OneWordSoln

FF on Debian and Ubuntu.

Not on my boxen. Never again.

What was old is new again, embrace and embed may succeed where extinguish failed.

Dunning & Kruger's work is far from petty; I merely gave him a dose of his own "How's that for nuance" attitude. He is wrong and his confidence is perfectely explained by D&K's groundbreaking work.

And the result is that the comments are really of very little use anymore. Time was they used to be enlightening.

Too bad Paul Graham doesn't give a rat's ass. He has the opportunity to create something beneficial to world society here but doesn't care to put in the money and thought to figure out how to make it work.

The negativity on this site towards people who express any opinion beyond the herd is making this site a groupthink echo chamber. This karma system has failed.

So Microsoft has the chutzpah to create a github repository trying to dupe people into contributing enhancements to components of their for-profit spyware?

And related: "Know your enemy."

I didn't say any previous time period was better than today; I said that our societies being created by the most ruthless is absurd, and it is. Humans at their best work cooperatively and it happens all the time and has happened at all times. But when power structures can be subverted by the amoral, they will be, have been, are being. That does not mean that structures that facilitate such power grabs were created by the amoral. To suggest so is plainly illogical and ridiculous.

We need to work in societies to prosper and survive, and cooperation is the best way to achieve that. Our failure is that, at larger scales, we have not applied the proper systems thinking to ensure that the ruthless and amoral cannot game the system for their own personal gain at the expense of the society and the Earth itself.

Those with power will always promote competition because they have all the advantages; as well, they will denigrate cooperation because their excesses will be seen for the unnecessary drain on resources they are. Thus, we have the corporate lawyers and lobbyists making the laws and regulations that are supposed to rein them in.

The corporations have bought our governments and are destroying the environment for their short-term enrichment.

The obvious positives of technology and capitalism must be weighed against their long-term drawbacks. The unfettered capitalism the corporations have put into place via their lawyers and lobbyists has kept the negative outcomes from public view while shielding their owners from responsibility.

Boeing, Tanaka, Monsanto, Exxon, Facebook, ...

The system as it exists is far more destructive than constructive. Only a fool or a liar says otherwise.

ETA: So, "Civilization Accelerating Extinction at Unprecedented Pace" is not caused by technology, corporations and unfettered capitalism?

ETA2: And every civilization was created by the most ruthless? You only see yourself in everything you perceive, which is fundamental to ignorance.

What if we all treated each other with respect and compassion?

What if creating happiness in others was our fundamental objective as individuals and societies?

Only with compassionate honesty can we root out the truly bad seeds and strip them of their power to harm others.

Without compassion as our basis, our prejudices blind us and lead to callous, destructive competition via blind ambition.

Only in compassionately equal cooperation can we determine which individuals and groups seek to oppress others, for cooperation is anathema to those filled with hatred and cruel self-superiority.

Our callous attitudes and systems of competition are destroying the Earth and inflicting misery upon the vast majority of humanity for the benefit of the few.

Committing oneself to become consumed by selfless compassion that motivates us to shape our societies into compassionate systems of mutual benefit and cooperation for ALL human beings is the ONLY path to happiness. Happiness for the individual begins in every interaction we have with each other and the Earth itself. The goal of that happiness is to spread this wisdom far and wide.

To achieve that ideal we must strip the cruel, hypocritical, hateful liars of their power to cause misery for others. And this unfettered capitalism must be tamed to serve everyone while allowing the ambitious to reap the benefits of their hard work.

Happiness is not pleasure and is so rare these days because very few people learn to selflessly, compassionately serve others' happiness. Worse yet, the most ruthless, amoral people have usurped the power structures of the world: governments, corporations and religious institutions.

Selfless compassion is the root of happiness and we much each hurry up and implement it because the evil bastards are running rampant over our precious, beautiful Earth and the vast sea of poors.

As with all things human, it is equally each our choice.

That's a really nice try. I'm sorry no one has ever told you a joke that made you laugh or treated you with concern and kindness when you were down or gave you a gift.

