“Play stupid games — win stupid prices”. Chess is no exception Even if you’re a grandmaster — quit chess, it’s a waste of life Gods are embarrassed with you That’s one lesson of chess — don’t waste life on fake games, fake competition, and fake prices Ok, there’s one more lesson to chess …
Category: Philosophy
How The FAKE Will Look MORE Legit
It’s not just that the FAKE, the advertised, the scammy — look BETTER than the real thing It will often even look more LEGIT More legit than the real thing Is a Ferrari the most telling indication of material wealth? It’s not a horrible indication. Even renting a Ferrari requires a dollar or two …
COMPARISON as a Useful Model
Comparison, metaphor — is like a model of a thing The purpose of a model is to represent something Model is of course NOT the thing itself It is but it’s representation It omits certain aspects of it — and represents other aspects In having a copy: theoretical or scaled down or whatever — …
Truth Yields Superiority
Truth yields superiority We don’t even have to define precisely what is “superior” Truth still results in superiority We could philosophically say that truth itself is superior, therefore results in superiority But we can, for simplicity’s sake, just concede that: In general, the more ACCURATE understanding of any given subject — the greater the …
Is Capitalism Like Eugenics?
Is capitalism like eugenics? Where the strong decide what is right and what is wrong? No it’s not In capitalism — the MARKET decides If the market is DOMINATED by a few — fair enough. You could argue that “few” have the most votes But it’s not those FEW that created this mechanism …
Absolute vs Relative Truth (In PRACTICAL Terms)
Let’s NOT go down the rabbit hole of how to DEFINE TRUTH, what IS TRUTH, etc, Let’s try to practically unpack the problem of truth Practically would entail utility, practical usefulness We could thus define truth as THAT WHICH WORKS This is good for start Enough to get us amazing tech Enough to …
Appeal To Moderation
Appeal to moderation is less stupid than it looks For the simple reason that moderation is so fucking hard Appeal to moderation is logical fallacy — in which it is assumed that the truth must surely lie in the middle, between two opposites It’s fallacious in that the truth doesn’t always lie in the …
Engineering = Practical and Rigorous = Useful Mental Models
Mathematics is perfectly rigorous — but nevertheless too abstract Spirituality, psychology, are abstract yet tangible — alas hardly rigorous Engineering is the perfect marriage of RIGOROUS yet PRACTICAL The world is messy Some of this messiness is impossible to make sense of Those that pretend to be making sense of it are typically delusional, …
We Don’t Even Comprehend WHEN We Can’t Comprehend
We don’t know that we don’t know That’s why beginners think they are experts (Dunning-Kruger effect). They DON’T KNOW how much more there is to know — therefore they think they know ALL there is to know — therefore they think they are experts But Dunning-Kruger effect is known, go read about it, …
Where Does “PROGRESSIVE” Come From, Historically?
Where does “PROGRESSIVE” come from? Let’s first be clear what we’re talking about, Let’s say “progressive” in this context means “SOCIAL REFORM” So where does SOCIAL REFORM come from? Here is where: TECHNOLOGY If not for technology, you would still be spending day and night toiling at the fields Large % of that …