3 ms·

When you're successful and rich (enough, at least), this is a nice whimsical thing to say. When you're suffering in the trenches, this isn't very helpful.

by bradhe 5mo ago

bell-cot 5mo ago
Yeah - but it may be a good way to articulate a bleak, from-the-trenches perspective on the world.
sph 5mo ago
Your comment is exactly what successful and rich people say. You can find a lot of joy and acceptance among the poorest of people: the mind is remarkably adaptable, yet it's only those that always strive for more that cannot enjoy life's little moments. I truly dislike this recent trend of making people feel bad if they have learned to just slow down and be content with life. "It's privilege being able to take a break and smell the roses, I'm too busy for this nonsense" is protestant crab mentality that I find revolting.
- tipiirai 5mo ago
  I think you misinterpreted. The comment said "When you're suffering...", not "When you're poor..."
  - sph 5mo ago
    "Desire is the root of all suffering" — Buddha You'll have a hard time finding more suffering than in Wall Street. Meanwhile I haven't found more content, relaxed people than when I visited my distant family in sub-Saharan Africa, taking life as it comes. My point still stands.
    - thesamethrowawa 5mo ago
      > Meanwhile I haven't found more content, relaxed people than when I visited my distant family in sub-Saharan Africa, taking life as it comes. My point still stands. You seem to be arguing against the point "only happy people can be rich". This isn't what the GP comment said. It said only rich people come out with things like "life is a farce". Which I think is true. Are any of your sub saharan african relatives giving interviews to press pontificating on such things? I assume no.
      - sph 5mo ago
        > Are any of your sub saharan african relatives giving interviews to press pontificating on such things? I assume no. No, but the first thing they say to a Westerner like me is "what are you fretting about? You white people are always stressed and busy. Just take a breath. The world isn't going anywhere." It takes a lot of energy and effort to be rich and to chase money; these are not the people that say "life is a farce". Your comment is borne from the idea that money does create happiness, so only rich people can enjoy life and have a laugh about it. This is not a universal maxim, just a cultural artefact of the protestant ethos that finds in maximum expression in the American capitalist society. In the rest of the world, it's the complete opposite.
    - watwut 5mo ago
      You know what, no you wont have hard time finding more suffering then in Wall Street. I am not saying they are all happy, but the hell non-Wall Street people suffer as often and a lot. Only rich people are unhappy and suffering is such a ridiculous point, frankly. Including in Africa for that matter. In fact, you will find plenty of people there that go to extremes to avoid or minimize suffering ... including making other sub-africans super suffering in the process. That happy take life as it comes sub-Saharan Africa includes Sudan and Congo full of people who are not happy and very active in trying to change thing around them (not necessarily in the positive sense).
- smugglerFlynn 5mo ago
  Exactly! What a high-profile actor’s life represents to an accountant or a programmer, that accountant’s or programmer’s life similarly represents to a factory worker, and so on. I've met "too busy for this" people in every line of work, regardless of their pay band. When you get to know people, you will see that pretty much everyone has their own trenches, and slowing down is a matter of priorities, not privilege.
- lukewarm707 5mo ago
  if you are too busy to think consequently everything you are doing is without knowing any justification or explanation "too busy" is arguing for ignorance, which is defensible but not agreed on
- throw0101a 5mo ago
  > You can find a lot of joy and acceptance among the poorest of people: the mind is remarkably adaptable, yet it's only those that always strive for more that cannot enjoy life's little moments. See perhaps Viktor Frankl on this: > Man's Search for Meaning (German: ... trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen. Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager, lit. '... Say Yes to Life nonetheless: A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp') is a 1946 book by Viktor Frankl chronicling his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, and describing his psychotherapeutic method, which involved identifying a purpose to each person's life through one of three ways: the completion of tasks, caring for another person, or finding meaning by facing suffering with dignity. > Frankl observed that among the fellow inmates in the concentration camp, those who survived were able to connect with a purpose in life to feel positive about and who then immersed themselves in imagining that purpose in their own way, such as conversing with an (imagined) loved one. According to Frankl, the way a prisoner imagined the future affected their longevity. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27s_Search_for_Meaning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27s_Search_for_Meaning * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Frankl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Frankl
