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1. Everyone is the main character in their own story. This manifest in all sorts of ways - from people not being there when you need them the most, from friend

• nivethan 4y ago
  2. Hits home for me as I’ve begun to realize the same thing. Not seeing any person of color in an activity makes it’s so I don’t want to be the first.
  • yieldcrv 4y ago
    Similarly this gives me pause about Ivy League MBA programs. Although a small sample size, despite their ambitions the BIPOC people I know haven’t been able to reap any professional benefits from it. Whether from access to executive roles, getting taken seriously by venture capital firms, or in their attempts to join venture capital firms. There is a level of discretion in these team forming situations that is not extended to them whether it has anything to do with their race or not, its pretty clear the upwards mobility is not coming from this credential. For people with their own capital and leverage, it amplifies their ambition if they want. BIPOC don't really have this. The “average salary” of MBA alumnis is not what is interesting about getting one, for me or them. Some, or more, examples to the contrary would make it seem less like a total waste of time.
    • idiotsecant 4y ago
      I am not an ivy league MBA person but my understanding of these sorts of things is that it's not the credential itself that's useful, but the connections you make in the process.
      • yieldcrv 4y ago
        yes, all participants were aware of this, and yet the connections resulted in no improved professional access or ability to exchange time for food and shelter.
    • threadweaver34 4y ago
      > the BIPOC people I know haven’t been able to reap any professional benefits from it Probably because there's almost always an Asian who's more qualified or a white with better connections. The problem is the key insight you get from a BIPOC is BIPOC tend to not have much money (set aside equity and vicious cycles for another day), so unless they're your market, you're not interested in marketing to people who can't afford your products.
      • yieldcrv 4y ago
        but this isn't about marketing or needing a BIPOC to point out BIPOC markets? thats a really odd take, how did you start with connections and end up with consumer marketing? is this a personal experience or is this non-sequitur is a common sentiment because we need to address that as ignorance
        • threadweaver34 4y ago
          I'm looking how diverse candidates from Ivies meaningfully differentiate themselves. Ivies admit to discriminating against Asians, so on average, a BIPOC from an Ivy will be less qualified than an Asian. Why would you hire them, then? The pitch for diversity is always that diverse teams make better decisions, but it's not racial diversity that does it, it's different lived experiences. Companies exist to make money, so how can they turn someone's insight from an underprivileged background into sales when poor people buy less? This was also in the context of an MBA program where the whole purpose is making money. It'd be different for a PM of an app where 100% reach is the goal.
          • yieldcrv 4y ago
            thanks for explaining that, I think there are some assumptions that are flawed in this decision tree. 1) the admissions into the Ivy would be biased, the education should be the same as before, as admissions into Ivy were always biased in some way. So whatever their alumni (and dropouts) were known for in that brand would still be the same. 2) aggregate better decisions due to different lived experiences doesn't mean just selling consumer products to underprivileged people. you're really going to have to work on what people mean by that, "sales to poor people" isn't the whole universe of different lived experiences, there can be other market inefficiencies with a good TAM. very similar to non-revenue based reach.
    • crackercrews 4y ago
      So even with all the BLM advocacy, there is no pipeline for Black people with MBAs from Ivy League schools? That doesn't fit with what I've seen in other industries. Companies fell all over themselves to hire Black people. Is this not happening in MBA-land?
      • yieldcrv 4y ago
        read it again, its not about getting hired, its about getting capital and decision making roles that skip the corporate ladder. these have an overrepresentation of Ivy League MBAs in them with a pedigree that has nothing to do with promotions. People see the Ivy League MBA as key to this and aren’t interested in the other things an MBA can do. The jobs these disillusioned alumni have were attainable without the MBA.
        • crackercrews 4y ago
          Your original claim was much broader: > despite their ambitions the BIPOC people I know haven’t been able to reap any professional benefits from it
          • yieldcrv 4y ago
            because they didn't need the MBA for the roles they did land its all part of one contiguous complete thought
            • crackercrews 4y ago
              You also say: > the connections resulted in no improved professional access or ability to exchange time for food and shelter. When you make such broad statements, then walk them back in comments downstream, it makes conversation unfruitful.
