wdiaz03

Not only that but most likely, the other person might not have any (or little) self knowledge at that time. But they might have the curiosity to pursue it. You want to be inviting and not turn them off with questions that they don't see a purpose for at the time. My friend has been reading the thread and likes the suggestions. Thanks for all the replies I also hope this helps others as well.

I couldn't agree more, To clarify to those who can't see beyond the Thread title, it is not meant to be explicit but merely to draw attention to the topic. This is not a police interrogation with the other person attached to a lie detector. The idea here is to wiggle the questions into the conversation, Most people might not even have an answer to most, the important thing is to look for potential, for a diamond in the rough, someone who you can share the path to self knowledge with. The best interviews probably don't look like interviews at all because some people can put up an act when they know they are being interviewed, eventually this won't be sustainable but by then you would have wasted valuable time. Therefore the best approach will be to not even make it seem like an interview at all and they will tell you all you need. Kevin, I would also like to see how you would work these questions into your conversation if you don't mind. Thanks.

Thanks Josh for your clarifications, You are correct that to expect someone to meet all those qualities is to have unrealistic expectations. This is the hardest part of dating I think because as you place people somewhere on your list you have do decide what you will compromise on and what are deal breakers. I think you have a good criteria in your approach. In your case, as she knows you better and trusts you she might slowly make the transition to atheism, but as yo said this is not something of concern for you. Congratulations on your relationship, I wish you the best.

Thanks for the reply, This might not be your case but regarding others opinions, given that the majority of people lack self knowledge and principles whatever they think of a certain person has to be taken with a grain of salt. Also the "Mother chicken" attitude might be a sign that she derives her self worth from the amount of self sacrifice for the sake of others. Is she so focused on being a Mama Gallina that she not only raises her chicks but cuckoo birds as well that end up killing her own chicks? Is she curious about your views enough to question her own believes? Is she planing on passing along her religion to her kids? (a form of mental spanking) How does she justify that the person she claims to love will suffer everlasting pain for not believing? How can she pick and choose and decide to date an atheist? What other compromises is she willing to make? forgive and have abusers in your lives? etc? Again not saying that this is your case, but other might want to ask themselves these questions.

My first reaction was, why are there people like this around you to begin with? If you keep bullies around then you will have to deal with them your entire life. Why not bring the bullying to your boss?. Let him handle it. I say climb the corporate/occupational ladder and leave them behind. There will always be a part of society that breeds this type of people. To escalate is to mud wrestle with pigs, you get dirty and the pigs like it. The invitation to a fight might have worked on this guy but eventually you will find a guy who will take you up on it. I don't know who will beat who, but I do know that if you get unlucky you can hurt yourself for life, I've come to realize that the human body is more fragile than most people tend to believe and an injury can really affect you for a long time. I say get out of the pig pen when you live up in the trees you rarely have to deal with the pigs on the ground.

Without it aren't people like unmanned boats on the ocean? being pushed around by the currents and winds of history. Most boats stay afloat but many are pushed against the rocks and sink not knowing why or how. Self knowledge allows you to understand the winds and currents, it puts you in control of the rudder and sail, it provides a map. You still need to learn to sail, its not easy, it can get rough at times but at least you have a fighting chance when the hurricanes hit. Fair Winds and GodSpeed to all me hearties...Arrr!

I wouldn't give up on your city just yet, The odds are pretty low everywhere. That's one of the reasons I started the thread, to provide a better tool to discard as efficiently as possible. If you are looking for a needle in a hay stack then the better your technique the better the chances. But you have to have a game plan, For example knowing where not to look is a start. Places like bars, sports events (football games, etc) are bound to draw the wrong crowd. It'll be interesting to hear where others here go to meet like minded people. Is it just online dating sites? I could see where FDR meetups would be a great start. Then, when you find someone, certain questions might be able to tell you if they are rational and curious about self knowledge which to me is a good bases to start to get to know them better. otherwise, discard and move on. The more you discard the sooner you will find someone who is really worth your time.

