6 ms·

I'd never mess with mind-altering drugs. You don't tweak a Ferrari. EDIT: Guys, relax. It was a joke. You think anyone goes and calls their own mind a Ferrari

by makeset 13y ago

I'd never mess with mind-altering drugs. You don't tweak a Ferrari. EDIT: Guys, relax. It was a joke. You think anyone goes and calls their own mind a Ferrari seriously? Jeez.

beachstartup 13y ago
worst analogy ever, especially for a post that so thinly veils your misguided feelings of superiority. ferraris were meant to be tweaked, what do you think the entire field of motorsport exists for? from F1 all the way down to the local DE event at the local track, cars are tweaked endlessly, with passion. you won't find any shortage of tweaked exotics at your local autocross, either. if nobody "twaeked" cars, you wouldn't have ANY of the improvements in performance, safety, and comfort you find in your modern automobile. and furthermore, a HUGE aftermarket exists for ferraris (and other cars, expensive or not) for the sole purpose of tweaking them and making them go faster, safer there is no philosophical difference between the manufacturer "tweaking" cars, a privateer racing team putting together a specialized hill climber, or an enthusiast "tweaking" his own car in a garage while drinking six packs. none whatsoever. it's people, working on cars. period. it's incredible there are people on HN like you. i'm a little shocked to be honest.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- dominotw 13y ago
  Ouch. That was unnecessarly rude. Not a good analogy I agree.
- cristianpascu 13y ago
  Do we have like sectarian wars on HN now? Who's worthy of being on HN and who's not?
  - icebraining 13y ago
    Haven't we always? When one gets a lot of downvotes, the software often responds with an (hell)ban. How is that not the community deciding that some people are not worthy of being on HN?
- indlebe 13y ago
  I agree with you aside from your last comment. That wasn't needed. It's great that we have diversity of opinions on here.
  - mistercow 13y ago
    >It's great that we have diversity of opinions on here. I agree that the last comment was overly snooty (I think it was in response to the implied snootiness of the original comment, but snootiness does not justify more snootiness). That said, I think there's a bit of an indirection of the point when you go to celebrating "diversity of opinions". Yes, diversity of opinions is good, but there is a difference between "diversity" and "the space of all possibilities". Some opinions are just dumb, and having them doesn't improve the community. More importantly, it is not merely the opinion that is being rejected - it is the attitude accompanying the opinion. If the original comment had been something along the lines of "I'm wary of trying psychoactive drugs because it seems like the brain is a very sensitive organ, and messing with its state could have subtle unintended consequences", then it would be expressing a very similar opinion, but the attitude would be completely different. By the same token, if the original comment had said "You're wasting your life if you don't use psychoactives to broaden your horizons", then that would be a polar opposite opinion, expressed with a similarly unacceptable attitude. I'm happy to see either of those opinions expressed on HN. But I'd happily do without either attitude.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
- Dove 13y ago
  it's incredible there are people on HN like you. i'm a little shocked to be honest. Yes, I was also sure this site was populated exclusively with ferrari-tweaking experts. I'm a little shocked, too, but there it is. ;)
  - beachstartup 13y ago
    oh, yeah i guess i didn't include the porsche people like DHH and his le mans prototypes.
  - JacksonGariety 13y ago
    That was a fantastic response.
- makeset 13y ago
  You don't have much of a sense of humor, do you.
  - vehementi 13y ago
    If nobody gets your joke, the failure in communication was yours - and probably your own sense of humour.
    - xxchan 13y ago
      Irregardless of that, the reply to OP's comment is representative of the attitudes that are common of HN. Sometimes I feel people just disagree and take apart anything for no other reason than longing for plain acknowledgement.
      - beachstartup 13y ago
        irregardless is not a word
        phaemon 13y ago
        I think it is: I just saw two people use it and they both knew what it meant. ;)
  - baby 13y ago
    Are you sure he's not making a joke as well?
- forklift 13y ago
  Pretty sure dude was joking, but you, sir, win at bitter sanctimony. Bravo.
cecilpl 13y ago
The human brain is not a Ferrari, exquisitely hand-crafted and intelligently tuned. It's been cobbled together over hundreds of millions of years out of whatever spare parts were lying around. It does its job remarkably well considering, but there are obvious design flaws that could be improved.
Nursie 13y ago
What do you mean by mind altering drugs? Do you never touch beer? Coffee? What makes you so sure that the drugs you favour are safe for your mind and that others are not?
- tbirdz 13y ago
  Personally I do avoid illegal drugs, and many legal ones such as alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, etc. so I don't think it is really fair to assume hypocrisy on makeset's part here. That being said, I did find their comment to come off a bit arrogant, and dismissive. If you do choose to live a lifestyle where you do not use these substances, like I and many others do, that is okay. But it's not okay to try and push this view on others. In turn, those who do use such substances shouldn't try and push their view on those that don't. Live and let live.
  - Nursie 13y ago
    I'm not trying to push my views on anyone. But people who avoid all mind altering drugs (legal or otherwise) are very few and far between.
  - TausAmmer 13y ago
    Events took for the worse, by introducing alcohol as the new "norm", we accepted "norm" as something horrible. Then We put nam "drugs" as something way way worse than alcohol. You don't need to use any of these, but this is the perfectly engineered view. You can see this pattern in human behaviour, easily manipulative behaviour. Shopping culture, money spending, corporations, laws, this is like big fractal blooming same thing. Still, it is interesting, seeing it all expressed and experiencing it, ever changing. Have a nice day!
angersock 13y ago
Try it sometime, in a safe environment with good people. You might be surprised what you learn. Saying that is like saying "I'd never mess with Ruby-on-Rails; you can't do better than CGI and C."
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
Xcelerate 13y ago
Upvoted you because I find it humorous that so many go off the defensive deep end with regard to your little joke. My own opinion regarding the matter is that there are plenty of mind and body altering effects that we encounter every day. I'm a chemical engineer, and anyone who is involved with chemistry or biology can tell you that all but the simplest mechanisms are difficult to understand. There can be repercussions you would never predict from some compound. Heck, even ordinary food items (high fructose corn syrup, margarine) are constantly under debate because of the unknown long-term effects. With a system as complex as the human body, it's difficult to tell what subtle effects may exist. But you can't avoid it. As a whole, people are living longer and healthier than they were in the past (well, maybe that second point is debatable in some countries). I think the best philosophy is to weigh the risks and go with what you ultimately think will be the best route for yourself. Someone who has terminal cancer may be willing to try a new drug that isn't well understood at all, but that's because the possible benefits far outweigh any risk. So it comes down to an individual decision of what you find to be an acceptable risk. And I think it should be a right to make personal decisions like that. For me personally, I'm not going to try illegal drugs because I believe they have a higher probability of causing negative long term effects. Do they actually? Who knows; you could debate this ad nauseum. And science isn't anywhere near a stage to definitively confirm or refute it. But it's not a risk I'm interested in taking. In fact, I find it funny that out of all the unconventional things that Feynman tried in his life, the thing that embarrassed him was the time he tried LSD (he was worried about any unknown effects it might have on his brain).
- Luc 13y ago
  > My own opinion regarding the matter is that there are plenty of mind and body altering effects that we encounter every day. I'm a chemical engineer, and anyone who is involved with chemistry or biology can tell you that all but the simplest mechanisms are difficult to understand. Yeah, some people even have experiences without drugs that they interpret as revelations from God.
philthesong 13y ago
This joke sucks!