              • yieldcrv 4y ago
                you’re unwilling to view it as a coherent and related thought “improved” is the operative word that you seem to ignore or view as contradictory the MBA did not improve their work prospects, they already had work prospects. you asked for a clarification, you call the clarification backtracking do you have an actual opinion on the topic now that its more clear for you
  • ShredKazoo 4y ago
    As a white guy, I'd certainly encourage you not to worry about this -- if we're talking about an upper middle class, professional-ish activity, you can be fairly sure that all those white people feel self-conscious about their group being so white and would welcome you to join them. Anyway, I'd be interested to hear more about the psychology of this. I remember when I was growing up in the 90s and 00s in California, people talked about race way less than they do today. When ethnic representation became a common topic of conversation, I had a hard time believing it at first, because it seemed so self-evidently obvious to me that race wasn't a particularly important characteristic of a person. I actually had the experience of thinking back to my time in jr high/high school and thinking "wow, that friend of mine had dark skin, and they weren't from India... I guess they were Black, huh". I'm not trying to claim that I didn't have subconscious biases related to race as a kid. I'm sure I did. But I do suspect they have become a lot more severe as a result of people talking about race so much -- it has become a much more salient characteristic. (I'm also more aware of trying to mitigate my biases and avoid microaggressions and so on, of course.) So yeah, I'm curious to compare notes with other 90s kids in this regard. I'm white, but if I was Black, I imagine that I'd be way more self-conscious about it now than I was when I was growing up. (Like, if I'm the only white person in a group, I feel self-conscious about it now in a way that I didn't feel when I was a kid.)
    • human_person 4y ago
      I’m not sure > As a white guy, I'd certainly encourage you not to worry about this -- if we're talking about an upper middle class, professional-ish activity, you can be fairly sure that all those white people feel self-conscious about their group being so white and would welcome you to join them. Is as helpful as you may have intended. The comment was about not wanting to be the first, even if the group is welcoming, the commentator will still be the first/only person of color in the group and there is a discomfort inherent to that even if everyone is trying to be welcoming. Also re “colorblind” policies of the 90a versus the explicitness of today, I think it’s similar to the current reckoning in journalism. We all have biases and pretending we don’t/acting like we are capable of pure objectivity simply hides them and makes them more difficult to combat. On the other hand explicitly acknowledging them allows you to consider how they might be influencing your decisions.
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  • jasonwatkinspdx 4y ago
    Growing up this was a big realization for me the other way. I was raised by evangelicals in Kansas, including going to a mennonite school for most of my education. As a teenager I realized how at my school, at my church, at basically everything in my family's shared life, there was not a single person with brown skin. Not even one. And worse, no one had real awareness of this, and would not understand how it could be any sort of problem if you brought it up. To them it was just the natural order of the universe that their world was purely white people. There's plenty of evangelicals of every race, but overall the communities are very segregated. It was clear no matter their professed faith, in practice the community I grew up in was hostile to PoC.
    • quacked 4y ago
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      • jasonwatkinspdx 4y ago
        Obviously I understand my childhood community in far more detail and depth than your rather transparent question. My conclusions of their racism are based on far more than I mention, but yes, it has since then proven to be a very clear smoke signal. Other places I've seen the same thing but not as severely are snow sports and auto racing. I have no desire to retread the 101 of how "white" cannot be treated as logically equivalent to other racial labels. Go do some reading on the subject. A good place to start is trying to enumerate exactly what heritages count as white, and how that has changed over time.
        • quacked 4y ago
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          • jasonwatkinspdx 4y ago
            I answered you clearly. Ethnic homogeneity is a smoke signal. Ethnic whiteness is exceptional. You're past my line with ascribing what I think and who from in a way that's literally just you ranting your imagination at me. You have no idea my mind on any of these things based on our conversation thus far. Talk about the self report...
  • akira2501 4y ago
    > makes it’s so I don’t want to be the first. This makes me curious. Would you mind answering, from your point of view, why do you think that is? Is it a specific scenario or type of scenario you wish to avoid or is there a generalized concern that comes with it? Is that due to uncertainty or past experience?
    • SamoyedFurFluff 4y ago
      Frankly; if the group is large enough, homogeny likely means that you the minority weren’t the first… the first(s) got pushed out.
    • nivethan 4y ago
      There's probably many reasons but one that comes to mind is, if I'm first am I an ambassador for my race now? Probably. The people here might be self selecting in other aspects of their life so they may not actually be around PoC anywhere else. Another aspect is that I don't have that shared connection or ease of relating to people in the group. The activity has obviously selected for a specific group and there are probably other aspects of their lives that are also different from my own. Past experience mostly. Trying to make friends where the majority is white was difficult though I was in university and far more awkward then. One on one or in smaller settings, its easier and at work it's relatively straightforward to become friendly with anyone.
