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Random Chat, Thoughts, Posts, and/or Rants Thread

Bekit

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They would have to hate their life and have a death wish. At 90, each year, your death probability is roughly 1 in 6. Roll a dice.



It shouldn't be appealing to anyone. At 90, his riches don't matter at all. He's one of the poorest people in the world in the most important asset there is: time.

Made me think of this:



Time is finite. Which is a fancy way of saying that you only have so much of it – then it will run out. When you are young, time seems to stretch into the distance for so far that surely it will always be on your side? When the young catch the old unawares, they may sometimes glimpse a look of naked envy, which is then instantly disguised.

And the old have reason to be envious. Truly, truly, they do.

Ask me what I will give you if you could wave a magic wand and give me my youth back. The answer would be everything I own and everything I will ever own. In The Odyssey we read:

And Achilles replied, ‘Do not speak soothingly to me of death, glorious Odysseus. I would rather live on earth as a bondsman to the meanest peasant, than be king of all the shadows.’

Homer, as always, is right.

If you are young and reading this then I ask you to remember just this: you are richer than anyone older than you, and far richer than those who are much older. What you choose to do with the time that stretches out before you is entirely a matter for you. But do not say you started the journey poor. If you are young, you are infinitely richer than I can ever be again.

Money is never owned. It is only in your custody for a while. Time is always running on, and the young have more of it in their pocket than the richest man or woman alive. That is not sentimentality speaking. That is sober fact.



From Felix Dennis's How to Get Rich. Sadly, he died at 67, over two decades younger than Buffett is now.
Ah, youth. Why is it so hard to appreciate time when you're young? Why is it so hard to appreciate time, period?

I've had this quote on a sticky note on my laptop background for the last 3 years:

“The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it. You wake up in the morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. A highly singular commodity, showered upon you in a manner as singular as the commodity itself!”
by Arnold Bennett (1910)
 
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Kak

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Not sure if I'm an anomaly, but I don't feel this way.

I'm perfectly at peace being at the back-end of my life.
Agreed except for being 31.

Life is way more fun with money and freedom to do mostly what I want.

I enjoy marriage and being a dad. I have a couple of fun businesses and a bad a$$ radio show. I wouldn’t trade it.

If anything, I’m more excited about the future than wishing I could relive the past.
 
Last edited:
G

Guest-5ty5s4

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The ages of 36 and 90 definitely aren’t a fair comparison.

The conversation wasn’t really about their current age, more like whose life you’d rather live.

Granted, Ronaldo potentially has many decades to chart a totally different path than what he started with
 

WillHurtDontCare

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Talking to some friends the other day about Ronaldo and the Coca Cola thing, we ended up talking about Ronaldo vs Warren Buffett.

Everyone agreed they would rather be Ronaldo than Buffett, lol.

Curious if anyone would ever choose otherwise


indeed

The ages of 36 and 90 definitely aren’t a fair comparison.

The conversation wasn’t really about their current age, more like whose life you’d rather live.

Granted, Ronaldo potentially has many decades to chart a totally different path than what he started with

Indeed - athlete life > desk jockey life

Plus, Buffet takes horrible care of himself.
 

MTF

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Not sure if I'm an anomaly, but I don't feel this way.

I'm perfectly at peace being at the back-end of my life.

I wish I had this peace of mind regarding death. Perhaps I would find it when/if I live to your age.

As it is now, I think I'm the most death-obsessed person in my social environment. As in, I think about it daily and am terrified of it while others either think they'll live forever, don't think about it much or dismiss it as a "natural thing" (as if it made it somehow calming).
 

WillHurtDontCare

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Not sure if I'm an anomaly, but I don't feel this way.

I'm perfectly at peace being at the back-end of my life.

You probably are an anomaly, because many people needlesslly waste their lives.

'It is not that life is too short, but that we waste so much of it.' -Seneca, On the Shortness of Life

While you're young, it's important to recognize time as your greatest asset because you can achieve so much in one lifetime.

