"During Involution phase, many counterelites are trying to slice off adherents and resources at the same time. Some people even become meta-counter-elites, complaining that the counterelites themselves have strayed from the true principles, etc. The actual elites realize their status is also precarious, and some of them side with the counterelites in order to get … Continue reading A Cyclic Theory Of Subcultures
Category: blog post
Let Go With Grace
"Once you accept that as a fundamental boundary on your capacity as a manager, it's going to set you free. Free from centering on the self-serving anguish over what you could have done differently, and on to the acceptance that these outcomes are inevitable when dealing with the opaque potential of strangers. The redeeming realization is that … Continue reading Let Go With Grace
Shadow Libraries: Library Genesis, ZLibrary & Sci-Hub
I've never seen the term "shadow libraries" mentioned in this blog post before. I had heard of Sci-Hub. But, I'm not a scientist, and I have never needed to access it. But, I does make me wonder. Open Question: How does one balance how copyright helps to foster an environment where people conduct research and … Continue reading Shadow Libraries: Library Genesis, ZLibrary & Sci-Hub
Custom, Off-The-Shelf or DIY
Quality and custom work is expensive, but it can be tailored perfectly to your needs.Off-the-shelf is cheaper, but a pretty good fit for the typical use case.Adapting an off-the-shelf product costs less than custom but it will never be a perfect fit.Do-It-Yourself, if you want to do it well, is going to take up much … Continue reading Custom, Off-The-Shelf or DIY
The Corruption of Apology
"True apologies are precious. They’re a secular process of remediation, drawing on moral intuitions shared by many religious traditions. They encourage membership in one’s moral community because they are fundamentally relational: They heal the bond between wrongdoer and wronged. By temporarily humbling the perpetrator and vindicating the victim, they pave the way for both sides to make up. Apologies … Continue reading The Corruption of Apology
Forer Statements As Updates And Affirmations
"The Forer Effect is a trick used by astrologers, psychics, and social psychologists...What statements show a Forer effect? Wikipedia just says they should be vague and somewhat positive. Can we do better?......Or you could phrase them as affirmations, or arguments for self-compassion...- Scott Alexander, "Forer Statements As Updates And Affirmations." astralcodexten.substack.com. July 26, 2022 I found the concept … Continue reading Forer Statements As Updates And Affirmations
Scam World
"Despite growing out of the 2008 financial crisis, Bitcoin has led to the creation of a faster, leaner and crueler crisis of its own, an unregulated hellscape where the elites have found yet another way to get rich off of the backs of regular people’s money. Whatever “noble” goals Bitcoin and cryptocurrency allegedly has or … Continue reading Scam World
The Invitation to Critique
"To build a prototype and expose it to critique is to make yourself very vulnerable...But you invite people in because you know that you can’t do the thing you want to do without their honest response......By contrast, Davey worked very hard on restoring that little Norfolk church, but he also sought help of every kind … Continue reading The Invitation to Critique
Success: Deserve Has Nothing to Do With It
"It’s fashionable now to object on principle to the idea that writing is hard. Writing isn’t hard, this camp says; working in coal mines is hard. Having a baby is hard. But this is a category error. Writing isn’t hard the way physical labor, or recovery from surgery, is hard; it’s hard the way math … Continue reading Success: Deserve Has Nothing to Do With It
Schools of Virtue
"Marion Turner, professor of English literature at Oxford University, put it frankly: “I’m not trained to teach students how to be good people, and that’s not my job.”It’s a fair point. It is very pleasant to make a list of intellectual virtues, but why should we believe that academics can teach students courage, humility or … Continue reading Schools of Virtue
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