  • __turbobrew__ 4y ago
    Are you willing to give some examples? I’m curious in what contexts people feel this way.
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    • nivethan 4y ago
      A specific example is if you look at popular sailing channels on youtube. I got into sailing last year and I didn't notice it at first but every popular channel is white. They have events where they meet fans and it's crazy the lack of colour in the group shots. I really wish I hadn't noticed it because it's a bit off putting. It's also surprising that I've only begun to care now that I'm much older.
  • drevil-v2 4y ago
    Sounds like a good enough reason to mandate quotas for everything everywhere. Anything else on your wish list?
• jackthetab 4y ago
  Any suggested reading for #1 ("learn how to navigate \$THIS.")?
  • texuf 4y ago
    It’s old and perhaps a little controversial, but “ NLP: The New Technology of Achievement” has good examples and abstractions that could help you with #1
    • icepat 4y ago
      Controversial in that it's generally considered a pseudoscience. I'd advise against anyone looking to figure out how to navigate this wasting their time with pseudosciences.
      • carapace 4y ago
        > it's generally considered a pseudoscience. Only by people who have no experience with it. NLP ("Neurolinguistic Programming", not Natural Language Processing) is pre-scientific, yes, but that's not the same as being a pseudoscience, and calling it such is a disservice. We have pretty much discovered the operating system of the human mind. applying the principles and techniques discovered and systematized under the rubric of NLP one can do amazing things. - - - - It is strange that academic research psychologists seem to have trouble with it. But that's their problem, it doesn't change the fact that people all over the world are learning and using this stuff every day. If academic psychologists can't understand it that just makes them irrelevant, it doesn't change the facts.
        • brokensegue 4y ago
          Plenty of people all over the world are learning and using the teachings of Scientology. That doesn't make them right or even useful
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• bcrosby95 4y ago
  I've noticed #2 with my 4 year old. She won't do anything unless there's a girl doing it. My other kids don't seem to care though.
  • PartiallyTyped 4y ago
    There are some interesting studies about girls and women playing chess. When blind, the two sexes perform on average about the same, but when they know the gender of their opponent, girls and women underperform. It is hypothesised that the reason behind this is because chess is a boys’ club, so to speak, and thus there is not a lot of representation. Absence of representation means that it may seem that you are the only one doing XYZ, which in and of its own can be terrifying because we often feel that the odds are stacked against us (which is a self-fulfilling prophecy), or that we are held to much higher standards than others. Personally, I enjoy seeing diverse representation even if I am not represented. I want people to not be afraid to pursue their dreams and goals, I don’t want implicit prejudices due to lack of representation either.
    • jdkoeck 4y ago
      I’ll bet this does not replicate, the effect of stereotype threat is notoriously overvalued. Don’t fall for junk science.
      • Invictus0 4y ago
        Women that dedicate their careers to chess still dramatically underperform men at the professional level. There is even a different rating level and title system for women: women earning the "women grandmaster" title need 200 fewer ELO points than the grandmaster title for men. No woman has ever won the World Chess Championship, and there are far fewer female GMs than male GMs.
        • dudeinjapan 4y ago
          How do women and men do versus AI opponents, i.e. without any gender? Wonder if chess.com has the data?
• rajin444 4y ago
  > 2. Representation matters. Strange, I had the opposite encounter. I realized the only thing keeping me from doing things was myself. There are definitely real barriers (hiring quotas, affirmative action, etc.) but without artificial constraints the only thing stopping you is you. You might feel a little uncomfortable but that's something easily overcome - and almost like a superpower when you realize you can overcome an external locus of control.
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  • yieldcrv 4y ago
    most of us here have our own drive, but I’ve come to appreciate that other people are inspired by seemingly superficial things It clicked for me when I let my publicist go wild and she got me on listicles of BIPOC founders, before, we just had lots of quotes and interviews. Only people already interested in the project on its own merits were following along. After, there were lots of people that are interested in the representation in that kind of niche who otherwise just wouldn't know how to find that representation. Or just wouldn't be able to tell by founder names alone. and of course we got the amplified engagement from people arguing about “why does race matter” in the LinkedIn comments. so shoutout to the useful idiots, publicists expect that to exist and calculate it.
    • rajin444 4y ago
      > inspired by seemingly superficial things This seems similar to adding an addictive drug to food. It will certainly appeal to a lot of people, but does it add value? Getting more consumers of your product should not be the end goal if we want a healthy, high trust society. Developing a good product should be. > Only people already interested in the project on its own merits were following along Isn't this what we want as a society?
