Comments | johnnyfavorite: journey to the center of my navel

johnnyfavorite

journey to the center of my navel

Aug 25, 2011 00:48

thanks to the miracle of facebook, i recently got a bit more information about some of the people mentioned in this story, which i originally wrote on november 17, 1999. it includes the full name of one participant, which i would normally change, but it turns out that i had remembered it wrong. which explains why i couldn’t ever google up anything ( Read more... )

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agmsmith August 31 2011, 12:13:47 UTC

Makes me wonder how your path through life could have turned out differently. Would being married earlier put on more stress (less mobility and more worries in finding work) or would it be happier being a couple? It depends on the personality mix, which I can't estimate.

The closest I came to that was a girl I was tutoring who seemed a bit infatuated with me; I could have been dragged into running her dad's construction supply business. That would have been a different life - more business work, less fun computer programming.

johnnyfavorite August 31 2011, 13:44:56 UTC

that's a very interesting way to look at it ( ... )

agmsmith August 31 2011, 19:37:07 UTC

Business work would be less desirable in my view since it is less important in the history of the world than some outstanding deed of computer science. Just count the long term famous books on business as compared to the number on war or romance. Hmmm, not that many CS books in comparison ( ... )

skeletaltime September 5 2011, 23:03:32 UTC

it's human nature to look closest at the one underneath your nose and declare it the best

This is very true, and has even been a point of interest for some recent researchers. It's basically our psychological defense mechanism against being unhappy with what we've got. You should watch this TED talk if you havent already. Gilbert can be a little annoying when he's trying to be funny, but the content is worth absorbing, if you can swallow you old man grumpiness for a minute. I have his book, actually. It's a little dry, but fascinating stuff.

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html

johnnyfavorite September 10 2011, 00:34:34 UTC

i watched your video. now if only you could apply those lessons to your own life!

i bet you were watching that and thinking "i know allen won't like that ridiculous overreaction." and you were right, as usual.

p.s.: your FACE is grumpy.

skeletaltime September 10 2011, 04:32:43 UTC

har har - sometimes I can, sometimes I can't. it's all a process.

and yeah, I was. Only when I rewatched it before linking you to make sure it wasn't so over the top that you'd scrunch your face up like you and turn it off. When I watch that sort of thing on my own, that sort of thing doesn't bother me unless its super duper over the top. My annoyance sensitivity radar is mostly just tuned to the Self Aggrandizing channel. Anything other than that and it just doesn't get to me much.

p.s. - your face is grumpier.

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