http://stoweboyd.com/2013/07/12/marshall-mcluhan-once-said-t...
[1] https://faculty.washington.edu/pembina/all_articles/Haraway1...
Oh wait...
Plato describes it thus:
"There are similar differences in the air; of which the brightest part is called the aether, and the most turbid sort mist and darkness; and there are various other nameless kinds which arise from the inequality of the triangles."
http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/timaeus.html
Mist, darkness and aether are completely unrelated to any modern definition of air.
I suddenly saw things about my own culture clearly when I wasn't surrounded by confirmation bias of specific ways of looking at things.
One of the most eye-opening experiences for me; If you wan't to understand something you need to understand it through things that are related to it not the things themselves. I have applied this to many other things in live (want to understand design, read about the things that are related to design instead of design itself.
I also happened to take a class on the Second Industrial Revolution, which compared Germany, Great Britain and the U.S. and in a class of mostly German students, it was quite an eye-opener and forced me to adjust my perspective.
Travel is invaluable. Well worth whatever debt I accumulated.
Median income in the US is around $50,000. $7-8k is a family car, most of somebody's student loan balance, the entire electronics budget for ~5 years. You want them to piss it all away on a week or two? Fuck no.
International travel is a luxury for the extremely privileged. Hell, I was pretty privileged - my parents made a total of around $110k in a low-cost-of-living city - and $3,500 for New York City was a once-in-a-lifetime treat.
Granted, there are ways to do it outside of the family, like study-abroad programs. But then in addition to the cost of the vacation you're paying full tuition to not take real classes and (if you're in a field like CS) delaying graduation by a semester or more because you're not making any progress on your major.
Analysts say current airline prices are hilariously, unsustainably low. It's only going to get far, far worse.
EDIT: I should say that vacations are important and we do take them. We drive 10-15 hours and stay at AirBnbs in other 3rd-string US cities that, while pleasant, are not high-end tourist destinations. Nashville, Lawrence, Raleigh-Durham, Cape Cod, far-flung D.C. suburbs, etc. With a Prius and more than 2 people, driving far is cheaper than flying pretty much everywhere in the continental US.
I had my eureka moment when I took a job in urban MN after working on the reservation for 5 years (and growing up there before that). They announced a noon meeting and I went and they didn't serve lunch. Everyone brought a bag lunch (expect me). I was pretty ticked off and insulted[1]. I was mad the rest of the day. It took a call home and the "your not on the rez anymore" speech to open my eyes to what we hold as truths spawned from culture.
1) have a lunch meeting on a reservation on the upper great plains and not serve lunch at your peril - never mind not accepting a gift as you leave - federal rules and local traditions can conflict a bit
Americans will be shocked to learn that people in other countries don't walk around thinking about America or wondering what "the Americans" are going to do about stuff.
If I do not understand 'x,' then how would I know what is related to 'x'?
I understood why americans was considered superficial while in reality it was just the danes who were shy because they didn't have to establish their own social networks outside of their childhood.
Lots of little things that are hard to explain.
What a bot would be better for is people complaining about people complaining. That'd knock out a good 50% of all HN comments.
This article made similar thing for me with respect to learning. I feel like I learned something. But I really don't remember what.
Taking time to practise stepping outside one's own POV and attempting to measure your life objectively against whatever scale of value you hold is one of the most worthwhile and fulfilling disciplines I know.
It is exactly what 'prayer' is, though that word comes with the baggage of traditional religion which may be offputting.
But in reality you don't have to be religious to pray.
Huh? Using what definition?
If you notice you are biased, trying really hard not to be will more likely to result lying to oneself than unbiasing oneself.
Best you can do is to learn the signs. And when you can check the boxes look for help. After all, we are all here for each other.
Meanwhile my perspective is incomplete, biased and ugly. But it's mine and I love it.
The material force of ideology makes me not see what I am effectively eating. It’s not only our reality which enslaves us. The tragedy of our predicament when we are within ideology is that when we think that we escape it into our dreams, at that point we are within ideology."[1]
This is a really nice documentary about all the unspoken assumptions that permeate our day to day lives, I would really recommend everybody to see it.
