Interesting Links for 26-08-2014

[andrewducker]

• What Should a 4 Year Old Know?
  (tags: children parenting )
• Somebody stop me before I spend a fortune on awesome light bulbs!
  (tags: lighting technology )
• Vermont Quits War on Drugs to Treat Heroin as a Health Issue
  (tags: drugs heroin USA )
• No, Rhode Island Didn't 'Accidentally' Decriminalize Prostitution
  (tags: prostitution sexwork USA law

Comments

[andrewducker]

Fingers crossed.

Glad you liked the Love article. I didn't really see the point of the person who was jumping up and down on Twitter. And was at lunch, so missed the discussion as it happened.

[alitheapipkin]

Someone was jumping up and down about it? Please tell me because they were miffed about it slagging off John Lennon and not because they disagreed with the point!

[andrewducker]

Sadly not.

They are actually largely agreeing with the article, but objecting to the word "Love" being used to describe what 99% of people mean by the word "Love".

[alitheapipkin]

Ahhh, ok. The article is entirely aimed at that 99 % though, isn't it? I mean those of us who have learnt the lesson can now merrily redefine our successful post-learning relationships as 'real love' because we include all the things that do make it enough, but that doesn't help all the people who have yet to grasp this. Which is who he is writing for.

[cartesiandaemon]

I feel like part of the problem is that when people say "love" they don't usually distinguish between "intense emotions about someone", "a good interpersonal relationship with someone", "a decision to tie your life to someone" and a few other things, because people usually expect them to go together.

I would almost prefer to say something like "just because you experience intense emotions about someone, doesn't mean you'll be compatible with them", and try to side-step arguments from people who would rather I said "just because you experience intense emotions about someone, doesn't mean you're in love" and those who'd rather I said "just because you're in love, doesn't mean you're compatible."

[alitheapipkin]

It rather loses its resonance if you start debating where the line is between intense emotions and being in love though. The point is rather than it doesn't matter whether you're in love according to someone else's definition, it matters only that you *feel* that you love someone. There is no way to objectively define 'love' which everyone can agree on.

[andrewducker]

I agree. The word love is used by most people, and we generally have an intuitive sense of what it means to us, personally.

Quibbling over exact meanings, or avoiding using it, seems a bit silly if you're trying to talk to a general audience.

[cartesiandaemon]

I wrote a lot of versions of this comment and deleted them