Odd that the English language does not seem to have a word for the “desire to make others envious of one”. It’s ubiquitous, whatever it is; seems to drive the whole social media thing.

Actually, the possible motives for sharing are genuine sharing of information, and the seeking of admiration, envy or jealousy.

I checked in on Lola and she admitted the latter two.

Kant’s chant; “dare to question” is the ‘call to arms’ of the enlightenment.

Things were so dire in 1750 that this was a fair call. Any complaint was more than 99% likely to be justified.

But things are so good now that the ingrained habit of dissing the status quo has become a psychological disturbance.

What is there to complain about apart from Woody Allen, Donald, sugar, apps that don’t work properly etc?

Dissonance, that’s what the children of the enlightenment have as their legacy.

The dissonance between the need to complain and the desire to complain.

Rightly so, the younger children of the revolution are turning their backs on Kant. Accepting of any old bullshit, they’re drifting through life only vaguely purturbed by facts and fiction.

I’ve just got an article viewer called pocket. It collects ‘quality’ articles for you to read.

The vast majority are American sourced.

The defining quality of all things American is insecurity. And this fact shines through in the titles of all these articles. Endlessly.

How not to start an article’s title with a how

By Cat Stevens

Miles from nowhere
I guess I’ll take my time
Oh yeah, to reach there
Look up at the mountain
I have to climb
Oh yeah, to reach there.
Lord my body has been a good friend
But I won’t need it when I reach the end
Miles from nowhere
I guess I’ll take my time
Oh yeah, to reach there
I creep through the valleys
And I grope through the woods
‘Cause I know when I find it my honey
It’s gonna make me feel good, yes
I love everything
So don’t it make you feel sad
‘Cause I’ll drink to you, my baby
I’ll think to that, I’ll think to that.
Miles from nowhere
Not a soul in sight
Oh yeah, but it’s alright
I have my freedom
I can make my own rules
Oh yes, the ones that I choose
Lord my body has been a good friend
But I won’t need it when I reach the end
I love everything
So don’t it make you feel sad
‘Cause I’ll drink to you, my baby
I’ll think to that, I’ll think to that.
Oh yeah
Miles from nowhere
Guess I’ll take my time
Oh yeah, to reach there.

It’s a metaphor for a life well lived. And a good one.

Last night the 19 year old daughter of an old friend berated me about the evils of eating meat.

I doubled down, and started rabbiting on about the evils of wheat, or was that the weevils of eat?

She started looking for the exit pretty soon. Let’s hope she reflects on the incident.

My view – the current uptake of utes by Australian men is a result of their guilt at earning so much money by doing nothing. These are the professionals, mind you. The ute represents real work with muscles. The give-away, though, is that they only started buying utes once the manufacturers added dual cabs. Dual cabs means they are a car with the appearance of a ute. Its all for show. Witness the Mercedes version below – QED.

Right at the moment I’m not happy.

It’s a combination of things…

Pressure from work

Pressure from home re divorce

Overcommitted to work

Not enough downtime by myself

But is that it? I can’t help feeling that I took a left hand turn some time back when I should have turned right.

By way of example, the mad man next to me, he’s talking crazily to himself and no one. Why I wonder do mad people carry a vestigal sense of social interaction, albeit all gone wrong? True madness would not even recognize other people.

It occurs to me that concepts of memory will apply usefully to the future as well.

For example, distinguishing between episodic and semantic predictions may help frame the odds.

Mooy, massively overrated.

I watched the socceroos play Korea.

He and rest were so static off the ball.

Fucking painful to watch.

How hard is it? Make a run and create opportunities.

Geez.

A great example of CEO hubris. And the natives are restless, fuck them.

Truth is, people need to be involved in key decisions. Otherwise they get restless and stretch their limited power to the limits. Thus the end begins.

Note to self; give them enough rope… and then fuck them properly with their own petard.

So this is what crazy looks like.

Ex wife – A 4 hot (allowing for age and kids), 8 crazy. Well into the no go zone.

Good on you Karl for getting out.

Trouble is he’s landed in the date/haidresser zone. 7 hot, 7 crazy. He’ll learn, very slowly.

When a man leaves a crazy, he’ll be labeled a narcissist.

Just recording it for prosperity.

Who calls an insecure man a narcissist? A severely damaged woman, that’s who.

The big question is how they got so damaged? My guess; unloved as children and deep unachievable parental expectations, combined.

To be honest, I’m very disappointed that Nicola didn’t trust me enough to manage my divorce in a way that suited me.

There’s so many variables that’s it’s too hard to gather them all up and make a sensible argument.

I appreciate being pushed, up to a point. But after a point the effort actually hurt me. I have to deal with the interior of my head, no else does.

I guess she just wants me to be open and discuss things, and then I might learn something new, as has happened in the past.

But on this issue my very self is on the line. I know this because of the frightening dreams. I can’t be content and simultaneously hurt others, even at the risk of being used from beyond the grave.

It’s about me, not them. My wiring is thus limiting. I’ve done what I can to re-program it. I’m not sure how much further I can get without destroying my soul.

