7 ms·
[stub for offtopicness] [article authors don't write these headlines, you guys - let alone interview subjects]
by dang 6mo ago
[stub for offtopicness]
[article authors don't write these headlines, you guys - let alone interview subjects]
- nozzlegear 6mo agoWhen the zeitgeist is overwhelmingly nihilist, dare to be an absurdist.
- mapontosevenths 6mo agoI came here to say this. Once you realize that life has no meaning, except that which we arbitrarily assign, you can only go a few ways with it. Of all the 'ism's you could choose in that moment, absudism is perhaps the least worst. "Credo quia absurdum est."
- thrance 6mo agoWhat you're describing is "existentialism", and Camus's absurdidm is a reaction to it. The difference is subtle, but important to Camus.
- mapontosevenths 6mo agoIt's been a very long time since I studied it, so you're likely right... but I thought that existentialism was the problem statement (life has no inherent meaning so we bring our own) and that absurdism and nihilism were both responses to it? My understanding has always been that Absurdism says that while the search for meaning is absurd we should search anyhow if we feel like it (our happy friend Sisyphus). Whereas Nihilism's answer was more along the lines of Bukowski's "Don't Try." They both recognize that Sisyphus's job is pointless, but the absurdists suggest we keep pushing the boulder anyhow. Am I missing something?
- thrance 6mo agoMy own understanding is: all three of existentialism, nihilism and absurdism are responses to the same question (that of the meaning of life). All three agree on the fact that there is no inherent, "natural" meaning. Nihilism gives you nothing more. Absurdism claims you must embrace this lack of meaning and thrive in spite of it. Existentialism claims you can create your own. Camus thought Existentialism was "cheating" and trying to deny the correct conclusion that life is meaningless. Also, he diskliked Sartre a lot.
- svieira 6mo agoAuberon Quinn, is that you?
- svieira 6mo ago> But let me give you a very serious warning. Be careful how you ask me to do anything outré, to imitate the man in the pantomime, and to sit on my hat. Because I am a man whose soul has been emptied of all pleasures but folly. And for twopence I'd do it." > "Do it, then," said Lambert, swinging his stick impatiently. "It would be funnier than the bosh you and Barker talk." > Quin, standing on the top of the hill, stretched his hand out towards the main avenue of Kensington Gardens. > "Two hundred yards away," he said, "are all your fashionable acquaintances with nothing on earth to do but to stare at each other and at us. We are standing upon an elevation under the open sky, a peak as it were of fantasy, a Sinai of humour. We are in a great pulpit or platform, lit up with sunlight, and half London can see us. Be careful how you suggest things to me. For there is in me a madness which goes beyond martyrdom, the madness of an utterly idle man. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/20058/20058-h/20058-h.htm https://www.gutenberg.org/files/20058/20058-h/20058-h.htm
- mamonster 6mo agoAbsurdism (of the Camus variety) is boomer nihilism.
- echelon_musk 6mo ago[flagged]
- dnnddidiej 6mo agoTerrible? Nah it was good. Really slow in places tho.
- guilamu 6mo agoMost people, including me, beg to disagree. Better Call Saul was a masterpiece. https://www.metacritic.com/tv/better-call-saul/ https://www.metacritic.com/tv/better-call-saul/
- forinti 6mo agoI really enjoyed Better Call Saul and thought it was much much better than Breaking Bad. Walter White was such an irritating character. Saul was a brilliant hustler.
- pythontongue 6mo agoI could see Better Call Saul appealing more to the Hacker News community than Breaking Bad. Kim and Jimmy often give off founder/startup energy (e.g. S2E7)
- tucnak 6mo agoYeah, I abandoned Breaking Bad around mid-season 2 because of how boring, slow, and repetitive it had become. Better Call Saul, on the other hand, was constantly clicking for me, from one episode to another. The writing is magnificent. There were a few slow-rollers, of course, but they were nothing compared to drip-feeding in Breaking Bad.
- Capricorn2481 6mo agoI respect you shitting on something that is nearly perfect. Your hatred is pure and that makes it special.
- strogonoff 6mo agoI couldn’t make it through Breaking Bad, but I couldn’t put down Better Call Saul. Different boats for different floats.
- styluss 6mo ago> The world is like a ride in an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly colored and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question: "Is this real, or is this just a ride?" And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say: "Hey, don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride." Bill Hicks Fixed name
- frereubu 6mo agoThe title reminded me of this too, but it was Bill Hicks, not Richard Hicks.
- shrubby 6mo agoBill Hicks was spot on for most of the things.
- aswegs8 6mo agoSo basically, Buddhism?
- keybored 6mo ago[deleted]
- simonh 6mo agoIt's all donosaur piss anyway. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-10-06/recycled-water-drinking-dinosaur-pee https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-10-06/recycled-wa...