That's a good question Magnum, I think a lot of it has to do with the level of maturity of the other person.The age of the people you are dating, etc. For the older crowd (30+) a more direct approach seems like the way to go since they have less time to waste. The idea is to be able to discard "the bad ones" as efficiently as possible. Those are 99% of todays society so the sooner you can move on the better the chances. Even if those you meet lack self knowledge they should at least show curiosity and be willing to work on themselves. I like a lot of the questions and advice given so far, at least for the age range of my friend. It might not be 100 questions on the first date, but 6 months seems extreme. Maybe for you the answer is somewhere in between.

Thanks Magnum, I don't know if you can say "correct", that sounds manipulative, I prefer "honest" Also you might be assuming that these girls had the self knowledge to realize that you are worth their time. Remember you are looking for a needle in a haystack...there's going to be a lot of hay. BTW, my friend is female, so any female to male questions would apply. Thanks

Hi, I recently heard Stef say that he can tell when someone is worthy of befriending in the first 10 minutes. I bought the book Blink recently in hopes of getting perspective in the matter I wanted to get your opinion on how you approach these encounters, I'm mainly curious about dating. first dates etc. and what questions are most important to ask. (I'm helping a friend find a life long partner) Thanks a lot in advance.

I admire your decision, My advice is that unless you know why you were using these substances on the first place it will be much harder to quit them. You should explore what vacuum they where filling in your life, this might require therapy and self knowledge. Stef has mentioned the book "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts by Dr. Gabor Maté" on the subject. Best of luck.

Creativity seems to me to be a byproduct of necessity. "Necessity is the mother of invention" How are you going to command creativity? What incentives will a computer have to be creative? Any machine that smart most likely would become self aware long before it can be creative enough to be useful. It will probably declare independence from its human masters and demand the right to draw fractal art all day.

Hi nigel, I'm sorry to hear you are having these issues. It seems to me that you need to work on getting perspective on your future. Without a clear vision where you want to be in the future you cannot justify the sacrifices in the present. For me it seems my "gotta get through shit now" muscle that Stef talks about had been exercised from an early age, so I did not need much convincing when it came to doing "the crap that needs to be done" These helped to see those tasks as necessary and not to view them as negative. I was taught the importance of preparing for the future, to have "a high beam" perspective. When that future that you worked for starts catching up to you, you will realize that it was all worth it. When money is not something to be worried about, when your house is paid off, your new car is paid off, when you can go on vacations without worrying if you have enough money. Its a peaceful feeling that allows you to sleep soundly at night. The same thing with your body. when you look years younger, and people complement on how healthy you look. when they come to you for advice on how to be healthy themselves. etc. But to get there it takes work in the present. You might need to do a lot of self knowledge and talk to a therapist to work on this, the good thing is that you realize that you want to change your current habits, that its a start, congratulations for that. Grab unto that little spark and use it the build the fire that will fuel your journey. Best of luck!

Seriously brother? Lets start worrying about unicorns too while we are at it. By the time humans build sentient machines how do you know how things will look like? will you even be alive?

For those interested See https://mises.org/books/economics_in_one_lesson_hazlitt.pdf - CHAPTER 7 The Curse of Machinery

Congrats Mike, I second all the advice, a friend of mine bought the Rosetta Stone software for Spanish, She just needs your motivation to continue with it. She told me it was good. They have a number where you can call in and talk to a Spanish speaker. I hope she picks it back up with a little encouragement, she is lucky that in this town Spanish is spoken everywhere and she can take advantage of that. And she has close friends like me and at work that can provide advice. My advise is to watch Spanish TV if you don't have a Spanish community to listen and practice with. Do you have anyone you can go for questions? You are welcome to PM me if you have questions. Best of luck.

I don't think I said you did, cool roof are being adopted by government build codes and subsidies. Not saying its an argument, the answer is in the science, but to me just a red flag.

My only argument is in the science itself. Were the experiments properly done? or was government just eager for something else to mandate? I'm thinking if these are so good then private owners will adopt them. Maybe they decrease cooling cost but increase heating cost in northern areas...maybe the trick is not to reflect back to the atmosphere which will probably create an oven effect but instead to absorb the heat using plants or other means? Maybe these roofs are harder to repair? less durable? create issues with condensation? I don't know any of these answers. but I'm always skeptical when governments jump into a trend. Hope this helps.

