOooOeEEeAAaAahHHhhhHEeeEeEEEoO ooOOO

https://youtu.be/VTCJ5hedcVA

#music

Mongol General: “What is best in life?”

Conan: “To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.”

Mongol General: “That is good!”

https://youtu.be/el93MIxAf-c

#music