4 ms·

Man... this is the most fatalist comment I've read in a while but I suspect your prescription to the problem is the correct one.

jacquesm 3y ago
I'm sorry I don't have anything better on this. There is this fantastic interview of Ray Anderson, the late CEO of 'Interface' (modular carpets) where he describes vividly the kind of damage that industry is wreaking on the planet and what they are trying to do about it and it's depressing that for all that power and insight he managed to do preciously little: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzOwP0phUis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzOwP0phUis At that level you can make some change that moves the needle. At the low-on-the-totempole level you're not going to be able to do much of anything without dedicating your life to it. Greta Thunberg comes to mind, though I'm not even sure if she is effective though maybe she'll inspire the next generation. Anything else is a token feel good thing that will not actually make a difference. If you look at COVID and our collective response and realize the magnitude of that challenge versus climate change then the only valid conclusion is that we're in for a very rough ride, just how rough is the open question, possibly rougher than I can imagine hopefully less so.
- godelski 3y ago
  Which the irony here is that I think a lot of the rough ride is due to people caring too much. Most of the fighting is due to non-experts having high confidence in their understanding of the highly complex phenomena fighting with similar people with just different misunderstandings. This fighting just adds additional noise to the system and results in it being even more difficult to formulate effective solutions. It's kinda an odd characteristic that passion for a subject doesn't strongly correlate with the desire to become more knowledgeable in that subject. It's definitely there for all those that do become experts, but there's a large number of experts with high passion too. I suspect that it is partially due to our desire of wanting to know everything and believing that lack of knowledge is a blemish. To me this feels odd, it is like being upset you bought a puzzle that wasn't already assembled, a videogame that wasn't already beaten, or a book that wasn't already read.
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    One of my kids observed that knowing all the stuff he learns in school doesn't seem to make him any happier, but does wonders for seeing how fucked up everything is. It would be nice if I found a way to show him that knowing lots of stuff can help in positive ways as well but for now he has me cornered.
    - godelski 3y ago
      Sounds like a smart kid. I'm not sure if the world is fucked up or we just are misinterpreting it. If I can sympathize with fucked up characters in books and movies, maybe it just means I don't know enough about those people/things that I consider evil or fucked up. There's a lot of variables at play, many hidden, creating a fundamentally stochastic reality. A friend told me a saying once, and I don't think he realized how much it would impact my life. > The harder I work, the luckier I get. I definitely went through an existential crisis where I found that the world was dominated by noise (with complexity being just one form). But what I found meaningful from this simple saying is that if life is composed of stochastic events, I better be ready to seize upon the opportunities when and if they emerge. Plus, I've always enjoyed learning. Not for power or any actual gain. But the same way one finds enjoyment in solving a puzzle or playing any game. Isn't that enough? I just see that the noise and complexity I can see just indicates what level of the game I'm on. Games wouldn't be fun if they didn't get more challenging as you progressed :) I don't know if this helps. Maybe this is that random event to seize upon or maybe it is just more noise. But that's the world I guess, and there's a certain beauty to that.
      - jacquesm 3y ago
        Food for thought, thank you very much. We seem to have a lot in common when it comes to learning for learning's sake.

jacquesm 3y ago

I'm sorry I don't have anything better on this. There is this fantastic interview of Ray Anderson, the late CEO of 'Interface' (modular carpets) where he describes vividly the kind of damage that industry is wreaking on the planet and what they are trying to do about it and it's depressing that for all that power and insight he managed to do preciously little: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzOwP0phUis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzOwP0phUis At that level you can make some change that moves the needle. At the low-on-the-totempole level you're not going to be able to do much of anything without dedicating your life to it. Greta Thunberg comes to mind, though I'm not even sure if she is effective though maybe she'll inspire the next generation. Anything else is a token feel good thing that will not actually make a difference. If you look at COVID and our collective response and realize the magnitude of that challenge versus climate change then the only valid conclusion is that we're in for a very rough ride, just how rough is the open question, possibly rougher than I can imagine hopefully less so.

godelski 3y ago
Which the irony here is that I think a lot of the rough ride is due to people caring too much. Most of the fighting is due to non-experts having high confidence in their understanding of the highly complex phenomena fighting with similar people with just different misunderstandings. This fighting just adds additional noise to the system and results in it being even more difficult to formulate effective solutions. It's kinda an odd characteristic that passion for a subject doesn't strongly correlate with the desire to become more knowledgeable in that subject. It's definitely there for all those that do become experts, but there's a large number of experts with high passion too. I suspect that it is partially due to our desire of wanting to know everything and believing that lack of knowledge is a blemish. To me this feels odd, it is like being upset you bought a puzzle that wasn't already assembled, a videogame that wasn't already beaten, or a book that wasn't already read.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  One of my kids observed that knowing all the stuff he learns in school doesn't seem to make him any happier, but does wonders for seeing how fucked up everything is. It would be nice if I found a way to show him that knowing lots of stuff can help in positive ways as well but for now he has me cornered.
  - godelski 3y ago
    Sounds like a smart kid. I'm not sure if the world is fucked up or we just are misinterpreting it. If I can sympathize with fucked up characters in books and movies, maybe it just means I don't know enough about those people/things that I consider evil or fucked up. There's a lot of variables at play, many hidden, creating a fundamentally stochastic reality. A friend told me a saying once, and I don't think he realized how much it would impact my life. > The harder I work, the luckier I get. I definitely went through an existential crisis where I found that the world was dominated by noise (with complexity being just one form). But what I found meaningful from this simple saying is that if life is composed of stochastic events, I better be ready to seize upon the opportunities when and if they emerge. Plus, I've always enjoyed learning. Not for power or any actual gain. But the same way one finds enjoyment in solving a puzzle or playing any game. Isn't that enough? I just see that the noise and complexity I can see just indicates what level of the game I'm on. Games wouldn't be fun if they didn't get more challenging as you progressed :) I don't know if this helps. Maybe this is that random event to seize upon or maybe it is just more noise. But that's the world I guess, and there's a certain beauty to that.
    - jacquesm 3y ago
      Food for thought, thank you very much. We seem to have a lot in common when it comes to learning for learning's sake.