And I know it's a bit weird to be talking about your personal life on a forum like this, but I thought I should ask you guys since it's related to this community in many ways.
First of all, I must tell a little bit about my financial and life situation. I'm 17, I have high-functioning autism, and I grew up in a middle classed family here in the state of SC. My parents are divorced; my dad lives here in SC and my mother lives in OH. To put it simply, my family here in SC is middle classed and mostly responsible people with college degrees, while most people on my mother's side don't have college degrees and aren't as responsible, and are more lower class citizens.
So let's describe myself a bit here. I do indeed live in a middle classed, responsible family, but I'm more like my mother's side in that I don't really do anything bad or evil necessarily, or things that specifically are meant to hurt other people. It's just that I can never get my act together completely; I have very little motivation to do the things in life that would get me to be successful. In other words, I have very much a "loser mindset;" if life just allowed me to sit around and TAS all day and be on the internet all day and eat junk food all day and never have to socialize with the people around me, I may be as happy as can be. Unfortunately, this is not how life can be, at least not for me. My family has tried to push me to do the right things with my life, such as getting through the driving book, and getting schoolwork completed on time, among other things. I mean, sometimes I do well. It's just that I am 17 and haven't even taken a driver's test yet, I don't turn in ALL of my work on time, but just enough to not get D's and F's in my classes. So basically, I'm an average student as far as grades go.
Now let me explain something that's completely new to me. I now feel like all this wasting time I've been doing is getting to me. See, I do want to do something with my life, so that I can be an independent person. But I'm literally lost now, I still have little to no actual motivation to do these things I need to do. I have a lot of work not just on driving, but on other projects as well.
Apparently, as people have told me, I'm a likeable person, but I have so much anxiety and inexperience in the social world that I just don't really talk to people all that much. It's like all the people around me can just start socializing and they feel free to talk to whoever they want in whatever ways they want, and I'm just stuck not doing anything with it. I mean it's not like I don't have any real life friends, it's just that I don't go out of my way to make them, in fear that something embarrassing will happen. Don't take this the wrong way, but I think a lot of people in this TASVideos community have similar social issues.
But here's the thing. I can do the things that I'm supposed to do. In fact, I think I will try harder now, because I realize I want to become independent. It's just that my mind is in a confused state right now. There's a new conflict in my head right now. The new conflict is that, even if I actually do these tasks that I'm supposed to do in the way I'm supposed to do them, and all the way like I'm supposed to, like school and driving and the other projects. But here's the thing.
My dad has known about my interest in the TAS/speedrun community for pretty much all the time I have been. He pretty much hates the community, he thinks it's a big joke basically, a huge waste of time and that "pretty much the entire world would not even care if the TASVideos community was shut down for some reason." And he's told me this so many times, and has (attempted to) take away the privilege of TASing from me so many times (even though I snuck and still did it anyway in various ways). Maybe bad things are just being drilled into my head, and maybe "ignorance is bliss" is actually a good policy. See, I really like to watch TASes, do TASes; it is one of a few things in this world that makes me happy. Although now I realize that this is not getting me anywhere. Like, I can't get anywhere socially with this. No one will hire me for a job after putting "I TASed the Foster's DS video game" on my resumé. Doing this doesn't really help anyone out necessarily. It won't get me a scholarship. It's certainly not helping with my irresponsibility.
TASing requires a massive amount of what many people call grinding. Taking loads of time out of your life to make it as perfect as you can get it, and then finally, after a year or whatever of making an hour long TAS, you can finally show it off to the (relatively) few people who will care. Obviously it depends on the game and such, and the entertainment in it, but really not that many people care honestly. I mean, this community is relatively really small, and not THAT many people even know about TASes. A lot of people have seen them briefly, and I do mean a lot of people, but very few of them in my eyes actually really get to the point where they understand the concept. With the TASing community, there aren't even any meetups, like there are with the speedrunning community (correct me if I'm wrong, but I have never known of any, so there must not be).