The chain only ends when one link is left unconnected to another. That is why happiness only to the extent that people keep creating it from whole cloth. It is our choice.

Every compassionate act creates happiness in the receiver and then the feedback loop creates it in the giver. Once a person has tasted enough such transactions, that is all one wants.

Mock congratulations to you, my fellow traveler! You are just like Trump. That is not a good thing.

Choose to spread light and love to one and all and reap the benefits of that sowing! Or choose to live in shallow animalistic competitive selfishness and experience their brutish life in the company of callous alpha-seeking pack members who will have you so long as you keep your place or provide value for their worldly pursuits, ever ready to take you down a peg and show you the door.

Me, I'd rather hang out with the likes of Louis Armstrong. "Love baby, love. Yeaaaaaaaah."

Because our Creator is the ultimate loner, utterly peerless, absolutely Unfathomable. We alone can choose to contemplate It and Its incredible Majesty, and we, as creatures, can only grasp tiny aspects of its Being.

It would prefer that we choose to live humanely, deciding to rise above our animal potential to create happiness for others, so that more of us have the peace and time to contemplate this beautiful creation.

One can't be a Scotsman if one's ancestors don't come from Scotland.

There are things that are true because they fit the proper description and there are people who use "No True Scotsman" because they don't want to learn the truth.

No, in the US. It's a crappy small cage, maybe 20' square.

He mentions in the Horizon "Fermat's Last Theorem" documentary that Taniyama was "not a careful person as a mathematician. He made a lot of mistakes, but he made mistakes in a good direction, so eventually he got [to] the right answer, and I tried to imitate him, but I found out that it is very difficult to make good mistakes." He says it with a wry grin.

The excellent Horizon documentary, "Fermat's Last Theorem", about Wiles' proof has some great interview footage with Shimura where he even discusses his sadness and being perplexed at Taniyama's sudden suicide.

When asked about Wiles' proof proving their conjecture, he quips with a sly grin: "Well, my first reaction was, 'I told you so.'"

Reading is fundamental. Let me quote myself:

>> Happiness is an upwelling feeling in our being.

>> How's that for nuance?

You are too stupid to know how stupid you are.

Is that you, McArthur Wheeler? Dunning & Kruger send their appreciation for inspiring their groundbreaking work.

Yeah, we have one (or maybe two?) at our local zoo and the setup is such that I was able to be eye-to-eye with one of them from less than two feet. That thing held my gaze with zero fear whatsoever of me. Unbelievable experience. It's a freakin' war machine. And strikingly beautiful as well.

Happiness : Pleasure :: Unhappiness : Misery.

The former of each are karmic, the latter of each are physical.

Happiness and unhappiness are not "chased"; they are earned as a result of one's treatment of others.

That is not happiness, it is sadistic pleasure and it only increases their unhappiness.

[Editing because I can't make a new reply for a while]:

Happiness is an upwelling feeling in our being. Pleasure is a purely physical sensation. Sure, they may happen together but they may also happen in apparent contradiction. That is why the sadist who likes taking pleasure in creating misery in non-masochists is doing so to while increasing their eventual unhappiness, and also why people in difficult circumstances can still experience sublime happiness.

The key is that the Law of Karma has a cause-and-effect relationship in time ("you reap what you sow"). It's like getting drunk and then having a hangover for those who sow unhappiness in others, while creating happiness in others is like a drug with no negative after effects.

This is why you will never see Trump truly smile as he can only fake it: he has ripped off everyone he could, used his powerful lawyers to keep from being held accountable, cheated on all of his wives, skeeved on Miss Universe pageant contestants by walking though their dressing room, lied any time he thought he could gain from them, and belittled every person around him for his own narcisistic pleasure. When you see him in a relaxed, introspective moment, his life of creating misery for everyone around him shows as plain as the sun at high noon on his face.

Let's say that, before Einstein and Boltzman, physicists thought they understood how the world worked but not only did those two expand our understanding to a much deeper level, very few of their peers acknowledged the truth for decades.

