The Off-Topic and Random Thoughts Thread(Anything Goes!)

Rodion said:
I appreciate that perhaps I’m a hypochondriac if my reaction to getting more illnesses than usual is “Jews have destroyed my immune system” but thought I’d ask
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I'm not in the UK, but I will say I've had severe colds every few years over the decades, long before covid. I had a severe cold in late January 2020 just as covid first hit the news, and I've heard possibly 100s say the same. However, I have been equally sick at least a dozen times before. All this is in addition to moderate and light colds a few times a year.
 
For some reason, I always overestimate the amount of things I can get to in 1 day.

My Google calendar has all of these available time slots I try to fill up. But I find that on average, I'm only able to complete 1-3 things in a day. That is, unless it's a quick phone call or something of that nature. But usually, these projects I think will take 1 hour end up taking 2 hours or more.

Usually, I'm lucky if I get 1 big thing done in the morning and 1 in the afternoon.
 
This is one of the best Vox Day streams I've seen. He talks about the difference between cognitive capacity and wisdom, and how to test someone's expertise, when and when not to engage in an argument. Good stuff.

 
magoo said:
Commercial planes are fueled only in the night. Maximum is 30 minutes after sunrise. Never after. It seems heat has some chemical effect on fuel which can make it seem your tank is full but it´s not. Was told this today by someone who works at government aviation.
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Yeah, I'm gonna have to call bs on that.
 
I'm starting to be very wary of people who have PhD's

A series of them now, at least 2 have impacted my life in quite a negative way in the past, now I am working with another on something and almost every second encounter ends with an aggressive exchange from me to her or to her colleagues about her.

I have a degree or two myself but nothing which required that level of dedication to academia, original research. You hear stories from people who for extended periods of time have their lives haunted by their doctoral thesis and their supervisor.

One can't overly generalise of course there is Dr E Michael Jones, he may even be professor, not sure. Someone at least called him that in a podcast.

Actually that one I keep having the disputes with does not seem to have climbed the ladder according to her qualifications. I'm guessing she earns as not much more than her colleagues with bachelors or masters but who perhaps have more natural charisma or ability to read people and situations. It's common knowledge that the big business successes of this world typically left high school early or did not go beyond it.

I think back to some of my lecturers at uni with PhD's as well. Can't generalise but I am starting to suspect a series of negative traits correlated with having a PhD in particular arrogance. Possibly also status obsession but EMJ thankfully does not have that.

If I have to run a job ad again one day to find someone for a role I will probably give the PhD's a wide berth. May talk to one or two of them anyway just to test the theory but that is what my intuition is saying.

Am I just imagining this or can any of you relate to what I am saying about them, the PhD qualified?

Is there some kind of trait or social pressure which drives some people into that situation in the first place..

I get the impression that putting comma PhD after your name is a particularly big deal in the US just based on how many people seem to do it.

In Germany people like to put Doktor on their doorbell and in various other places which the law entitled them to and of course if they are a consultant they hang up a brass plaque.

I remain now wary of them, too often false experts who have spent too long holed up in an ivory tower. Just not sure how to best deal with them apart from avoidance, they just have a dangerous ego.
 
stadtaffe said:
I'm starting to be very wary of people who have PhD's

A series of them now, at least 2 have impacted my life in quite a negative way in the past, now I am working with another on something and almost every second encounter ends with an aggressive exchange from me to her or to her colleagues about her.

I have a degree or two myself but nothing which required that level of dedication to academia, original research. You hear stories from people who for extended periods of time have their lives haunted by their doctoral thesis and their supervisor.

One can't overly generalise of course there is Dr E Michael Jones, he may even be professor, not sure. Someone at least called him that in a podcast.

Actually that one I keep having the disputes with does not seem to have climbed the ladder according to her qualifications. I'm guessing she earns as not much more than her colleagues with bachelors or masters but who perhaps have more natural charisma or ability to read people and situations. It's common knowledge that the big business successes of this world typically left high school early or did not go beyond it.

