Nostalgia isn’t only a hell of a drug, but it’s a hell of an addiction too. Chasing times when you last felt good or when you felt things were right. Getting in touch with old flames that you forgot that there were reasons you moved on from, until you read the painful endings as to why those connections died.
Having those rose-tinted shades aren’t always good for you.
Losing my temper has paid off maybe once in life.
Owning a mistake disarms anyone’s ability to be mad at you almost every time. Way more effective than trying to talk your way out of it.
High ambition is over rated. Those that hustle have the same mentality as a cat chasing its own tail, they can never arrive. All there is is now.
We’re all idiots.
Choice is an illusion. So is destiny.
Never trust a fart.
People are tribal and incredibly cruel
you don’t have to follow the law. you just have to not get caught.
break the law enough and you can break bigger laws without getting caught.
break enough bigger laws and you can just buy or threaten yourself out of jail.
laws, like door locks, keep the honest honest.
I’ve traveled to 50 countries and lived in three. People are basically good, but the media shouters will try very hard to convince you otherwise.
Currently, there are a fair amount of people trying to convince us that Iran is the enemy. Yes, their culture has its issues. But it doesn’t really work when the 5 Iranians I personally know are some of the nicest people you will meet.
Our differences are far smaller than the things that unify us.
I haven’t been to that many and I won’t say I’ve been to the other end of the spectrum. But, having been to other corners of the square, I’ve found that people are the same. There are wildly different cultural norms that can certainly be misconstrued as rude or invasive, but damn, the baseline human experience is so common.
We all think we need more money. We all know lots of people worse off. We all know several better off. We all celebrate births, marriages, and deaths. We all feed our guests to excess (not you, whichever Scandinavian country it is that makes guests wait in the other room while you have dinner). We all make liquor from anise.
The thing I’ve noticed is people who don’t have much, don’t really care if everyone around is the same. When they see others who are better off, suddenly they become dissatisfied.
It is same for everyone not just poor (instagram exists)
Moreover, we were like this even in 2000 BC
Never trust an addict. You might love them, they might be family, but their drug of choice will always be more important than you.
Only commit one crime at a time. Make sure you don’t have a headlight or turn signal out or speed if you’ve got something in the car you’re not supposed to. Being a person of color counts as a crime if you live in the south or a large city.
Authority must be questioned. Just because they’re your boss, a cop, or a politician doesn’t make them automatically right or justified. This also extends to subject matter experts whose qualifications, methodologies, and other bona fides should be interrogated.
You will have regrets for some of the things you didn’t do, but also some of the things you did. Choose the exciting risk over the boring comfort and you’ll have fewer.
You will have regrets for some of the things you didn’t do, but also some of the things you did. Choose the exciting risk over the boring comfort and you’ll have fewer.
This last line is such good advice
Regarding pets, enjoy the time you have together and save the mourning for when they’re six feet under. I was sad about the aging of my dog, but realized that to her, humans are basically immortal constants of love and comfort. Looking at it that way made me feel a bit better.
Speaking of addictive thought processes, maladaptive daydreaming. I’ve half joked about it over on !worldbuilding@lemmy.world, but it really is addictive. Recently I realized it’s not healthy to reject reality and substitute my own. Even if my reality has mechs and this one doesn’t :(
Mechs ftw.
I dig giant robots!
You dig giant robots!
We dig giant robots!
Chicks dig giant robots!
Always get it in writing.
And the corollary, read the damned writing.
drinking and smoking is a waste. sooner you quit the better. glad i quit 20 years ago or i wouldn’t be typing this. addictions kill
Good for you (genuinely). Some folk absolutely should never touch booze. Alcoholism is hell, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
But my God, Lemmy is so puritanical these days. I’m 50, an ex-smoker, and I still enjoy the occasional drink. There’s a massive middle ground for most people.
Countless people have a normal relationship with alcohol. Personally, I have met some amazing folk and had wonderful experiences where drink has played a part.
I’m sure many of you are poised to jump in with the health risks, but honestly, don’t bother. It’s been part of enlightened societies for millennia. You can keep your few extra years at the end of a life of joyless macro-nutritional slavery. I’ll have a beer.
Why joyless? Seems like skill issue to be honest
I agree. I’ll be one year sober in 5 days :)
There are always additional choices available beyond the ones presented to you. They may not be optimal, but they are yours and they are there. And a principled choice with negative consequences can still be worth it. People get emotionally invested into all sorts of stupid shit, or never question why something is the way it is, or never express curiosity for alternatives. And you simply don’t need to accept these people’s framing for anything. It is even a parenting technique using the illusion of choice on children to force a decision that was never a choice to begin with.
I have an uncle that orders stuff not on the menu. Like ordering part of one meal and part of another (e.g. if the menu had “steak and fries” and “sausages and mashed potato” he might order steak with mashed potato).
95% of the time they can make what he’s asking for, and it blows people’s minds as they don’t even realise they can do that.
Then you pay for fries and mashed potatoes but get only second
If it’s something like my example, then they will generally just charge for the main meal as swapping fries for mashed potato is pretty cost neutral. If you start adding bacon that’s a different story.
God I find it difficult enough to decide what to have just ordering of the menu without chopping and changing
It is even a parenting technique using the illusion of choice on children to force a decision that was never a choice to begin with.
I raised my children to be unafraid to question or challenge authority. And I fucking regret it. I hope they’re happy I did in ten years but it sucks right now.
Life is essentially a sandbox video game. There’s no right way to play the game and you don’t have to do what others are doing - you can do your own thing. If you do what everyone else does you get what everyone else has. Do you want that? I don’t.
More specifically, life is a rogue-like. You get what you get and have to try to make the most of it. You might beat a very difficult stage and get a shot reward for it and that’s just the luck of the roll. Some will get lucky with a legendary that makes their run very easy. You likely won’t and still need to carry on even if you get an anti-synergy. No one is coming to help, this is for you to do.
More specifically, Binding of Isaac really resonated with me and I think I took away a lot of life lessons.
You don’t get to choose what happens to you in life, but you get to choose how you feel about it.
Life is short, just enjoy every bit you can.
And if you don’t feel like you can choose your reactions, get therapy.
Stoicism is good
There are three rules that I live by:
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Never get less than twelve hours sleep
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Never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a city
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and never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body.
Now you stick to that, and everything else is cream cheese.
12 hours? I am getting 9 hours and already feel like I have little time after work
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