Pinboard: bookmarks for adamcrowe tagged 'life'

RSS

adamcrowe + life 132

« earlier

[close]

select: none ‧ this page ‧ all pages no items selected

mark as read ‧ unread ‧ private ‧ public ‧ add stars ‧ remove stars ‧ delete

tag: add or remove tag

THIS IS BOILERPLATE confirm ‧ cancel

Seth's Blog -- Extending the narrative

'It's painful to even consider giving up the narrative we use to navigate our life. The truth though, is that doing what you've been doing is going to get you what you've been getting. We dismiss the mid-life crisis as an aberration to be avoided or ridiculed, as a dangerous blip in a consistent narrative. But what if we had them all the time? What if we took the resources and trust and momentum that helps us but decided to let the other stuff go?' -- One may renounce a 'law' introduced for his own 'benefit'. (Maxim of Law)

life truebelieversyndrome longcon SethGodin
9 weeks ago by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Thinkexist -- Jean-Paul Sartre quotes

“Everything has been figured out, except how to live.”

life existentialism quotes Sartre from delicious
august 2011 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Be Slightly Evil -- Be Somebody or Do Something

'As Shaw said, "The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him. The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself. All progress depends on the unreasonable man." -- If you are unreasonable, even if you actually manage to find a calling and do something that you will be remembered for, chances are high you'll die destitute and unrecognized, after a lifetime of maneuvering, fighting and making implacable enemies and loyal-to-the-death friends at every turn. Instead of medals that nobody cares about, you'll collect the detritus of failed and successful battles. And interestingly, people will scramble anxiously to preserve and pore over your unfinished junk. -- Boyd died in near-poverty, depressed and anxious about his legacy. He spent his last years battling cancer and worrying about all his papers. He died a nobody by some reckonings. But he died having done something.'

emotionalintelligence life purpose
april 2011 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Endel Rivers -- Scarab concept 5a [Kabbalah]

'Multiplication (sex) and consumption (food) are at the seed-level the only choice, the only truth, while at the branches-level Faith and Gold may be the right choices, the highest values and the truth. But there is a time when all that will change—it is when fruits will start forming themselves. Above Gold is Love and Understanding—a force of Lovers so powerful, that when one falls in love with another, then there will never be anything that could match the power of their love. Only love can make one to Understand the truth. Above Faith is Wisdom—a force of the most subtle substance, the closest to the truth. One who seeks it, will find it, and by getting attached to it, will never feel hunger again. When these two forces—Love and Wisdom are united, then Fruits will start forming themselves, and so will the power of Man. But the forces that made the Lion and Eagle turn into hungry wild beasts are still there, waiting to swallow the Child—the New World, as soon as it is born.'

life archetypes kabbalah mysterybabylon magick socialengineering from delicious
january 2011 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

A Japanese Soldier Continued Fighting WWII 29 Years After the Japanese Surrendered, Because He Didn’t Know

"We really lost the war! How could they have been so sloppy? Suddenly everything went black. A storm raged inside me. I felt like a fool for having been so tense and cautious on the way here. Worse than that, what had I been doing for all these years? Gradually the storm subsided, and for the first time I really understood: my thirty years as a guerrilla fighter for the Japanese army were abruptly finished. This was the end. I pulled back the bolt on my rifle and unloaded the bullets. . . . I eased off the pack that I always carried with me and laid the gun on top of it. Would I really have no more use for this rifle that I had polished and cared for like a baby all these years? Or Kozuka’s rifle, which I had hidden in a crevice in the rocks? Had the war really ended thirty years ago? If it had, what had Shimada and Kozuka died for? If what was happening was true, wouldn’t it have been better if I had died with them?"

history japan hubris stoicism denial sunkcosts life from delicious
august 2010 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

TheOnion -- Report: 10 Million Killed Annually By Stepping Out Of Comfort Zones

'"People always ask themselves, 'What's the worst that can happen?' Well, according to our research, anything from being bitten by a poisonous snake to dying in a hot-air balloon crash can happen." The report found that the safest individuals were those who surrendered to the soul-crushing monotony of habit and then convinced themselves that they had things pretty good.'