by makeset 13y ago

I'd never mess with mind-altering drugs. You don't tweak a Ferrari. EDIT: Guys, relax. It was a joke. You think anyone goes and calls their own mind a Ferrari seriously? Jeez.

beachstartup 13y ago

worst analogy ever, especially for a post that so thinly veils your misguided feelings of superiority. ferraris were meant to be tweaked, what do you think the entire field of motorsport exists for? from F1 all the way down to the local DE event at the local track, cars are tweaked endlessly, with passion. you won't find any shortage of tweaked exotics at your local autocross, either. if nobody "twaeked" cars, you wouldn't have ANY of the improvements in performance, safety, and comfort you find in your modern automobile. and furthermore, a HUGE aftermarket exists for ferraris (and other cars, expensive or not) for the sole purpose of tweaking them and making them go faster, safer there is no philosophical difference between the manufacturer "tweaking" cars, a privateer racing team putting together a specialized hill climber, or an enthusiast "tweaking" his own car in a garage while drinking six packs. none whatsoever. it's people, working on cars. period. it's incredible there are people on HN like you. i'm a little shocked to be honest.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
dominotw 13y ago
Ouch. That was unnecessarly rude. Not a good analogy I agree.
cristianpascu 13y ago
Do we have like sectarian wars on HN now? Who's worthy of being on HN and who's not?
- icebraining 13y ago
  Haven't we always? When one gets a lot of downvotes, the software often responds with an (hell)ban. How is that not the community deciding that some people are not worthy of being on HN?
indlebe 13y ago
I agree with you aside from your last comment. That wasn't needed. It's great that we have diversity of opinions on here.
- mistercow 13y ago
  >It's great that we have diversity of opinions on here. I agree that the last comment was overly snooty (I think it was in response to the implied snootiness of the original comment, but snootiness does not justify more snootiness). That said, I think there's a bit of an indirection of the point when you go to celebrating "diversity of opinions". Yes, diversity of opinions is good, but there is a difference between "diversity" and "the space of all possibilities". Some opinions are just dumb, and having them doesn't improve the community. More importantly, it is not merely the opinion that is being rejected - it is the attitude accompanying the opinion. If the original comment had been something along the lines of "I'm wary of trying psychoactive drugs because it seems like the brain is a very sensitive organ, and messing with its state could have subtle unintended consequences", then it would be expressing a very similar opinion, but the attitude would be completely different. By the same token, if the original comment had said "You're wasting your life if you don't use psychoactives to broaden your horizons", then that would be a polar opposite opinion, expressed with a similarly unacceptable attitude. I'm happy to see either of those opinions expressed on HN. But I'd happily do without either attitude.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
Dove 13y ago
it's incredible there are people on HN like you. i'm a little shocked to be honest. Yes, I was also sure this site was populated exclusively with ferrari-tweaking experts. I'm a little shocked, too, but there it is. ;)
- beachstartup 13y ago
  oh, yeah i guess i didn't include the porsche people like DHH and his le mans prototypes.
- JacksonGariety 13y ago
  That was a fantastic response.
makeset 13y ago
You don't have much of a sense of humor, do you.
- vehementi 13y ago
  If nobody gets your joke, the failure in communication was yours - and probably your own sense of humour.
  - xxchan 13y ago
    Irregardless of that, the reply to OP's comment is representative of the attitudes that are common of HN. Sometimes I feel people just disagree and take apart anything for no other reason than longing for plain acknowledgement.
    - beachstartup 13y ago
      irregardless is not a word
      - phaemon 13y ago
        I think it is: I just saw two people use it and they both knew what it meant. ;)
- baby 13y ago
  Are you sure he's not making a joke as well?
forklift 13y ago
Pretty sure dude was joking, but you, sir, win at bitter sanctimony. Bravo.

