Yay
Posted by Joel Sat, 30 Sep 2006 21:47:00 GMT
This was a good week for work and pretty enjoyable. Last night DJ Krush played and I was going to go but I ended up staying in. This is mainly because despite leaving work at 6:30, and the show starting at 9 and being within reasonable walking distance from my apartment, a combination of the hour commute, getting gas, buying a new tape adapter from Fry's because my old one died for no reason (this is my fourth), and spending 45 minutes parking brought me home around 9:10, so I decided to say fuck it. Anyway I just watched some TV (Frasier, Law & Order, Poltergeist III), and then played WoW for a few hours and that was fun.
My roommate is having his 70s party bus thing tonight which I guess I'm obligated to go to. But I want to use my Saturday for good and not evil today... I might walk down to the Embarcadero which somehow I've never really visited. I really need to start my working out again, although I've been eating marginally better this last week.
So things seem OK lately, no real crises of mind. I came across a new philosophical impasse in the car. For a while, I've found myself to be generally accepting of determinism, and utilitarianism. I'd say I'm a nihilist, but I do believe in objective truth and secular ethics. But I want to reconcile this lack of choice and therefore responsibility through what I see as inevitable actions with my flirtation with libertarianism (if not ethical egoism), which I'm not sure is possible, and I might have to reject it. Still, I think I've found a way, and just need to explore it more. I'd like nothing more to logically justify egoism at this point because I find it empowering. Still, I will always side with the truth, no matter how much it might suck. The commute gives me lots of time to think on matters such as this which is why I don't mind it at all -- it's the parking, which takes over your mind, that bothers me.
We all had sushi yesterday at work which was a fun experience. We've also hired two new coworkers since I've last made mention of it, Hunter and Nicole, since Zurb is doing so well. Our team is just so awesome and I can't express enough how much I find work both productive and fun.
You forgot the part about how I schooled you last night, over and over!
"...utilitarianism... ...ethical egoism..."
How ahout you do what brings the greatest total happiness, but when it's "a wash" bring the happiness to yourself first.
So if you're pulling up to a red light and that right-turn-or-straight lane is open and will get you ahead of the one other car that's already there at the expense of the four cars that can't turn right on red cause they're stuck behind you, don't be selfish.
On the other hand, if you and someone else get to the last parking spot on a street at roughly the same time, take it. One of you is screwed either way.
Heh, is there a better example of philosophies in action than the operation of motor vehicles?
It's not ethical egoism and utilitarianism that are at an impasse. It's more determinism and ethical egoism. Logically, I can't help but agree with determinism; that we have no real "choices", as every decision we make is the logical and inevitable conclusion of our experience and character up to that point. This implies a lack of responsibility as well, and without responsibility there is no accountability, and without accountability there cannot be libertarianism/ethical egoism or even existentialism, which are highly based on choices and personal responsibility. This is why I say I'm a nihilist rather than an existentialist. They're basically the same, but nihilism doesn't have an emphasis on choice. As I said, I think I might have an avenue to reconcile them, though.