TheOnion life lulz satire from delicious
august 2010 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Ribbonfarm -- How to Take a Walk

'Taking walks is the entry drug into the quiet, solitary heaven of idleness. For modern Americans, idleness is a shameful, private indulgence. If they attempt it in public, they are stricken by social anxiety. They seem to fear that the slow, solitary, and obviously purposeless amble that marks “taking a walk” signals social incompetence or a life unacceptably adrift. If a shopping bag, gym bag, friend or dog cannot be manufactured, nominal non-idleness must be signaled through an ostentatious “I have friends” phone call, or email-checking. If all else fails, hands must be placed defiantly in pockets, to signal a brazen challenge to anyone who dares look askance at you, “Yeah, I’m takin’ a walk! You got a problem with that?” In America, visible idleness is a luxury for the homeless, the delinquent and immigrants. The defiantly tautological protest, “I have a life,” is quintessentially American. The American life does not exist until it is filled up.'

america status signalling perforrmance idleness solitude contemplation life from delicious
august 2010 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Freedomain Radio -- Everyday Anarchy (PDF)

'...what does the word “anarchy” really mean? It simply means a way of interacting with others without threatening them with violence if they do not obey. It simply means “without political violence.” When we think of a society without political violence – without governments – specters of chaos and brutality always arise for us, immediately and, it would seem, irrevocably. However, it only takes a moment of thought to realize that we live the vast majority of our actual lives in complete and total anarchy – and call such anarchy “morally good.” ...love, marriage, family, career, finances – we all make our major decisions in the complete absence of direct political coercion. Thus – if anarchy is such an all-consuming, universal evil, why is it the default – and virtuous – freedom that we demand in order to achieve just liberty in our daily lives? ...we must recognize the basic paradox: We love the anarchy we live. We fear the anarchy we imagine – the anarchy we are taught to fear.'

* "anarchy" anarchism voluntaryism freedom philosophy life StefanMolyneux pdf
june 2010 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Ribbonfarm -- The Allegory of the Stage

'Once you learn to recognize it, you realize that plenty of life experiences have the same subjective signature. What all these trigger-moment experiences have in common is that they represent thresholds beyond which you are no longer in control of the consequences of your actions. Something you are creating goes from being protected by you (and your delusions) to facing the forces of the wild world. You haven’t started living until you experience and survive your first powerful “stepping on stage” moment. The bitter, depressed middle-aged adult who tells the 18-year old that “real life isn’t like the movies” is actually wrong. He has merely never dared to step onto a significant stage himself, so he doesn’t know that such powerful crossing-the-threshold moments are possible. That every life can be the Hero’s journey. The allegory of the stage is the story of your life told around the moments when you faced death, and charged ahead anyway.'

philosophy stage fear death life heroism
april 2010 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

fenced lot -- what you loved when you were nine or ten

'“I’ve found that your chances for happiness are increased if you wind up doing something that is a reflection of what you loved most when you were somewhere between nine and eleven years old. At that age, you know enough of the world to have opinions about things, but you’re not old enough yet to be overly influenced by the crowd or by what other people are doing or what you think you “should” be doing. If what you do later on ties into that reservoir in some way, then you are nurturing some essential part of yourself.” [The Conversations (a long rambling interview between film/sound editor Walter Murch and writer Michael Ondaatje), pg. 8-10]'

life motivation happiness
march 2010 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Figuring Shit Out -- Three types of passion

'People with a passion for everything are not interested in things themselves, they’re interested in interest. To them, the actual objects of study are actually incidental, what’s fascinating to them is the more abstract layers in which everything is interconnected. This is not to say that these people are equally interested in everything or even that there are large areas of human experience are completely alien and boring to them. But these people are voracious and indiscriminate readers. They’ll be able to converse knowledgably about a huge range of topics and know surprisingly huge amounts of trivia. When a person who is passionate about everything meets a person who is passionate about one thing, they just assume that this is a person who has settled. Every person who is passionate about everything ultimately faces the dilemma about how to focus their attentions. In order to be successful, they need to settle on something to be “their thing”.' -- Can't everything be one thing?

psychology curiousity motivation passion people life
february 2010 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Khuram Malik -- Lessons of life from an uneducated man

'Finally he talked about the values of trust. No trust and not knowing people prohibits charity to get to the needy. He explained that honour is in ten folds among the poor, so when the cash reaches the needy, they simply refuse if and because they don't trust you and don't want to risk their honour. The honour is the greatest wealth for them and for a matter of fact the only wealth. He then explained that this wealth is not to be undermined in any circumstance, cause many would lay down their lives to protect this honour. So when a stranger comes to help, often it is seen as a threat. Once the contact knows and accepts that the donor isn't trying to influence the poor for his/her gain, the donor can safely let this trust iterate through him/her to the poor person.'

charity poverty honour trust emotionalintelligence life *
january 2010 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Twelve Virtues of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky

'#Curiosity. Curiosity seeks to annihilate itself; there is no curiosity that does not want an answer. #Relinquishment. The thought you cannot think controls you more than thoughts you speak aloud. #Lightness. Let the winds of evidence blow you about as though you are a leaf, with no direction of your own. #Evenness. If you are selective about which arguments you inspect for flaws, or how hard you inspect for flaws, then every flaw you learn how to detect makes you that much stupider. #Argument. Truth is not handed out in equal portions before the start of a debate. #Empiricism. Do not ask which beliefs to profess, but which experiences to anticipate. #Simplicity. There is no straw that lacks the power to break your back. #Humility. Who are most humble? Those who most skillfully prepare for the deepest and most catastrophic errors in their own beliefs and plans. #Precision. #Scholarship, and a virtue which is nameless #The Void.'