I think back to some of my lecturers at uni with PhD's as well. Can't generalise but I am starting to suspect a series of negative traits correlated with having a PhD in particular arrogance. Possibly also status obsession but EMJ thankfully does not have that.

If I have to run a job ad again one day to find someone for a role I will probably give the PhD's a wide berth. May talk to one or two of them anyway just to test the theory but that is what my intuition is saying.

Am I just imagining this or can any of you relate to what I am saying about them, the PhD qualified?

Is there some kind of trait or social pressure which drives some people into that situation in the first place..

I get the impression that putting comma PhD after your name is a particularly big deal in the US just based on how many people seem to do it.

In Germany people like to put Doktor on their doorbell and in various other places which the law entitled them to and of course if they are a consultant they hang up a brass plaque.

I remain now wary of them, too often false experts who have spent too long holed up in an ivory tower. Just not sure how to best deal with them apart from avoidance, they just have a dangerous ego.
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Hell, I've experienced this with folks who only have undergraduate degrees. I've debated evolution with a biology degree'd fella, he accuses me of not understanding the science, then I ask him to explain certain elements of said science to me and he gets flustered, refuses to answer and tells me to go read a book. Because he doesn't actually understand these things, he just repeated what he was told to repeat sufficiently accurately to earn a piece of paper. And he thinks because he has that paper, I have to just cede to his authority instead of having the audacity to ask him to justify his claims.

I can imagine it's much worse with PhD types. After all, their whole career is contingent on towing the line.
 
Iacobus said:
Because he doesn't actually understand these things, he just repeated what he was told to repeat sufficiently accurately to earn a piece of paper.
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There's a broader topic about university education for the masses.

University used to be a much more elite thing, you failed, you're out. Now you can stay there for years repeating till you get that piece of paper. I repeated a few things myself (not that many though and it was of course mainly stem not arts..)

But it obviously goes to some people's heads in a way that does not line up with their actual skill levels.
 
Batman said:
What is women's obsession with taking photos of a cappucino? It's just coffee and foamy milk in a shape. It's weird enough to take photos of meals but at least that's a bit understandable. But cappucinos all look the exact same and there's nothing special or interesting about them and is utterly pointless.

This bewilders me and I have been unsuccessful in my research - my web searches, unsurprisingly, did not turn up results for this phenomenon that everyone knows about but does not talk about.

Is this obsession caused by severe mental illness?
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Or taking a photo of every meal you are about to eat.
 
tikkasakko said:
Must be weird when reading.
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I definitely have an inner voice, like a conversation with myself inside my head. However, I think when I read, I scan the words and absorb them without thinking each word inside my head. For one thing, if I see words I don't know how to pronounce, I don't feel the need to try to sound it out. I just see it and recognize it on the page, and keep going. Even with words I can pronounce, I'm really not playing them like an audio book inside my head.

Maybe this is similar to the way non-inner-voice people are all the time?

Edit, I realized sometimes I do play the words inside my head like an audio book. Usually, it's when I am adding in the inflections and accent I imagine being used if you spoke the lines out loud. However, I'm sure I don't do it all the time.

It's hard to say, because of course when I'm reading I don't think about the process of reading in a meta sense. I'm just involved with the content of what I'm reading.
 
Thomas More said:
I definitely have an inner voice, like a conversation with myself inside my head. However, I think when I read, I scan the words and absorb them without thinking each word inside my head. For one thing, if I see words I don't know how to pronounce, I don't feel the need to try to sound it out. I just see it and recognize it on the page, and keep going. Even with words I can pronounce, I'm really not playing them like an audio book inside my head.

Maybe this is similar to the way non-inner-voice people are all the time?
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Yes, this is kind of what it's like in my head as a non-inner-voice person. It's a flow of information and mental connections that are conveying certain meanings to my mind but not in words. Like if I remember that I need to go to the grocery store, at no point are the words "I need to go to the grocery store" or anything similar in my mind. It's more like I have a flash of envisioning and a feeling of necessity followed by calculations of when I can accomplish that.
 
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