I used to think of myself as a complete pacifist, but these words haven’t left my mind since I heard them:
You think you’re better than everyone else, but there you stand: the good man doing nothing. And while evil triumphs and your rigid pacifism crumbles into bloodstained dust, the only victory afforded to you is that you stuck true to your guns.
Of course this only applies to defense, never to offense (especially “preemptive defense”), but I can’t really argue against it.
Housing can’t be both affordable and a good investment.
Variation of this: Poor people rent, that’s how they stay poor.
Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.
Hurt people hurt people.
Choose your rut carefully.
“Know your worth.”
I’ve struggled with self-worth my whole life and I’m finally taking a stand for myself both in my professional and personal life. It feels great tbh.
The expression is usually meant to limit speech and ambition.
I don’t take it that way at all.
I’ve never heard it stated in that manner either, only as a way to make it clear that one should stand up for themselves.
“Know your PLACE” absolutely has the negative connotation though.
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.
It’s the opposite of… Rather say nothing and be thought a fool than speak and remove all doubt.
Which one a person believes says volumes about how shitty a person they might be.
Does it?
It does not
We thought of life by analogy was a journey, was a pilgrimage, which had a serious purpose at the end. And the thing was to get to that end.
Success, or whatever it is, or maybe heaven after you’re dead.
But we missed the point the whole way along. It was a musical thing, and you were supposed to sing, or to dance, while the music was being played
– Alan Watts
“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.
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.
This could have also been said by any speedrunner in a game with even a single RNG event.
First thought that came to me as well. Thank You Captain Picard…
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”
In my language it goes : “Alone you go faster, together you go further”.
I like that one!
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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 call it The Subtle Art of Shutting the Fuck Up.
Narcissist: Yes. Yes. And, Yes. LOUD NOISES ensue
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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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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 come to ask myself these questions more and more. However, people thinking I’m dull and uninteresting is a downside… or is it?
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.
