u/Confused_by_La_Vida

I was thinking about Nassim Taleb’s work against the backdrop of Marco Paulas, William White, and Brookes Leeborn.

The insight Taleb brings is that human systems, almost all human systems, are unintentionally but nonetheless forcefully designed to harshly punish people who accurately see great systemic risk. To take no effective systemic actions about the predictions/insights. And, further, to never ever ever acknowledge the Casandra after it all goes horribly wrong.

That’s reality.

Now, let’s postulate for sake of argument, that those cases and that reality have absolutely nothing to do with bad actors, unethical behavior, ignorance, stupidity, or malice. That they are instead mathematical certainties derivable from the fundamental equations governing all systems financial, biological, physical. Further, because of the iron equations governing the situation there is absolutely no ability whatsoever of the people “in charge”, at any point, to change the catastrophic outcome. Let’s say, no actions of the individuals are predetermined, but the cataclysmic conclusion of the system is predetermined.

In this situation, does the Cassandra have any ethical “duty to report”? When it is clear that so doing will, because of the iron equations governing not the individuals but the system, subject the prophet (or analyst) to exile and possible destruction?

The best argument for Degrowth. Buckle up buttercup.

My job is “proposal manager” in a group of engineers, scientists, random support fuckheads, and domestic and foreign sales people. This is one of these EU based globocorps that is suffering and reorganizes top to bottom almost annually because no one can lower themselves to understanding operations and how fucked up operations drives cost and schedule through the roof.

When an rfq comes in, it’s always under time pressure. Basically my job is to push Technology to define the scope of work, get all the functional groups to define the hours it will take them, write their sections of the proposal, send the hours to Pricing, package it all, get it approved by a faceless management bottleneck in another country, send to a “workflow” for final formatting, and then route that to the salesman. Nobody in that chain can definitively say “yes”. EVERY MF can say “let’s look at it this way”, even the parts they know nothing about.

Here is where in need help. I set all the files up on teams so they can be shared to all. I have some managers that understand the program, do their contribution on time, and know when not to have an opinion. But I have others, particularly the salesmen, who will SAY they have looked very thing over before management approval. But every damn time, they wait until the who process is complete and then want to make some change that is a frontal assault on the basic foundation of the whole quote. Margins, or scope, that type of thing. And it’s not just the salesman. As it’s about to go out a chemical dept manager will start asking me why mechanical so many hours and can’t we reduce price by making Purchasing use someone cheaper.

Note that I am the lowest ranking and least “connected” person in the whole mix. I need a dirty filthy mental manipulation trick that will make these assholes shut the fuck up once they’ve had their bite at the Apple. Particularly the ones in Pakistan, India, and the UAE - who are by far the worst last minute offenders.

Because they are overseas, a rope, pulley, and bucket of water isn’t the feasible option I wish it was. I need something that will work over teams.

One of my kids breaks down on the roadside. Vehicle is motorcycle so calls motorcycle tow service. Dispatcher says people bail, so Zelle money first, which kid does.

a few minutes later truck shows up, has all kids vehicle and phone info given to dispatch. They load up and go home.

Then the driver wants payment. Claiming not to know dispatcher. Dispatch claims not to know driver. Argument ensues: finally kid pays guy who provided the service. The question is: how did driver get the information.

Is this a scam or just two people lying?

I went on keto off and on over the decades to help maintain weight. Back in 23-24 I had to get after it again, made great progress. Was completely rolled over by the orgy of Thanksgiving/Christmas overeating and drunkenness that was my first 4 week vacation in 40 years of working.

I’m 60 this year, and realized that during the last bout of keto I must have lost a shit ton of muscle mass. As old men often due, I figured this out through the route of “fuck me….i can’t lift this thing anymore what the hell happened”?

I started lifting for the first time in 45 years last year and made perceptible progress. But I have no self discipline. So my routine is this:

4:30am, the dogs latch on my ankle and drag me out of bed. We run. Then I lift. In between sets/exercises I’m making coffee, lunch for the day, etc. I’m at the office by 6-6:30. Then home again at 6-6:30. Kids, wife, home repair until 9:00, bed and do it again.

Here’s the problem. I really just don’t have the mental juice to lift after work. But since starting Keto this week, I’ve found my body will simply not lift anything without food.

So: is there something like a pre-workout keto goo I can snort as I’m running out the door with the dogs thst will get me some juice for the lifting?

Have daughter in college learning Arabic and according to her grades she’s pretty good! 2’nd semester.

Birthday coming up and I’d like to find her a book that will be enjoyable for her to read. She’s very mature and thoughtful for her age and is, for example, chewing through Dostoyevsky and enjoys it. So not a “YA” reader by any means.

Can you a recommend a book that has solid plot, solid story, real meat but where the grammar is not so advanced she have an insurmountable challenge? A good dictionary is already in her queue.