      • yieldcrv 4y ago
        save these goals for your non-profit the rest of us want revenue. there is no build it and they will come, its appealing to people's sentiments, and the people have to know its there at all.
• vidanay 4y ago
  #3 really hits home when you realize we have rules for killing each other (war). And we have separate legal trials to determine if someone broke those rules while trying to kill someone else. The penalty for breaking the rules about killing someone often is to be killed.
  • throwaway290 4y ago
    Probably most rules that we have are there to prevent us (admittedly this applies mostly to men) from killing each other. That's why "rules are just constructs we humans created" rings stupid/horrifying. Obviously they were created by humans but that is also why they matter. I prefer "rules were written by humans, mostly in blood". It took years for OP to get the first part, here's to them getting the second part faster. One doing something wrong to another would get families into an infinite loop of mutual revenge--until we got around precisely to create rules and put up a trusted authority to ensure justice without the need for vengeance. Rules is how our civilization functions and its only hope.
    • sanroot98 4y ago
      Honar killing
  • ClumsyPilot 4y ago
    > 3 really hits home when you realize we have rules for killing each other (war Those are some of the oldest and most important ones
• throwaway1777 4y ago
  #1 is a fallacy called main character syndrome
• concordDance 4y ago
  > 2. Representation matters. As a well represented person I can tell you this has nothing to do with representation, its just that the vast majority of humans in the modern world have close to zero agency and/or don't think they can actually change things.
  • DrewADesign 4y ago
    > As a well represented person I can tell you this has nothing to do with representation, its just that the vast majority of humans in the modern world have close to zero agency and/or don't think they can actually change things. As a well-represented person, you're probably making assumptions about the effects of representation that are less informed than you realize.
• chrisco255 4y ago
  For #2, I would alter this to say: connections matter. We are more likely to pursue careers or interests if we know someone (and are friends with them or related to them) that is interested in the same thing or has had experience in the same thing.
  • fortituded0002 4y ago
    That doesn't ring true for me. I was already pursuing careers and interests that my friends were pursuing. That didn't change anything for me mostly because my friends came from a very different background than me. It also doesn't solve issues like my old boss who opted not to have children because she wanted to move up the corporate ladder at a FAANG company. She said that there was no mental model on how to navigate having kids at the company. All of the ones that did were men whose wives stayed home and took care of everything. She (and I) question if it's even possible to do it. Your comment reminds me a bit of something I heard years ago from a manager at Facebook claiming that the way to solve imposter syndrome was to have people select which teams and projects they worked on because they would be more motivated to work at it. Totally off from what my experience had been, but likely applicable to some people. However, I'm not saying you are wrong and I'm right. I think what's surfacing here is that what I posted doesn't apply to everyone and what you are saying doesn't apply to everyone either. It likely helps different types of people in different situations.
    • chrisco255 4y ago
      For me, I didn't become a software developer until my late 20s, because I was largely intimidated by it, despite being relatively geeky and tech oriented as a teen. There was no one in my small town I knew that went on to become a software dev. And I tended to place devs on a pedestal in my own head, about how smart they were or whatever. I definitely had the imposter syndrome in the first few years of my career. Working my way through community college then onto a top tier computer science university, and then participating in a startup where I got to live in Silicon Valley for a while, I learned that a lot of people in the industry aren't exceptional geniuses. Having access to that network of people in Silicon Valley though, especially at the time (less important nowadays I would argue), was crucial to so many people's success at getting good advice, using the right technologies and business tactics, getting positions and raising capital. There's an old piece of advice I remember hearing once that for almost any intractable problem or area of concern in your life, the answer can usually be found by meeting more people. If you actively work towards meeting people that know the thing you want to know or have experience in the thing you want to learn or be better at, you'll eventually meet them and unlock that piece of wisdom or personal connection that can get you where you need to go.
• quickthrower2 4y ago
  What does representation mean in this context?
• jahnu 4y ago
  Regarding #3, the following David Graeber quote always stuck with me: “The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently.”
  • tootie 4y ago
    Sapiens by Harari covers this extensively. So much of human development is our ability to ascribe fictive boundaries and definitions to things. Rules, authorities, myths, money, culture, countries, companies. What are any of them? They're all made up. We could just stop believing in all of them tomorrow.
