stanrivers

Love this story; random how we can know so much about a random set of people from so long ago

> ...for Yamamoto was a brilliant strategist who was flatly opposed to war with the United States. He had seen America's industrial might at first hand when he had studied at Harvard University, and later when he served as a naval attaché in Washington.

> But Yamamoto was a robust nationalist and a Japanese to the very marrow of his bones. His love of Emperor and homeland was of volcanic ardor, and his warrior heart followed the traditions of the true samurai: duty first.

Basically, "I know this is a bad idea, but the boss says so, and I just work here so what do I know... so here we go..." Story of corporate american right there

> Throughout these preparations, Japanese diplomatic efforts in the United States continued. The Emperor had initially desired to declare war prior to an attack for the sake of honor, but his military advised that complete surprise was needed. Thus, up-and-until the final moment, Japanese diplomats kept up their foreign policy efforts without hinting at the impending attack.

> Negotiations ongoing, Japan launched its attack fleet and began the steady march to Hawaii in late November 1941. In order to conceal the departure of such a large attack force…

It's interesting how there seemed to always be a kind of conflict on how to approach the military efforts between the Emperor and the military. And the military seemed to always get its way.

So, do we know what they were doing with all that cash?

Do you have a summary of the culture? I hear mixed things, but I wonder how much of that is just a requirement of the jobs that they do needing to be performed by certain personalities

> might reasonably expect

That part made me laugh too hard.

I am stealing that quote now, though. It's so true - think of the effortlessness with which a musician does what they do. It's more or less magic. Same thing with most things.

This is new information for me; very cool; I assumed there had to be a reason. What's your background in the subject matter?

To the gentleman's post above, it does seem to me that Delta has a more negative public image as compared to say the Navy Seals... is there any specific reason for that? or do you disagree with that comment?

Interesting perspective / story; from a work-life perspective, it does seem that those that win, take a lot more low risk, low probability, high pay-off shots. It's all about how you can setup the odds to be in your favor if you are willing to work that extra x%.

Here it's the same thing - spending extra effort waiting for the right moment to happen. He would not be just waiting for 3 days to just wait. He is waiting to get that lucky chance when the odds are in his favor.

Interesting short story.

Agreed that was interesting; don’t let perfection stand in the way of progress; it’s a hard lesson to remember for me; often it is more comforting to just do nothing while thinking of doing something…

Was a little too theoretical for me, so I like something a little more simple about habits...

>...habits are, simply, reliable solutions to recurring problems in our environment. - Jason Hreha [1]

>Whenever you face a problem repeatedly, your brain begins to automate the process of solving it. Your habits are just a series of automatic solutions that solve the problems and stressed you face regularly. - James Clear [1]

The point that was interesting about habits, to me, is that they are unconscious. So this means that you don't necessarily know that you even have them. And they guide a large part of your life. So, if you are not in a spot in life where you want to be, look at your habits... it takes some effort because they are unconscious... but then you can work on changing them.

The unconscious part is important too, though, in a good way. They are programs running in the background that allow you direct your attention to new things that you don't encounter often. Kind of cool when you think that humans have a way to auto-program an auto-pilot for things they encounter often, so that the brain can be better prepared for new things.

[1] https://newsletter.butwhatfor.com/p/habits-maketh-the-man

> The moment I blame my situation on someone or something I cede control of the situation

But it is oh so easy to do that; to his point, there is a sweetness to it; I find I have to remind myself of the idea of ownership and personal responsibility all the time... it's so easy to end up blaming something or someone else.

Wooow, I hate how that bot tricked me. That was like... too smart; eventually the entire internet is just going to be bots tricking each other into believing they are not bots...

It's almost like the cold and wintry weather makes for a lot of time with oneself to think and build the skills needed to create beauty, no?

1. I agree with what you just said... it is amazing how some people can treat one group of people as, well, people, and another as animals.

