#cgp thoughts

[gaasubap]

Yall ready to receive some actionable information?

I need to review and reorganize again but it's acceptable enough for now

#hate how mobile will add stuff to the wrong playlist #usa politics #politics #youtube #global politics #praxis #how to help #breadtube #lefttube #noncompete #cgp grey #Andrewism #vox #second thought #renagade cut #kathrin #glocal weirdo #caelan conrad #tacticool girlfriend #the people's bayonet #bemundolack #crashcourse #voting #end goals #sustainability #art #fighting doomerism #hope #america fom scratch #my posts

[comicaurora]

Nick Bostrom's "Fable of the Dragon Tyrant," which CGP Grey adapted into a video, left me feeling unsatisfied, and I got a certain unsettling vibe about the entire story.

I don't think it was the dragon's lack of agency, that just makes it an unusually traditional Western dragon.

You're a master at picking narratives apart to figure out why they don't satisfy. Do you have any insight, opinions, or cracktheories about why this story might be unsatisfying to some folks?

Probably because it's a very unsubtle metaphor casting the dragon as death, and death itself as a cruel, malevolent beast devouring and subjugating humanity for its own whims. This is very much intentional on the part of the writer. The paradigm of the story is that the dragon is huge, terrifying and incalculably cruel, and everyone lives their lives in the shadow of its terror or are just too deluded to recognize that it's COMING TO EAT THEM OH GOD

Intrinsic in this metaphorical structure is the idea that the dragon, aka death, is an artificial imposition on the natural order, and if we just got rid of the big ol' mean dragon, everybody would live forever and be fine. Accepting that the dragon exists is framed as a sign of desperation or even cowardice. This is an understandable read when facing a monster that only SEEMS timeless and inevitable (like LeGuin's thoughts comparing the current state of capitalism to the historical acceptance of the divine right of kings) but becomes bizarre when applied to something as legitimately factual as biological death. It's not even framed as unnatural death - the dragon specifically gets sent mostly old people. The metaphor is very explicitly about trying to frame death from old age as a big horrible dragon that everyone only thinks is unstoppable.

I get what they're going for here. The purpose of this story is to make the audience question if death is a true inevitability or if it can be fought, staved off, even defeated. But in the process, the story frames the systems of the world that have formed around death - doctors, pallative caregivers, will executors - as macabre gears in the machine dedicated to the genocidal cruelty of feeding the dragon.

In the dragon tyrant framing, these people only exist to make the rest of the world more okay with flinging themselves down the gullet of the dragon and to streamline the process by which everybody dies. By casting death as the enemy, everybody whose jobs are based on the compassionate act of comforting and aiding people suffering from loss become reframed as collaborators with the incalculably evil enemy, and everyone who's ever accepted their own death becomes a loser. This is a deeply cruel way to frame people who dedicate their lives to helping people through one of the hardest and most tragic aspects of life.

Damn, that's fucked up. Look at this eloquent idiot, explaining why we should be okay with letting a big dragon eat us because it's the natural order. Clearly he is wrong and it's not debasing at all to want to stay alive and not get eaten by a big dragon. This is a fallacy of false analogy: death is like being eaten by a big mean dragon. All his arguments look ridiculous when applied to getting eaten by a big mean dragon, therefore they must be ridiculous when applied to dying when your organs start failing because they've been running nonstop for nine decades and biological systems accumulate wear and tear like literally everything else in the universe.

Entropy increases; systems break down, from DNA to planetary orbits. Successfully shoot down the dragon and you'll end up outliving everything you thought was eternal, even the stars. The goal of immortality isn't really to personally witness the sun exploding, it's to have more good time. It's to make your twenties last into your sixties. It's to keep your back painless and your vision good for longer. We want to postpone the story's end as long as we can, and so we extrapolate "more time" into "I never want to die, I want to be young and healthy and hot forever" even though "forever" doesn't exist. To look to "forever" is to understand that your culture and language will drift, your home will eventually crumble out from under you, your shoreline will erode and change, your climate will transform, your tectonic plate will subduct or shatter, your moon's orbit will slow and tidally lock, and eventually your sun will start burning helium and cook your planet. You don't want "forever" to look like that, you want it to look like your twenties felt. But at that point you aren't fighting the Big Mean Dragon That Eats People, you're fighting the ocean and the biosphere and the earth and the stars, trying to hold them in place against entropy so your immortality can have an equally immortal world to enjoy it in. No, this argument doesn't want true immortality, it wants their twenties to last longer. But it can't admit that.

Back to the story. There's a condescending and spiteful tone in the narration. Death (being eaten by a big mean dragon) is OBVIOUSLY awful and we should all be fighting as hard as we can to make it stop happening. Even a child can see it.

