Life: An Instructional Flow Chart | Hacker News Reader

Life: An Instructional Flow Chart

weblog.masukomi.org

11 pointsmasukomi16 comments

If you followed this you'd never do anything. Every possible action harms others in some way, it's a question of balancing the good and the bad.

A slightly more productive way to phrase it would be like this:

1. Do you have the time and patience to use more brain? yes: 2; no: 3

2. Use more brain; goto 1

3. Do best idea so far; hope

If people followed that then I'd still be subjected to their stupid statements that do not improve anyone's life.

Rabble rousers and people that piss other people off are the ones that change the world.

The moment you do anything at all someone will get upset.

Agreed. There is almost certainly someone out there (or even whole classes of people) frustrated over the fact that you even continue to live.

A lot of people will get upset if you don't do anything at all too.

The flow does not prevent you from doing things that upset people. It prevents you from doing things that harm others. Rouse all the rabble you want, as long as you believe it will improve someone's / everyone's life.

So basically, operating a company is out, since this action affects the lives of your competitors and harms them.

The chart - like most oversimplifications - is stupid.

business is not a zero sum game. Companies in the same space can work together or play off of each other. Also, taking business from a competitor doesn't necessarily harm anyone. Maybe it harms the businesses bottom line but so what? If you're direct competitors and you massively kill their income then a) you have improved life for customers (given them a product they desire more) b) you probably have job openings and can cherry pick the best of your competitors workers c) in many cases it can be argued that the people at your competitor weren't doing their job very well, or they would not have been in such a poor position, so maybe it improves the workers lives to move on to something they can do, and enjoy better... it's rarely enjoyable to be at a floundering company. Remember, nobody is living a life built on a complete set of rules. EVERY path we intentionally attempt to follow is, or is based on, an oversimplified idea. If your statement is true then since most rules, laws, and guidelines are oversimplifications of what's actually needed / desired, they're "stupid"... so, what would you suggest? Throw out most of the laws? Throw out most of society's rules? They are oversimplifications, and thus are "stupid"..... or wait... maybe your claim that most oversimplifications are stupid, was in fact, an oversimplification, and thus...

How do you know if something I am going to say is going to improve someones life or harm someone?

You don't "know". You just do your best. How do you "know" you're not just in the middle of a long running hallucination? You don't. You take what you believe to be true and move forward as best you can. Yes, you'll screw up, and yes you'll inadvertently harm people along the way, but you'll harm a lot fewer if you try and choose actions that won't be harmful.

This could stop wars

I think it takes more than productive say, to make your life better, like what you do, where you go, how you do it. Then there is motivation, people don't always 'want' to say whats productive (or something that makes something better).

Also, its about perception, a lot of times, what you think will not be of any good, might have been a input someone was looking for, like you saw someone five minutes ago, and your talking to her boyfriend (your buddy for example) who just made her upset, but you don't know that, and he has been looking for her like crazy, and obviously since you don't know that either, you think it won't make his life better, when it would actually do (lol)

following that logic one should spew out all the thoughts in ones head even if you think they're of no good because they may be of some good to someone. Most people would agree that that's not a good strategy.

Not exactly, I didn't mean that what you think is productive should be thrown out, no need to throw anything. What I meant, is that your cycle does not accumulate the entirety of this thing called life.

no? Yes there's the edge case that isn't covered, of sacrificing the one for the many, but that's a dangerous slope to try and codify. Other than that, how does it not? At each step of your life "now" you attempt to do something that benefits someone's life (probably yours) and doesn't harm anyone. Yes, there are other ways of approaching life (most people do stuff that doesn't really make anyone's life better most of the time).... but would you really argue that those are paths you should strive to follow? As a guideline, I think it's pretty good, and other than the edge case mentioned above, I can't think of an instance where it isn't the best path to follow. I really would like to hear a good counterargument / flow that one should follow instead. It's not meant to encompass all the ways people live. It's intended to be a guide as to how to proceed.

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