Anyway, the thing that I'm getting out of this community is that it makes me happy. And I'm not going to quit. But where is it getting me? Why should I feel glad that I'm here, and doing what I'm doing? I mean it is just a hobby, but something about it makes me feel insecure, of less worth, etc.
Could someone help me out here? I guess, in a nutshell, these are the following questions I should ask you guys, since that was a shitton of information:
1.) How can you justify TASing? Why is it okay for me to be TASing if it makes me happy? What good things are it really getting me? What's your philosophy behind that?
2.) Asking from the experience of others, how can one be successful and all that in college and high school and everything else and still be a TASer on your free time? How should you go about that?
I thought maybe if I asked the entire community, I'd get many different viewpoints and meaningful answers. Thanks so much.
PS: I wanted to add that I'm sorry if this seems like complaining, but I'm not trying to whine so much as I'm trying to look for advice, so please understand.
My dad has known about my interest in the TAS/speedrun community for pretty much all the time I have been. He pretty much hates the community, he thinks it's a big joke basically, a huge waste of time and that "pretty much the entire world would not even care if the TASVideos community was shut down for some reason."
a big joke - Definitely not a joke. People wouldn't put so much effort into TASes if they were a joke.
pretty much the entire world would not even care if the TASVideos community was shut down - Well that's a given.
But does that mean you shouldn't take part in it? Hell no.
Pretty much the entire world would not even care if most of the other communities that exist were shut down. Why does that even matter? That sounds like you always have to strive forward to accomplish something that pretty much the entire world would indeed care for, while rejecting everything less significant in the eyes of pretty much the entire world.
Doesn't sound like a healthy way to live your life though.
Warning: Might glitch to creditsI will finish this ACE soon as possible
(or will I?)
Hey, I think you're right. I think I was focusing way too much on who gives attention for what, and letting that get to me. A lot of things are "communities", your job is a community, your school is a community, your town is a community, Wikipedia is a community, and TASVideos is a community. And no matter what the project I complete is, as an average human being, I will be getting generally the same amount of attention for whatever big projects or deeds I do in any of those communities, regardless of what they are or what they do. In other words, something good you do at school may receive attention from around the same amount of people as would uploading a good TAS to this website, maybe a little less, maybe a little more, but you know what I mean, on average; they'd just be different people obviously giving you that attention. Plus, life isn't all about attention either or what people think of you.
TASing is not immoral, so there's no reason I shouldn't be doing it if it makes me happy. I guess the lesson learned here is that I need to find a good balance between what you're supposed to do and what your hobbies are, no matter what those hobbies may be; it doesn't really matter too much. The "significance" of the "fun projects" or "hobbies" that you have don't really matter either.
So then here's my question to you guys still: As TASers, you all know that you have to spend tons of time on your TAS projects. But then there are also my real life projects. So how do you (anyone?) personally balance your time so that the important things that need to get done get done while also doing a great deal on your TAS projects? I could really use some help on that.
1.) How can you justify TASing? Why is it okay for me to be TASing if it makes me happy? What good things are it really getting me? What's your philosophy behind that?
I don't have to justify anything. I enjoy TASing and speedrunning, that all I need to know. Isn't it great to have something this accessible that makes you happy? A lot of people have to resort to things like drugs to get any enjoyment out of their lives.
Current project: Gex 3 any%
Paused: Gex 64 any%
There are no N64 emulators. Just SM64 emulators with hacky support for all the other games.
Your father uses a lot of harsh words,in a sense he is right,but what he proposes with these harsh words is nonsense.He's probably concerned about your actual prospects in life,like you seem to understand.TASing like any other safe hobby is nice to do,and while useless on itself,the dedication,study and work you put on it should be things you take to your life to apply in other areas.Games don't matter,neither do sports or arts.But the tangential learning from these should be valid,and ocasionally,you can turn one of these into a job/business.
Moving to the second topic,it was also a fucking struggle for me in high school to get the job done too.I too was an average student,and would fail 1 to 3 subject each semester.My willpower was shitty and it's a little better right now,but ironically,the way I solved my situation is by "being my own parent".