The story even helpfully adds a lengthy moral explanation at the end, in case you didn't understand that the dragon was the inevitability of death and we should dedicate all our resources to figuring out how to make a big rocket and shoot it.

"Nobody should ever die" is generally understood to be a childish dream with extremely obvious and unpleasant consequences that would turn its realization into an unending and waking nightmare, and once out of the confines of easy metaphor, the story tries to act like that wasn't what it was just saying. But its more realistic proposed substitute, "It would be great if people could live longer and have more healthy, youthful years in them," is probably the world's most uncontroversial statement. This story frames it like a bold revelation that the world will attempt to beat down and crush out of a misguided acceptance that Big Mean Dragon comes for us all. It's a morality fable whose conclusion is "I hope science improves the length and quality of our lives, potentially even to the point where we never have to die at all," which has been the number one goal of huge swaths of science since the invention of agriculture. This is not a bold or controversial take. It's just being written as though we're all looking at the naked emperor and pretending he's wearing pants.

#asks #not aurora

[cassketti]

just thought i could suggest you draw some more how to be a pirate art! /nf

HERES A SKETCH I MADE IN MATH CLASS TEEHE

ALSO LIKE I HAVE A FEW OLD CGP GREY FANART J DONT THINK IVE POSTED SO HOLDON

Theres alot more I have. I posted them on my insta and tiktok but I can make like a post of them here

#cgp grey #how to be a pirate #cassketti art

[plaguedocboi]

Honestly I’ve always had three. Me, my brain buddy, and a third voice that chimes in much more rarely that me and other guy both listen to (usually only chimes in with some profound shit that can’t really be argued with).

I have OCD and the second voice was always my intrusive thoughts, constantly freaking out and coming up with things we could do to prevent the bad things from happening. For the longest time I’d tell it to shut up and fight tooth and nail to silence it, but that only made it scream louder and more frantically. Eventually I got on some meds and that helped a lot, but that person was still terrified and yelling in the background (just at a reduced volume). One day (after watching the cgp grey video in the link) I just decided to comfort the voice and explain things rationally to them like a scared little kid instead of treating them like a mortal enemy trying to ruin my life. I know that probably sounds silly, but it worked! Like, reduced my symptoms to the point where most everyday things didn’t bother me and I’d only get bad intrusive thoughts if something really unusual was happening. Be nice to your brain buddy. They’re along for the ride in this shell of meat and bone just as much as you are.

https://youtu.be/wfYbgdo8e-8?si=gVD0ZUCMhtjdsYPY

Yeah I also have ocd and it’s possible that has something to do with it. they’ve just always been there and sometimes they’re annoying but like they’re part of me and we just vibe. It means I’m never lonely.

#it seems like some people are a singular entity and some people are a collective and that’s not that uncommon

[krossheadquarters]

(I'm the anon who sent the asks about Cross turning into a cat and hanging out with Killer and I have more thoughts, I hope you don't mind!)

Do you think Killer names him? I'm imagining he's a lil black and white cat, I could see Killer calling him oreo or boots or something. Do you think after he finds out he keeps calling Cross that as a nickname?

Do you think Cross fights him at first? Like gets his back up and scratches at him to be left alone, but Killer is used to cats being fiesty when they've been abandoned and persists until he has him fed and cleaned up. Cross relaxes a bit more when everything seems safe and fully melts when he experiences being pet and cuddled for the first time. He probably wakes up still curled up in Killer's lap and is still embarrassed about it by the time he gets back to the stars' base. Do you think Killer kisses his cats on the head and it flusters Cross so severely that he flops over and Killer has to try and help a cat through a gay panic lol

You're my favorite anon and i'm calling you cat anon! Feel free to sign your asks with the nickname so I know it is you UwU

and i don't mind at all! By all means, continue!

On to the idea, OMG Killer totally names him oreo! WHEEZEEEE I LOVE that so much! And I also love the though of Killer slowly approaching the new stray he found until Cross finds himself being spoiled rotten! Maybe he even gets a little collar with his new name in it! (Which later on he could use to prove he was the cat when Killer finds out)

Cat Gay Panic was the peak of my night tho dkshfkhsdkfhjksd Cross getting all flustered and panicky when Killer showers him in smoochies calling him a pretty boy!

I'm gonna call this au ''Cat Gay Panic'' now djkfhskjdhfk CGP AU

Thank you for your awesome ideas Anon! Love you! <3

#kross ship #mod h #killer sans #cross sans #kross rambles #kross daily thoughts #criller

[enriquemzn262]

I was once a big fan of the youtuber CGP Grey, but as time has passed I’ve seen him less and less as an entertaining and interesting source of information, and more as a turbonerd technocrat who believes all of man’s problems can be solved through technology, and in fact even if its not a problem technology should still take control over the filthy, flawed humans. 

