pull down to refresh

This post is about moral action, but I think it applies to all action.
The truth is, the question "what should we do?" often masks a deeper hesitation—a search for the perfect, risk-free action that will somehow satisfy both our conscience and our comfort. But that's precisely the trap.
One thousand times that. Moderns have so much choice and freedom, they paralyze themselves maximizing and minimizing across some large number of N-dimensions. IMO this is what feelings are for at least partly.
There is no algorithm for moral action in immoral times. There is no checklist that, once completed, absolves you of the responsibility to keep acting, keep choosing, keep standing for something.
So what should you do? Stop asking that question as if there's a single answer that applies to everyone. Start asking instead: What does my most authentic self demand in this moment? What action would make me feel whole rather than diminished? What truth needs speaking that only I can articulate in my unique way?
Then do that thing. Not once, not as a performance, but consistently. Not with an eye toward results, but with a commitment to process. Not because it will necessarily "work," but because it's the only thing that will allow you to recognize yourself when this is all over.
this territory is moderated
230 sats \ 1 reply \ @kepford 20 Mar
Moderns have so much choice and freedom, they paralyze themselves maximizing and minimizing across some large number of N-dimensions.
We have SO much time as well. I'm pretty convinced we are suffering from our own success as a society. The sad reality is we don't get how good we have it. We don't realize how much agency we actually have and we squander our opportunities.
I include myself in all of that. Most of all we over-estimate how much our opinions matter and underestimate how much our actions matter.
reply
This topic is so relevant to me. Its a battle to both realize your feelings are true. They are what you feel but the words you repeat in your head may not be true in the deeper sense. We often repeat lies to ourselves that sabotage ourselves. They feelings are real and therefore true but at the same time may be lies opposing the real state of the world and your relation to it.
reply
We'd be much better off if somehow kids grew up with this message drilled into them. I'm so bad about this kind of paralysis. Even just playing video games, I get upset with myself if I fail to optimize something and it ends up sucking the joy out of the experience.
Oddly enough, I'm not really like this when it comes to bitcoin. Since I believe bitcoin adoption will achieve large social changes that I want, I'm happy to try stuff and take some losses here and there, because I know the activity and the experiments are how this gets accomplished.
reply
That video games thing is so real. I'm not sure when I became a min maxer, but I definitely can't enjoy games unless I'm doing things statistically correct. It actually keeps me from playing games often because I don't want to put in the effort.
reply
What does "trying stuff" mean in that context?
reply
Crazy stuff like buying a SN territory (and becoming a co-owner of two others) or trying out lightning prediction markets or running a lightning node or trying out different wallets. All of those things cost some resources with little guarantee of any payoff.
Even streaming financial support to podcasts on Fountain and zapping stackers are things I never did in fiat world.
reply
There's a quote I like from Francis Fukuyama that I think I've used before that's relevant:
Experience suggests that if men cannot struggle on behalf of a just cause because that just cause was victorious in an earlier generation, then they will struggle against the just cause. They will struggle for the sake of struggle. They will struggle, in other words, out of a certain boredom: for they cannot imagine living in a world without struggle. And if the greater part of the world in which they live is characterized by peaceful and prosperous liberal democracy, then they will struggle against that peace and prosperity, and against democracy.
The relevance is that humans run a certain set of algorithms regardless of circumstances. Fukuyama is talking about struggle; whether or not there's anything worthy to struggle against, people will manufacture something.
The point @k00b is making about risk -- or maybe, "risk", because wtf are you actually risking? You are probably not setting out on the ocean in a longboat hoping there's land someplace Over There. You're changing jobs, or asking out the girl, or taking a role in a community play, or whatever. On an absolute scale, there is no risk. But your feelings are calibrated to a relative world, and it seems like a giant thing. And so you live a lesser life.
I think about this every single fucking day. You'd think it would do me some good.
reply
I enjoyed and needed this.
Morality, in the sense of moral action or how it is being used by the author, to me, implies a sort of compass by which individual actions are navigated. So I think you're right it's about all actions.
Actually, this framing is one that bitcoin sort of unlocked in me. I believe religious devotees that we can read about in times past may have had a similar point of view - a strong conviction in not fearing failure or reproach, provided they are living their unabashed truth.
Bitcoin is not a religion, but, like the prominent religions, it divorces the material from the immaterial, and so allows people in our age to experience a quasi-religious fervour that is otherwise devoid in our age.
reply
I have always thought this quote to be important to how you should live your life. "A king may move a man, a father may claim a son, but that man can also move himself, and only then does that man truly begin his own game. Remember that howsoever you are played or by whom, your soul is in your keeping alone, even though those who presume to play you be kings or men of power."
reply
Until death, every defeat is just psychological. @k00b laid down the ground for transformation of weak minded bitcoiners to hard minded rationalists.
What does 1 BTC give you? A life, a wife, a Rolls-Royce, maybe the Antillia And yet what 1 BTC cannot give you is the love of your wife, the adventure of your previous life and peace in the surroundings you had. You won't put the same efforts in your work cuz you have a lot of worth now. You won't your friends the same way you did cuz you're more "refined" you say and you sink in your own ship when you die. "Oh that millionaire?! He died? Yeah he had a lot of money who cares if we care." and you lose it all.
When you say "I don't need them." You say "I'm dying." So we should never let ourselves be overwhelmed by anything. Thanks to OP for this realization :)