In a War for Existence, the Ones who Deny it Will Always Lose
Karl Popper explained the Paradox of Intolerance. Meaning, a society must be tolerant except for intolerance. If it doesn’t, it self destructs and its tolerance along with it. Intolerance is growing rampant in the world manifesting mostly as some people denying the right to exist to other people. Hamas denying Israel, Israel denying Palestinians, far right wingnuts in the US denying self-determining women, Russians denying Ukrainians, Chinese denying Taiwanese. A person can not live in a society or come to an agreement with another person if that other person denies the first person’s right to exist. A woman who wishes to not have kids, and invest in her career instead, can not live in the same society with a man who thinks all women are good for is for making babies. The same way, we can not come to an meaningful agreement with Hamas or Khezbollah when their primary desire is the non-existence of Israel. We can also not resolve the Palestinian problem when there are people in government who don’t believe Palestinians should exist. The only ways to resolve this paradox is with the eradication of intolerance or of the people suffering from the intolerance. In the former case, the deniers lose. In the latter case, it’s more likely people will die and then good luck existing in a world of tolerant societies, and the deniers lose again. There is another way, if intolerance takes over the world. In that case, we’ll probably self-destruct as a human race.
Posted in No Category and tagged Humanity, Politics by Eran with no comments yet.
“Budgets are shock absorbers for money stress”
I have and will in the future continue to extoll the benefits of YNAB and managing a budget in general. While people often view budgets as this constraining thing preventing them from using their money for what they want, the entire opposite is true. Budgets are just shock absorbers for money stress. If you handle your budget correctly, you should assign the money you have into the categories you want to use it for. You plan ahead for things you know you’ll have to pay for. But you also prepare for the known unknowns. Meaning, you don’t know when your car will break, what it will be, or how bad it’s going to be. But you can be sure it’ll happen in some point in the future, and you can estimate, roughly, how much it’s going to cost. So let’s say you even did that but your car broke and it costs more than you thought. Well, because you assigned your money to categories according to how you want to spend it, you have money assigned to less important, more quality of life categories, or you have a lot of money in important categories that you can be fairly sure you won’t need in the immediate future. You can take that to cover the extra cost of that car repair. The result is: you suffered a setback but you properly prepared for it and you know exactly where it hit, how much, and how it will affect the rest of Continue Reading →
Posted in No Category and tagged Advice, Thoughts, YNAB by Eran with comments disabled.
The Nürnberg Defense of Gaming
As far as I know, this idea is a very common one (even if not commonly called that) but I was still surprised that no one did a write up of it (that I could find). So, here it is, with my thoughts. Known also as “That’s what my character would do!”, the Nürnberg Defense of Gaming is used by players who defend their own fun of playing an asshole over the fun of other players who would like to not have to suffer assholes. Just like you know who (or who you think used that defense before). While I’m all in favor of people investing in their character’s… character, when you are playing a roleplaying game, you are playing a social game. As another axiom of TTRPGs says, “The only way to play wrong is if someone isn’t having fun”. So, if you are playing in any way that makes any other player miserable, it’s up to you to change. That’s basically it. I was thinking of what else I can say about it but it pretty much boils down to this simple rule: If you’re playing in a way (including your character’s mannerisms) that makes someone else at the table miserable or ruining their fun, then you’re the asshole and you’re playing wrong. If you don’t agree, prepare to be ejected from your group some time in the future.
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The Loss of Honor
Responding to an episode of Simon Sinek’s podcast again… We are missing a lot without honor. I agree that honor is about maintaining moral standards and gentleperson-like behavior. And many religious people who claim to have moral standards rarely have honor. Honor is not necessarily about being of service or being necessary but it’s definitely about not being a harm to society and being a standup citizen. I think the problem we have with the IDF today as opposed to all that we hear from the US army about people being professional, wanting to be there, and being very honorable and easily sacrificing for each other and the greater good, is that in the IDF, we claim to have high moral standards but the soldiers themselves, from what we see in the news, are very dishonorable. Which is funny in a country where one of the most celebrated movies with one of the most celebrated songs is one about honor.