reedf1 5mo ago
I'm not sure what you are trying to express here. Is it "rich people shouldn't express their worldview" or "the idea that life is inherently meaningless is incorrect"? A younger me ingested this sentiment as a call to action to create the meaning I wanted in the world.
- coldtea 5mo ago
  >Is it "rich people shouldn't express their worldview" If that was the case, how better off we'd be.
  - armchairhacker 5mo ago
    How would we be better off?
    - coldtea 5mo ago
      The greediest bastards with undue influece wouldn't have a say.
      - armchairhacker 5mo ago
        They’d still act, just not explain…
        coldtea 5mo ago
        Still an improvement, any explanation is a lie anyway!
  - azan_ 5mo ago
    Much worse.
  - hnthrow0287345 5mo ago
    I'm not against rich people outright, but I am against the ones who try to pay people as little as possible sharing their views. And especially the views that contradict (working hard) how they got their wealth (not working hard) in the first place.
deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
julienmarie 5mo ago
On the contrary, read the piece. He's not saying it from comfort, he's saying it after a heart attack, after his kids grew up, after the form he loved became a young man's game. The farce isn't a punchline delivered from above; it's what's left when the registers that used to hold you don't anymore. And his answer isn't despair, it's "we've got to keep trying… there's a breeze beneath my wings." That's not whimsy. That's the thing the trenches actually teach you, if you survive them.
- Phemist 5mo ago
  A triple "It's not this... it's that"...
  - bingkaa 5mo ago
    like a lot of tweets in my timeline these days
  - tranceylc 5mo ago
    I can’t be the only one who finds it rude to use AI to contribute to a discussion. I find invasive I had to read what I thought was human. Using it for translation would be different though.
    - toxik 5mo ago
      So very rude. If you prefix it with "the LLM says", I'm fine with it. But taking that hot air and pretending it's yours? It's not just rude, it's dishonest.
      - hyperhello 5mo ago
        It’s not just X, it’s Y. It’s not rude, it’s hackneyed use of language.
        reactordev 5mo ago
        You’re absolutely right! It’s not just X, it’s Y. /s.
lo_zamoyski 5mo ago
Strictly speaking, meaninglessness is opposed to farce. You can’t have both utter meaninglessness and farce, because meaning is intrinsic to farce. Comedy presupposes meaning, because comedy hinges on the absurd, but the absurd is a departure from meaning or a deviation from it. Something is absurd when it fails to be meaningful and fails to satisfy the rational in the broader context of rational meaning. There is no laughter in the utterly meaningless. There cannot be silliness without an overarching context of seriousness.
deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
deleted 5mo ago
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mrleinad 5mo ago
I doubt Bill Hicks was that rich. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgzQuE1pR1w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgzQuE1pR1w
- coldtea 5mo ago
  Or Bukowski. Or Lenny Bruce. Or any other number of people "in the trenches".
coldtea 5mo ago
That's backwards: it is helpful to keep that in mind precisely when you're suffering in the trenches. Rich and succesful people try to forget that, which is their hubris.
AndrewKemendo 5mo ago
Having been in both, literally and metaphorically, it’s a useful mantra both places You can also use “this too shall pass” if you want a lighter version
djeastm 5mo ago
Did you read the interview? He basically says as much. >There’s no question that the security that you feel from not being afraid of a health issue or housing is a great comfort and helps you to be more at peace with life. It’s just not as much help as you think it should be.
- lotsofpulp 5mo ago
  I’ll disagree with Odenkirk there. Not having to try to decide if you think one of your kids should be taken to the ER at the expense of the other kid for what is probably not an emergency infection, but maybe there’s a chance it could spread and cause real damage so antibiotics now would help, but then the other kid won’t be able to do xyz due to not having a spare $2,000 is a pretty shitty experience. Security of housing and healthcare is an enormous boost in life. I avoided playing sports when I was a kid because my dad told me a broken arm would set the family back (there were no out of pocket maximums back then). The government paid if you were dirt poor and had no prospects, or employer or government paid if you were a white collar/union or government employee, but for immigrants invested into their 24/7 small business, they had assets that could be seized but very little cash flow to be able to pay unexpected bills.
raffael_de 5mo ago
I agree. I'm quite sure even Bob would agree. He never even used the words "farce" or "meaning(less)". He just agreed to "life is a farce" in a context that mostly reflected on his work as a comedian. Also the entire interview reads quite performative. This whole emotions-are-just-molecules, life-is-just-a-game etc perspectives fall flat as soon as the doctor tells the armchair-nihilist he has cancer ... suddenly life feels like something more important than a game and the feelings are no longer just molecules.

