We are not wired for overal utility/rational management of life
A rational men, calculates every move (& and smile) with his sum total of utility in mind. If you forget calculation costs, this is sensible. You have a total of love, money, health, rest, exerience etc. And every move and decisoin goes for the maximization of this sum total.
Problem is, nature has not wired us to act this way. We have specified emltional systems, drives etc.
Feeling hunger is the activation of a complex army of sensations motivations and thoghts that are solely geared towards eating. Same for sexual lust, wisdom search (assuming there is a natural tendency for searching wisdom.....) etc.
Besides that we are not wired for rational....
Acting and thinking in the rational summation way, kills (or weakens) the natural systems and dynamics. If when you are horney (and in bed with someone) you tell yourself "it is healthy to fuck", not only is this ludicrous, it literaly kills the natural system that says (cries) *sex*
That is why utilitarians are stupid
When you judge everything in terms of its overal utility, you lose appreciating the peculiarities, the specific, the beautiful and the experiental aspects of life.
Not only is it a lose of experience, but a lose of understanding. Life is in the specific, in the non summarized
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Reshuffling. changing the arrangement, without improving the whole
You see people investing lots of money to "renovate" their hiuse, while in practice they just chsnge the order of rooms.
In life, likewise, you can make changes that are merely a reshuffle of the stuff, not an improvement.
Many job changes are like that. Chznging green with yellow.
With improvement, i mean increasing the overal value. Like when one improves his health, get a betterr job (rather than the common "path for improvement") and so on.
Take moving to another city.
Sometimes, it is about change. The general properties of both places are similar, and you just move.
Yet sometimes, it is a real improvement. If you go to a place whose atamosphere is making you happier, whose culture is betater for you, whkse jobs are more compatible with your life (or better air sun prices, etc.) that is an improvement.
Reshuffling - like all parameter changes- can improve life.
Changing the order of rooms at home, while not a tangible improvement, can actually be a real improvement.
While objectively the above is true, we should respect the value of positie illusions. People engage continousely in various tricks to delude themsekves thast they areimproving their lives. The very ide that life goes for the better gives hope and energy, and should nkt be undervalued. Reshuffling seres many times in these illusions.
Distinguish between reshuffling and improvement
Many changes in life do reshuffle, but do not improve the overal state of affairs.
In life, likewise, you can make changes that are merely a reshuffle of the stuff, not an improvement.
Many job changes are like that. Chznging green with yellow.
With improvement, i mean increasing the overal value. Like when one improves his health, get a betterr job (rather than the common "path for improvement") and so on.
Take moving to another city.
Sometimes, it is about change. The general properties of both places are similar, and you just move.
Yet sometimes, it is a real improvement. If you go to a place whose atamosphere is making you happier, whose culture is betater for you, whkse jobs are more compatible with your life (or better air sun prices, etc.) that is an improvement.
Reshuffling - like all parameter changes- can improve life.
Changing the order of rooms at home, while not a tangible improvement, can actually be a real improvement.
While objectively the above is true, we should respect the value of positie illusions. People engage continousely in various tricks to delude themsekves thast they areimproving their lives. The very ide that life goes for the better gives hope and energy, and should nkt be undervalued. Reshuffling seres many times in these illusions.
Distinguish between reshuffling and improvement
Many changes in life do reshuffle, but do not improve the overal state of affairs.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
It is not laziness. It is stopping the dynamicss
Finding my cellphone not charged is annoying. The additional pain is the self insult.
How could i be so lazi/stupid as to not charge it. It is such a small effort.
Not. Besides the ,doing effort, it has another sometimes very high cost.
What is the cost of using a condom?
Killing a dynamic. You are in the flow of of love making, and 1) stoping it all. 2) introducing mentally emotionally etc. An extremely mundane and unappealing action etc.
It has a highly debilitating effect. But much has to do with killing a dynamic. You practically lose much of the energy that was built in the air, in the bodies and in the mind states of the parties involved (no matter how many)
Teeth brushing can be relaxing for many, but for me, it sometimes takes me out f sleepiness and into action mode. So that sometimes it implies for me (i guess i am an exception) losing the dynamic of moving into sleep.
When you are already on the go whereever, and the cell phone charging comes to mind, going for the charger may mean cutting the flow of anything else. And this cost is not always trivial
PS. Have you noticed how many people are stuck with an empty battery phone. I used to think they a morons, why not get the habit to charge nightly. (i am right). But now i understand it better. (yet building this habit of nightly charging is highly worth it)
How could i be so lazi/stupid as to not charge it. It is such a small effort.
Not. Besides the ,doing effort, it has another sometimes very high cost.
What is the cost of using a condom?
Killing a dynamic. You are in the flow of of love making, and 1) stoping it all. 2) introducing mentally emotionally etc. An extremely mundane and unappealing action etc.
It has a highly debilitating effect. But much has to do with killing a dynamic. You practically lose much of the energy that was built in the air, in the bodies and in the mind states of the parties involved (no matter how many)
Teeth brushing can be relaxing for many, but for me, it sometimes takes me out f sleepiness and into action mode. So that sometimes it implies for me (i guess i am an exception) losing the dynamic of moving into sleep.
When you are already on the go whereever, and the cell phone charging comes to mind, going for the charger may mean cutting the flow of anything else. And this cost is not always trivial
PS. Have you noticed how many people are stuck with an empty battery phone. I used to think they a morons, why not get the habit to charge nightly. (i am right). But now i understand it better. (yet building this habit of nightly charging is highly worth it)
"it has value"
Almost everything has some value.
We cannot pay attention or pursue everything that has value.
So usually people Assume that anything that is not very important is irelevant, worth nothing. Which is stuoid and untrue. Albit maybe practically useful delusion.
Being realistic enough to accept the value of the miryad tngs we do not pursue, yet not getting upset or drawn to ursue them, requires a strong presence of mind. Or simply ebing smart enough. (to have the deeo understanding )
"it has value" has a deeper notion, a cold one. The idea that when something has value it does not mean we run on all four to get it. We can calmly ignore it, or treat it as something with some vaoue but no more.
I hope the idea went throught.
We cannot pay attention or pursue everything that has value.
So usually people Assume that anything that is not very important is irelevant, worth nothing. Which is stuoid and untrue. Albit maybe practically useful delusion.
Being realistic enough to accept the value of the miryad tngs we do not pursue, yet not getting upset or drawn to ursue them, requires a strong presence of mind. Or simply ebing smart enough. (to have the deeo understanding )
"it has value" has a deeper notion, a cold one. The idea that when something has value it does not mean we run on all four to get it. We can calmly ignore it, or treat it as something with some vaoue but no more.
I hope the idea went throught.
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