None of this is scientific or empirical, but the thing is, neither are the myriad of day-to-day assumptions that we usually take as obvious or common sense.
[1] The Pervert's Guide to Ideology (2012)
I'll also note that he's pretty unpopular in this forum. He can be pretty brutal to thinkers popular here, such as Steven Pinker. [1]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kugiufHh800&feature=youtu.be...
a) I think that The Pervert's Guide to Ideology is quite self-contained and digestible without the need to read his (entire) work. There are YouTube clips of some of his talks/lectures that are pretty standalone as well.
b) I like Zizek. So he's popular with me for what it's worth. I like Pinker too though. Hmm. Can we not just all get along?
1. Do. Not. Fucking. Do. This.
2. Firefox: include element blocking / image removal, or at the very fucking least, animation blocking/suppression, in Reader Mode.
I'll admit I've been known to abuse animations myself. When G+ introduced "cover photos" always visible on profile pages which couldn't be hidden and filled upwards of half the screen, I compiled a set of the most annoying animated gifs I could find. Out of protest.
Living outside your own country for a significant length time is pretty mind expanding. This is what I have realized:
Culture is a very real thing. A lot of the thoughts that we have are not really our own. They are a product of the culture around you. It is pretty incredible to observe.
This is just from my perspective.
America values rugged individualism while most asian countries including India, China, Japan, Philippines value the opposite. Here are some things I found pretty interesting.
America: Family
1. Your child doesn't owe anything to you. No child asks to be born. You made the choice to have a baby and so it is your duty and responsibility to educate them well and provide basic comfort and security. It is your responsibility to meet your own emotional needs. American parents feel like they are failures if their kid continues to stay in their home after they reach adulthood. Even the adult children feel the same way. I remember Travis Kalanick mentioning the time he was living with his parents as pretty depressing (after his startup Redswoosh failed) If you want to insult someone here you can say, "Are you still staying with your parents?. You need to move out of your parent's basement!"
Once the kids move out, the parents reconnect with each other and will try and pursue their own interests.
India
Your life is a gift from your parents who will be the number one priority in your life. You owe your parents everything. Indian parents will do ANYTHING and everything for their kids. They will sell their property and get into a lot of debt, if it comes to that, to educate their kids and to make sure they have a great life. Kids are expected to honor and listen to their parents. Even after marriage there is a tug of war between the mom/dad who feels that their kid is being stolen from them by the spouse. If you want to insult an Indian you can just say, "He/she doesn't respect elders". In India parents work hard so their kids can enjoy their money and property. People admire kids who stay and live with their parents. Even celebrities who are worth many millions of dollars stay together with their parents as a family and there is nothing disrespectful about it. The children are an extension of their selves and there is a deep life long attachment. The kids will take care of their parents in their old age. People get very offended if you ask them if their parents are living in an old age home/retirement/assisted facilities.
"A marriage is considered to be a union between two families and not two people!", is a common dialogue heard everywhere in India. Most people say this as if it is the most obvious truth. It's almost like saying the sky is blue. In the US, a marriage is considered a union between two individuals and not two families.
Again, here is the question. How come most Americans feel exactly the same way? How come most Indians feel the opposite?
2. The need to learn a foreign language.
Most Indians know three languages. 1. Their own native language (like, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Gujarati etc) 2. Hindi 3. English. A lot of people know and understand upto 4 or even 5 languages. So, there is nothing special about knowing different languages. People won't be impressed if you tell them you know French, Spanish or Mandarin. It's like telling someone that you can hop on one leg for a few miles. A difficult but pointless achievement.
For many Americans, knowing a foreign language is a big deal. They will go to great lengths to learn Spanish, French or Mandarin. Mark Zuckerberg showed off his ability to speak Mandarin a while back. I read one answer in Quora (which an elderly person wrote) mentioning that he regrets not being able to learn a foreign language. Tim Ferris shows off his foreign language acquisition skills to impress visitors to his blog and tv shows.
