philk

21 ms·

121.
by philk 16y ago
We don't enjoy life 'despite' its one-shot-itis, we enjoy life MORE because of it. I'm sorry, but nothing I've seen out there bears this out. For the most part, people get through their days by ignoring their mortality somehow. If this w
122.
by philk 16y ago
Given believing you can achieve through hard work increases your success it implies that being good or bad is at least partially based on hard work.
123.
by philk 16y ago
For better or for worse humor is a shaky proposition here.
124.
by philk 16y ago
In no way am I advocating a frail and insecure 17-year old going off and paying someone to tell him how to harass women in bars.[1] What I'm taking issue with is the idea that you are somehow selling yourself out by making changes to your p
125.
by philk 16y ago
If offered the choice between empty meaningless sex and deeply meaningful unrequited love I'd take the first without hesitation. The former might be shallow and empty but the latter is just horrible .
126.
by philk 16y ago
That's true, but I think it's important to draw a line in the sand and say "students don't get to dictate that their studies should be easy".[1] Otherwise we end up with courses that teach little, are easily gamed, and produce graduates wi
127.
by philk 16y ago
Yeah, but if you're going to believe the whole "ultimately we're just dust on the wind" point then everything is meaningless and you may as well kill yourself now. The better alternative is to find what pleasure and satisfaction you can w
128.
by philk 16y ago
I think if they forced students to actually work on meaningful problems they'd get around a lot of this.
129.
by philk 16y ago
That's because news companies are beholden to their advertisers rather than their readership. It's something you can see in (for example) the video games industry where the major magazines often handed out curiously high review scores to g
130.
by philk 16y ago
As weird as some of the PUA shit is[1], I don't see what's wrong with changing yourself to help you achieve your goals. And the solution: throw away expression of the personality you like and want to be and respect I don't know about you,
131.
Too Rich to Live?(online.wsj.com)
2 points by philk 16y ago|1 comments
132.
TV's Crowning Moment of Awesome(esquire.com)
20 points by philk 16y ago|0 comments
133.
by philk 16y ago
I thought this was an excellent article with some solid advice on how to succeed in the field. At the very least it's an honest description, up front, of what's expected so people can decide whether a career in the sciences is worth it. Th
134.
by philk 16y ago
Interesting idea but I don't think you have to trick a girl into anything. Since it is unlikely that unless there is a huge benefit to signing a prenuptial agreement a woman isn't likely going to Then you don't marry her. Really, if some
135.
The real science gap(miller-mccune.com)
2 points by philk 16y ago|4 comments
136.
by philk 16y ago
To be fair, divorce is the most likely reason the average person will have for winding up in expensive litigation and people are more likely to pursue it to the point of ruin because of the emotions involved. Also bear in mind the fact that
137.
by philk 16y ago
People change over time, and people are not always infallible judges of character. You have no way of guaranteeing that the person you marry is actually totally committed to you and you have no way of guaranteeing that that won't chang
138.
by philk 16y ago
I never said the Chinese were there to exploit Africa. I said they were there for resources, and I'm not sure how you can take issue with that given that China is currently scouring the globe for resources to fuel their manufacturing and
139.
by philk 16y ago
China is making inroads into Africa as part of their plans for resource security. They're aiming for minerals rather than revenue.
140.
by philk 16y ago
A few thoughts: a) Comparing Nigeria at 8% with the US at 65.1% is not a particularly fair comparison as the US economy is ~83 times the size, and the average citizen is much richer meaning more discretionary income. b) It's worth noting th
141.
by philk 16y ago
I don't know why everyone's been downvoting you, I only visit Hackernews to satisfy my prom dress needs.
142.
by philk 16y ago
Good news. What I thought were lousy sleep habits actually mean that my Fields Medal should be turning up any day now.
143.
by philk 16y ago
But it's not even that exciting. Your lousy employees think they're pretty good and your great employees think they're a bit better, but not awesome. I suppose the main lesson you can draw from this is that you need to assess your employee
144.
by philk 16y ago
Unfortunately complex but boring tasks are often remarkably hard to measure so probably fall through the cracks as far as this is concerned.
145.
by philk 16y ago
This is confounded somewhat by the problem of grade inflation. I suppose another way to measure would be figuring out if we're getting more useful graduates but I can't think of how to measure that (apart from perhaps average increase in wa
146.
by philk 16y ago
I might be in the minority here but I have a hard time understanding why the Dunning-Kruger effect is interesting in the first place. The only real value I can see is to give bloggers a bit of pop psychology to throw into their articles.
147.
by philk 16y ago
Even the games with exciting tasks deliver rewards way faster than real life, in Diablo II [1] I'd have cleansed the Den of Evil, gained two levels and been given a bonus skill in less time than it would take me to make a salad in reality.
148.
by philk 16y ago
If they're big impressive things I can see people's desire to brag coming into play. As a disclaimer, I'm somewhat of a Luddite when it comes to this stuff so the fact that I'm not enthused should in no way count as a strike against it; I'm
149.
by philk 16y ago
I don't think I'd want to flood my social network with the truth about what I'm actually doing either; someone who finds the fact that I've cleaned my toilets or vacuumed my lounge interesting is probably not the sort of person I'd want to
150.
by philk 16y ago
The problem I see is that the appeal of leveling up in RPGs is that your character becomes more powerful and capable. I don't think that applies with chores; if you grind ironing for five hours straight you're unlikely to enjoy any benefit

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