* philosophy rationalism thinking happiness life
january 2010 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

The Onion -- Evolution Going Great, Reports Trilobite

'"It's a wonderful time to be alive," said the tri-lobed creature, its protruding feelers and antennules twitching spasmodically with anticipation. "To be born during this, the Cambrian Explosion—why, I couldn't imagine a better period, really. It's all happening right now! I mean, if things keep going the way they're going, what with evolution taking off and everything, pretty soon we'll have huge, towering reptiles roaming across the earth." "Can you imagine it? Reptiles!" the trilobite added. "I'm not even sure what those are!" -- The trilobite then settled down in his murky lagoon, where for the third straight night he would rest soundly while thoughts of someday becoming a brine shrimp, or perhaps even a crustacean—each of which, he knew, would be just a small part of the beautiful upward arc of life, forever changing, forever moving toward balance and harmony—danced in his tiny, insignificant head.' -- :))

TheOnion evolution life :-)
december 2009 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Wired -- American Stonehenge: Monumental Instructions for the Post-Apocalypse

"LET THESE BE GUIDESTONES TO AN AGE OF REASON. MAINTAIN HUMANITY UNDER 500,000,000 IN PERPETUAL BALANCE WITH NATURE. GUIDE REPRODUCTION WISELY—IMPROVING FITNESS AND DIVERSITY. (UNITE HUMANITY WITH A LIVING NEW LANGUAGE [Science]). RULE PASSION—FAITH—TRADITION—AND ALL THINGS WITH TEMPERED REASON. PROTECT PEOPLE AND NATIONS WITH FAIR LAWS AND JUST COURTS. LET ALL NATIONS RULE INTERNALLY RESOLVING EXTERNAL DISPUTES IN A WORLD COURT. AVOID PETTY LAWS AND USELESS OFFICIALS. BALANCE PERSONAL RIGHTS WITH SOCIAL DUTIES. PRIZE TRUTH—BEAUTY—LOVE—SEEKING HARMONY WITH THE INFINITE. BE NOT A CANCER ON THE EARTH—LEAVE ROOM FOR NATURE." -- Still doesn't solve the problem of the psychopaths.

art sculpture monuments astronomy enlightenment reason rationalism science renaissance apocalypse death rebirth life mythology occult conspiracy
november 2009 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Ribbonfarm -- The Gervais Principle, Or The Office According to “The Office” (2)

Comment: Dan G: "There is more room for happiness and satisfaction in being a believer (’clueless’) than a player (’sociopath’). Life for those who find value in what they are doing and get satisfaction out of it can be happy, fulfilled and peaceful. All they need to do is find their true interest and vocation — their true belief, not a delusion. The life of the player-sociopath is bound to be a constant war; and because it is a competition, satisfaction and success are not under their own self-control. It is contingent on the failure of the other player-sociopaths with whom they need to compete. It is ultimately foolish to make your own hapiness contingent on the payoff of a zero-sum game. -- From the point of view of society as a whole, praising sociopathy is a disaster. A society of believers will always thrive and progress; it will be the Utopia. A society of players will stagnate and self-distruct; it will be a Mad-Max style, pre-Hobbesian Dystopia." -- *nodding*

life career sociology psychology groups work business management sociopathy power narrativefallacy falseconsciousness delusion thegervaisprinciple transactionalanalysis status communication
october 2009 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

YouTube -- Professor Richard Dawkins speaks to Sky's Adam Boulton the Greatest Show On Earth

"Make your life purposeful while you've got it."

life quotes RichardDawkins
september 2009 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Newsweek -- The Truth Is, We're All Raging Liars

'We are a culture of liars. Maybe we'd all benefit from brushing up on our skills. ...with deceit so deeply ingrained in our psyches that we hardly even notice we're engaging in it. Spam e-mail, deceptive advertising, the everyday pleasantries we don't really mean—"It's so great to meet you!" "I love that dress"—have, as Feldman puts it, become "an omnipresent white noise we've learned to tune out." -- Liars get what they want. They avoid punishment, and they win others' affection. Liars make themselves sound smart and savvy, they attain power over those of us who believe them, and they often use their lies to rise up in the professional world. Many liars have fun doing it. And many more take pride in getting away with it.' -- Living the lie.

psychology lies deception status life
august 2009 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

A List Apart -- Burnout

'First defined by American psychoanalyst Herbert J. Freudenberger in 1972, burnout is “a demon born of the society and times we live in and our ongoing struggle to invest our lives with meaning.” He goes on to say that burnout “is not a condition that gets better by being ignored. Nor is it any kind of disgrace. On the contrary, it’s a problem born of good intentions.”'

career work life meaning values doublethink stress
may 2009 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