Again I have to ask the same question: How come most people in the US feel this way? To an outsider it seems really silly and absurd.
3. "4 people". In India, many people live for the sake of society. This is true everywhere. Most people want to impress others but it is at a completely different level in India. People make life changing decisions not based on their own interests but for the sake of society. There are 20+ plus languages in India and interestingly, almost every single language has this phrase "4 people". Are you planning to quit your job at Google to do your own startup? What will the "4 people" around you think? What do you mean you are not getting married? What will the "4 people" say? Conformity is everything. If your older sibling or younger sibling marries someone from a different race/caste/religion then it means that your family doesn't have a value system and it will be difficult for you to find a spouse because you come from a family with no values.
4. Inquisitiveness. Indian people are very inquisitive. If you are overweight, they will advise you to start dieting. "Looks like you've been eating a lot. You need to lose weight", is a common refrain. They will ask you how much something costs, how much money you make per year and enquire about your properties and other assets. If you tell them you booked a flight from L.A to Delhi, the first question they will ask is about the flight cost. If you are their friend they will quiz you about your savings. Again, this is not just one person or two but most people in India.
Again, the same question, why do most people born in a certain culture all behave in a certain way? It's almost like people are hypnotized en-masse into believing some things as fundamental truths. Pretty surreal to experience it.
Our independence started with communist vs. capitalist war and continued with Finns vs. Soviet war. Some people still think that if you belong to the wrong class, you are almost a murderer. (Asking about party affiliation is taboo too.)
So people find it very interesting because it's taboo. Older generation of men assume that you spend your excess income in cars. And they talk a lot about cars.
EDIT: It's still nice place to visit. But if you are filthy Audi man, stay home! :P
He says pretty convincingly that collectivity is bad for us as individuals. And that individualism is bad for us as society.
Then he suggests that we should abandon society so we could act as individuals. And abandon our individual habits to form dream society.
This perfectly shows that he is unable to really understand society or individualism. Which are also essential blocks of our existence. I feel I understand it better, but probably so did he. Maybe none of us understands it.
Sounds like a theorem of incompleteness :).
The best way to combat the natural narrow-mindedness that any culture forces on you, is to travel -- and if possible live for a long time (6-12 months) submerged in a different culture. The best time to do this, is probably before you fully become an adult -- living with a host-family as the "child" of a foreign culture allows/requires a degree of acceptance that is very valuable if the goal is to widen the idea of culture. Having two cultures that are sometimes contrasting, but also accepted as "real" allows one to introspect -- and realize that one really have to question everything -- there are very few universal truths.
For those that are, or have, teenagers in the house, and have the means -- I strongly advice to look into international volunteer inter-cultural programs, like:
That's one of the things meditation leads to, a sort or meta-mind state where you can observe the workings of your mind. A very subtle yet profound experience.
Here's him giving a talk at Google: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x0eyNkNpL0
A friend of mine also parsed it well like this:
> "I think there is something to be said to the effect that laziness is actually where we can find a lot of insight - as it's when we're lazy, when we cannot be bothered, or at least where we think it is not essential to focus our attention for the sake of the work at least, that we tend to defer to the implicit shared attitudes or beliefs about the world to do the lifting for us."
[0] english wp article about the essay: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transcendence_of_the_Ego
We can only see ourselves once we see someone who is different.
I don't know what this article is trying to say or what it's trying to teach. It seems to be the word version of a pastel grunge aesthetic blogger.
The answer is obviously "no", but the next questions that arise from that are more complicated ("What would I think if I thought differently?" "Is there a 'correct' way to think?" "How can I validate my thinking?" "Is there a way to move my thinking towards a more 'correct' way?").
And it provides a set of mental tools that can be useful for the rest of your life, to answer questions like "why did he write that email?" or "why did that politician say that?" or "what does this news article really mean?" This is why I recommend that even technical track students like engineers take a few liberal arts classes if they can.
