John wrote:
> Then there's the other problem -- what's the point? I ask myself
> that question every day. Only 30-40 people thought my book was
> valuable enough to spend a few dollars to buy it. I've posted over
> 3,000 articles on Breitbart since 2010, but they've made it clear
> that they don't consider it worth paying for. It's nice that you
> admire me, and I appreciate it, but the bottom line is that if
> what I'm doing were worth anything, then somebody somewhere would
> be willing to fund it on a regular basis, either by direct
> funding, or by paying me a salary as a journalist, analyst or
> Senior Software Engineer. But nobody is. So everything I do is
> worthless. This is the Cassandra curse. And if everything I do is
> worthless, then I'm worthless. That's the way I feel. So what's
> the point?
John wrote:
> How much was Cassandra worth as a human being? She was ridiculed
> when she predicted the fall of Troy. After her predictions came
> true, she was assaulted and raped. Then she became the slave and
> mistress of the Greek king Agamemnon. She warned Agamemnon that
> if they return to Greece then his wife, Clytemnestra, will kill
> them both. Agamemnon did not believe her and they returned to
> Greece, where Clytemnestra killed them both.
> So Cassandra was ALSO a completely worthless human being, who
> accomplished nothing that anyone valued.
John wrote:
> I have a particularly harsh view of life (or at least my life)
> that if something has no monetary value then it's worthless, and
> therefore the stuff that I've done -- the book, the articles, the
> software engineering -- is all completely worthless, and therefore
> I'm a completely worthless human being. It's nice being told that
> I'm benefiting mankind, or other kumbaya nonsense, but if it
> doesn't translate into money, then it's worthless.
Higgenbotham wrote:
> OK, let me start at some generic beginning and then work toward
> the specifics. A generic beginning could/would start with what
> industries "translate into money" by having sufficient payback
> from advertising to advertise all evening on cable TV to the
> masses. And what I see are a few categories popping up
> repeatedly: junk food (most notably), pharmaceuticals (presumably
> profitable due to all the junk food Americans consume), insurance,
> and ambulance chasing law firms. Maybe I missed a couple
> categories (Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers now comes to mind) but
> you get the idea.
> So by your logic above, since these types of "industries"
> currently translate into money, they are not worthless. In the
> strict accounting sense, this would be true.
> It would also be true that people don't value being warned about
> any of this stuff. Warning people about junk food does nothing to
> curb behavior. In fact, most people I know who have somehow
> convinced themselves they eat a good diet in fact eat a lot of
> processed food.
> If someone were to advertise something that is very valuable, such
> as vegetables that are grown in a way to increase their
> phytochemical content, even though that would in fact be worth a
> lot, it would not sell to the masses. Nobody could afford to
> advertise such a thing and get any payback from it.
> What I really hear you saying in so many words (my unique
> interpretation) is that if you are not operating at the 97th
> percentile, you are worthless. Instead of trying to appeal to
> their intellect, it might be more profitable to take advantage of
> their stupidity.
Well, thanks for that interesting analysis.
I've never been able to take advantage of anyone. There have been
people whom I trusted a great deal, but for whom I was nothing more
than a lamb to be led to slaughter. It's just not in my character to
do the same to someone else. I don't know what percentile that puts
me at, but I am what I am.
A recruiter called me last week and asked whether I would be
interested in a Java developer job in Burlington. She said she had
read my resume and I was a perfect fit. I said, "Sure, but in the
last few months, nobody seems willing to hire anyone over 60." There
was a long pause, and she said, "Ohhhhhhhh. Do you have any younger
friends who might be interested?" I hung up without answering.
Some variation of that happens several times a week. I am no longer
able to get a salary as a software engineer, or as a journalist, or an
analyst, or anything else. If I could perform some useful work that
someone was willing to pay a regular salary for, then I would be worth
something. As things stand, I am a completely worthless human being.
Since I'm worthless, I'm going to run out of money in a few months,
and that will be the end of me and Generational Dynamics. At the same
time, life is increasingly depressing and awful just from the repeated
humiliation. So there are some things I want to get done in the
limited time I have left, and I'm focusing on those. One of those is
the book on China-Japan that I'm currently working on, so that even if
it's the end of me, it won't entirely be the end of Generational
Dynamics.
Since you're into chemistry, here's something amusing that you might
enjoy. The Peaceful Pill Handbook lists many ways to end life. There
is one exotic Korean method, where you squeeze the blood vessels in
your neck. I haven't figured it out, but the online book contains a
video that shows you how. They claim it can be done anywhere,
anytime, without drugs or gadgets or anything. It's good for people
in prisons or nursing homes. There are also substances that one can
use to bring about a peaceful end of life, like nembutal, sodium
cyanide, sodium aznide, sodium nitrite, and dozens others. There are
specific instructions for using each one, including taking something
30 minutes earlier to help prevent vomiting. Some of these are almost
impossible to get, while others are readily available. So Amazon
sells many of them, and one of them is sodium azide, which was used in
automobile airbags, or as a chemical preservative. If you look at
that page, it contains a section on "Customers who bought this item
also bought"? And what product is that? Tagamet, something that can
prevent vomiting. I think that's hilarious.