NYTimes.com -- The Case for Working With Your Hands

"The escalating demand for academic credentials in the job market gives the impression of an ever-more-knowledgeable society, whose members perform cognitive feats their unschooled parents could scarcely conceive of. On paper, my abstracting job, multiplied a millionfold, is precisely what puts the futurologist in a rapture: we are getting to be so smart! Yet my M.A. obscures a more real stupidification of the work I secured with that credential, and a wage to match. When I first got the degree, I felt as if I had been inducted to a certain order of society. But despite the beautiful ties I wore, it turned out to be a more proletarian existence than I had known as an electrician. A good job requires a field of action where you can put your best capacities to work and see an effect in the world. Academic credentials do not guarantee this."

doublethink immateriallabour work life do
may 2009 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

The Atlantic -- What Makes Us Happy?

'The healthiest, or “mature,” adaptations include altruism, humor, anticipation (looking ahead and planning for future discomfort), suppression (a conscious decision to postpone attention to an impulse or conflict, to be addressed in good time), and sublimation (finding outlets for feelings, like putting aggression into sport, or lust into courtship). -- ... positive emotions make us more vulnerable than negative ones. One reason is that they’re future-oriented. Fear and sadness have immediate payoffs—protecting us from attack or attracting resources at times of distress. Gratitude and joy, over time, will yield better health and deeper connections—but in the short term actually put us at risk. That’s because, while negative emotions tend to be insulating, positive emotions expose us to the common elements of rejection and heartbreak. -- "It's very hard for most of us to tolerate being loved."'

* research psychology happiness emotion emotionalintelligence relationships memory narrativefallacy reality reflexivity life love
may 2009 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

New York Times -- This Is Your Life (and How You Tell It)

'Mental resilience relies in part on exactly this kind of autobiographical storytelling... The investigators found that the third-person scenes were significantly less upsetting, compared with bad memories recalled in the first person. “What our experiment showed is that this shift in perspective, having this distance from yourself, allows you to relive the experience and focus on why you’re feeling upset,” instead of being immersed in it.. The emotional content of the memory is still felt, he said, but its sting is blunted as the brain frames its meaning, as it builds the story. The way people replay and recast memories, day by day, deepens and reshapes their larger life story. ...new research is giving narrative psychologists something they did not have before: a coherent story to tell. Seeing oneself as acting in a movie or a play is not merely fantasy or indulgence; it is fundamental to how people work out who it is they are, and may become.'

* storytelling psychology self scripting mythology storygraph memory framing perspective narrative therapy reflexivity transformation life
april 2009 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Why Passion Is So Attractive
passion life
april 2009 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Harpers -- Faustian economics: Hell hath no limits by Wendell Berry

"... once greed has been made an honorable motive, then you have an economy without limits. It has no place for temperance or thrift or the ecological law of return. It will do anything. It is monstrous by definition ... the commonly accepted basis of our economy is the supposed possibility of limitless growth, limitless wants, limitless wealth, limitless natural resources, limitless energy, and limitless debt. The idea of a limitless economy implies and requires a doctrine of general human limitlessness: all are entitled to pursue without limit whatever they conceive as desirable... this credo of limitlessness clearly implies a principled wish not only for limitless possessions but also for limitless knowledge, limitless science, limitless technology, and limitless progress. And, necessarily, it must lead to limitless violence, waste, war, and destruction. That it should finally produce a crowning cult of political limitlessness is only a matter of mad logic." -- Supersize We

* economics debt ponzi criticism consumption consumerism delusion denial insanity virtuality reality freedom friendship ethics trust loyalty empathy communities civility ecology sustainability austerity humanity philosophy religion art life
march 2009 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Cracked.com -- 5 Things You Think Will Make You Happy (But Won't)

"Experts have figured out that the brain has no ability to actually predict your emotional reaction to life changes that haven't happened yet. In other words, you physically do not know what you want. The act of sitting around pondering it is apparently what fucks you up. This may be why studies show friendships, altruism and religious practices bring happiness. It may be that taking the focus off your own happiness is what makes happiness possible."

psychology happiness life
march 2009 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Voltaire: "God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."

Hehe.

quotes life via:charlesfrith
february 2009 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Phillip Toledano -- Days with My Father

"She's in Paris."

* photography gallery family relationships love life death memory
january 2009 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Thriving in the Age of Collapse by Dmitry Orlov (2005)

"It bears pointing out that most of us would prefer to remain blissfully unaware of any and all such arguments and notions, perhaps choosing to concern ourselves with topics less likely to depress our libido. Awareness of topics of global import is certainly not compulsory, and may not even be beneficial. Why worry about disasters we can do nothing to avert? Why not just enjoy our day in the sun, come what may? Also, large groups of people can be dangerous when panicked, and so I do not wish to panic them. As for the few of us who are concerned, my message to you is a cheerful one, because I believe that you can still exercise some measure of control over your destiny. So, if you want some help thinking things through with a positive attitude, read on." -- ...