cecilpl 13y ago

The human brain is not a Ferrari, exquisitely hand-crafted and intelligently tuned. It's been cobbled together over hundreds of millions of years out of whatever spare parts were lying around. It does its job remarkably well considering, but there are obvious design flaws that could be improved.

Nursie 13y ago

What do you mean by mind altering drugs? Do you never touch beer? Coffee? What makes you so sure that the drugs you favour are safe for your mind and that others are not?

tbirdz 13y ago
Personally I do avoid illegal drugs, and many legal ones such as alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, etc. so I don't think it is really fair to assume hypocrisy on makeset's part here. That being said, I did find their comment to come off a bit arrogant, and dismissive. If you do choose to live a lifestyle where you do not use these substances, like I and many others do, that is okay. But it's not okay to try and push this view on others. In turn, those who do use such substances shouldn't try and push their view on those that don't. Live and let live.
- Nursie 13y ago
  I'm not trying to push my views on anyone. But people who avoid all mind altering drugs (legal or otherwise) are very few and far between.
- TausAmmer 13y ago
  Events took for the worse, by introducing alcohol as the new "norm", we accepted "norm" as something horrible. Then We put nam "drugs" as something way way worse than alcohol. You don't need to use any of these, but this is the perfectly engineered view. You can see this pattern in human behaviour, easily manipulative behaviour. Shopping culture, money spending, corporations, laws, this is like big fractal blooming same thing. Still, it is interesting, seeing it all expressed and experiencing it, ever changing. Have a nice day!

angersock 13y ago

Try it sometime, in a safe environment with good people. You might be surprised what you learn. Saying that is like saying "I'd never mess with Ruby-on-Rails; you can't do better than CGI and C."

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

Xcelerate 13y ago

Upvoted you because I find it humorous that so many go off the defensive deep end with regard to your little joke. My own opinion regarding the matter is that there are plenty of mind and body altering effects that we encounter every day. I'm a chemical engineer, and anyone who is involved with chemistry or biology can tell you that all but the simplest mechanisms are difficult to understand. There can be repercussions you would never predict from some compound. Heck, even ordinary food items (high fructose corn syrup, margarine) are constantly under debate because of the unknown long-term effects. With a system as complex as the human body, it's difficult to tell what subtle effects may exist. But you can't avoid it. As a whole, people are living longer and healthier than they were in the past (well, maybe that second point is debatable in some countries). I think the best philosophy is to weigh the risks and go with what you ultimately think will be the best route for yourself. Someone who has terminal cancer may be willing to try a new drug that isn't well understood at all, but that's because the possible benefits far outweigh any risk. So it comes down to an individual decision of what you find to be an acceptable risk. And I think it should be a right to make personal decisions like that. For me personally, I'm not going to try illegal drugs because I believe they have a higher probability of causing negative long term effects. Do they actually? Who knows; you could debate this ad nauseum. And science isn't anywhere near a stage to definitively confirm or refute it. But it's not a risk I'm interested in taking. In fact, I find it funny that out of all the unconventional things that Feynman tried in his life, the thing that embarrassed him was the time he tried LSD (he was worried about any unknown effects it might have on his brain).

Luc 13y ago
> My own opinion regarding the matter is that there are plenty of mind and body altering effects that we encounter every day. I'm a chemical engineer, and anyone who is involved with chemistry or biology can tell you that all but the simplest mechanisms are difficult to understand. Yeah, some people even have experiences without drugs that they interpret as revelations from God.

philthesong 13y ago

This joke sucks!