I’m honestly surprised the man is married, I’d have thought he was waiting for advanced anatomically correct androids for that. 

#rant #text #cgp grey

[lawyeronabike]

Musings on Artificial Intelligence #0:

Lots of very smart people have been working on artificial intelligence for many years. People like Andrew Yang and CGP Grey tried to kickstart the conversation about what we should do, and about how we could reorient society around these forthcoming technologies. Most people did not take it very seriously.

Until this year, when ChatGPT and art generators like Stable Diffusion became accessible to the masses.

So here we find ourselves, grappling with what is possibly the most socially transformational technology since the internet. In my humble opinion, generative Ai is transformational and real in a way that blockchain technology and the metaverse clearly were never going to be.

This series of posts is to serve as my humble contribution to the discussion about how we should move forward as a society. I am troubled by some of the discourse I see, and I need a place to get my thoughts out.

This has the potential to be quite a divisive series of posts. I hope every reader remembers that this is a brave new world we are encountering, and that we are all together, trying to figure out how to handle things.

#chatgpt #artificial intelligence #dalle2 #stable diffusion #andrew yang #cgp grey #Youtube

[kurdishrice]

Yesterday

Yesterday I binged all of the Netflix show 'XO, Kitty' and I have a couple of thoughts. First of all, I'd say I enjoyed it more than 'To all the boys' but that might just be my love for Kitty as a character. I think that I may have liked the movies more if I had read the books. I might read them one day but it isn't exactly a priority at the moment. I was also somewhat surprised that Kitty was doing what is the equivalent of year 12 at an international school despite having been in the American school system before then. I'm not sure if 'KISS' did A-levels, but they do seem to have CGP textbooks so that was what I assumed although there is a very high chance that it was an incorrect assumption. Overall, I liked the show. I have a lot to say about it but I feel like that may have to wait, as I haven't interacted with many other people who have watched it as well and sometimes they bring up fair points that I would have never thought about. On another note, I woke up late last night with an absolute hellish stomach cramp and it's still kind of there. Boooo👎👎👎👎

[greatwyrmgold]

A few existential YouTube videos lead me down a rabbit hole of introspection.

I've always been interested in science, particularly stuff like astronomy and biology, particularly the bits about the history of life on Earth and how people work. You might note that the crushingly hollow void of space, the inconceivable depth of time, and the mechanics which make the human mind tick are arguably the three parts of science most prone to causing existential crises. And the way I internalized that stuff has definitely influenced how I interpret others' existential crises.

Let's back up. When I was a kid, I read a magazine article reporting on an experiment which indicated that the brain signals for deciding to do a thing came after the brain signals for making the body do it. It made the argument that what the brain is actually doing is rationalizing what it did, rather than thinking about what to do. This was framed as both something scientifically interesting and a challenge to free will.

To put the response I settled on into words: "Okay. But there is still something that triggered the neurons which caused the body-controlling brain signals. Free will and the self must reside in that something."

When confronted with existential crises, I learned to unconsciously work backwards from the conclusion I needed. Free will exists, the self exists, humanity matters, I matter. I just need to find the definitions that would allow those things to be true, and the existential crisis vanishes in a puff of logic.

All of this is second nature to me, but most people don't read old science books from their great-grandma's bookstore when they're in grade school. Most people have a firm sense of the world before they're faced with existential crises. Or at least, I assume that's what happens to most people, because most of the existential crises I see seem really weaksauce.

Like, take "the trouble with transporters," summarized in this CGP Grey video of the same name. A transporter doesn't move you, it destroys you and makes a copy of you somewhere else! Oh no! There are many variations on this theme, ranging all the way down to "Sleep is an interruption of consciousness, therefore you're arguably a new person every day". And my reaction to all of them is the same: "If the thing at the other end looks like you, acts like you, thinks like you, and thinks it is you...how the hell is is something else?"

To me, this is natural. Work backwards. There must be some continuity of identity, both through sleep and through the process of basically every cell and atom in your body being replaced. Ergo, identity must be something more fluid, found in abstract patterns rather than anything material. The same logic applies to transporters and teleporters, ergo there must not be an existential crisis there. If there was, then ordinary existence would induce existential crises, and that's an invalid result.

If challenged, I think I could defend this approach to philosophy. But that's not really my purpose here. I'm just trying to think about the way I think about stuff, force myself to clarify those thoughts, and then post them to justify that forcing. But hopefully you still find it interesting.

