Basman

It's also about managing how immigration puts a strain welfare and housing. Ironically enough, many of the politicians on the right that are against immigration rhetorically themselves actually benefit from immigration as a source of cheap labor. Brexit is a prime example, as migration increased post-Brexit despite the rhetoric. Most countries are systems for which unchecked migration is unsustainable without it being deleterious politically.

How does that work? Does he raid the bookstore every week? Or the library?

About 2.5 years ago I applied for an art school which required me making a large portfolio to the deadline. Most of the things they asked for where things I where unfamiliar with and had no prior material of, so I grinded away. I think I worked 6-8 hours almost everyday for 1-2 months straight or so. I managed to finish my portfolio just the day before the deadline. I had to learn as I went. I had to build the bridge as I crossed it, which only added to the workload. I got rejected for lacking skills by the way, but that is besides the point. I was burnt out on art hard after that ordeal. I barely touched a pen for a whole year and I still only draw intermittently, even as the worst of the burnout receded. To this day, I haven't fully recovered the passion and zest I used to feel for drawing. I sometimes even question if I even like drawing, but when I do draw I generally feel a sense of elation and joy in the creative process. I just feel like I have to force myself to get there and if I do build a habit I quickly fall off again and there will go a long time till I pick the pen up again. I've been recently thinking that I should take a break "officially" now. I have never at any point since I made that portfolio consciously decided to take a break. I just berated myself for not practicing my art, which hasn't been great for my mood either. I kind of made drawing a part of my identity, which is probably why I'm struggling so much with this and I'm scared that I actually hate drawing.

I feel like the whiplash combined with the sleaziness of it kills the mood. Like your some kind of servant. What a story.

No fun allowed under religion and feminism.

Calling these things AI has to be one of the biggest marketing ploys of all time. It draws on decades of imagination and wonder and incurs a seemingly endless amount of speculation and hype. Very convenient for driving investments. Just calling it AI has to have made this companies billions. Calling it LLM instead of AI would remove it from the endless speculation and preconcieved notions of what it might do. It would be way more sober and make it more apparent that there are limitations.

Self-help is more about expanding your mind and ability to act on your passions, so a lot of self-help is worth reading, but not necesarilly worth studying. I can only think that a handful of books are really worth studying as they essentially cover the breadth of the topic.

Studying is often necessary to develop valuable skills and insight. Studying isn't always worth it though depending on the material.

Russia doesn't want peace and isn't interested in diplomacy unless it is sufficiently destructive for Ukraine's governability. This is why Trump's negotiations fail. He thinks Putin will be happy with a "good deal" of material substance, but Putin doesn't want peace. Russia can only be prevented from further escalation by being stonewalled military. Ukranians themselves are going to rely less on western countries when there's a lack of support. It doesn't help that Trump is ideologically allies with Putin. It's an unfortunate development if Ukraine goes nuclear.

That Mexican alien was pretty small.

Proves that nobody questions you if you just walk around in reflective vest.

According to this theory, Atlantis was an actual city, located at the "eye of the Sahara", or the Richat Structure, a one of a kind geological formation located in western Sahara of modern day Mesopotamia. Atlantis was supposedly a hub for international trade. The amount of evidence provided is mindblowing. The only thing I'm not quiet so sold on is how the natural disaster that wiped out Atlantis could exactly happen. According to the theory, a giant tsunami essentially washed over the breadth of Northern-Africa which moved diagonally south-west, but what exactly caused that? Keep in mind that the Sahara was much more lush and green at the time when Atlantis would've existed (also true for ancient Egyptians and ancient Greece).

Genuinely. The most painful period of my life was objectively not that bad. It was 95% just how I interpreted my situation and chose to react. I was driving myself to feeling suicidal over how I focused my mind. You don't really need to transcend it. You just need better mental hygiene. Awakening the Giant Within is full of strategies for making your mind more constructive and solution oriented. Jordan Shanks on Youtube also shares a bunch of strategies for being more constructively oriented.

How do you know that?

Thanks for the input. I'll check out the book. It's a difficult question for sure. I hope going more in depth with the LP course will help clarify things.