Besides, the only feasible argument for intervention is that I’ll be happier if she is. All else is fraught. But that’s a shit argument.

Ok, so the housing market goes boom. Who benefits?

When it’s all bust and gone, a bunch of gamblers and fools have financed a transfer of wealth to a smaller segment of society; those that sold, those that invested in the transactional institutions involved in real estate, and those that have perfect foresight and timing (i.e. flukesters).

More neoliberal rubbish enabled by Capital’s control of politics and the regulatory regimes.

Well I guess it just proves that the losers are in fact fools.

According to Harari we humans were domesticated by wheat around 10,000 years ago. And thus started our multi millennia of misery.

Well guess what? I’m off it, and all other carbs.

Apart from the health benefits, there’s a mental angle. It’s like being freed from slavery.

Why don’t I push you to do better at school?

Firstly, it wouldn’t work. You’d just get pissed off with me and our relationship would suffer. My choice is this; Lola doing so-so at school, or Lola doing so-so at school and also being pissed off with her dad.

Secondly, I think the school system sucks and if I was you I’d skip it. And I don’t want to be a hypocrite. Why “sucks”? Well, they don’t ask you want you want to learn, or how you want to learn it, and they assume parents will be on their kids’ back at all times. Basically, our schooling system is designed to push you into the wage/slave funnel, from where you will earn the means to consume well beyond your needs but also where contentment & enlightenment is virtually impossible.

As an aside, you’re like me; you learn better by ‘doing’ than regurgitating data. That is, you need a purpose and then you learn well. Schools rarely offer this opportunity.

Thirdly, what’s the outcome? Well you do well and you end up using your marks to become a doctor, lawyer or similar and become one of those wage slaves that want to commit suicide at 40. Most people want the “best” for their child because it reflects “well” on them, that is, they want the best for themselves. And “best” just means earns the maximum amount of money and status; it’s so stupid. If you want to have 4 kids and live poor and happily in a country cottage; that is all good by me.

Fourth, I think the days of wage security are coming to an end. Robotics, Automation and AI will make most if not all professions obsolete pretty soon. So it’s time wasted, perfecting the art of schooling because just as you are graduating you will find the demand for professionals is on the wane. In our capitalist economic system, once things are past “peak demand” the reward/price drops as the derivative of the demand. An odd outcome based on the discounted forecasting of future demand – NPV if you like. So the rosy future for professionals is very short-lived from where we are today.

Fifth, I want you to find your own way in life and not be guided/forced down some path that isn’t you, and ends up making you unhappy. You are super smart and already wise, so you have the means to find your own way in life. You don’t have to join the dots that everyone else does. If I can grant you this mantra only as a parent then I will see my job as well done. But already you are wise beyond your years, so I think we are on the right path.

Sixth, I’m going to be there to help you out once you find your path. What you need then, and what I am good at working with, is enthusiasm. You don’t seem to have this for school. But you will have it for something else, I am sure. At some time in the future we will work together to make your desires come true. Note; not your ‘dreams’ – dreams are generally too weird for everyday living.

I have noticed that almost everyone I talk to thinks that I should push/encourage/tutor you through school. From my mum, Roscoe, random strangers, you name it. The depth and breadth of the type of people with this view is startling. They are all drinking the same Kool Aid and none of them seems to have stopped to consider their position rationally. Even those that are in a position to do so. This smacks of a religion to me; that is, a whole bunch of people that believe in some bullshit because everyone else does. I hope that, if nothing else, I have taught you to see through religions.

Besides you are not doing that badly at school. With a minimum of effort you seem to be passing everything and staying below the radar. That seems pretty smart to me. If you fall off the charts in the next year or so we can discuss what you want to do at that stage. That is, get some professional help and stay in the dumb race, or drop out and take another direction in life.

When I think about it further, all that has really happened is that people have got the words “fair” and “equal” all mixed up.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m shit at predicting the future and so is everyone else.

Hence I’m practicing the doubting of my own prognostications. And everyone else’s.

Oddly I’m better at negative predictions because they’re more likely to occur.

That’s the optimist’s curse.

Calvin Coolidge when he was President … The President and Mrs. Coolidge were being shown [separately] around an experimental government farm. When [Mrs. Coolidge] came to the chicken yard she noticed that a rooster was mating very frequently. She asked the attendant how often that happened and was told, “Dozens of times each day.” Mrs. Coolidge said, “Tell that to the President when he comes by.” Upon being told, the President asked, “Same hen every time?” The reply was, “Oh, no, Mr. President, a different hen every time.” President: “Tell that to Mrs. Coolidge.”

The very definition of deluded optimism.

True character is exposed when the truth becomes an existential threat.

One key benefits of the first machines was that the owners could get work done for them without the negatives of accusations of slavery and the like.

Now that AI is coming maybe this nexus will be broken. Owning machines will become slavery-like.

A possible solution will be to revert to common ownership of machines, just like the old communist days.

This way machines will be owned by and answerable to everyone.