#existential crisis #or lack thereof #philosophy #introspection #not sure how any of this has affected me #probably smoothed my slide into atheism (which is NOT a can of worms I'm opening today) #part of the problem is I have no idea how the rest of you think #I just kinda have to guess from what you say and do #like trying to figure out what's inside a black hole from the movement of stars around it

[nicoandindy]

thought i’d give the people quick update on little ol me :) so here we goooooo !

name: nico/lemon (your welcome to give me nicknames)

pronouns: he/it/xe (he him his, it its itself, xe xem xyr)

hair color: green <3

transness: 100% :D

mood: happi

favorite ships: homewreckers, rancher duo, scarian

favorite stuffed animal from my collection: my cheetah, he was a gift from my brother and even if my brother doesn’t love me i love cheeto <3

did u eat: yes, for lunch i don’t remember what i had for kunch, but for like dinner time i had a sandwich on wheat bread with a little bit of avocado because most of it had gone bad, and on the yums on it like tomato and lettuce and chees

what are you wearing: dark demanimin jeans, and light grey shirt that reads “hang on, let me overthink this.”

thing u learned about recently hehe: sharks! sharks! is a art that had a lot of legal documentation happening around it, go watch the cgp video, sharks! is such an intresting learn

#hehe #just feeling like doing this as an update on me :) #idk #i just wanna

[transienturl]

I think I told my sister that I would make this list a long time ago, but never got around to it. I was originally planning on putting a short blurb with each entry, which I still might do at some point, but this actually took me 45 minutes to collate and I haven't even put links in so I'm just going to post the plain list for now.

Youtube channels I would recommend to "anyone" (okay, not actually "anyone," but certainly to "anyone who thinks they would like the kind of videos that I would recommend"):

Tasting History

Tom Scott

Last Week Tonight

MrBTongue

3Blue1Brown (so good it ascends out of the "niche pick" category)

Simone Giertz

Show of the Weekend on Outside Xtra

Matt Parker

CGP Grey

Practical Engineering

Chart Party, Pretty Good, The Bob Emergency, The History of the Seattle Mariners, and various other works by Jon Bois (on his channel and SB Nation)

Wendover Productions

Steve Mould

Brian David Gilbert

Bill Wurtz

Honorable mentions (I don't watch them regularly, but each has at least a few A++ quality, you-should-watch-this videos):

Snazzy Labs

Technology Connections

Journey to the Microcosmos

Sexplanations (defunct)

Medlife Crisis

Veritasium

Minute Earth

Vi Hart

Scott Manley

jan Misali

Zepherus

Niche-er, less thought-provoking/pure entertainment, or "with caveats" picks:

NileRed

Foolish Baseball

Gamers Nexus

ilmango

Ceave Gaming

Dave2D

Tom Scott Plus

Chris Harris on Cars (defunct)

DoodleChaos

Zedaph

Foo the Flowerhorn

Half as Interesting

Bismuth

Rooks and Kings (defunct)

MinutePhysics

I'm fairly certain there are three or four series that really deserve to be on the main list that aren't on my Youtube subscription list, too.

#long post

[sekaedy]

2023: The Year of Expression

Welcome!

Hey there, person. Someway or another, you’ve found yourself at the personal blog of me, Kayla or Sekaedy, and I welcome you. I hope your 2023 is off to a good start.

I guess I’ll introduce myself a little bit. I’m 24 years old, I live in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and I’m in school for web development. It’s not exactly my dream career but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying it so far. And as far as job prospects go, I mean, everyone needs a website nowadays, right?

What I really want to be is a writer. I want to tell stories. To communicate the weird, unique ideas I have in a way that people can actually start to understand and even enjoy them. Mind you, it's not that I'm just beginning writing for the first time at the ripe age of 24, having never touched a keyboard before. I have stacks of notebooks of half-baked concepts, heaps of unfinished fanfiction and plenty more ideas kicking around my head. I even had a short story published in a university anthology!

But I still feel like I haven't earned the right to call myself a 'writer' yet. Mostly because I don't actually write that often. I'd like to think the act of writing this article and posting it is enough to change that, but I don't. Not really. I fell off completely the last few months for all sorts of reasons, but even for a while before that I was barely writing a few paragraphs a day. The mental act of formulating sentences and paragraphs, and the physical act of typing them out feels almost foreign now, because I've been out of the game for so long.

But no longer! Enough is enough!

Why we're here

Starting with this post, my writing funk is over. Throughout 2023, I intend on writing one article a week, for the purpose of reacquainting myself with writing stuff and, equally importantly, posting it. One of my problems is placing way too much importance on the things I write, to the point I get psyched out and paralyzed.

This project is designed to be as low pressure as possible, so every week I can just have fun with it. Maybe one week I'll do a review of something I read or watched, and the next I'll do a writing prompt. Maybe I'll have a thought I want to explore, or god forbid some opinions on current events. The possibilities are endless. The only rule is they have to be at least a thousand words long, so I have to actually write something of substance. As of the end of this paragraph I should be about halfway to 1k, so I'd like to talk about my plans for the new year :)

New year new me

That was one of my favorite videos by one of my favorite YouTubers, CGP Grey. If you didn't watch it, it's about an alternative to New Years Resolutions: themed years. Normally, people set goals for themselves for the new year that, ideally, feel attainable within that year. But then life gets in the way, you set aside your goal, and by the time December rolls around again, your goal is no longer attainable and you've failed. This video instead proposes that you choose a broad theme for your year to strive toward, that you can adapt to your needs as your circumstances change while still moving in the right direction.