While you're older, it's important to recognize that you couldn't have achieved everything in one lifetime; and that if you took respectable risks, to appreciate what you did, regardless of the outcomes as there are no guarantees in life.
 
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Kak

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Mathuin

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Black_Dragon43

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I wish I had this peace of mind regarding death. Perhaps I would find it when/if I live to your age.

As it is now, I think I'm the most death-obsessed person in my social environment. As in, I think about it daily and am terrified of it while others either think they'll live forever, don't think about it much or dismiss it as a "natural thing" (as if it made it somehow calming).
I have sort of lost my fear of death after dealing with anxiety and hitting rock bottom a few years back. Before then, it had a strong grip on me, pretty similar to what you describe. And while I would choose to continue living over dying any day, I am not much concerned about the latter nowadays.

I'd say I have more fear of injuries and being incapacitated than outright death atm. What is there to fear in the end? Sleep or some other form of life right? If the former, then there is no one there left to "feel" anything, either good or bad. And I have good memories of sleep. If you go to sleep and wake up in 1 day, or if you wake up in 100 years, what is the difference? To you it will feel the same. If you extend that time to infinity, there will still be no difference.

If on the other hand death is not the end, then hopefully I have lived righteously and will end up in a good place. One thing though is for certain, death will be a rest from the concerns of this life.

What comes before death though, can be scary. But not something you can't adapt to. For example, suffocating and not being able to take another breath. That might be one of the ways you'll die. What I do, for example, is I put myself in the shower, put the shower head over my face, and let the water pour down so I can't breathe... and see how it feels. Watch it. And after I went through this exercise, I realised that yeah, I can't breathe, but I can still go out peacefully if I want. First time yeah, I started panicking when I felt I couldn't breathe... but you get habituated to it, as with anything else.

Fear is overcome by facing it. There is no other way. I suffer of OCD, so my brain naturally entertains possibilities that other people don't even think about. People have OCD because they do not want to accept certain things. Death for example. Or the very remote possibility of catching HIV from a droplet of blood on a doorknob, or whatever it is. Then the OCD brain obsesses about this, trying to gain certainty that the feared thing has not happened and will not happen. Of course, this is impossible.

There is no certainty in life. And fear is scary from a distance. But if you go into it, and instead of running away, face it, the fear evaporates. Now not all fears can be faced directly. For example, the fear of death - you can't actually die, since there is no return from that. That's why therapists came up with imaginal scripting. The whole purpose of it is to eradicate fear by habituation. Your fear persists, because when you feel it, you run away and try to get rid of it. If you didn't run away, and accepted it, and dealt with the uncomfortable sensations it creates, it would disappear.

So you could write an imaginal script for yourself about death. And detail the most horrendous way possible of dying. The absolute worst for you. And then read it, and vividly imagine it, and you'll start feeling very afraid. But don't run away from it, open yourself to it, accept the feelings... and you'll be surprised that by repeating this exercise the fear will at first diminish, and then almost evaporate. It's also something that you should work on with a therapist for more guidance.

Disclaimer: I am not a licensed therapist, so the above is just what has worked for me and is shared strictly for informational purposes. You are in charge of your own decisions, and I am not responsible for any decisions you choose to take as the result of what you read above. I recommend that you consult a trained therapist, licensed psychologist, medical doctor or healthcare professional before you take any decision. My writing is not therapeutic, I write simply based on my own experience, and what I've done, and strictly for informational purposes.

P.S. Just also remembered this video, very good for fear:
View: https://youtu.be/9pnqWGBYP7Q
 
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Last edited:

MoneyDoc

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I have sort of lost my fear of death after dealing with anxiety and hitting rock bottom a few years back. Before then, it had a strong grip on me, pretty similar to what you describe. And while I would choose to continue living over dying any day, I am not much concerned about the latter nowadays.

