Interesting Links for 13-10-2015

[andrewducker]

• Supernovas and the history of life on Earth
  • (tags: space stars life prehistory )
• The strange rise of the 'hoverboard' and why you shouldn't ride them through traffic
  • (tags: technology transport cool )
• The gene that makes women pear-shaped
  • (tags: genes fat )
• The Lib Dems have set up an inquiry to find the best way to legalise cannabis
  • (tags: marijuana

Comments

[andrewducker]

I think most people want both. Enough money to not be stressed by not getting the basics, and then more money on top of that to allow them to self-actualise. I agree that not everyone wants to be Elon Musk, but I do think that measuring life purely in "How often am I stressed?" doesn't capture the whole picture. Removing chronic stress of the "Can I afford to eat?" kind is clearly good, but I like having a lifestyle with a certain amount of stress in it, becaust it comes along with a sense of achievement.

[alitheapipkin]

Yeah, this.

"By any reasonable standard, he lives a fantastic life."

Does he? All the author has told me is that he thinks Musk's *work* life is 'fantastic'. What about his family life? His mental and physical health? I wouldn't swap lives with him on the basis of that description alone.

[andrewducker]

Elon Musk is worth billions. If he didn't want to have the life he currently lives then he could choose a different one.

I wouldn't swap with him either, because I don't want his life. But that doesn't mean he's not living exactly the life he wants (except, presumably, that he'd like to have even more money so that he could make things happen faster and have a house on Mars).

[kalimac]

This writer says chivalry isn't dead. Then they give an example of chivalry as "It’s about holding the door for a dude in a wheelchair."

I once held the door for a dude in a wheelchair. The dude then embarked on a slow and effortful but ultimately successful struggle to open the other half of the same double door so that he could go through it, apparently just to prove that he didn't need my help.

Chivalry is dead.

[andrewducker]

I hold open doors for people on a regular basis, and have them held open for me. I occasionally get a negative response, but it's extremely rare.

Declaring chivalry dead based on a singular anecdote seems....a bit extreme.

[kalimac]

The writer can use a single example to declare chivalry alive: I can use the same example to prove it dead.

[andrewducker]

One needs only a single living specimen for a species to not be extinct.

[nineveh_uk]

As Lord Peter Wimsey put it, "A desire to have all of the fun is nine-tenths of the law of chivalry."

Basic courtesy, OTOH, can be aspired to by all.

[bunn]

I love the story of little printf!

" If you care hard enough about your work to be the one doing the stuff everyone else hates, you're thanked by doing more and more of that work you don't like, until that's all you do. And then there's nothing left for you to enjoy."

Oh now there is a terrible, terrible warning!

[andrewducker]

Oh yes. Lots of good warnings in there. I thought it was really nicely done.

And I try to walk a line between helping other people out and doing the right thing, but not being a doormat who gets taken for granted. It's not always easy!