Thought provoking
The objection to conforming to usages that have become dead to you is that it scatters your force. It loses your time and blurs the impression of your character. If you maintain a dead church, contribute to a dead Bible-society, vote with a great party either for the government or against it, spread your table like base housekeepers,—under all thes
... See moreRalph Waldo Emerson • Self Reliance (Illustrated)
Yowza
the loss of these small groups, in favor of nation-level organization of atomized individuals, has had serious consequences for human welfare and human agency. We are missing a layer of organization essential for our happiness.
Sarah Perry • Gardens Need Walls: On Boundaries, Ritual, and Beauty
State of AI and path to AGI
björk said that trying to communicate through talking feels like trying to put the ocean through a straw
The philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote presciently about the danger of a society of lonely individuals. She defined loneliness not as solitude—since solitude is where one can reflect on their connection to themselves and others and really prepare themselves for encountering others. She described loneliness as isolation and even alienation from others ... See more
Sure, Mr. Hoover. • Hope beyond individualism
Bullshit, unlike lying, works by making you unconcerned with whether speech is true or false. The bullshitter, like the sophists of antiquity, does not appeal to any measure of truth outside of the needs of the moment. Instead, he tries to capture your attention with the catchiness of his claim and how much it provokes something inside of you: some
... See moreJohn Vervaeke, Christopher Mastropietro, • Awakening From the Meaning Crisis
Children, especially highly sensitive children, can be wounded in multiple ways: by bad things happening, yes, but also by good things not happening, such as their emotional needs for attunement not being met.
Gabor Mate • The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture
Whenever I see people defend the 40-hour workweek, I think back to this quote by David Cain:
'But the 8-hour workday is too profitable for big business, not because of the amount of work people get done in eight hours (..) but because it makes for such a purchase-happy public. Keeping free time scarce means people pay a lot more for convenience, gra
... See moreYou don't know how bad most things are nor precisely how they're bad. — LessWrong
Solenoid_Entitylesswrong.com
Blind spots and AI.