When you're successful and rich (enough, at least), this is a nice whimsical thing to say. When you're suffering in the trenches, this isn't very helpful.

by bradhe 5mo ago

When you're successful and rich (enough, at least), this is a nice whimsical thing to say. When you're suffering in the trenches, this isn't very helpful.

bell-cot 5mo ago

Yeah - but it may be a good way to articulate a bleak, from-the-trenches perspective on the world.

sph 5mo ago

Your comment is exactly what successful and rich people say. You can find a lot of joy and acceptance among the poorest of people: the mind is remarkably adaptable, yet it's only those that always strive for more that cannot enjoy life's little moments. I truly dislike this recent trend of making people feel bad if they have learned to just slow down and be content with life. "It's privilege being able to take a break and smell the roses, I'm too busy for this nonsense" is protestant crab mentality that I find revolting.

tipiirai 5mo ago
I think you misinterpreted. The comment said "When you're suffering...", not "When you're poor..."
- sph 5mo ago
  "Desire is the root of all suffering" — Buddha You'll have a hard time finding more suffering than in Wall Street. Meanwhile I haven't found more content, relaxed people than when I visited my distant family in sub-Saharan Africa, taking life as it comes. My point still stands.
  - thesamethrowawa 5mo ago
    > Meanwhile I haven't found more content, relaxed people than when I visited my distant family in sub-Saharan Africa, taking life as it comes. My point still stands. You seem to be arguing against the point "only happy people can be rich". This isn't what the GP comment said. It said only rich people come out with things like "life is a farce". Which I think is true. Are any of your sub saharan african relatives giving interviews to press pontificating on such things? I assume no.
    - sph 5mo ago
      > Are any of your sub saharan african relatives giving interviews to press pontificating on such things? I assume no. No, but the first thing they say to a Westerner like me is "what are you fretting about? You white people are always stressed and busy. Just take a breath. The world isn't going anywhere." It takes a lot of energy and effort to be rich and to chase money; these are not the people that say "life is a farce". Your comment is borne from the idea that money does create happiness, so only rich people can enjoy life and have a laugh about it. This is not a universal maxim, just a cultural artefact of the protestant ethos that finds in maximum expression in the American capitalist society. In the rest of the world, it's the complete opposite.
  - watwut 5mo ago
    You know what, no you wont have hard time finding more suffering then in Wall Street. I am not saying they are all happy, but the hell non-Wall Street people suffer as often and a lot. Only rich people are unhappy and suffering is such a ridiculous point, frankly. Including in Africa for that matter. In fact, you will find plenty of people there that go to extremes to avoid or minimize suffering ... including making other sub-africans super suffering in the process. That happy take life as it comes sub-Saharan Africa includes Sudan and Congo full of people who are not happy and very active in trying to change thing around them (not necessarily in the positive sense).
smugglerFlynn 5mo ago
Exactly! What a high-profile actor’s life represents to an accountant or a programmer, that accountant’s or programmer’s life similarly represents to a factory worker, and so on. I've met "too busy for this" people in every line of work, regardless of their pay band. When you get to know people, you will see that pretty much everyone has their own trenches, and slowing down is a matter of priorities, not privilege.
lukewarm707 5mo ago
if you are too busy to think consequently everything you are doing is without knowing any justification or explanation "too busy" is arguing for ignorance, which is defensible but not agreed on
throw0101a 5mo ago
> You can find a lot of joy and acceptance among the poorest of people: the mind is remarkably adaptable, yet it's only those that always strive for more that cannot enjoy life's little moments. See perhaps Viktor Frankl on this: > Man's Search for Meaning (German: ... trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen. Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager, lit. '... Say Yes to Life nonetheless: A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp') is a 1946 book by Viktor Frankl chronicling his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, and describing his psychotherapeutic method, which involved identifying a purpose to each person's life through one of three ways: the completion of tasks, caring for another person, or finding meaning by facing suffering with dignity. > Frankl observed that among the fellow inmates in the concentration camp, those who survived were able to connect with a purpose in life to feel positive about and who then immersed themselves in imagining that purpose in their own way, such as conversing with an (imagined) loved one. According to Frankl, the way a prisoner imagined the future affected their longevity. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27s_Search_for_Meaning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27s_Search_for_Meaning * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Frankl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Frankl

reedf1 5mo ago

I'm not sure what you are trying to express here. Is it "rich people shouldn't express their worldview" or "the idea that life is inherently meaningless is incorrect"? A younger me ingested this sentiment as a call to action to create the meaning I wanted in the world.

