Musings

There are a couple of points I wanted to give as... articles of faith.

For lack of a better term. 

It's just that I could probably write ten or twenty lengthy blog posts about them and still feel like I failed to capture the essence.

First point: God wouldn't pit us against each other. 

Second point: God's rigged everything.

Okay, yes. I'm being provocative with that second point. Bear with me.

I say He (or She) has rigged everything because I think if we're honest with ourselves and pay attention to that quiet inner voice... we will only truly be happy when we're doing His will. 

That sounds worse than it did in my head. (I don't mean people will be unhappy if they don't follow a fundamental interpretation of their religion. In fact, if following that interpretation makes them feel like they can't be their true self I don't think it's His will at all. He wants us to be our glorious, messy, multi-faceted selves. Even maybe, sometimes, our petty and spiteful selves. Lemme bookmark that for another time though.)

Hmmm.

It's more like - eating a healthy and balanced meal versus pigging out on Halloween candy. 

Yes, sweets are addictive. And tasty. As are a lot of junk food. But when you overdo it you just don't feel right.

Whereas a more balanced meal will leave you satisfied and full, but not overly stuffed.

You can learn to prefer the sweets and junk food, ofc. (And everyone is different, so I'm not even going to try and say what the proper balanced diet is for anyone else).

In the same way, people can learn to prefer dominance and power. After all, it sure beats being on the receiving end.

But this isn't about condemning people for wanting power, so much as saying that the quest for power can be like a junk food addiction.

And I don't think the worst examples of this are actually very happy with themselves.

Oh, they might be able to fool themselves most of the time. Spend money on lavish and decadent parties, sleep with a ton of people, spend a ton of money on disinformation and misinformation.

But I suspect, if there's ever a quiet moment where they're alone with their thoughts, that there's a lot of fear and dissonance underneath the glamour and glitter.

You. Will. Not. Find. Happiness. Playing. King. of. the. Hill.

Though you may find happiness mastering a skillset that can make you king of the hill.

So anyways.

God has it rigged. You won't be happy creating a society based on oppression, even if you're in the 1%. You may fool yourself, escape the reality, ignore it, and pretend it isn't there. You may convince yourself that you deserve your privileged position. That anyone not in a similar position doesn't deserve to be because they're too lazy, stupid, or incompetent. 

You can tell yourself that any evidence to the contrary is manufactured by people trying to steal what you have. Dismiss all the arguments and evidence that might threaten that position...

Not so much because you're a terrible person, really. It's... human. 

Very human, really. Who would want to say that they don't deserve a position of wealth and privilege? Who wouldn't feel attacked?

The problem, I think, is less that rather natural human reaction... and more the way it keeps people from searching for those win/win solutions.

Because I think, if we're all true to ourselves, that we won't find ourselves in conflict with each other. (Point one, above).

That my quest to be my best self and your quest to be your best self is a good thing that we both benefit from. Not something to be afraid of or threatened by.

That is why I think every example of mastery and excellence enriches all of us. Whether that's in sports, art, medicine, governance, or anything really. 

We should want a society that helps people achieve a level of mastery in whatever they're drawn to.

Not one where a few people make billions while the majority suffer mind numbing, low paying work in which they are constantly worried about whether one bad month will ruin them entirely.

Work Update

I'll be taking the AWS Solutions Architect exam next week and have been studying for it...

But it really annoys me. I went ahead and scheduled it because of some work things, and to set an end date to work towards, but too many of the questions seem focused on the wrong thing. 

By which I mean this: AWS changes its offerings often enough that if I were in a position where I needed to provision something, I would look up the latest.

Whether it should be the Provisioned IOPS SSD or Throughput Optimized HDD will depend on the app and db needs, and once I get the info on my requirements I'll go look at the latest offerings to see what suits.

Its not like I won't have internet access if I'm doing stuff on the cloud. 

Too many of the questions are like that. It's good to know what sort of questions to ask, and in general what the possible solutions are... But even if I memorize all the answers today, I'd still look it up again if asked to advise on any of this six months ago. 

I am actually kind of sick of reading about ec2, and the different db types, and lambda and cloudfront and cloudwatch and s3 and route 53 and containers and key management and load balancers and the different types of connections and autoscaling groups and vpcs and the various gateways and all the rest. 

Well, hopefully I'll remember enough to pass. Then I can be done with it for a bit. 

https://twitter.com/analogist_net/status/1485417172482412544?t=fOMMC65NGFY2qzLgDx1uzQ&s=19

Also

Saw a few more posts talking about the rich people bubble. Ie colleges that draw a majority of people from the top, and therefore all accept obviously incorrect ideas (at least, obvious if you're not one of them) and basically reinforce the bubble.

What do you do when the majority of the people with money and power are so completely out of touch?

Americans

Really liking these "I am an American" posts on Twitter. Giving a like to pretty much every one I see.

Absolutely nuts that some people can't seem to recognize that non-white Americans are American too. 

