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There's a good quote in this FT interview with Peter Piot, who co-discovered Ebola: http://archive.is/N6fAF http://archive.is/N6fAF “The absence of bad luck i

There's a good quote in this FT interview with Peter Piot, who co-discovered Ebola: http://archive.is/N6fAF http://archive.is/N6fAF “The absence of bad luck in life is the most important thing.”

czbond 7y ago
I'm postulating that "bad luck" is mostly poor decisioning, with say 30% of black swan type events in humans. Paralleling Nassim Taleb's concept of protecting against downside tail risks is of utmost important. Are there ways to protect downside risk in the other areas of life? A former, more judgemental version of me, used to be highly critical of illogical decisions individuals make. I tend to lack the "feeling / in the moment" aspect that a larger group of humans possess and naturally run everything through the 'thinking, logical, multiple permutation outcomes of a decision'. I used to see consistent decisions impacting people's lives as streams of "I feels" decisions that were suboptimal, and led to poor outcomes - masked as bad luck. (examples abound).
downerending 7y ago
This sounds a lot like Schopenhauer. He said, or perhaps someone summarized him, something like: Life is hell, and the main goal is to choose a room farthest from the flames.
- Der_Einzige 7y ago
  Haha, funny enough, he argued for antinatalism before that term was heavily used. He argued for a proto-form of negative utilitarianism, and in the case of some of his disciples, they argued that people should commit suicide https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_Mainl%C3%A4nder https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_Mainl%C3%A4nder (disciple advocating for suicide) Many took their arguments to be closer to "to live is to suffer and suffering is the ultimate bad thing. You shouldn't inflict that suffering on anyone else (and maybe not even on yourself) No wonder Nietzsche was so afraid of what schopenhaur was doing to philosophy. His work and his followers advocate for the ultimate form of life denial. Similar to jainists too. Though, I still find Schopenhaur to be more compelling on this than anyone else...
  - downerending 7y ago
    I as well. Though not the term, the idea is very old. In Ecclesiastes 4, Qohelet says something like The dead are better off than the living, and better still are those who were never born. I will say that the question of whether the living should commit suicide is rather different than whether new lives should be brought into the world. Sunk costs and all that. We will all be dead soon enough. Not sure there's much point in speeding things up.

There's a good quote in this FT interview with Peter Piot, who co-discovered Ebola: http://archive.is/N6fAF http://archive.is/N6fAF “The absence of bad luck in life is the most important thing.”

czbond 7y ago

I'm postulating that "bad luck" is mostly poor decisioning, with say 30% of black swan type events in humans. Paralleling Nassim Taleb's concept of protecting against downside tail risks is of utmost important. Are there ways to protect downside risk in the other areas of life? A former, more judgemental version of me, used to be highly critical of illogical decisions individuals make. I tend to lack the "feeling / in the moment" aspect that a larger group of humans possess and naturally run everything through the 'thinking, logical, multiple permutation outcomes of a decision'. I used to see consistent decisions impacting people's lives as streams of "I feels" decisions that were suboptimal, and led to poor outcomes - masked as bad luck. (examples abound).

downerending 7y ago

This sounds a lot like Schopenhauer. He said, or perhaps someone summarized him, something like: Life is hell, and the main goal is to choose a room farthest from the flames.

Der_Einzige 7y ago
Haha, funny enough, he argued for antinatalism before that term was heavily used. He argued for a proto-form of negative utilitarianism, and in the case of some of his disciples, they argued that people should commit suicide https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_Mainl%C3%A4nder https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_Mainl%C3%A4nder (disciple advocating for suicide) Many took their arguments to be closer to "to live is to suffer and suffering is the ultimate bad thing. You shouldn't inflict that suffering on anyone else (and maybe not even on yourself) No wonder Nietzsche was so afraid of what schopenhaur was doing to philosophy. His work and his followers advocate for the ultimate form of life denial. Similar to jainists too. Though, I still find Schopenhaur to be more compelling on this than anyone else...
- downerending 7y ago
  I as well. Though not the term, the idea is very old. In Ecclesiastes 4, Qohelet says something like The dead are better off than the living, and better still are those who were never born. I will say that the question of whether the living should commit suicide is rather different than whether new lives should be brought into the world. Sunk costs and all that. We will all be dead soon enough. Not sure there's much point in speeding things up.