I think it's an amazing concept. CGP Grey didn't invent it, I'm sure, but that video has over four million views. I'm probably not the only one who found out from him. A few years ago (I want to say 2020) I did the Year of Creation, and I actually wrote more that year than I ever had previously. For various reasons I didn't do any themes since then, but I'm revisiting it now because I know which direction I want to grow this year.

My theme

All my life, in all sorts of ways, I've been pushed away from being my true self. I'm not going to spend this article recounting my ~tragic backstory~ or anything like that, except what I have to to make sense. I was always a weird kid. Some people were curious or mystified, but most were annoyed or weirded out by me. I'm almost definitely some flavor of undiagnosed neurodivergent, and I was bullied a lot no matter where I went.

The lesson I learned from that is to push my personality deep down and be agreeable and unobtrusive wherever I went. I definitely had annoying tendencies and bad habits that I needed to improve on, but I think instead of refining my personality to something unique that people could appreciate, I just pushed it all down. And I realized that it was killing me.

Nowadays I actually do have friends who genuinely care about me, but I feel like they don't know the 'real' me. I never really let them know the ‘real’ me, because I don't know the 'real' me. In 2023 I want to be more true to myself, and become more comfortable putting myself - whoever that may be - out into the world. I don't want to live in fear anymore.

I recently realized (or maybe accepted) that I'm trans. I'm at the beginning of a very long journey with respect to transitioning, and I'm sure I'll talk about that experience here. Either way though, I don't think I'll ever get results if I'm not honest with myself about who I am and who I want to be.

I'm also in the middle of a more-or-less mutual breakup of a 3.5 year relationship. I respect my ex and care for her, but I needed to be able to find myself independently of another person. I also want to expand on this experience through articles in the future, because man if that’s not a catalyst for self-reflection and growth I don’t know what is.

So this year, I'm focused on getting to know myself. Understanding myself. Figuring out how I fit in this hellworld by actually putting myself out there in my writing, my actions, and my choices. It's really daunting, and I'm scared of being on my own again, and I'm afraid of alienating people, but I'm also excited. I've suffered from depression for so long but I'm hopeful that there's a light to the end of that tunnel. Sometimes that hope takes more effort than it feels like it's worth, but it's not like I have anything better to do than to strive for it. So my purpose for this year is clear.

2023 is the Year of Expression.

Thanks for reading.

[dashboardh]

Proclamation of Peace

This year is the year of “peace” for me. I’ve been using the word “peace” as a yearly theme to guide me on my journeys this year. Idea of comes from a CGP Grey video, which he discusses in greater detail using a word as a theme, instead of a New Year’s resolution, because a word is more flexible than a rigid goal. Any day that you move a little bit more forward towards your word theme as a focus is deemed as a success, meanwhile, anything that isn’t achieving your goal, is seen as a failure, so that’s the reasoning and thought process behind this exercise.

Now I’ve decided to choose this word “peace” for a multitude of reasons. Primarily, it’s to focus on emotional regulation. No, I’m not someone to go off on people, But internally, I would like to process my emotions quicker, and come to egoless and utilitarian solutions more quickly. So what that means is I would like to put myself aside, more often, my feelings of self, in order to present myself as a better person. It’s not that I don’t want to care about what other people think of me, I just would like to process those thoughts and feelings more quickly, because in the grand scheme of things, I have weighted those thoughts too highly. I am an extreme people pleaser, and part of that is to fulfill my desire to be wanted, but all of my people pleasing doesn’t always align with what I actually want to do, and at points, I don’t feel like a real human being, almost automated. In some capacity I feel like I’m a lot more in-tuned with my emotions and my thoughts than my peers, but I am no Mr. Rogers, an inspiration of mine. I would love to have a great patience for people, and maintain proper executive function on the things I need to do in my life, that is the peace I desire.

Subsequently, I would also like to see me advocating and avoiding unnecessary conflict. Like they say in Fullmetal alchemist “Together we go to the top”. There is also the African proverb “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” A movement is not one person, a glacier is not seen as a single ice cube, in that sense, I, nor anyone, will ever be the “it-factor”. I believe it is ego to believe so, and anyone you believe to be the “it-factor” has gotten there by circumstantial luck.