* economics people commonsense emotionalintelligence civility relationships trust law crime politics fraud corruption history wisdom advice howto survival life DmitryOrlov
january 2009 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

XPT

"Welcome to XPT. The world’s oldest and largest totalfulfilment company. We’re here to deliver on all those promises you've made to yourself over the years. All those things you've wanted to have and to be. We can deliver it all. By joining us, you will become part of a constant process of to-ing and fro-ing: a movement of people and things, of emotions and ideas. And thanks to centuries of experience, we know exactly how to co-ordinate that flow to benefit you."

agencyagency xpt life motivation storytelling interactivedrama transformation TimWright
december 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

The Roller of Big Cigars -- 10 Reasons to be Antisocial

Leave me the hell alone! I'm happy how I am. Are you?

introversion personality psychology happiness aloneness solitude emotionalintelligence life
december 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Umair Haque -- How To Be a 21st Century Capitalist

"... It is only by capitalizing the things we really value that the spark of value creation can be lit again. Next-generation businesses are built, instead, on human, social, natural, and cultural capital - to name just a few. Next-generation businesses are critical because next-generation assets are the key to rebalancing capitalism's toxic value equation. Ultimately, only next-generation assets can redefine how productive capitalism can be in the 21st century.... capital isn't just whatever beancounters and boardrooms decide it is. It's what we - collectively, as global citizens - decide has value, because it impacts our productivity, well-being, and quality of life. Capital is formed when people are willing to agree that something has value. And the miracle of the 21st century is that in a hyperconnected world, millions of people can debate, discuss, and decide in the blink of an eye. It's never been easier to capitalize something - so what are you waiting for?"

* economics externalities UmairHaque capital socialcapital hackersvsvectoralists thinking strategy markets networks communities value life "capitalism"
december 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

scottberkun.com -- Essay #53: How to detect bullshit

"White lies are the spackle of civilization, tucked into the dirty corners and crevices our necessary, but pretentiously inflexible idealisms create. Small lies prop up and support our powerful truths, holding together the insanely half honest, half false chaos that spins the world. -- ... the third reason people lie, a truth saints and sinners have known for ages: we want to be seen as better than we see ourselves. Sadly, comically, we also believe we’re alone in both having this temptation, as well as the shame it brings with it (e.g. "We’re not alone in feeling alone"). The secret truth is everyone has moments of weakness: times when fear and greed melt our brains and we’re tempted to say the lies we wish were true. And for that reason the deepest honesty is found in people willing to admit to their lies, or their barely resisted temptations, and own the consequences. Not the pretense of the saints, who pretend, incomprehensibly, inhumanly, to never even have those urges at all."

essay psychology deception lies wrong life philosophy ethics ignorance socraticmethod honesty reflexivity trust argumentation
december 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Cracked.com -- 7 Reasons the 21st Century is Making You Miserable

#1. We don't have enough annoying strangers in our lives: The more we're able to edit the annoyance out of our lives, the less we're able to handle it. #2. We don't have enough annoying friends, either: The problem is that peacefully dealing with incompatible people is crucial to living in a society. In fact, if you think about it, peacefully dealing with people you can't stand is society. #4. Online company only makes us lonelier: When someone speaks to you face-to-face, what percentage of the meaning is actually in the words, as opposed to the body language and tone of voice? ... in Text World, all that is stripped away... absent a sense of the other person's mood, every line we read gets filtered through our own mood instead. #5. We don't get criticized enough. #7. We feel worthless, because we actually are worth less: There's one advantage to having mostly online friends, and it's one that nobody ever talks about: They demand less from you.'

* truisms psychology melancholy control emotionalintelligence emotion mood bodylanguage relationships friendship empathy sympathy sociology civility manners tolerance individualism existentialism self identity feedback #diversity #specialization internet virtuality reality evolutionarypsychology communication work life
december 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Energy Bulletin -- Closing the 'Collapse Gap': the USSR was better prepared for collapse than the US by Dmitry Orlov

"The last thing we want is a perfectly functioning, growing, prosperous economy that suddenly collapses one day, and leaves everybody in the lurch. It is not necessary for us to [...] match the Soviet lackluster performance... We have our own methods, that are working almost as well. I call them "boondoggles." They are solutions to problems that cause more problems than they solve. Just look around you, and you will see boondoggles sprouting up everywhere, in every field of endeavor: we have military boondoggles like Iraq, financial boondoggles like the doomed retirement system, medical boondoggles like private health insurance, legal boondoggles like the intellectual property system. The combined weight of all these boondoggles is slowly but surely pushing us all down. If it pushes us down far enough, then economic collapse, when it arrives, will be like falling out of a ground floor window. We just have to help this process along, or at least not interfere with it."

