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200 sats \ 0 replies \ @elvismercury 21 Mar \ on: What You Should Do mostly_harmless

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.