Lastly, to love, is to support unconditionally. There will be those who wish to hate you unconditionally, but if you love unconditionally long enough, you will have those who will reciprocate your unconditional love and have your back against those who despise you. That is true strength, strong love. And I believe that can only be achieved with a peaceful mentality. By that, I don’t mean let people step on you. What I’m truly saying is if you love deeply, you will be difficult to step on, so don’t let the haters take that love away from you, it is your strongest ally and tool in this world.

#EndlessSupport #LoveWins #ChampionOfLove #BoundlessLove #HeartfeltConnections #CompassionateLiving #KindnessIsKey #Empathy #EmbraceLove #CourageousLove #HopefulHeart #UnityInDiversity #BuildingBridges #BelieveInLove #SpreadLove #KindnessMatters #SelfLove #Motivation #Inspiration #SupportiveCommunity #InnerStrength #PositiveMindset #LoveOverHate #ResilienceInLove #EmpoweredByLove #LoveConquersAll #PeacefulMentality #StrengthThroughLove #UnconditionalLove #Peace

[emptymanuscript]

Wow, I got linked to an OLD article today.

2017.

But it’s a somewhat heartening one, so I will take it.

I wonder if there’s any benefit to ‘splainin’ how Gerrymandering is bad for the public interest? Like, is there a population who is all of: unaware or unsure of the issues, would care about fixing them if they understood them, convincible by math if given the tools… I’m sure there’s more but you get the drift and I feel sick.

Cause this is about people doing that to be aimed at expert testimony for legal purposes. But I wonder if social purposes might also have benefit.

As much of an Eeyore as I am, when I am well medicated and not being reactive, I do at least like to think that the majority of the human race are basically decent people (give me a few more articles, though, and I know I will change that tune). I like to think that humans, GENERALLY, do want the best for each other and mostly just don’t do anything because they don’t know what is wrong precisely enough (or at all), how to help in a sustainable way (so they don’t give up in despair), how to push their point to communicate with each other what is important (beyond the adult version of Yeah-hah vs Nuh-uh), and I suppose fear of being hurt themselves.

So I just wonder if stuff like the famous CGP Grey video about voting is missing and all we really need is people trained to explain stuff.

Because I see the other side go for evidence and argument as much as we do… even if I disagree with the basis of argument. I see people change their minds when actually engaged instead of giving the finger with facts.

… XD … I actually almost continually think about this one dude I was at a meetup with, waaaay back in the last (deep red) town I lived in. We were just sort of chatting while working and both interested in politics while both not wanting to offend the other because we were there to have fun so it was just kinda chatty about why we felt the way we did. And I got into (gestures to all of this) being my normal verbose self just less ranty and WHY I was, generally, annoyed at people’s positive responses to Trump because of X, Y, & Z which I knew because of A, B, &C. This was in his first few months in office, I do not actually remember what I said, even if I can guess. But I remember this kind of dawning look of horror on the guy’s face as I went on, like I could pretty much see him having the thoughts: nobody told me that, gosh I hope that isn’t true, I would not have voted for him had I known all that for a fact, I really hope it’s not fact - why didn’t I know this BEFORE the election.

So I just feel like… I dunno… there is a way to communicate that helps. We just haven’t figured it out yet.

Though maybe I just WANT to believe that a good enough layout of facts and evidence is convincing because that’s my liberal bias :/ ah, there we are, I knew I would get my Eeyore bagdge back. ;p

[guzsdaily]

Having an [small] objective in life

Day 08 - Nov 13, 12.023

"Continuation" of Day 2's topic.

It has been one week of writing these daily blog posts, look at me, finally being consistent in something in life! If I could at least repeat the same thing in other parts of my life, it would be great! But apparently having an eight hours night of sleep AND waking up early to have enough energy and time in the day is quite harder than I thought.

I have to admit that a lot of things that I write in these daily blogs are attempts to put these ideas back into my mind, because everybody knows that giving advice is a lot easier than following them. And very often we end up being hypocrites to ourselves, so just as a note, read everything with a grain of salt knowing that even I can't follow what I write here.

Remember when I talked about having a dream in Day 2? About my dream of creating a brand called "Capytal"? I have to admit that it was a lot easier to feel inspired about having a dream, than putting work in it. Since then, I feel like nothing about it has been done, no new projects, new ideas, new routines, etc. I'm still lost without following something to do daily.

Being lost [daily]

Some days ago, or weeks to be honest, I started to accept the idea that I need a [actual] job, because: life, capitalism, experience, yadda yadda. This year's theme for me was "concretizar" (in English, "concretize", in the sense of "I needed to concretize what I wanted to do in my life"), and even not knowing exactly what I want to do, I know now that software and programming is one of the things I want to work with, so I need to find a job as a junior developer, hopefully. And if you aren't from this market or developer community in general, let's just say that finding a job after the layoffs in the end of the lockdown is not easy, apparently.