economics debt fraud boondoggles doublethink failure america russia history predictions DmitryOrlov * life
november 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Cinema.com -- Revolver: Guy Ritchie Q & A

"One of the first rules of business is to protect your investment. I like the idea that we do the same with our personal philosophies. Once we have decided what’s right, irrelevant of whether we are right or wrong, the more energy we will invest to protect that. Which is basically how conmen work. They get you to invest a little bit, then a bit more. They never tell you to buy something, just take a look. Even looking’s an investment. Once you’ve contributed some of your energy to looking - appraising a certain article - then a small investment has been made. From a small investment comes a larger investment, from a larger investment comes a greater investment until eventually you’ve invested so much that you can’t be wrong. Because if you are wrong, it must mean you’re stupid and nobody can admit that they’re stupid."

ignorance greed power ego truthbias grifting fraud control life existentialism philosophy #complexity #specialization
november 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

The Long Now Blog -- Avatar Afterlife

"Creating a copy of online behavior and programming an avatar to respond to stimuli in the way the user has been during their digital life.... A digital representation of life could continue unhindered in a virtual environment, after real-life has ended. Maybe Google with its seemingly endless storage capacity will one-day also host our virtual afterlife."

avatars virtuality distributed self selfservers aliveness life death afterlife ghost ghostinthemachine #storage
august 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Wired -- Barely Alive, Seafloor Microbes Might Resemble Exo-Organisms

'... such microbes might account for a whopping 10 percent of the Earth's biomass. "In essence, these microbes are almost, practically dead by our normal standards... They metabolize a little, but not much."

biology microbiology evolution life #storage #specialization
august 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

The Atlantic -- Caring for Your Introvert

"Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate? Who growls or scowls or grunts or winces when accosted with pleasantries by people who are just trying to be nice? If so, do you tell this person he is "too serious," or ask if he is okay? Regard him as aloof, arrogant, rude? Redouble your efforts to draw him out? If you answered yes to these questions, chances are that you have an introvert on your hands—and that you aren't caring for him properly." -- My name is Adam and I'm an introvert.

introversion psychology personality emotionalintelligence solitude life
july 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

The New Yorker -- Game Master (Will Wright)

'“In Will’s games, the objects themselves are encoded to interact with the environment around them. All you have to do is drop the object into the environment and it will make other stuff happen. The objects create ‘verbs,’ as we say.”'

* WillWright spore games gaming programming learning education simulation failure algorithms cellularautomata emergence complexity symbiosis evolution life objects narrativeobjects storytelling narrativeenvironments narrativeacts performance design code
june 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Wired -- Craig Venter's Epic Voyage to Redefine the Origin of the Species

"The great majority of Earth's species are bacteria and other microorganisms. They may also hold the key to generating a near-infinite amount of energy, developing powerful pharmaceuticals, and cleaning up the ecological messes our species has made."

* biology syntheticbiology genetics genomics microbiology bacteria energy ecology health life evolution CraigVenter
june 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

TED | Talks -- Craig Venter: On the verge of creating synthetic life (video)

'"Can we create new life out of our digital universe?" Craig Venter asks. His answer is "yes" -- and pretty soon.'

biology syntheticbiology genetics genomics bioengineering artificiallife digital organisms bacteria energy biofuel exponential evolution life software hardware selfreplication CraigVenter
june 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Guardian -- I am creating artificial life, declares US gene pioneer

"The new life form will depend for its ability to replicate itself and metabolise on the molecular machinery of the cell into which it has been injected, and in that sense it will not be a wholly synthetic life form."

CraigVenter biology syntheticbiology genetics genomics bioengineering artificiallife organisms energy biofuel evolution life software hardware selfreplication
june 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

PLoS Biology -- The Diploid Genome Sequence of an Individual Human

"The individual whose genome is described in this report is J. Craig Venter, who was born on 14 October 1946... The DNA donor gave full consent to provide his DNA for study via sequencing methods and to disclose publicly his genomic data in totality."

CraigVenter biology genetics bioinformatics code life
june 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Wired -- The First Genetically Modified Human Embryo: Advance or Abomination?

"... scientists say that modified embryos could be used to research human diseases. They say embryos wouldn't be allowed to develop for more than a few weeks, much less implanted in a woman and brought to term." -- Both. Life continues.

biology genetics modification genetherapy human engineering evolution life ethics
may 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

CNN.com -- Humans nearly wiped out 70,000 years ago, study says

"Tiny bands of early humans, forced apart by harsh environmental conditions, coming back from the brink to reunite and populate the world. Truly an epic drama, written in our DNA."

storytelling genetics evolution humanity life
may 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

TED - Kevin Kelly: How does technology evolve? Like we did

Video: "What does technology want?" #ubiquity #diversity #specialization #complexity #socialization = "The Infinite Game"

technology tools toys temes mutation hacking species biology evolution life infintegame KevinKelly infinitegame
march 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Kevin Kelly - Lumpers and Splitters

