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This kind of question always immediately makes me think of something a friend said years ago when I was still a teen. We were talking about school and education and shit and it was on the subject of asking questions when you don’t fully understand something and he said “rather ask a stupid question and be a fool for five minutes, then keep your mouth shut and be a fool for the rest of your life.” I think it was something that his mother had told him, in their language, so I’m constructing that statement from memory but it was something close to that.
Loneliness is the tax we have to pay to atone for a certain complexity of mind
“It is possible to make no mistakes and still lose. That is not weakness. That is life.”
-Captain Jean-Luc Picard
The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
He may or may not have known it, but he was paraphrasing a fundamental rule of the Baha’i Faith.
You can’t help people that don’t want help.
Goes for people who are going through mental/physical health problems or substance abuse issues. If they don’t want help you have to accept that and be there for them when they do.
I’ve always heard this as “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t force it to drink”
Seriously though:
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. — Douglas Adams
There’s this quote attributed to Rabbi Yisrael Salanter:
When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn’t change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.
Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.
There are two lessons here. First - the best way to affect meaningful change is to start local. Rather than spending a lot of time agonizing over national politics, get involved in your community - your neighborhood, your town, your apartment building, even just the house you share with your family. Your community will take better care of you and the other people that you care about than any national government ever will.
Second - ultimately the only person whose behavior you can change is your own. Don’t be too harsh with other people when they don’t behave the way that you believe they should. Be a more stringent judge of your own behavior.
But temper that with this:
Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much. Or berate yourself too much either.
Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else’s.
The world needs fewer cynics and more skeptics.
It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness, that is life.
This could have also been said by any speedrunner in a game with even a single RNG event.
I find that this is particularly difficult for conservative, “pull yourself up from your bootstraps” types to understand. Some people think poor people, or those who have fallen into misfortune, were makers of their own tragedy. While it may sometimes be the case, I believe that more often than not, these people were just unlucky enough to born at the wrong place, at the wrong time, into the wrong family, neighbourhood, or country.
There are poor people inventing incredible things every day, but nobody around them has the power nor connections to make anything out of it. I watched a video of people who made a bike out of wood that could carry half a tonne, down an unpaved road at relatively high speeds, while metal bikes in developed countries have ratings for people under 150kg. But because those poor bike-makers were born where they were and had to toil in order to survive, day in and day out, there was never enough time for them for make their inventions a product to be produced and sold to the masses. Yet somewhere, there’s a conservative prick saying these people are lazy or aren’t smart.
First thought that came to me as well. Thank You Captain Picard…
In my language it goes : “Alone you go faster, together you go further”.
I like that one!
Bill Nye: “Everyone you’ll ever meet knows something you don’t”
“Don’t work yourself out if a job.”
My pops told me this after I told him how much more work I had been doing than my coworkers, and how fast I got all of my stuff done. This was like 15 years ago. I immediately started pacing myself, and I’ve since been infinitely less stressed at work.
I’m somebody who butts in too much and just in general speaks too much. I’ve always liked this “test” of sorts. I don’t always apply it but I try to!
Before saying anything (especially correcting someone or otherwise getting involved), the following questions need to be asked:
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Does it need to be said?
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Does it need to be said by me?
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Does it need to be said by me right now?
I’ve found that every time, the less I speak, the wiser I sound. And I don’t mean that in the “better to stay silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt” sense—though that’s true too.
I’ve gotten far more mileage and respect by letting others dominate conversations, then dropping one or two sharp questions or comments that show I’ve been paying close attention and actually understand what’s going on. That says more than any deep dive into minutiae ever could—especially when those tangents usually reveal more about what I don’t know than what I do.
I just started a new job, and the kickoff meeting was today. I put that strategy to use—barely said a word for 45 minutes. I probably looked like a dud hire. But by the end I think I came off as the smartest motherfucker in the room. I doubt I actually was—I’m probably the only person there without a four-year degree—but perception is a hell of a thing.
Having had to work with people, manage people, hire and fire people. I would say that having a higher education does not equate to a persons level of smartness, knowledge, or intelligence in any reasonable way.
Maybe, but I figure if every single one of them has a degree, the odds have to be in their favor that at least one of them is smarter than me. And if not, well I just proved how dumb I am by thinking that. QED.
That said, you’re right, too many places hold that degree in too high esteem. It wasn’t important for the first twenty to twenty-five years of my career, but now I’m finding it really puts a ceiling on how far I can go. I’m working under tech leads who have fifteen years less experience than I do. Have to see if I can get hired internal from my contract (which takes special waivers) and then advance internally.
It was so bad, when my last contract ended, I had two managers invite me to apply for openings with them and my resume was auto-rejected by their hiring system.
I call it The Subtle Art of Shutting the Fuck Up.
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apparently
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i really wish it didn’t
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no time like the present
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Narcissist: Yes. Yes. And, Yes. LOUD NOISES ensue
I come to ask myself these questions more and more. However, people thinking I’m dull and uninteresting is a downside… or is it?
If more people on this planet would make these considerations we would all be so much better for it.
Trying to do my part, but I’ll be the first to admit I fuck this test up constantly lol
As long as we keep trying!
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It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it
Unfortunately, too many people have been trained to reject ideas or thoughts without first thinking them through. Many simple react to whatever word, expression, or concept triggers them without giving the rest a second thought. For example a brilliant idea can be presented online, but if one word is out of place, the usage of that word will debated instead of the idea.
I love this! And if you find yourself afraid to even entertain an idea, perhaps you’re afraid that you’ll find it convincing and accept it. We should WANT to be convinced, because that means the different idea holds more merit than our current belief!
Oh my god, 100% Read a post about it on r/196 a while ago, went something like “It’s important to have discussions about things like cannibalism because arguments like «it’s just gross/bad/unnatural» have been used to condemn homosexuality and the like”