coldtea 5mo ago
>Is it "rich people shouldn't express their worldview" If that was the case, how better off we'd be.
- armchairhacker 5mo ago
  How would we be better off?
  - coldtea 5mo ago
    The greediest bastards with undue influece wouldn't have a say.
    - armchairhacker 5mo ago
      They’d still act, just not explain…
      - coldtea 5mo ago
        Still an improvement, any explanation is a lie anyway!
- azan_ 5mo ago
  Much worse.
- hnthrow0287345 5mo ago
  I'm not against rich people outright, but I am against the ones who try to pay people as little as possible sharing their views. And especially the views that contradict (working hard) how they got their wealth (not working hard) in the first place.

deleted 5mo ago

[deleted]

julienmarie 5mo ago

On the contrary, read the piece. He's not saying it from comfort, he's saying it after a heart attack, after his kids grew up, after the form he loved became a young man's game. The farce isn't a punchline delivered from above; it's what's left when the registers that used to hold you don't anymore. And his answer isn't despair, it's "we've got to keep trying… there's a breeze beneath my wings." That's not whimsy. That's the thing the trenches actually teach you, if you survive them.

Phemist 5mo ago
A triple "It's not this... it's that"...
- bingkaa 5mo ago
  like a lot of tweets in my timeline these days
- tranceylc 5mo ago
  I can’t be the only one who finds it rude to use AI to contribute to a discussion. I find invasive I had to read what I thought was human. Using it for translation would be different though.
  - toxik 5mo ago
    So very rude. If you prefix it with "the LLM says", I'm fine with it. But taking that hot air and pretending it's yours? It's not just rude, it's dishonest.
    - hyperhello 5mo ago
      It’s not just X, it’s Y. It’s not rude, it’s hackneyed use of language.
      - reactordev 5mo ago
        You’re absolutely right! It’s not just X, it’s Y. /s.

lo_zamoyski 5mo ago

Strictly speaking, meaninglessness is opposed to farce. You can’t have both utter meaninglessness and farce, because meaning is intrinsic to farce. Comedy presupposes meaning, because comedy hinges on the absurd, but the absurd is a departure from meaning or a deviation from it. Something is absurd when it fails to be meaningful and fails to satisfy the rational in the broader context of rational meaning. There is no laughter in the utterly meaningless. There cannot be silliness without an overarching context of seriousness.

deleted 5mo ago

[deleted]

deleted 5mo ago

[deleted]

mrleinad 5mo ago

I doubt Bill Hicks was that rich. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgzQuE1pR1w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgzQuE1pR1w

coldtea 5mo ago
Or Bukowski. Or Lenny Bruce. Or any other number of people "in the trenches".

coldtea 5mo ago

That's backwards: it is helpful to keep that in mind precisely when you're suffering in the trenches. Rich and succesful people try to forget that, which is their hubris.

AndrewKemendo 5mo ago

Having been in both, literally and metaphorically, it’s a useful mantra both places You can also use “this too shall pass” if you want a lighter version

djeastm 5mo ago

Did you read the interview? He basically says as much. >There’s no question that the security that you feel from not being afraid of a health issue or housing is a great comfort and helps you to be more at peace with life. It’s just not as much help as you think it should be.

lotsofpulp 5mo ago
I’ll disagree with Odenkirk there. Not having to try to decide if you think one of your kids should be taken to the ER at the expense of the other kid for what is probably not an emergency infection, but maybe there’s a chance it could spread and cause real damage so antibiotics now would help, but then the other kid won’t be able to do xyz due to not having a spare $2,000 is a pretty shitty experience. Security of housing and healthcare is an enormous boost in life. I avoided playing sports when I was a kid because my dad told me a broken arm would set the family back (there were no out of pocket maximums back then). The government paid if you were dirt poor and had no prospects, or employer or government paid if you were a white collar/union or government employee, but for immigrants invested into their 24/7 small business, they had assets that could be seized but very little cash flow to be able to pay unexpected bills.

raffael_de 5mo ago

I agree. I'm quite sure even Bob would agree. He never even used the words "farce" or "meaning(less)". He just agreed to "life is a farce" in a context that mostly reflected on his work as a comedian. Also the entire interview reads quite performative. This whole emotions-are-just-molecules, life-is-just-a-game etc perspectives fall flat as soon as the doctor tells the armchair-nihilist he has cancer ... suddenly life feels like something more important than a game and the feelings are no longer just molecules.