"Eventually, the distinction between living species and technological species will also be primarily one of convenience and habit, as genetically engineered organisms accomplish what machines used to do and machines do what biological organisms used to do"

classification taxonomy technology biology syntheticbiology evolution convergence artificialintelligence species life KevinKelly
march 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

TED | Talks - Ray Kurzweil: How technology's accelerating power will transform us

Video: "Ray Kurzweil projects forward into an almost unthinkable future to outline the ways we'll use technology to augment our own capabilities, forever blurring the lines between human and machine."

technology nanotechnology biology life brain extensionsofman centralnervoussystem immunesystem neuroscience experience design synthespian augmentedreality mattercompilers exponential change future RayKurzweil retribalization
march 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Jane McGonigal - Reality is Broken: GDC08 Rant

"Games are the ultimate happiness engine."

alternativerealitygaming seriousgames gaming play life work boredom JaneMcGonigal
february 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Avant Game - "Reality is Broken" - My GDC Rant

"... reality is fundamentally broken, and we have a responsibility as game designers to fix it, with better algorithms and better missions and better feedback and better stories and better community and everything else we know how to make." -- :)

alternativerealitygaming seriousgames gaming gameplay games play performance design objects narrativeobjects narrativeenvironments storytelling narrativeactivism goals motivation life work reality happiness inspiration JaneMcGonigal
february 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

BBC Four - Visions Of The Future (3 of 3) The Quantum Revolution

"In this new three-part series, leading theoretical physicist and futurist Dr Michio Kaku explores the cutting edge science of today, tomorrow, and beyond." (Type 0 Civilisation.)

documentaries MichioKaku future science technology physics quantum mechanics antigravity materials manufacturing fabrication mattercompilers space travel consciousness civilization progress energy nuclear fusion nanotechnology health extensionsofman immunesystem immunocules proteins hacking bacteria nanobots micromachines virus selfreplication greygoo weapons war cookiecutters teleportation exponential evolution life code
february 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Passage: a Gamma256 video game by Jason Rohrer

"What I was trying to do with Passage"

passage games life
february 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

WSJ.com - Time Waster

On the game, Passage: "There have been a number of people who have written stuff about this being the first videogame to make them cry."

gamemechanics games design thegamingofeverydaylife life death emotion passage
february 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

AOL Television - Wonder Years Cast: Where Are They Now?

Why do I suddenly feel all weepy?

tv popculture entertainment life nostalgia television culture
january 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

INFP Introverts - Heath Ledger

“I’m shy. People get confused. They think, ‘As an actor you can get up and be confident onscreen so why aren’t you like this in normal life? Why can’t you act in your social life?’ Because I can’t!”

personality HeathLedger acting emotionalintelligence life introversion
january 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Seth's Blog - Workaholics

"... the new face of work, at least for some people, opens up the possibility that work is the thing (much of the time) that you'd most like to do. Designing jobs like that is obviously smart. Finding one is brilliant."

work career life
january 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

chroma - Get in the Game

Comment (Leland): "In Second Life, we initially play the archetypal role of the innocent until we grow up into a new role." Nice little gaming of everyday life discussion.

gaming play gameplay games life thegamingofeverydaylife behaviours brands experience narrativeenvironments objects narrativeobjects storytelling narrativeactivism archetypes roleplay virtualworld socialnetworking engagement participation rewards motivation ac acc performance design virtualworlds
january 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

slowdownweek

It's 'slow down week'.

activism animation health life work
january 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

ageing 1986-2006

Video: Guy ages 20 years. :(

time age life death photography voyeurism
january 2008 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Paul Graham - How to Do What You Love

'"Always produce" is also a heuristic for finding the work you love. If you subject yourself to that constraint, it will automatically push you away from things you think you're supposed to work on, toward things you actually like.'

career advice work life
december 2007 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

TIME - Top 10 Scientific Discoveries: #9. The World's Oldest Animal

"... researchers from Bangor University in Wales stumbled on what is believed to be the world's oldest living animal: a 405 year-old clam. Or it was living, until researchers had to kill it to determine the clam's age by studying rings on its shell." >:-(

life death science
december 2007 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Terra Nova - Two Releases: Arden I and Exodus

"...people who design virtual worlds are actually doing public policy... innovations will bleed over into real-world policy-making... governments will try to please citizens raised in virtual world policy environments... big political change is coming"

* virtualworlds thegamingofeverydaylife governance policy psychology technographics people life economics predictions books identity roleplay
november 2007 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

New York Times - The Big Sleep

'“At the first fall of snow the whole family gathers round the stove, lies down, ceases to wrestle with the problems of human existence, and quietly goes to sleep. After six months the family wakes up and “goes out to see if the grass is growing.”'