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- FrustratedMonky 6mo ago
- bradhe 6mo agoWhen 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 6mo agoYeah - but it may be a good way to articulate a bleak, from-the-trenches perspective on the world.
- sph 6mo agoYour 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 6mo agoI think you misinterpreted. The comment said "When you're suffering...", not "When you're poor..."
- sph 6mo 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 6mo 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.
- AntiUSAbah 6mo agoThe thing is, if you never question anything, just lifing is worth it in itself. If you do think too much about everything, and you survive this, you will land somewhere and this somewhere will be content. I'm thinking about happiness and what I want for so long, that I now have crossed my half life point. You also need to have a certain amount of freedom to even have this problem which makes it weird for others not having this. Oh you are not happy? But you have money?! I would be happy with money, i'm struggling. Its weird if you sometimes think it would be interesting to struggle.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- fiftyacorn 6mo agoAmerican or British farce?
- saberience 6mo agoThis is the kind of thought that only rich and successful people can have. If you're working every day in a coal mine so you can feed your children otherwise they will go hungry, then you don't have these kind of thoughts. Similarly, if you're fighting in a war so your family isn't raped or murdered then you don't have these kind of thoughts either. Basically, you're lucky if you live in a situation that gives you the leisure and time to sit around and think about life being a farce. Probably he should be sitting around thinking, "boy, i'm so lucky I get to sit in this nice coffeeshop with no reason to work, no threat to my life, just chilling, so I can ponder on what a farce life is" Edit: Because some people start criticising my comment, here's an addition: How many people who were living in the 1700s do you think sat around thinking life is a farce? Ponder on that question. Out of everyone living in the world today, how many people do you think sit around thinking life is a farce, who are those people? Why do you think they are thinking this? I think it's an important question to ask and think about. It's saying something about our society, way of life, way of seeing the world. In my opinion, life is for living, being with people, engaging in the world, taking action, connecting with people, and giving back. When you stop living, engaging with the world, and spend too much time alone, you start thinking this way. I think if Bob Odenkirk lived on a community farm where everyone had to work together to survive he would be far happier and think life is far more meaningful.
- sph 6mo agoAlready ranted about comments like yours: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47919820 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47919820 It's shows true ignorance about what happiness is and where it's found. You can probably find more smiles and hope for the future in the Ukrainian trenches than reading comments from Silicon Valley workers making $150k a year. I mean, do you guys even know Buddhism any more? It was such a hip thing in the 70s over there.
- pillefitz 6mo agoSo you're saying that life isn't a farce? Or that it is, and poor people don't ponder it? Just expressing disapproval of rich people?
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- mfgadv99 6mo ago[flagged]
- 0xbadc0de5 6mo agoBob Odenkirk's publicist would like the gullible public to think that his client is some sort of deeply thoughtful intellectual because he's trying to line up his next gig and having his name in the public zeitgeist will land him a fatter paycheck.
- Giorgi 6mo agoEasy to be philosopher when you are millionaire.
- red-iron-pine 6mo agohe didn't get to millionaire without doing comedy for a while, lot of digging into the human condition there. easy to be a philosopher when you're forced to portray pathos and bathos, on camera, for years
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- monideas 6mo agoGenesis 25:32 Esau replied, "Behold, I am going to die; so why do I need this birthright?"
- an0malous 6mo ago“It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”
- throwpoaster 6mo agoBooo, nihilism is dumb.
- noiwwettt 6mo ago[flagged]
- OhioMan2943 6mo agoThis is a very new york times headline.
- swed420 6mo agoFor real. The headline ought to be "NYT would like to remind you that life is a meaningless farce": Interviewer: There’s a holistic observation I want to make about our conversation. You talked about how the best times in your life were when your kids were little. Those times are over. You said the art form you love the most, sketch comedy, is a young man’s game. That’s over for you. Life? It’s a farce. Odenkirk: Yeah.
- coolThingsFirst 6mo agolife sucks and then we die
- kjshsh123 6mo agoYou can really tell from the comments those who didn't read the article and who are taking the headline extremely literally. He quoted Shakespeare's MacBeth, "It is a tale, Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing." when talking about he thinks sketch comedy is the greatest form of self expression, even moreso than poetry from people like Shakespeare. It's not that deep.
- swed420 6mo agoIt was forced by the interviewer for a clickbait flair. The headline ought to be "NYT would like to remind you that life is a meaningless farce": Interviewer: There’s a holistic observation I want to make about our conversation. You talked about how the best times in your life were when your kids were little. Those times are over. You said the art form you love the most, sketch comedy, is a young man’s game. That’s over for you. Life? It’s a farce. Odenkirk: Yeah.