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Gnappster |
Mar 7 2007, 01:01 PM
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Liquor and Whores
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Joined: 28-March 05
From: Regina, Saskatchewan
Member No.: 2,922
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QUOTE(closeup @ Mar 7 2007, 10:26 AM) I'm waiting for a computer that will run solely on verbal commands. I know they have prototypes in the works, but just think what they'll have in ten or fifteen years. That's actually the reason I won't knock myself out learning how to use this thing. I can always explain to an employee what I want the result to be, even if I have no idea how they're going to do it. I've resigned myself to the fact that my computer skills are always going to be sup-par, but that doesn't mean I can't figure out how to earn money using one. I designed my website, (the content, not the layout) and it's gotten good reviews. They have some pretty good systems right now that work on voice recognition(too lazy to find links). And in 10 or 15 years we'll also be driving flying cars and living in colonies on the moon Well for someone with sub-par computer skills you do pretty well. It's just different stuff that everyone is naturally good at. I look at the guys doing my renovations at home right now. It's incredible how fast and good they work. I could do the work too but it would take me a month to do what they do in 3 days and they do a better job with less swearing. QUOTE(closeup @ Mar 7 2007, 10:26 AM) Plus, if anyone should happen to want to know the most efficient way to rate melons, I'm their guy. I'm surprised you haven't hired someone to do that for you too
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Gnappster |
Mar 7 2007, 02:47 PM
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Liquor and Whores
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From: Regina, Saskatchewan
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QUOTE(closeup @ Mar 7 2007, 12:26 PM) I just finished a book,"Stumbling on Happiness" that explains why we suck so bad at predicting the future. The author, Daniel Gilbert, is a Harvard Psychologist so it's not just bs and fluff, this guy knows his stuff. I'd have to say it's the most interesting book I've read in the last 5 years. Yeah, but's probably the only book you've read in the past 5 years. I assume the book relates to my post in some way?
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closeup |
Mar 7 2007, 05:04 PM
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Double D's
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Joined: 12-July 05
From: Portland, Maine
Member No.: 9,341
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QUOTE(Gnappster @ Mar 7 2007, 02:47 PM) Yeah, but's probably the only book you've read in the past 5 years. I assume the book relates to my post in some way? Yeah, the passage about flying cars, etc. He has a couple of funny paragraphs showing what people in the 50's thought the world would be like in the year 2000. I'm gonna see if I can find it, but if I can't, read the book.Here it is. Stumbling on Happiness is a book about a very simple but powerful idea. What distinguishes us as human beings from other animals is our ability to predict the future--or rather, our interest in predicting the future. We spend a great deal of our waking life imagining what it would be like to be this way or that way, or to do this or that, or taste or buy or experience some state or feeling or thing. We do that for good reasons: it is what allows us to shape our life. And it is by trying to exert some control over our futures that we attempt to be happy. But by any objective measure, we are really bad at that predictive function. We're terrible at knowing how we will feel a day or a month or year from now, and even worse at knowing what will and will not bring us that cherished happiness. Gilbert sets out to figure what that's so: why we are so terrible at something that would seem to be so extraordinarily important? In making his case, Gilbert walks us through a series of fascinating--and in some ways troubling--facts about the way our minds work. In particular, Gilbert is interested in delineating the shortcomings of imagination. We're far too accepting of the conclusions of our imaginations. Our imaginations aren't particularly imaginative. Our imaginations are really bad at telling us how we will think when the future finally comes. And our personal experiences aren't nearly as good at correcting these errors as we might think.
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Bobaloo |
Mar 7 2007, 05:11 PM
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--o00o--O(_)O--o00o--
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Posts: 7,337
Joined: 22-November 05
From: Chicago, Illinois
Member No.: 11,695
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QUOTE(closeup @ Mar 7 2007, 05:04 PM) Yeah, the passage about flying cars, etc. He has a couple of funny paragraphs showing what people in the 50's thought the world would be like in the year 2000. I'm gonna see if I can find it, but if I can't, read the book. I think I know what book you're talking about. I never read it, or saw it for that matter. But I've heard it referenced a few times. i think the guy was talking about using pneumatic tubes for transportation or something like that Or maybe that was a dream I had once.
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closeup |
Mar 7 2007, 05:22 PM
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Double D's
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From: Portland, Maine
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QUOTE(Bobaloo @ Mar 7 2007, 05:11 PM) I think I know what book you're talking about. I never read it, or saw it for that matter. But I've heard it referenced a few times. i think the guy was talking about using pneumatic tubes for transportation or something like that Or maybe that was a dream I had once. Google a review of the book, there's alot of them that can explain it better than I can. But here's some points he makes: (From a reveiw, not from me) 1) We often exaggerate in imagining the long- term emotional effects certain events will have on us. 2) Most of us tend to have a basic level of happiness which we revert to eventually. 3) People generally err in imagining what will make them happy. 4) People tend to find ways of rationalizing unhappy outcomes so as to make them more acceptable to themselves. 5) People tend to repeat the same errors in imagining what will make them happy. 6) Events and outcomes which we dread may when they come about turn into new opportunities for happiness. 7) Many of the most productive and creative people are those who are continually unhappy with the world- and thus strive to change it. 8) Happiness is rarely as good as we imagine it to be, and rarely lasts as long as we think it will. The same mistaken expectations apply to unhappiness.
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Gnappster |
Mar 7 2007, 05:25 PM
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Liquor and Whores
Group: Members
Posts: 11,440
Joined: 28-March 05
From: Regina, Saskatchewan
Member No.: 2,922
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QUOTE(closeup @ Mar 7 2007, 03:04 PM) Yeah, the passage about flying cars, etc. He has a couple of funny paragraphs showing what people in the 50's thought the world would be like in the year 2000. I'm gonna see if I can find it, but if I can't, read the book.Here it is. Stumbling on Happiness is a book about a very simple but powerful idea. What distinguishes us as human beings from other animals is our ability to predict the future--or rather, our interest in predicting the future. We spend a great deal of our waking life imagining what it would be like to be this way or that way, or to do this or that, or taste or buy or experience some state or feeling or thing. We do that for good reasons: it is what allows us to shape our life. And it is by trying to exert some control over our futures that we attempt to be happy. But by any objective measure, we are really bad at that predictive function. We're terrible at knowing how we will feel a day or a month or year from now, and even worse at knowing what will and will not bring us that cherished happiness. Gilbert sets out to figure what that's so: why we are so terrible at something that would seem to be so extraordinarily important? In making his case, Gilbert walks us through a series of fascinating--and in some ways troubling--facts about the way our minds work. In particular, Gilbert is interested in delineating the shortcomings of imagination. We're far too accepting of the conclusions of our imaginations. Our imaginations aren't particularly imaginative. Our imaginations are really bad at telling us how we will think when the future finally comes. And our personal experiences aren't nearly as good at correcting these errors as we might think. I get it, can't win, don't try. And about the flying cars thing. It seems to be present in every prediction of the future. The problem with it, is people can barely navigate 2 dimensions in a car, can you imagine adding the third dimension? On another tnagent I remember reading, probably about 10-12 years ago an interview with Bill Gates. He was asked about the future of computers. He said the focus would move away from PCs and towards tiny portable computers that do everything, and connect users to each other effortlessly. This was essentially before digital cell phones, mp3 players, most digital cams etc. I thought he was on crack. I thought my giant PC was the future. I guess we know who was on crack
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evade20 |
Mar 7 2007, 05:52 PM
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Melon Master
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"The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it." Ansel AdamsThe state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation. Pierre Elliott Trudeau
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