It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness, that is life.
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…
This could have also been said by any speedrunner in a game with even a single RNG event.
In my language it goes : “Alone you go faster, together you go further”.
I like that one!
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I call it The Subtle Art of Shutting the Fuck Up.
Narcissist: Yes. Yes. And, Yes. LOUD NOISES ensue
If more people on this planet would make these considerations we would all be so much better for it.
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As long as we keep trying!
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 for non-degreed folks) 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 come to ask myself these questions more and more. However, people thinking I’m dull and uninteresting is a downside… or is it?
“It’s not your fault, but it is your problem.”
I honestly love and repeat this line way too much
Just because you weren’t the cause doesn’t mean it isn’t something you need to worry about/fix. I learned this one from my high school English teacher when a student was late and tried to get out of it by blaming traffic lol. The traffic was not their fault, but it ended up being their problem.
There’s a variation of this that I like better: “It’s not your fault but it is your responsibility.”
Framing it this way shifts the tone from passive to active; you have a problem, but you take responsibility. It also helps the responsible party set themself up for correcting the behavior in the future. Saying you’re late because of traffic and accepting the consequences is fine, but recognizing that you need to leave earlier to accommodate traffic is better.
I had a teacher who would ask for an explanation, not an excuse. If the explanation started to place blame on someone or something else, he’d just shake his head and say “no excuses.”
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 simply 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!
“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.
I’m not sure the baha’i faith knew they were quoting 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.
‘Be Kind; Everyone You Meet is Fighting a Hard Battle’
Sometimes that grumpy old man really is just having a bad day.
I think about that one often. It’s too easy to dismiss people because their attitudes don’t line up with our personal ideals, but even those people have some internal struggle going on. We all do. Not that it ever justifies terrible behavior, but it does warrant consideration.
100%
Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.
There’s this quote early in Good Omens: “It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.”
It’s an awkward one these days, but it sounds Pratchett-esque enough to salvage.
Just because two sides are fighting doesn’t mean one side is good (something along this line)
… I don’t think it is that profound, but I think about it a lot
I read it as meaning:
- “Just because two sides are fighting doesn’t mean you have to pick one”.
Almost every horrific thing that humans engage in stems from fear.
Hurt people hurt people.
From “The Good Place”: If soulmates do exist, they’re not found. They’re made.
I believe Seth MacFarlane said something similar in “The Orville”.
A great reminder from two great shows.
I miss Orville
I miss TGP. But it ended exactly where it needed to end
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