I am convinced because I know the truth. Beyond that, it is the only explanation for happiness and unhappiness because it is the only truth of how this world works. As quantum physics underlies all of creation, there are some truths one must experience to understand; i.e. we must each 'open the box and see' ourselves.

We are the only creatures in this plane with free will and the price of that free will is learning how to use it in cooperation with our fellow human beings for the happiness of one and all. It is the design of the universe. If we had adopted this attitude as a human race we would not be mindlessly destroying our Earth's environment for immediate gratification.

Perhaps two trillion galaxies with a couple of hundred billion stars in each, our universe's point-source Big Bang origin has been confirmed by theory and the measurable remnants of that explosion, called the cosmic microwave background radiation. And yet there is no Creator? Not only is not scientific, the truth of our having a Creator is the only explanation that makes logical sense.

We are each made to directly interface with our Creator via the information system that underlies this universe in order that we can learn how to live happier lives, yet we are completely free to choose to ignore this fact, as our free will is absolutely freely given. There are many fools who deny this reality while failing basic science by having never made that inward journey; I tell you that this is possible and they would call me the fool, yet they can offer no understanding of this universe and our purpose of human life: to be happy by helping ALL others be happy, too.

"The Way goes in." --Rumi

Einstein proved Boltzman correct but it was years before Einstein was accepted. And so I am downvoted by the legions of closed-minded materialists present on this site. Alas, they don't know happiness and only increase their unhappiness by fighting this Sufi Message of Love. It is up to each individual to make that connection for themselves. We are each both the experiment and the performer of the experiment. To be consumed by love with our Creator's help is the goal and the purpose can be stated with one line: "On Earth as it is in Heaven." That purpose is the same across all forms of religion, though hypocritical liars are also present in all such forms. There are also those of us in each of them that are attempting to be consumed by love for ALL our fellow human beings, irrespective of their path. We are the Sufis.

There is a difference between happiness and pleasure and happiness requires no unhappiness to result in others. The only way a sadist can earn happiness is if they are only dealing with masochists and everyone is getting precisely what they want. But masochists do not want misery, they just enjoy the pain, which is as different from misery as happiness is from pleasure, though they may coincide.

People are free to misunderstand anything they choose, but words have meanings and reality can be accurately described using words with specific meanings.

[Editing because I can't reply for a while]: The dictionary writers are not the definitive masters of knowledge. What I am teaching here is (obviously) not only unknown to most people but actively denied by most.

Happiness is an internal upwelling of feeling. Pleasure is a physical sensation. They are not the same. That is why a person can be unhappy but still experience pleasure and why a person with poor life circumstances can still be happy.

Freedom is our fundamental human right, self-determination is limited by material means, and dignity is knowing that you seek to both understand and embody the highest ideals.

But sacrificing the freedom to cause misery to others? What a small price to pay.

Happiness is not the same thing as pleasure. Happiness comes from within and is unrelated to external circumstances. Pleasure is a purely physical feeling and there are certainly people who take pleasure in other people's misery.

That is not happiness; that is sadistic pleasure.

But you are missing the very ethos of their hiring and wage practices: greed above humanity. It is what I call the "Cult of the MBA" and it drives our current world economic system is is destroying the Earth and effectively enslaving the vast majority of its population. And they own our governments.

Competition is for animals; cooperation is solely human.

That our capitalistic system is competitive has good points (like keeping prices low, keeping markets efficient), but without compassion, generosity and fairness it becomes a tool of the wealthy to oppress the poor. The evidence is abundant.

Yes, the government MUST absolutely take an active role in legislating fairness for the powerless, but it really comes down to the individuals to manifest such fairness, and fairness only comes from compassion. And generosity in a business setting must meet the economic standard of recouping the costs of business, but when the business is set about solely maximizing profit for its owners, it has taken its darkest path forward. What that has led to in 2019 are laws crafted by the industries that seek to exploit the Earth and its wage slaves.