4 ms·

Words mean things. Look at page 12 here: http://www.ncsu.edu/cqsb/presentations/Hu.pdf http://www.ncsu.edu/cqsb/presentations/Hu.pdf

api 12y ago
This kind of makes my evening in weird way. Perhaps it shows a lot about my own psychology at the time. Events that had nothing to do with the fellow I was talking to had biased me to interpret it that way. People who say failure and hardship are good have never experienced them. It teaches you all the wrong things-- be conservative, be suspicious, be jaded, don't dream, assume the worst about people, ... That was many years ago. It's been a long trip back from those days.
- srj 12y ago
  Well I don't think you're completely off the mark. I just moved to Boston recently and have been struck at how people often seem to evaluate your pedigree during introductions. As negative as that sounds, I think different regions just have different ways individuals brand themselves to show value in their society.
  - api 12y ago
    Yes, that's definitely true and is a big reason I would have been primed for a negative interpretation of what might have been a simple comment. Boston is really aristocratic. I think that's the best word. Pedigree, status, and ... Breeding?
- eli_gottlieb 12y ago
  >People who say failure and hardship are good have never experienced them. It teaches you all the wrong things-- be conservative, be suspicious, be jaded, don't dream, assume the worst about people, ... Wow! Can I quote you on that?
  - api 12y ago
    Sure. I don't think I'm the only one who's said something like that though.
    - eli_gottlieb 12y ago
      As a matter of fact, you're one of the first I've seen. At least as long as I've been alive, the hegemonic cultural norm I've seen has been that hardship builds character, conservatism is wisdom, and those who dream are fools. It's refreshing to hear someone say that cynicism is incorrect and teaches the wrong lessons rather than being merely unpleasant.
      - api 12y ago
        Yeah, that which does not kill you beats the crap out of you. :) Actually I think the situation is more complex. I do entertain the notion of hormesis to some extent-- it makes biological sense (I studied bio) and I can see examples of it subjectively. Hardship seems to do both harm and good. The good it does is in the realm of toughness-- it builds up your immune system so to speak. I once lost about four years of work and almost $100k to a con man type, and I am now positively allergic to those character traits. (Glib, superficially charming, fast talker, seems to be able to "accelerate" things...) I can smell them a thousand miles away. Yet immunity can overreact, and heuristics are not perfect. It's taken me years to perfect that heuristic so as not to yield a lot of false positives. Yet this immunity came at a cost. Immediately after this event I'd switched from being someone who admires others' achievement to someone who resents it, and it's taken me years to work my way to back to being a positive-sum thinker again. It made me tougher, but it also made me more cynical and less open to new ideas. It makes you "wise," and after becoming wise I decided to set about trying to un-wisen myself so that I can dream again. Naivete is under-rated, wisdom over, and the ideal would be to try to take the good things from both sides of the divide. So yeah, like most things in biology it is not simple. Biology is not a field of study for people who like absolutisms and totalistic models of things. It will disabuse you of those notions real fast if you study it with open eyes. Complex dynamical systems just don't work that way.
hggchgfhgfhg 12y ago
Conventionally, both terms are used interchangeably (in math). Their usage in these slides is quite idiosyncratic.
- api 12y ago
  Yeah that normally seems to be the case, but the domain was evolutionary information theory so he probably did mean a distinction like the one in the link above.
hggchgfhgfhg 12y ago
Conventionally, both terms are used interchangeably (in math). Their usage in these slides is quite idiosyncratic.

api 12y ago

This kind of makes my evening in weird way. Perhaps it shows a lot about my own psychology at the time. Events that had nothing to do with the fellow I was talking to had biased me to interpret it that way. People who say failure and hardship are good have never experienced them. It teaches you all the wrong things-- be conservative, be suspicious, be jaded, don't dream, assume the worst about people, ... That was many years ago. It's been a long trip back from those days.

srj 12y ago
Well I don't think you're completely off the mark. I just moved to Boston recently and have been struck at how people often seem to evaluate your pedigree during introductions. As negative as that sounds, I think different regions just have different ways individuals brand themselves to show value in their society.
- api 12y ago
  Yes, that's definitely true and is a big reason I would have been primed for a negative interpretation of what might have been a simple comment. Boston is really aristocratic. I think that's the best word. Pedigree, status, and ... Breeding?
eli_gottlieb 12y ago
>People who say failure and hardship are good have never experienced them. It teaches you all the wrong things-- be conservative, be suspicious, be jaded, don't dream, assume the worst about people, ... Wow! Can I quote you on that?
- api 12y ago
  Sure. I don't think I'm the only one who's said something like that though.
  - eli_gottlieb 12y ago
    As a matter of fact, you're one of the first I've seen. At least as long as I've been alive, the hegemonic cultural norm I've seen has been that hardship builds character, conservatism is wisdom, and those who dream are fools. It's refreshing to hear someone say that cynicism is incorrect and teaches the wrong lessons rather than being merely unpleasant.
    - api 12y ago
      Yeah, that which does not kill you beats the crap out of you. :) Actually I think the situation is more complex. I do entertain the notion of hormesis to some extent-- it makes biological sense (I studied bio) and I can see examples of it subjectively. Hardship seems to do both harm and good. The good it does is in the realm of toughness-- it builds up your immune system so to speak. I once lost about four years of work and almost $100k to a con man type, and I am now positively allergic to those character traits. (Glib, superficially charming, fast talker, seems to be able to "accelerate" things...) I can smell them a thousand miles away. Yet immunity can overreact, and heuristics are not perfect. It's taken me years to perfect that heuristic so as not to yield a lot of false positives. Yet this immunity came at a cost. Immediately after this event I'd switched from being someone who admires others' achievement to someone who resents it, and it's taken me years to work my way to back to being a positive-sum thinker again. It made me tougher, but it also made me more cynical and less open to new ideas. It makes you "wise," and after becoming wise I decided to set about trying to un-wisen myself so that I can dream again. Naivete is under-rated, wisdom over, and the ideal would be to try to take the good things from both sides of the divide. So yeah, like most things in biology it is not simple. Biology is not a field of study for people who like absolutisms and totalistic models of things. It will disabuse you of those notions real fast if you study it with open eyes. Complex dynamical systems just don't work that way.

hggchgfhgfhg 12y ago

Conventionally, both terms are used interchangeably (in math). Their usage in these slides is quite idiosyncratic.

api 12y ago
Yeah that normally seems to be the case, but the domain was evolutionary information theory so he probably did mean a distinction like the one in the link above.

hggchgfhgfhg 12y ago

Conventionally, both terms are used interchangeably (in math). Their usage in these slides is quite idiosyncratic.