EnsignWashout

Oh, nice. I've been looking for a good way to store all my unused bricks.

Infinity is effectively just bullshit.

I'm fond of pointing out to my students that there's a very practical reason to care about "infinity" in math:

While nothing ever reaches "infinity", things absolutely do reach a point where they violently fly to pieces and catch on fire.

So I teach my students to substitute the phrase "explodes and catches on fire" where they see an equation that "approaches infinity".

I find it helps them pay attention to a subject that is otherwise bullshit. Infinity itself is bullshit, but it has a place in math: telling us when to quickly duck behind a good solid oak table.

I feel like my odds of avoiding getting my ass kicked are better inconveniencing just one person.

Well said. Particularly

out of a distaste for a harsh and cruel world

I want to respond (with agreement) to:

treat others as you want to be treated,"

• is, indeed silly. It's meant as an overly simple default to grow from.

Treat others as they ask to be treated is much better.

But I do believe that both benefit from an intentional practice of self-empathy.

I have to constantly remind myself to treat me like I treat others.

I do, as well.

I treat others. I despise myself and have great empathy for others

I said that to myself before, as well.

But I discovered my empathy for others became surprisingly more effective after I started an intentional practice of self-empathy.

but that's certainly not universal

Certainly. This is what worked for me, and my relationships.

The golden rule does not work. What if I like to be treated like shit?

Agreed. But it is a good default place to we start.

The real skill is empathy - to understand how the other person wants to be treated.

My empathy for others became much more effective after I started practicing empathy for myself.

It was a bit eye opening, to me, to realize how much impact a practice of self-empathy made in my relationships.

Lots of folks replying don't seem believe in self empathy.

That makes me sad.

Self empathy is the foundation of empathy toward others.

The golden rule - treat others as I want to be treated - only really became effective, for my friends, after I learned to treat myself well.

Is self empathy distinct from self pity?

Absolutely.

Pity is when I wallow in how unfair everything is to me.

Empathy is when I realize I genuinely got dealt a shit hand, then give myself some time to recover, and then get on with life.

Pay your IT staff a fair market wage, folks.

(There's no upper bound on the cost of cheaping out on IT support.)

so what's the fucking point?

I've heard that covering up abhorrent crimes takes special amounts of money.

But maybe they'll release the Epstein files any day now to prove that rumor wrong, and we can all relax.

"Random number machine given infinite spins gets a lucky roll."

What if my pain made me a worse version of myself?

Then we would restore from backup, right?