On a Related Note

Part of the reason we have the problem in my previous post is because of the disconnect mentioned in this thread.

The bubble is real. 

This

https://twitter.com/sarahhollowell/status/1483632450010071042?t=QpRGEEPUdl7RryOv_qvDSA&s=19

Debated blogging something the other day, but... 

I don't know. There seems to be so much foolish fuckwittery in the world, and it's overwhelming. 

How do so many of the people with wealth and power get such messed up ideas?!? And fail to see how terrible those ideas are?!?

The majority of the people already seem to know everything I'd want to say, and the ones who don't... Don't want to hear it.

Maybe I'll try writing something long winded and complicated later. 

Or maybe I'll keep skimming the news and escaping into fiction when the negativity and hopelessness gets to be too much.

I want to think it's not that bad, but some days it's a real struggle. 

SMH

I've heard criticisms about Democrats not developing their leadership pipeline, but the way someone seriously floated Hillary Clinton for 2024 shows how bad it is.

Honestly, regardless of party, the average age of our members of Congress is concerning. 

Not necessarily their age in and of itself (though rumors of health issues around some of them mean it can be).

And while I'd mostly say it's because they're our of touch and unrepresentative (look at how badly they understand technology every time they interview a tech leader. Or the way they act as though the world is still the one they grew up in.)

Its also that I can only think of a couple of reasons why people their age don't retire.

One is that they're so attached to their jobs (whether it's for the power, perks, sense of purpose, or something else... I don't know) that they'd rather die in saddle than retire.

The other is that they haven't developed anyone to pass the baton to, and are too scared of who might win the next election.

A good leader doesn't ever make themselves indispensable. They build up a team that knows how to handle things, even without them.

Its absolutely ridiculous that in 2022 our politics are still dominated by baby boomers and older. 

Trash of the Count's Family, Cont

I also like the themes about how important information is, as well as cooperation and using that information.

Spoilers again... 

At one point the main character gets sent to the equivalent of his own past. That's where we really learn about the alternate Korea he's from. 

Anyways, he's sent back to one of the worst times in his life. Where he doesn't have his later abilities, where the monsters are going to go especially crazy, and where a lot of bad things happened. So he decides to change it... 

 And even though he's got a few advantages this time, the biggest one is actually his information. And experience. 

Which he uses to help train the people around him.

Its strangely hopeful, in that he comes from a post apocalyptic world where monsters destroyed pretty much everything... 

But he also experienced the post apocalyptic world where people learned how to use their various skills to cooperate and take down the monsters. 

He values abilities like recording and communicating, things that in the immediate aftermath seemed useless since they didn't kill monsters... Because he knew firsthand how collecting and sharing that information eventually did. 

More Trash of the Count's Family

The novel mentions the terms 'foundation' and 'plate' a lot. I think foundation translates over fairly well, but I'm curious if that's author/novel specific or a sign of Korean culture. (for some reason I keep thinking of the little I know about Tae Kwon Do).

I might have to read another Korean novel just to get a sense of that. (there is apparently a 'holy trinity' I've caught references to in fandom circles, but I haven't yet looked into it enough to decide if I want to read any of them. I'm not ready to leave the Trash of the Count's Family universe anyway).

'plate' is harder to understand immediately, though not difficult. It's basically your innate potential for handling things. Ie. Someone with a large plate can handle a lot. Someone with a small plate quickly has no room for more. I kinda like the concept, though I keep thinking of the frustration that comes when you have a large plate but are unable to fill it. (ie wasted potential. Underutilized. So damn frustrating, and it seems like our systems are not designed to draw that potential out. But that's a different story.)

I've been rereading it, so as to pick up the details I breezed through the first time. I probably ought to give another spoiler warning before continuing... If you plan on reading it and don't want spoilers, stop now. 

I really love the character development, as well as some of the larger themes. For example, one of the major characters is the crown prince of a kingdom, and he gets in a major battle with a primary villain... While our main character is tied up elsewhere. There's a lot going on there... The main character is known as a hero, and the people fighting without him are realizing how much they're relying on one guy..  And stepping up. 

We also see the crown prince really show off his strengths. 

But what I especially liked was how it highlighted the difference between a true leader and... Well, whatever you want to call the villain's style of ruling. (it's not strictly based on strength, though there's a lot of that involved).

You see the crown prince raising his people's spirits too (kind of like Gandalf on his white horse during the battle of Gondor). 

That reminds me of something my aunt shared on Facebook. It was talking about how important music was. As usual, I forget the specific wording, but it basically said music affected our invisible worlds. Like... It wasn't just 'music moves you' or 'effects the emotions'. That's implied ofc, I just got the impression of music being used more like a tangible art. Like weaving. Except it's affecting intangible things.

Gyah. 

I am relaying it very badly, but I don't have much hope of finding it if I try googling. So I'll just skip to the point...

Leadership is both an art and a science because leaders also are affecting those intangible structures. 

And seeing our crown prince schooling the villain on his weak leadership is really kinda awesome.