2. Why is there a link to a credit card?

>Of all the parts of your body, be most vigilant over your index finger, for it is blame-thirsty. A pointed finger is a victim’s logo — the opposite of the V-sign and a synonym for surrender.

This was powerful to me.

You mean the comment about moving to the bottom the torture description? I agree weird, but also get it if someone doesn't want to hear "knowing your upper-body blood circulation has been stopped, and feeling the evergrowing pain and the ever-closing-in of claustrophobia as the man standing on your back gives your head one last shove down with his heel and you start to gasp and vomit"

Like I get that its not bad, but I guess I get the idea that not every reader wants to visualize that on like, idk, a Sunday morning while reading something.

What makes it lame to you?

> At exactly 7:49 the air waves crackled… “To-To-To !” It was the first syllable of the Japanese word for “Charge,” and it meant that the first wave was now attacking. But it told nothing about the circumstances of that attack.

> A few minutes later there was another message… “Tora, Tora, Tora l” (Tiger, Tiger, Tiger!) It was the prearranged code word for conveying the news that complete surprise had been achieved.

Extra points for intelligence - thank you sir or madam, sounds like you are right

>I did my PhD on Greenland?

On what, specifically? That sounds interesting... history? culture? native populations? economy? Very curious as I have literally never heard anyone say "I did my PhD on Greenland" before

Fair enough, it was an interesting comment the way I read it though; makes me think about all the things I complain about where I am complaining about “the rules of the game” - like in a job or something.

I picked to play that game, if the rules are whatever playing that game are using, then if I am frustrated by the rules, am I not the one who should look in the mirror and say “hmm, maybe I shouldn’t play this specific game”

Which is unfortunate - there is a futility feeling in that takeaway / summary, which I agree is often said; you can also use Stoicism as a way to remember to prioritize and focus on what you can actually control… that’s the important takeaway to me… can you control that your landlord is going to try to raise rent next year - no, not generally. Can you look and have many options? Maybe… that kind of concept

I think I have heard people criticize it quite a bit for "not caring about what happens" or "don't worry about the outcome" - which is a misunderstanding of the concept of taking control of what you can control, and accept you can't control everything.

From the article - I like this concept here.

"Treat your station in life with indifference. Not contempt, just indifference."

Don't let yourself be defined by what you have achieved, because eventually, it will be taken from you - in death, in old age, in sickness, in unluckiness

This is an interesting comment, because I get both respect and unhappiness for Stockdale from it.

Are you saying - he should have played the game more, but you respect that he didn't? or are you saying he should have known the game that he was playing and thus played it better?

Good lord, I am hyperventilating just reading this. The people that went in and saved these boys are amazing. I am glad the author took the time to pull this together to share the story of the divers as well. Absolutely amazing - mind-boggling amazing - what dedicated, skilled, selfless people can do.

This is an interesting read - I didn’t know how unsubstantiated a lot of the “sightings” of Jack were… was dumb of him to say what he did, but doesn’t warrant the apparent mistreatment

Memes tend to be so… so I agree

Mungers recent praise for the CCP and the policies there around the Tech Giants there, etc, have really soured me a bit on him, which sucks because I generally love Munger.

Hahaha I love this response; yes, you can always change the rules of the game, so to speak, and make things worse; however, if you keep within the rules of reality then it might be a bit more useful.

Oh, that seems interesting - like a companion book to the more flamboyant one, Extraordinary Popular Delusions; sounds like it is more statements of facts and unbiased accounts, as opposed to entertainment?

I think the source for that comes from the book referenced in the article, which was written in the 1800s. That books has a reputation for exaggeration.

For example, it is the book that popularize the idea of the “Dutch Tulip Mania” causing mayhem, when it was in fact much smaller scale / not a big deal (my understanding) based on recent research

I’ve wondered how much do that is exaggerated for sake of the magazine he was writing for at the time. Could you imagine someone actually paying to write on someone’s back?! But nevertheless, seems like things were as crazy as crypto is today