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19 Years
This blog has been up for 19 years counting last Monday. Of course, avid readers remember that I had a blog before this which I made in high school so I’ve been blogging closer to 25 years. This years has been… a thing. I’m just tired about everything. For many reasons. I’m sure you can relate to at least some.
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The Power of a Dog
by Rudyard Kipling and Eran Arbel I love and despise the original song for what it means and I always come back to it.However, despite it still being very strong, I find that it has aged very badly in several respects.So, here’s my riff on it. There is sorrow enough in the natural wayFrom the assholes and dipshits that fill our day;And when we are certain of sorrow in store,Why do we always arrange for more?Fellow Humans, I bid you bewareOf giving your heart to a dog to tear. Adopt a pup and you will recieveLove so strong, undying, that you cannot concieve.With a dog in your life, it’s hard to burn outWhen you can always see, joy in a snoutNevertheless it is hardly fairTo risk your heart for a dog to tear. When those precious years, far too little,Are growing shorter and slower, it’llBe hard to be happy, when that little pupper,Now a tired senior, eating a last supper.Then you will find, that you need to bearThat you’ve given your heart to a dog to tear. When the creature you nurtured, played with its paws,Who greeted you daily, morning, evening, because,When the body runs its course, and will is depleted,You have to let go, father time undefeated.Allow the vet, the final dose, to administerFor you have given your heart to a dog to tear. We’ve sorrow enough, happiness rare,Car crashes, wars, disease, and despair.Our love, like theirs, is the grip of a vice,Once it attaches, it stays there for Continue Reading →
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הפרכה זה חשוב
מדע זה לא רק גוף של ידע, זאת דרך מחשבה. קוראים לה ‘השיטה המדעית’ (The Scientific Method). חלק חשוב מהשיטה המדעית היא ‘יכולת הפרכה’ (או Falsifiability). זאת אומרת, מה צריך לקרות, איזה ניסוי עם איזו תוצאה תשמיד את ‘התאוריה’ (Theory) לחלוטין או לפחות תשלח אותה חזרה לאזור ‘ההשערה’ (Hypothesis). כן, גם לתאוריות כמו תאוריות הכבידה יש הפרכה. אם תעשו ניסוי של להחזיק תפוח ואז לעזוב אותו, אבל במקום ליפול הוא ימריא לשמיים, זה יפריך את תאוריית הכבידה. לתאוריות שאין להן הפרכה אנחנו קוראים תיאוריות קונספירציה (כי כל דבר שתגיד להם רק יאשש את התאוריה) או אמונה. למה כל ניפוח השכל הזה? כי הרבה פעמים בהרבה מקומות עכשיו קורה לנו שמגיע אחת עם תיאוריה שאפשר להפריך ואחת עם תיאוריה שאי אפשר להפריך (בדרך כלל על ידי הטענה ש’אלוהים אמר’ או ‘זאת זכותנו הטבעית’ או יותר בכללי, ‘כי ככה’) והן צריכות להגיע לאיזו שהיא הסכמה. אבל אם אי אפשר לדון בטענות, בגורמים, באילו ניסויים אפשר לעשות כדי לדעת מה הדרך הטובה יותר, אי אפשר להתקדם. לא משנה מה תהיה התוצאה, הצד שמייצגת מי שהפסידה (לרוב בגלל שקול אחד יותר היה נגדה) יהיה מאוכזב הרבה יותר מאשר הצד השני. ולמי שלא זוכר, המטרה של פשרה (קרי, דמוקרטיה) היא שכולם יהיו מאוכזבים כמה שיותר במידה שווה. אז, אם אפשר, בחייאת ראבאק, להוציא ממוקדי השלטון את המטורפים הדתיים, החשובים בזכות עצמם, הגזענים צרי האופקים, וכל אלו שלא יכולים להביא הוכחות יוצאות מהכלל לתמוך בטענות שלהם.
Posted in No Category and tagged Democracy, Politics, Religion, Science by Eran with comments disabled.