So now I need to actually prove that I know programming and web development at least. And I had a plan: "I will make that free C (a low level programming language) Harvard's course, and also other free courses that I can buy the certificate in the end. That will show that I don't know just a framework or language, but actual programming logic" - without counting the attempts of creating open-source projects to put in a portfolio. But then I entered up in the Harvard University site and... where the hell is that course? There are some tech-related courses, but none about programming itself anymore.

And I have to admit, because of this change, Mandela Effect, or whatever you want to call it, I completely loose what I wanted to do. I wanted to base each day on one lesson, but now there are any lessons, so what I do? There are YouTube videos about learning C, but most of them are hours long or minutes long, like, or you learn too little, or too much, y'know? And how the fuck will I know how to learn something that I don't know? And I already know programming logic, I want to learn the language itself.

With this all, I'm started, I'm still, lost. I have something in mind that "I want to learn more, and I want a job", but they are just thoughts, and I can resume everything or plan how to achieve them. I have an objective for my life, but now for today.

A silly attempt

Through this year, I had a theme, but having a theme for an entire year seems too much. Something that I somewhat learned this year is that a lot of things can happen in 3–4 months, plans and ideas can change, and predicted time on doing something can also. Not always you can follow your theme easily, and sometimes you need to focus on another part of your life.

I recognize now that to make a post about "themes" in the future, but the idea is best explained in this video by CGP Grey, it where I was introduced to and adopted the idea.

So now I want to break more, make a theme for every season, or more precise, every quarter of the year - which coincidentally also aligns to the industry's calendar apparently? I don't know or care to be honest - and this is something that I can also easily automate in my note-taking app, so every daily note has the theme listed to help me remember it. But it isn't enough to be honest, because it also is an objective or idea that is not related to my daily problems.

[Hey, this is] today's objective

Something that I noticed remembering now about the days that I was more productive is: the least I need to think on what to do today, the better I work. This is even one of the reasons that I choose Obsidian as my note-taking app, because I can have the longevity of plain markdown, with the automation provided by its plugin ecosystem, but I think that even with the automation that I already have, it isn't enough.

The way I worked was that, during Sunday, before each week started, I created a weekly note to plan each task to each day. And that workflow was great, but there were two main problems seeing now: I don't want to think about work during a weekend, planning what task to do is not the best; A lot of times I didn't list enough tasks in a project, and then there wasn't enough things to fill the week. There was also the problem of I don't being able to have a routine sometimes, but I feel like a lot of times it happened because the chain breaks when there's not enough things to fill the routine. So I need more things to easily list things to do daily, more importantly, be able to also change tasks when I need, because some days shits happen, and I can't do something specific.

In the end, I need to always have easily something to do that can push me away from procrastinating and pull me to the correct direction. How do I do all of that? I don't fucking know! But knowing what to do hopefully helps find how.

I'm still lost

To be honest, this entire post for me was all over the place, which is a good reflection on how my mind works a lot of the times. As you can see, I have a lot of things to fix just to return and be productive again, and probably I need to try even harder, because I'm still procrastinating a lot.

I can't tell a correct answer here, because productivity can depend on each person, and I don't know exactly how mine works. And the reality is that the "work smart, not hard" is not always correct, very often you need to work smart AND hard. But hopefully this can help myself, and maybe another person somehow, to be able to work on what I like and what I want to my future.

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Today's artists & creative things

Song: Infinity Repeating (2013 Demo) - by Daft Punk - It is unfortunate that I just found about Daft Punk after they brook up, I'm pretty sure that I listened to them in the radio when I was little, but never actually searched about their music until the memes about them popped up around 2021. And this music, I don't know how to explain, but for me just remember me that you don't need to perfect something to it be great? Because how the fuck is this a demo.

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Copyright (c) 2023-present Gustavo "Guz" L. de Mello <[email protected]>

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) License

#daily journal

[goldiers1]

The Work of Charles Darwin

  Charles Darwin was, and still is, one of the most influential individuals in scientific history. His work has shaped our understanding of evolutionary biology and had a lasting impact on all areas of science. Indeed, if it wasn’t for his theories that humans and other species have changed over time through natural selection, many major advancements in both medicine and genetics would not have been possible. So what did Charles Darwin do exactly? In this article, we will explore the life-long journey of discovery that formed the basis for his theory of evolution by natural selection.  

Full size replica of Charles Darwins HMS Beagle. Photo by Bombalot. Wikimedia.  

Introducing Charles Darwin – Overview of his life and accomplishments

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) was an evolutionary biologist and naturalist whose discoveries raised disruptive questions about the nature of species, the origins of life, and scientific exploration. After witnessing and documenting various specimens during a trip aboard the HMS Beagle, Darwin proposed his groundbreaking concept that people, other animals, and plants had evolved by natural selection. Darwin proposed that organisms must evolve in order to fit into their changing environment to survive and he called this process 'Survival of the Fittest'. Thanks to writings such as 'On the Origin of Species' and 'The Descent of Man', Darwin has profoundly shaped science and given us insights into the mode in which life functions and how it came to be.  