I'd say I have more fear of injuries and being incapacitated than outright death atm. What is there to fear in the end? Sleep or some other form of life right? If the former, then there is no one there left to "feel" anything, either good or bad. And I have good memories of sleep. If you go to sleep and wake up in 1 day, or if you wake up in 100 years, what is the difference? To you it will feel the same. If you extend that time to infinity, there will still be no difference.

If on the other hand death is not the end, then hopefully I have lived righteously and will end up in a good place. One thing though is for certain, death will be a rest from the concerns of this life.

What comes before death though, can be scary. But not something you can't adapt to. For example, suffocating and not being able to take another breath. That might be one of the ways you'll die. What I do, for example, is I put myself in the shower, put the shower head over my face, and let the water pour down so I can't breathe... and see how it feels. Watch it. And after I went through this exercise, I realised that yeah, I can't breathe, but I can still go out peacefully if I want. First time yeah, I started panicking when I felt I couldn't breathe... but you get habituated to it, as with anything else.

Fear is overcome by facing it. There is no other way. I suffer of OCD, so my brain naturally entertains possibilities that other people don't even think about. People have OCD because they do not want to accept certain things. Death for example. Or the very remote possibility of catching HIV from a droplet of blood on a doorknob, or whatever it is. Then the OCD brain obsesses about this, trying to gain certainty that the feared thing has not happened and will not happen. Of course, this is impossible.

There is no certainty in life. And fear is scary from a distance. But if you go into it, and instead of running away, face it, the fear evaporates. Now not all fears can be faced directly. For example, the fear of death - you can't actually die, since there is no return from that. That's why therapists came up with imaginal scripting. The whole purpose of it is to eradicate fear by habituation. Your fear persists, because when you feel it, you run away and try to get rid of it. If you didn't run away, and accepted it, and dealt with the uncomfortable sensations it creates, it would disappear.

So you could write an imaginal script for yourself about death. And detail the most horrendous way possible of dying. The absolute worst for you. And then read it, and vividly imagine it, and you'll start feeling very afraid. But don't run away from it, open yourself to it, accept the feelings... and you'll be surprised that by repeating this exercise the fear will at first diminish, and then almost evaporate. It's also something that you should work on with a therapist for more guidance.

Disclaimer: I am not a licensed therapist, so the above is just what has worked for me and is shared strictly for informational purposes. You are in charge of your own decisions, and I am not responsible for any decisions you choose to take as the result of what you read above. I recommend that you consult a trained therapist, licensed psychologist, medical doctor or healthcare professional before you take any decision. My writing is not therapeutic, I write simply based on my own experience, and what I've done, and strictly for informational purposes.
This was powerful.
 

Kak

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G

Guest-5ty5s4

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The biggest advantage the communists have?

Their unity.

in spite of all the other dumb shit they say and do, the fact they stick together to screw everybody over makes them highly effective at it.

I’m not disagreeing with the article. It’s just something I notice.

The D’s all fall in line with their fire and pitchforks while the R’s bicker and argue.
 
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Kak

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The biggest advantage the communists have?

Their unity.

in spite of all the other dumb shit they say and do, the fact they stick together to screw everybody over makes them highly effective at it.

I’m not disagreeing with the article. It’s just something I notice.

The D’s all fall in line with their fire and pitchforks while the R’s bicker and argue.
R’s are just D’s that drive slower.
 

Daniel A

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I wish I had this peace of mind regarding death. Perhaps I would find it when/if I live to your age.

As it is now, I think I'm the most death-obsessed person in my social environment. As in, I think about it daily and am terrified of it while others either think they'll live forever, don't think about it much or dismiss it as a "natural thing" (as if it made it somehow calming).

If you're curious to look into this more, check out the following.

Terror management theory

The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life

The Denial of Death

Birth and Death of Meaning
 

MTF

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socaldude

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As it is now, I think I'm the most death-obsessed person in my social environment. As in, I think about it daily and am terrified of it while others either think they'll live forever, don't think about it much or dismiss it as a "natural thing" (as if it made it somehow calming).

My guess is that the fear of death stems from the fear of losing an identity. Your body and it’s material associations and emotional attachments. Which is mainly an illusion. Death is a powerful illusion. Death is the ultimate paradox.

Your true identity is one where you share an identity with nature or the universe. To love something means to share an identity with it. The result is you love the universe and you love yourself and you don’t fear death.

That’s how I approach this. You are trying to solve a paradox.
 

MTF

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My guess is that the fear of death stems from the fear of losing an identity. Your body and it’s material associations and emotional attachments. Which is mainly an illusion. Death is a powerful illusion. Death is the ultimate paradox.

Yes, that might be it. It's scary to imagine a reality (or whatever it would be) where you as the you that you define by yourself (your experiences, your body, your thoughts, your beliefs, your family, your values, etc.; or as some would call it the ego or the mind) doesn't exist.

Your true identity is one where you share an identity with nature or the universe. To love something means to share an identity with it. The result is you love the universe and you love yourself and you don’t fear death.

I think I understand it at some level and would really want to believe it. It's a neat theory and a comforting thought that eventually everyone returns to that "one" encompassing consciousness. But since you can't know it for sure like a law of physics, there's always uncertainty.

You are trying to solve a paradox.

Which means it's unsolvable, so logically I should stop thinking about it. Yet, it keeps driving me crazy. I can't fully enjoy most moments because I think that eventually they'll go away (as everything). Instead of enjoying them, I worry what will happen once they'll be forever gone (for example, time spent with your parents).
 

socaldude

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Which means it's unsolvable, so logically I should stop thinking about it

One of the reasons I tend to ignore mainstream sciences is that they ignore topics like death or happiness. And have pretty much failed to contribute any peace of mind to these areas. Psychology still can’t figure out depression(take this pill instead!) and physics can’t figure out death(you are a bag of meat going through the motions!). Wow, gee. I’m no Einstein but shouldn’t science help mankind solve problems like these? Then what’s the point? So people can “prove” that they are smarter than the next guy. Wow. See you later. LOL I’ll read Plato and Spinoza instead.


I can't fully enjoy most moments because I think that eventually they'll go away (as everything)

Read Plato side by side with the power of now. The purpose of every moment is to bring joy and awareness to it. Plato is hard to read because of its poetic style but read between the lines. Time is the moving image of eternity. Our body is a “weight” on our soul. And remember pathos, logos and ethos. We begin to live every moment of our life when we know platos “forms” represent our present moments.
 
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Raoul Duke

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I'm gonna have to pull out my inner Greta Thunberg on you guys.

9Grfei8.jpeg
 
G

Guest-5ty5s4

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A nation has either a force-based or trade-based economy.

guess which one is more stable and peaceful? Trade!

trouble is, when a nation’s economy gets more indebted and out of balance, they seem to move more towards force.
 
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WillHurtDontCare

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"I cannot say that I believe in Christ because I was convinced by the reasons for belief; it is only when I believe that I can understand the reasons for belief. The same circular relationship holds for love: I do not fall in love for precise reasons (her lips, her smile ...) - it is because I already love her that her lips, etc, attract me. This is why love, too, is evental. It is a manifestation of a circular structure in which the evental effect retroactively determines its causes or reasons."

Slavoj Zizek, Event
 
G

Guest-5ty5s4

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How big of a business would you be comfortable owning while still having a full time position somewhere else? And why?
 

Raoul Duke

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How big of a business would you be comfortable owning while still having a full time position somewhere else? And why?

None.

I hate people.

I rather work part-time. Pay my low bills. Create my business. Become sustainable. Then bounce my part-time job.

or I could just sit in a corner and blame YOU for my so unfortunate life.
 

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