<story><title>We’re Optimizing Ourselves to Death (2019)</title><url>https://zandercutt.com/2019/02/18/were-optimizing-ourselves-to-death/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>imgabe</author><text>There&amp;#x27;s so many faulty assumptions here and so much more variety in the paths you can take through life than are proposed in this article.&lt;p&gt;You have more choices available than either climbing the corporate ladder or sitting on the couch watching Netflix. Neither of those lead to any sort of fulfillment in my opinion, so I don&amp;#x27;t know why you would limit yourself to those options.&lt;p&gt;Also the idea that if you don&amp;#x27;t win the competition and reach the top of the corporate ladder you&amp;#x27;re doomed to a life of failure and misery is just pure nonsense. By definition, the vast majority of people will not reach the top.&lt;p&gt;Life is not a constrained game like the Prisoner&amp;#x27;s Dilemma, you aren&amp;#x27;t limited to &amp;quot;lie&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;confess&amp;quot;, you can also tunnel out with a spoon, bribe the guard, find a loophole in the law, etc, etc. You&amp;#x27;re only limited by your imagination.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; billionaires can optimize for the sake of optimizing, rather than to keep their head above water&lt;p&gt;No, I would imagine billionaires optimize for the sake of being better able to do whatever made them billionaires in the first place, not just for its own sake.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>chongli</author><text>&lt;i&gt;I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don&amp;#x27;t let anybody tell you different.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;— Kurt Vonnegut&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;— Robert A. Heinlein&lt;p&gt;The key to a happy life is to let go of your status anxiety,  get out there, and really start living. There’s an effectively infinite number of things to learn, books to read, places to go, people to meet, landscapes to explore, cuisines to taste, animals to see. There’s just so, so much to experience in life, and so little of it has anything to do with money.</text></comment>
<story><title>We’re Optimizing Ourselves to Death (2019)</title><url>https://zandercutt.com/2019/02/18/were-optimizing-ourselves-to-death/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>imgabe</author><text>There&amp;#x27;s so many faulty assumptions here and so much more variety in the paths you can take through life than are proposed in this article.&lt;p&gt;You have more choices available than either climbing the corporate ladder or sitting on the couch watching Netflix. Neither of those lead to any sort of fulfillment in my opinion, so I don&amp;#x27;t know why you would limit yourself to those options.&lt;p&gt;Also the idea that if you don&amp;#x27;t win the competition and reach the top of the corporate ladder you&amp;#x27;re doomed to a life of failure and misery is just pure nonsense. By definition, the vast majority of people will not reach the top.&lt;p&gt;Life is not a constrained game like the Prisoner&amp;#x27;s Dilemma, you aren&amp;#x27;t limited to &amp;quot;lie&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;confess&amp;quot;, you can also tunnel out with a spoon, bribe the guard, find a loophole in the law, etc, etc. You&amp;#x27;re only limited by your imagination.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; billionaires can optimize for the sake of optimizing, rather than to keep their head above water&lt;p&gt;No, I would imagine billionaires optimize for the sake of being better able to do whatever made them billionaires in the first place, not just for its own sake.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>chalst</author><text>&amp;gt; You have more choices available than either climbing the corporate ladder or sitting on the couch watching Netflix&lt;p&gt;I think you are taking this point too literally. The question is: what proportion of your life are you spending pursuing career goals?&lt;p&gt;For a bit of background on this, I strongly recommend Skidelsky &amp;amp; Skidelsky (2012) How Much is Enough? [1]&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.penguinrandomhouse.com&amp;#x2F;books&amp;#x2F;216918&amp;#x2F;how-much-is-enough-by-robert-skidelsky-and-edward-skidelsky&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.penguinrandomhouse.com&amp;#x2F;books&amp;#x2F;216918&amp;#x2F;how-much-is-...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>