My life purpose is art related and doesn't have any formal degree requirements, therefor I was considering a degree in something else as a sort of day job. This could reasonably give a lot of security, especially because art can feel like such a precarious field, both financially and especially now with AI. But I'm quiet split on this idea. On the one hand, it's kind of a safe bet from a pure survival perspective and which makes parents and councilors alike nod their head in approval (because its so safe), but on the other hand, it takes away time I could be spending really immersing myself and learning my craft, which I'll ultimately need to actually get good at it. The idea was that a day job degree could act as a kind of linchpin and fail safe, but It's also hard to find something I actually find interesting. One of my main frustrations is that I feel I don't get the time to just focus on my thing. A dayjob degree would be safer but also distract from my life purpose. The argument against an art degree is that they are objectively terrible return of investments relative to how expensive they can be compared to anything STEM related. I used to think that you can effectively learn everything you need yourself, which is originally why I considered this path, but I recently changed my mind on that a bit. I think art training can be really valuable, but the majority of courses/degrees are expensive, which means I would have to go into debt for it. An art degree can also be very hit and miss and be more about the networking/experience rather than just learning technique compared to workshops/coursers (though I could be wrong about this). Sometimes I feel like being creative is kind of a curse. It is such a privilege to be making art. Literally. It would be way easier and more obvious what to do if I was autistic about programming or something. Thoughts?

It's hard to get into books in general. A lot of people aren't reading despite wishing to. I myself don't really read for fun for the most part. I get myself to read because I want to learn. That I mildly enjoy it just makes it easier.

It's worthless to negotiate any kind of peace without security guarantees. Russia can easily just breach those guarantees at a later date. This has been argued for extensively already. Certain Europeans are going to be biased towards sacrificing Ukraine to Russia to get it over with because they can't effectively mobilize against Russia due to political incapability. But Russia is at war with Europe as well through hybrid warfare, trying to undermine democracy, so it is in the interest of Europeans to fight back as well. This is why I think Ukraine might go nuclear in the near future.

What worked for me to build a reading habit is reading 5 minutes every day, then adding 5 minutes every week. I'm now at 50 minutes of reading every day. It lets you build positive associations and get used to reading as you gradually increase your intensity. You will forget most of what you read, I believe, but the overall idea will stick to you in my experience. A handful of concepts will stick in your mind, usually the most important ones. But when you re-read, the information tends to stick much better and more clearly also. If you want to maintain information like a fine comb catching lice then you need to study the book which I consider to be different from just reading. In my opinion, just reading is sufficient in most cases unless you think the book is particularly important. You reading/comprehension skills will improve as you read more books. Non-fiction books that are just information are harder to comprehend than stories though. I think humans are naturally geared toward story telling, so that makes sense. Good writers weave storytelling into their writing to better carry the meaning of their ideas. Audio books tend to have less emotional impact for me. It is much more of a passive experience compared to when you read and are focused on the book's content. There's also just that nice feeling when you are well into a book and reading happens effortlessly. Usually when you past the half-way point.

Humans have been reading and writing for thousands of years. It's just a form of communication. Your doing it right now. Communication and language is as human as it gets. I think a major reason why reading is so hard for many is because it is a focused activity and slow, unlike TikTok. You solve the bias problem by just reading lots of different books and perspective. Social media in comparison curates content into a personalized echochamber if you are not careful.

Being a victim is a fact. A victim mindset is just that, a mindset.

I think many progressive end up taking the liberal tradition for granted because they are so fixated on criticizing the establishment.

Can you tell me more about your exact experience? I agree that you don't need credentials to be an artist but the training experience can be quiet valuable in of itself. That would be my main motivation. I'm pushing 30 and I don't have any kind of degree, so I do feel the urge to just figure out and get going. I am considering something trades because I can't stomach a long academic education unless it is specific to something I want to do, like if I suddenly find out I want to become an doctor.

AI was already being used for gooning purposes to a significant degree. This is just opening the floodgates more. Not sure if that is necessarily a sign of desperation.

How did China make you miss democracy exactly?