life sleep economics sustainability money lawofdiminishingmarginalreturns work conservation people via:deadinsect diminishingmarginalutility
november 2007 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Clickable Culture - ‘Warcraft’ Ads Mainstream The MMO

"having an avatar alter ego is simply going to be a fact of life... As a result, avatar support services will become more visible, from in-world makeovers; parents grinding for their kids; power-leveling / gold farming / gray-market virtual trading."

virtualworlds worldofwarcraft avatars replicants identity life roleplay economics business narrativeenvironments storytelling objects narrativeobjects
november 2007 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Rands In Repose - A Nerd in a Cave

"World-canceling features such as a door or noise-reducing headphones. These features are a nuisance to significant others interested in communication." - Hehe

space place cocooning nerds geeks home life psychology privacy solitude emotionalintelligence introversion
november 2007 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Kevin Kelly - The Gift of Stuff

"How can technology make a person better? Only in this way: by providing them with chances. A chance to excel at the unique mixture of talents they were born with, a chance to encounter new ideas and new minds, a chance to create something their own."

technology ideas themediumisthemessage change life evolution creativity philosophy people media
november 2007 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Guardian - Playing games with Facebook: the future of virtual worlds

"Facebook is a game. A very social one... the goals are to win friends and influence people."

facebook socialnetworking virtualworlds gaming thegamingofeverydaylife life roleplay identity profile status statusupdates reputation ambientintimacy grooming behaviours personality
november 2007 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Wired - Suicide Bombing Makes Sick Sense in 'Halo 3'

"I have (I think) a strong intellectual grasp of the roots of suicide terrorism, playing the game gave me an "aha" moment that I'd never had before: an ability to feel, in whatever tiny fashion, the strategic logic and emotional calculus behind the act."

gaming gameplay games design psychology poverty politics tactics violence war life death
november 2007 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

New York Times - The Global Sympathetic Audience

'Shelley Powers, a computer programmer who writes a blog, Burningbird, about social networking... calls the entire [twitter suicide] experience “artificial intimacy” and wonders if people were “concerned about it, or were they titillated.'

behaviours twitter socialnetworking lifecasting ambientintimacy intimacy life retribalization
november 2007 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

The Pmarca Guide to Career Planning, part 3: Where to go and why

"Optimize at all times for being in the most dynamic and exciting pond you can find. That is where the great opportunities can be found."

career advice entrepreneurship life risk
november 2007 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

YouTube - Ron Paul 0wnz the Federal Reserve

The truth put politely and mildly.

money debt life
october 2007 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

ProfileBuilder - Online Identity Platform

"Your profile is your online place, it's the place to put anything you want — such as your interests, activities and contacts. From now on, wherever you sign your name, you sign your icon with it."

socialgraph socialnetworking identity profile lifecasting life management tools aggregation
october 2007 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Cheesedog - Rapidly Dying 47-Year-Old Professor Gives Exuberant ‘Last Lecture’

"Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want."

advice failure death life inspiration video
october 2007 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

YouTube - Sunday Lunch, Southwark Council ad

Can't help but be a little bothered by this. Crimestoppers is a front for the outraged moral majority. Work on the real problem: hopelessness. No Mother should be shown killing her child - ever. Those Mothers need support, not condemnation.

advertising politics crime life youth
september 2007 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Guardian - 'Lifestyle' diseases hit India's IT workers

Oh dear: "Long working hours, night shifts and a sedentary lifestyle make people employed at such companies prone to heart disease and diabetes, the report said. There have also been growing reports of depression and family breakdown in the industry."

work health life
september 2007 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

YouTube - マッドシティーの発明

Video: "How to walk efficiently in Japan". Could this work in London?

japan funny life walking
september 2007 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

collision detection - Study finds morning people are "logical", night owls are "creative"

"In contrast to morning types, evening people preferred the symbolic over the concrete, were creative and risk-taking, and tended to be non-conformist and independent." -- So, i'll be in at 15:00. OK?

personality creativity psychology research sleep work behaviours life gtd productivity management agencyagency
september 2007 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Broader Perspective - AIs let humans live over math problem

"... forking copies of a mindfile gone awry when one forked copy evolves malignantly from the original such that it no longer agrees to re-merge and has an independent survival drive... plotting to remove all instances of the original."

artificialintelligence life cancer code technology self consciousness
september 2007 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Wired - Space Dust: It's Alive and It's ... Us?

"They can divide, or bifurcate, to form two copies of the original structure... [they] can also interact to induce changes in their neighbours and they can even evolve into yet more structures leaving behind only the fittest structures in the plasma."

life evolution aliens science plasma organisation dna selforganisation
august 2007 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

Whistle Through Your Comb - People are the Killer App

Thanks.

ac people design thinking planning life
august 2007 by adamcrowe

copy to mine

« earlier

Copy this bookmark: