Rational_Brony comments on The Craft And The Community: Wealth And Power And Tsuyoku Naritai - Less Wrong

3 [deleted] 23 April 2012 04:06PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 23 April 2012 11:49:57PM *  1 point [-]

What about spending the whole of one's life living the life of a Hero of Science and a Captain of Industry?

Comment author: Dorikka 24 April 2012 10:59:07PM 2 points [-]

cringe

Comment author: [deleted] 24 April 2012 11:26:58PM 0 points [-]

Disclaimer: not a Randian. Though, well, changing the world with SCIENCE, for SCIENCE, is kind of what I'm all about. :P

Anyway, what I meant to say was that "accumulating riches so you can relax later on" isn't exactly the way I've planned my life. When I'm old I want to be a mentor, not a perpetual tourist.

Comment author: Dorikka 25 April 2012 12:19:47AM 1 point [-]

I can how one might get Rand out of that, though this was not why I cringed.

I'm curious -- why such an enthusiasm for science? I like sciencey stuff too, but (aside from playing with science-related stuff as a hobby) I see its value as being mostly instrumental rather than terminal -- useful in steering humanity into world-states where we're not dead and/or suffering, but that's pretty much it.

Comment author: [deleted] 25 April 2012 12:47:12AM 2 points [-]

The number one virtue of a rationalist is curiosity. I am practically a curiosity elemental. And Science sates my curiosity like nothing else in the world.

I'd continue onto a flowery tirade about how much I have always loved science since I was a child, and that I delight in its rationality-enhanced version even more, but look at me here talking when there's science to do...:P

Comment author: IlyaShpitser 25 April 2012 02:47:56AM *  1 point [-]

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1777

Have you considered a career in science? (Or do you have one now?)

Comment author: [deleted] 25 April 2012 10:07:17AM -1 points [-]

I'm happy enough with being an Engineer.

Comment author: Rhwawn 18 May 2012 11:52:12PM 0 points [-]

By definition, that seems guaranteed to prevent one from living the life of a poet, unless I have been grossly misled by the media about what titans of industry do in their offices and boardrooms!

Comment author: [deleted] 19 May 2012 01:16:55PM 0 points [-]

You'd be right. For one thing, they don't starve in there.

Being an artist on the side is a great thing (see Thomas Jefferson), but being a pure artist usually seems to lead to a very miserable life.

Comment author: Rhwawn 01 July 2012 03:43:20PM 0 points [-]

but being a pure artist usually seems to lead to a very miserable life.

And yet scores of thousands of people still want to do it each year, which suggests that the intangibles must be incredible.

Comment author: [deleted] 04 November 2012 07:28:24PM 0 points [-]

It might be a case of being attracted to something that otherwise doesn't bring satisfaction in some fundamentally important ways? I can think of quite a few human activities and hobbies that would fit that bill; we call them "passions" or "obsessions".