tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375681131276548542.post4036864790548469275..comments2024-02-27T10:53:04.581+01:00Comments on paperpools: iterated polarisation gamesHelen DeWitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619602559096610012noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375681131276548542.post-73660444016821910062010-06-13T07:21:48.649+01:002010-06-13T07:21:48.649+01:00I often find myself developing new mental paradigm...I often find myself developing new mental paradigms with which to approach daily life, but I usually find that the mind rebels. It's hard, and probably inadvisable, to force yourself to think a certain way every time you confront a particular situation. I may imagine the improbable background scenarios of my fellow shoppers for a while, but at some point the song over the loudspeaker or the person cutting in line will destroy my attempt at equanimity. Likewise, there are only so many inventive solutions that I can find for the inadequacy of the present system before I become frustrated by their failure to be realized.<br /><br />At best, such frameworks for thinking have a limited potential for use. The stress I associate with supermarket shopping doesn't derive so much from the experience of a single trip, as from the idea that I will be making basically indifferentiable trips on a periodic basis for THE REST OF MY TERRESTRIAL LIFE. If every time I go to the supermarket I'm forcing myself to achieve some transcendent state of perception or inventiveness, well that just adds another psychological burden to the affair. Because now not only I am having to deal with the necessary banalities of my existence, but I'm forcing myself to make them mean something. <br /><br />I guess what I'm saying, maybe it's better to find meaning from things you can control, e.g. your relationships, avocations, occupations, and as for the rest embrace the stoicism required by necessity.Philhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09243501392629264939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375681131276548542.post-23585831094929217442008-09-23T14:15:00.000+00:002008-09-23T14:15:00.000+00:00The full transcript of the speech is here for thos...The full transcript of the speech is here for those interested: http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html<BR/><BR/>Among the many things I think about his speech, it comes off to me as peculiarly personal, as if he's trying to tell himself something he needed to say in front of others so that he could convince himself in reverse order. Solipsism isn't the first and the last problem in my day. In fact, his form of it seems so bizarre to me I'm willing to say it isn't for a large majority of his audience. At the least one, it's not one of the immediate pressing concerns of graduating seniors, and an unusual topic for a commencement address. Seems all the more poignant to know that his advice didn't work out for himself and he never did make it past 50.<BR/><BR/>- HassanAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375681131276548542.post-14386455282468268932008-09-22T19:44:00.000+00:002008-09-22T19:44:00.000+00:00Thanks for re-posting the piece; I was glad to be ...Thanks for re-posting the piece; I was glad to be able to read it again. As with the Necker cube or Wittgenstein's duck-rabbit image, I can often <I>feel</I> the shift in perspective Wallace describes between viewing others simply as being-in-my-way, and viewing them as independent sources of agency.<BR/><BR/>I agree with you that such a shift is insufficient for improvements in the way things work in the world, and certainly it is no substitute for such improvements, but I think the shift Wallace describes is a necessary precondition--particularly if we accept his diagnosis that we begin from a culturally encouraged starting point of near-perfect solipsism.KCChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05723264301702481966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375681131276548542.post-68080812044851184562008-09-22T12:47:00.000+00:002008-09-22T12:47:00.000+00:00This is an excellent example of why you should tru...This is an excellent example of why you should trust readers when they ask for something. This was a very appealing essay with much to think about.<BR/><BR/>My toothache is always worse than a famine in India, except to the Indians.Cecilio Moraleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05283375962527765787noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375681131276548542.post-50748719020981536842008-09-22T11:33:00.000+00:002008-09-22T11:33:00.000+00:00(Of course, it may be that you and I don't see a t...(Of course, it may be that you and I don't see a trip to the store as the Boschian experience it had the potential to be in the imagination of DFW. I like situations where large numbers of strangers are interacting with each other and don't expect me to do anything. Stores where no one offers to help. Buses, trams, subways, ferries, trains. Train stations, airports. But that's another story.)Helen DeWitthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07619602559096610012noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375681131276548542.post-54565995995018177862008-09-22T11:16:00.000+00:002008-09-22T11:16:00.000+00:00Re storage space - maybe you are just better than ...Re storage space - maybe you are just better than I am at using what you've got. What I find is that I end up having 50% of my storage space going unused, because I don't want to stack different things on top of each other and then have to unstack to get the one on the bottom out. About 60% of the storage space that does get used isn't used well: anything that is not immediately visible just sits at the back for months, years... <BR/><BR/>Whereas if I buy a big supply of something I like, I can use the full volume of a bit of shelf-space; I'm not losing information about what I have by hiding some things behind others, I'm not fretting about the hassle of unstacking...<BR/><BR/>Admittedly, this normally has a negligible effect on how often I go to the store, because these are emergency rations. But DFW was positing a case in which the cupboard is bare, so one is forced to go the store at peak time when tired and hungry - in other words, at a time when outsourcing storage to the store means one has nothing available at home when one wants it.<BR/><BR/>But also, of course, it's true that I can come up with all kinds of ingenious solutions to my own problems that often turn out not to be anyone else's problem. I really like having five jars of different kind of Dijon mustard in the fridge; I had no idea how comforting it would be, living with the quiet confidence that I would never run out of mustard. <BR/><BR/>Delivery is good. I keep meaning to do that here and forgetting. The thing is, I do stupid things. I clutter my mind, making the same decision 30 times a month when it only needs to be made once. I think what happens is, it <I>feels</I> as though I am preserving freedom of choice by making 30 decisions, when all I really do is turn the decision into a habit.Helen DeWitthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07619602559096610012noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375681131276548542.post-14638866710346192202008-09-22T10:31:00.000+00:002008-09-22T10:31:00.000+00:00I agree with your Heisenberg-like statement that y...I agree with your Heisenberg-like statement that you don't know what might be doable until you try it. This is related to the flaw in classical decision analysis that assumes that "utilities" exist Platonically, whereas they're more like some sort of Narnia for which each of us is his or her own C. S. Lewis.<BR/><BR/>As you note, the flaw is inherent in the language itself: "change what you cannot accept" implicitly defines "what you cannot accept" as a measurable quantity. Rephrase in Vegas terms as something like, "Bet on what you will win," and the mistake becomes clear.<BR/><BR/>But I disagree with you on the food storage issue. Kitchen space is valuable: I like to think of the local supermarket as auxiliary storage. And since we're going to the super every day on the way home from work to pick up celery or whatever, it's no problem to pick up imperishables such as cans of tomato paste or whatever on the way.<BR/><BR/>Occasionally we've tried your strategy of stocking up with a big run to the supermarket (we do have a bike trailer so can carry a lot if we really want to), but it's not much of a strategy because in a couple weeks we're back to where we were before. Oddly enough, the buy-as-needed approach seems to work better. I've been told that delivery works well too, but we've never gotten organized to do this for anything but bubbly water.Andrew Gelmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02715992780769751789noreply@blogger.com