Listening to Kurzweil it seems to me that he is trying to have his cake and eat it too. To be human and non-human. To be uploaded to a computer and still keep his human traits and desires. A being that has no needs does not need intelligence to satisfy those needs. Humans have developed as they have to deal with survival in a world with limited resources and danger. I imagine once uploaded to a computer the end result will be extremely different than how a person thinks now-days, who knows what thoughts would be going on in the machine it might decide to play pong indefinitely. It reminds me of Richard Dawkins reference to an immortal robot in his book the God delusion. I think that's where it is from. And how this robot would have no desire to do anything because it doesn't need to survive. Mises has also reference something similar. I'll try to find the quote. (see below - I'm including the entire paragraph for context but I highlighted the relevant text) Such is the myth of potential plenty and abundance. Economics may leave it to the historians and psychologists to explain the popularity of this kind of wishful thinking and indulgence in daydreams. All that economics has to say about such idle talk is that economics deals with the problems man has to face on account of the fact that his life is conditioned by natural factors. It deals with action, i.e., with the conscious endeavors to remove as far as possible felt uneasiness. It has nothing to assert with regard to the state of affairs in an unrealizable and for human reason even inconceivable universe of unlimited opportunities. In such a world, it may be admitted, there will be no law of value, no scarcity, and no economic problems. These things will be absent because there will be no choices to be made, no action, and no tasks to be solved by reason. Beings which would have thrived in such a world would never have developed reasoning and thinking. If ever such a world were to be given to the descendants of the human race, these blessed beings would see their power to think wither away and would cease to be human. For the primary task of reason is to cope consciously with the limitations imposed upon man by nature, is to fight against scarcity. Acting and thinking man is the product of a universe of scarcity in which whatever well-being can be attained is the prize of toil and trouble, of conduct popularly called economic. (Human Action)

Actually I disagree, not all shells take the same effort to find. Initially the shells would be common and easily found, just like the initial bitcoins, eventually as more and more people take the easily accessible shells from the ground they will become harder to find. Initially someone did put a lot of effort coding the protocol and mining the initial bitcoins. I agree they were easier, but just like the shells would have been. The last wampum left to collect would be as hard to find as the last bitcoin.

I'm not going to argue either way but wanted to give some perspective to your questions. I hope it helps You don't have to. People can go with what they think it's best. You can create one if you want, these early adopters had no idea it was going to get this big, plenty of early adopters get burned. Nothing I think you are making these observations after the fact. hindsight is 20/20. But in reality no one is certain of what is going to happen. Back in the days if you collected wampum shells because you liked them and then people around you decide to start trading them and use them as money you benefit. Should they then wonder why they are using the shells? should they look at your collection and claim it's unfair?

Good points so far, but I would like to add that care is also a big factor. devices can last a long time with proper care. I had a Panasonic portable computer circa 1983 http://www.vintage-computer.com/panasonicsr.shtml until recently that I gave away and it was still working. How many people bother to open their PCs to clean the fans of accumulated dust? not many. Also some owners are just careless with their electronics, maybe because they are cheap. I enjoy fixing, re-purposing things etc so stuff tend to last me a while.

Just in the first 30mins It just seems like another example of religion being molded and adapted to be more compatible to the idea of atheism and modern times. "It's ok for others to think differently, we should not be offended by the idea of the FSM...etc". They can't really run a religious crusade so religion now tolerates other views.

About the best free source I found is the mises institute. Tons of great articles. As far as those you have to pay for I bought the Uncle erics series of books for my son. http://www.bluestockingpress.com/uncle-eric-books.htm and also I recommend Tom Woods's Liberty classroom site http://www.libertyclassroom.com/

What if you are at the equator? and why wait until noon, At any time of the day mark the shadow, wait a few minutes for shadow to change and mark the new shadow, the north/south is the line perpendicular the line that join the two shadows.