minblaster

Losers sit in patent offices dreaming of the theories that gets rovers to mars, or the universal model of computation that allowed computers to exist. People told they must be Bigly Winners become reality-star presidents and certainly set an example.

Thinking a desire to win is necessary to exert effort is intriguing.

"Win at what you do" is one of those rah-rah go-getter mindset phrasing that has infected the Western world. Do you "win" at being happy? Having fulfilling relationships? Is everything a game/competition, to be measured with winning and losing?

If I wanted to study zoonotic viruses, I would put labs in places filled with universities or government agencies focused on disease, like Boston, Atlanta, Maryland.

Tell me about that lab in the Congo again.

Check out nonduality. It’s amusing that we insist that consciousness, which we experience firsthand, must be created by matter, which we experience indirectly. The image creating the screen.

Why do you feel the need to chase what other people consider success? Live life on your own terms.

This falls into the thinking “pure math is ok, since it will often become practical on a long enough time horizon”. Why not “pure math is ok because that’s what people want to do”?

Whether you can get funded for your explorations is a separate question, but no justification is needed for them.

How much do you think Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy and friends mark up the products they sell?

Wouldn’t you say something that has an equation that works but no theory of why is mysterious?

Mysterious doesn’t mean magical, it just means there’s an unexplained gap in what we understand, which is the case.

Short term, follow the advice here.

Long term, work toward financial freedom so you don’t need to contort your life to appease some HR gatekeeper.

Don’t get tricked into playing zero sum games.

Status, prestige, being the “best” are relative, not absolute measurements. Someone else’s gain is your loss.

Health, love, education (to build a skill) are absolute. Someone else’s gain can benefit and inspire you.

I hear you, same boat. Tried the big corp thing, startup lottery grind, settled on an easy remote gig (part time) while I run headfirst towards FIRE. Working great for stress levels so far.

I think total, not relative, suffering matters. Killing 10x the population of Mesopotamia in the Iraq war isn’t assuaged because it’s low as a percentage of the population. The amount of absolute suffering has increased drastically.