Charles Darwin 200 Years of Evolution £2 Coin. Photo by CGP Grey. Flickr.  

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution – Exploring his groundbreaking discoveries

Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution serves as a cornerstone for much of modern scientific thought. In his groundbreaking work, "On The Origin Of Species by Means Of Natural Selection," Darwin proposed the idea that species evolve over time through natural selection; in other words, advantageous traits within animals provide them with a better chance to survive and pass on these traits to their offspring, who carry the same characteristics. This concept challenged the earlier beliefs that God created the Earth in six days (Creationism) and ultimately it changed the way scientists view nature today. Instead of an immutable structure set in place by a higher power, Darwin proposed that nature progresses through generations and is ever-evolving. Darwin's Theory has been confirmed numerous times over as science has progressed and continues to help shape biological studies around the world.  

Galapagos Land Iguan - Conolophus subcristatus at the Charles Darwin Research Station, Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands. Photo by Dallas Krentzel. Flickr.  

The Voyage of the Beagle – How this trip shaped Darwin’s Thinking

Charles Darwin set sail on the ship HMS Beagle on December 27, 1831, from Plymouth, England. He was only 22 years old when he was hired to be the ship's naturalist, on a five-year journey mostly spent sailing around South America. Darwin's five-year journey aboard the Beagle left an indelible impression on him. He observed and collected specimens from every place he visited, including exotic tropical rainforests in South America, coral atolls in the South Pacific, and active volcanoes in Indonesia. Darwin encountered many unique species during this voyage - something he hadn't experienced before - which challenged his views on creation. As his observations accumulated, he began to slowly develop his own theory about the evolution of species through natural selection. Thus, by piecing together evidence from further afield than had ever been studied before, he was able to formulate his theory of evolution.  

On the Origin of Species. Photo by Jeena Paradies. Flickr.  

On the Origin of Species – Examining the Impact of his book on Science and Society

When Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species” in 1859, it sparked a revolution in scientific thought. This book put forth a compelling thesis — that species evolved over time due to natural selection — and it profoundly transformed our understanding of how organisms were related to one another and how they had come to be. It was truly a pivotal moment in the history of science, ushering in an era of evolutionary biology and genetics. Outside of the world of science, Darwin’s work also inspired heated debates over its implications for religion, ultimately leading some to question Creationism. As we approach its 160th anniversary, it is evident that “On the Origin of Species” left its mark on both science and society alike.  

Statue of Charles Darwin - Natural History Museum, London. Photo by Jordiferrer. Wikimedia.  

Legacy of Charles Darwin – Impact of his research today and into the future

The legacy of Charles Darwin is hard to overstate. His groundbreaking research into evolutionary theory had tremendous implications for our understanding of the natural world and its development. Darwin’s research sparked a passion in many people to better appreciate, understand, and protect modern ecosystems throughout the planet. Even today, his principles are fundamental to conservation efforts involving species reintroduction, preservation of endangered animals, and even farming practices like crop rotation. As we look towards the future, it stands to reason that the influence of Charles Darwin's work will only grow as scientific innovation accelerates and, hopefully, this will inspire more people to become stewards of the Earth and live in harmony with nature. In conclusion, Charles Darwin's life achievements and discoveries revolutionized the field of science and changed the way we understand life on Earth. His historic voyage across the world on H.M.S. Beagle opened his eyes to new ways of thinking and led him to formulate his Theory of Evolution, which is still widely accepted today as the fundamental explanation of how species adapt and survive over time. He then wrote and published On The Origin Of Species, which he supported with scientific, evidence-based observations. His incredible contributions to science live on today in classrooms, laboratories, and natural history museum exhibits around the world - all testament to an incredibly influential scientist who grounded evolutionary principles in hard evidence and paved the way for future scientific advancements.  

Conclusion

In the 160 years since Charles Darwin published On The Origin Of Species, his work has revolutionized science and had a lasting impact on society. His groundbreaking research into evolutionary theory sparked debates about Creationism and inspired many to become stewards of the Earth. Even today, we still rely on principles laid out by Darwin in order to better understand how species evolve over time. As scientific innovation continues, it is likely that the influence of this remarkable scientist will only grow. We should all strive to recognize and appreciate the immense contributions made by Charles Darwin throughout history so that future generations can continue to benefit from them for years to come.   Sources: THX News & Wikipedia. Read the full article

#CharlesDarwin #Darwin #HMSBeagle #OriginofSpecies #WorkofCharlesDarwin