    • jahnu 4y ago
      That is on my shelf ready to read. Just got to finish a couple more currently in the queue.
    • rgrieselhuber 4y ago
      A convenient stance, I suppose, when discussing what to do with “useless eaters.”
      • metadat 4y ago
        > “useless eaters.” Unfamiliar term. Turns out it is Nazi political slang. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/useless_eater https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/useless_eater
        • rgrieselhuber 4y ago
          Yes, Harari echoes this term in some of his speeches, asking what to do with the “useless class of people” that emerge in the wake of the AI Revolution. Instead of asking whether we should be evaluating the materialistic “usefulness” of human beings in terms of the purely economic value they generate, or even whether we should be pursuing technologies that will create these conditions, he satisfies himself with questions about how to keep the “useless people” out of the way with drugs and the Metaverse.
• crackercrews 4y ago
  Interesting interplay between 2 and 3. Why does representation matter so much if these are just human-created constructs? Genuinely interested to know how the same person had both of these epiphanies.
  • flippinburgers 4y ago
    The most popular humanly constructed narrative these days in the US is that representation is everything so I tend to agree with your point. There is an interesting immediate clash between the two.
  • fortituded0002 4y ago
    Ha, interesting observation. They didn't happen at the same time. #2 followed by #3 much later.
  • wood-porch 4y ago
    A construct being human-created doesn't mean it isn't important, or that we can simply ignore it. Just means it can be changed, unlike a law of nature, for instance.
  • whynaut 4y ago
    why does debt matter so much? human-created construct
• atonse 4y ago
  While I do see merit in the idea that representation matters, to me, it all depends on what representation in particular. Racial representation gets all the attention. But for example, seeing that a philosophy major can have a successful computer science experience
  • bastawhiz 4y ago
    I don't want to downplay the importance of diverse academic backgrounds, but representation of immutable characteristics (gender identity, race, disability, etc) usually get the most attention because they are essentially always the things that have impact on kids. Your little girl or your autistic child is going to pursue paths they maybe wouldn't otherwise take because of representation. The earlier you get a child to engage with something, the better their outcomes with pursuing it. Representation is literally about people seeing themselves. If you can't nail down what "people like me" look like when it comes to representation, it might be that representation isn't quite the right way to frame the problem. It's only one aspect of diversity.
• atonse 4y ago
  While I do see merit in the idea that representation matters, to me, it all depends on what representation in particular. Racial representation gets all the attention but I find that one less compelling. But for example, seeing that a philosophy major can have a successful programming career, can encourage others in the humanities to see themselves do it too. Or seeing someone with ADHD run a business successfully and overcome executive function challenges, can also help others with ADHD.
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  • fortituded0002 4y ago
    > Seeing that a philosophy major can have a successful programming career, can encourage others in the humanities to see themselves do it too. Or seeing someone with ADHD run a business successfully and overcome executive function challenges, can also help others with ADHD. These are great call outs. The definition for representation can be highly nuanced and very personal. This is not to say that issues like race and gender aren't important and don't need support. Just that there are so many things that people bring to the table that can make them feel like "the other" which holds them back. It's surprising how lack of role models can lead some people to think it's not feasible or not even possible.
• ssss11 4y ago
  To further your point 1, I think also “Everyone sees things through their perspective”. So when you explain something, 10 people hear 10 slightly different things as their own experiences and biases, and even hopes, interpret your statement. That’s why being able to communicate accurately, clearly, and concisely is a very difficult and important thing. If you can do it tailored to specific groups and with humour, bonus points.
• heavyset_go 4y ago
  > 3. Rules in life are just constructs that we as humans have created. > Starting a business helped the most on this one. That's when I started to see that "rules" or "procedure" are all made up and exceptions can always be made. This is a big one that I learned through the same experience. Everything is arbitrary, the rules are made up and the points don't matter. It made me appreciate those who recognize this, and in turn treat others well, even when shit hits the fan metaphorically, and I have absolutely zero tolerance for bullshit hoop jumping and assholes. I know you don't have to play by that book, so I won't, and I'm happier for it.
• huijzer 4y ago
  Point 3 also hit me a few months ago during a Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcast about Rome. Caesar got back from his conquests and half the senate wanted to punish him for crimes against humanity that he conducted during his wars. However, he also claimed massive amounts of land for Rome. Long story short: he wasn’t punished. And this happened 2000 years ago.
  • kristianp 4y ago
    Napoleon wasn't roman. Do you mean a caesar?
    • huijzer 4y ago
      Yes. Well spotted. Thanks.
  • bennysonething 4y ago
    Did they actually care about crimes against humanity? I thought they were worried about the amount of power he had?
• nine_k 4y ago
  > because I just didn't see anyone like me there To me, that would be the other way around: a chance to stand out and be one of a kind, act in a way nobody else had acted before, and reap the benefits of being unique, or the first at least. (Seeing this as exciting or frightening probably depends on your level of sociopathy.)
  • fortituded0002 4y ago
    > To me, that would be the other way around: a chance to stand out and be one of a kind, act in a way nobody else had acted before, and reap the benefits of being unique, or the first at least This is a great attitude to have. I know that not everyone has this ability (yet) to function this way, but it really should be the goal of how to operate. For me, it took me years to get there. Variety of reasons, but I realized much later in life that I was still carrying around traumas of being targeted in public by random strangers at a young age just by being out in public (yes, just walking down the street). That sort of stuff can erode psychological safety that we bring with us and unknown situations can cause us to react rather than respond. This is one of the reasons I think representation matters. Not just that it creates a mental model of what's possible, but proof (hopefully) that it's also safe and allowed.
• btown 4y ago
  > Everyone is the main character in their own story For those with anxiety, one of the best pieces of advice I ever received (that also took me years to internalize!) was the corollary to this: nobody is thinking about you in a critical way, at the level that you are criticizing yourself, because they are their own main character. Which is incredibly freeing, because the anxious person’s assumption that one embarrassing moment will turn into them obsessing about your failure… is absolutely nonsensical, because the only person they are obsessing about is the main character to them, themself.
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  • psychomugs 4y ago
    You’ll worry less about what people think about you when you realize how seldom they do.
  • user_7832 4y ago
    Thanks a lot for your comment! This part in particular > the only person they are obsessing about is the main character to them, themself seems obvious in retrospect.
  • mikrl 4y ago
    >nobody is thinking about you in a critical way, at the level that you are criticizing yourself I think there are shades of this, which is to say the level of judgement can vary. I feel that in a smaller city my social anxiety is not as strong as when I’m in a larger city. In larger cities, I feel much more evaluated and judged ie eyes on me looking at my clothes, checking me out, etc despite being a much more detached and impersonal environment than smaller cities where I just feel ignored. Maybe it’s just more people around putting me more on edge.
    • heavyset_go 4y ago
      I find it's the opposite for me. I'm basically anonymous in big cities, whereas smaller cities and towns can be, uh, incestuous when you start getting to know people. They can also be visciously judgmental, but that goes for people anywhere.
• ragazzina 4y ago
  > 1. Everyone is the main character in their own story. Here is just one example of the total wrongness of something I tend to be automatically sure of: everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute centre of the universe; the realest, most vivid and important person in existence. We rarely think about this sort of natural, basic self-centredness because it’s so socially repulsive. But it’s pretty much the same for all of us. It is our default setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth. Think about it: there is no experience you have had that you are not the absolute centre of. The world as you experience it is there in front of YOU or behind YOU, to the left or right of YOU, on YOUR TV or YOUR monitor. And so on. Other people’s thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real. David Foster Wallace
• r4nd0mn3rd 4y ago
  Please excuse the poor grammar, English isn't my first language. For #3, this rule always fascinated/confused me the most. How did us humans (animals formed from evolution/survival of the fittest) create these abstract 'rules' or fictions we all just collectively follow. Was there some sort of cumulation of ideas of the past woven into novel ones to make an archetypal epoch? Any insight/book recommendation to bridge this knowledge gap is much appreciated.
• lamontcg 4y ago
  > 3. Rules in life are just constructs that we as humans have created. Corollary to this is that human rules aren't like programming rules and that the words that make up the rules get interpreted by a human. One thing that this means is that you can't "hack" a human rule by picking the semantic meaning of a word which works best for you. You have to actually convince the arbiter of that rule that they agree with your meaning. If they don't, and they have a hundred years of legal ruling behind them that they've read and you haven't, then you're screwed. And good human rules usually do have exceptions to them ("yelling fire in a crowded theater" being the most well understood). This is also why "the exception that proves the rule" is not a stupid saying. And this is a feature and not a bug. The worst rules we generate are usually the ones that require the human arbiter to be rigid and mechanical. That tends to produce injustices like "three strikes you're out" and "mandatory minimum sentencing" (or any attempt to make the handball rule in soccer/football be objective and just winds up making it worse).