If you're an uncontrollable shithead like I was, do it yourself what your father wants to do.Admit you're lacking willpower and solve the situation by removing all distractions,relocating all the distractions possible.This means uninstalling games,steam or other app clients,consoles,putting them on their respective boxes,removing facebook feed activity from all your friends.Turn the undesirable behavior impossible or hard-to-do.Obviously,you could redo all this shit,but it should take time to sabotage yourself.The limit is what you can do for fun in a controlled and responsible way.I can't watch TV for freaking hours so i wouldn't cut the TV,but only know what you do as a compulsion and what you don't.
Ok,now you've done it but you probably still feel the need to be a shithead.Well,these things ,in the present moment, are entrenched in your behavior but after a long time without them,will cease to be a compulsion.When you no longer feel them as a compulsion,it will be a good sign.Should you reinstall your pastimes when you feel good about them? NOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Make a list of what you need to get done.Until you get them done, it ain't enough.If you get the things done,you can reinstall if you want to.But whenever you realize you have something to do and you're being retarded;not doing these tasks,that's when the fun stuff has to go.
Raising psychic and physical costs for bad behavior is definitely a way to go.Realizing you want to do something with your life is half the battle,it's a great sign you're concerned.
I want all good TAS inside TASvideos, it's my motto.
TAS i'm interested:
Megaman series, specially the RPGs! Where is the mmbn1 all chips TAS we deserve? Where is the Command Mission TAS?
i'm slowly moving away from TASing fighting games for speed, maybe it's time to start finding some entertainment value in TASing.
Your father uses a lot of harsh words,in a sense he is right,but what he proposes with these harsh words is nonsense.He's probably concerned about your actual prospects in life,like you seem to understand.TASing like any other safe hobby is nice to do,and while useless on itself,the dedication,study and work you put on it should be things you take to your life to apply in other areas.Games don't matter,neither do sports or arts.But the tangential learning from these should be valid,and ocasionally,you can turn one of these into a job/business.
Moving to the second topic,it was also a fucking struggle for me in high school to get the job done too.I too was an average student,and would fail 1 to 3 subject each semester.My willpower was shitty and it's a little better right now,but ironically,the way I solved my situation is by "being my own parent".
If you're an uncontrollable shithead like I was, do it yourself what your father wants to do.Admit you're lacking willpower and solve the situation by removing all distractions,relocating all the distractions possible.This means uninstalling games,steam or other app clients,consoles,putting them on their respective boxes,removing facebook feed activity from all your friends.Turn the undesirable behavior impossible or hard-to-do.Obviously,you could redo all this shit,but it should take time to sabotage yourself.The limit is what you can do for fun in a controlled and responsible way.I can't watch TV for freaking hours so i wouldn't cut the TV,but only know what you do as a compulsion and what you don't.
Ok,now you've done it but you probably still feel the need to be a shithead.Well,these things ,in the present moment, are entrenched in your behavior but after a long time without them,will cease to be a compulsion.When you no longer feel them as a compulsion,it will be a good sign.Should you reinstall your pastimes when you feel good about them? NOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Make a list of what you need to get done.Until you get them done, it ain't enough.If you get the things done,you can reinstall if you want to.But whenever you realize you have something to do and you're being retarded;not doing these tasks,that's when the fun stuff has to go.
Raising psychic and physical costs for bad behavior is definitely a way to go.Realizing you want to do something with your life is half the battle,it's a great sign you're concerned.
Thanks. You've mentioned steam and other things as well though. But TASing is a really time consuming task, so it's not like other hobbies. I guess you could relate TASing as a hobby to sewing, since they are both hobbies people have and both take a shitload of time. So with either of these types of tasks, how do you really do TASing or sewing or other tasks that by default take a lot of time to complete something, "in moderation?" Obviously there are different methods that people use, but what is your best method specifically for TASing? Is it a good idea to make a to do list every day and once everything on that list is done, TAS for the rest of the day, or something like that?
Well, playing online MMO's/certain video games take a ton of time to grind and all, and people still do it, no matter how much others complain about them "wasting their lives away".
Whenever someone asks me why, I just say "because I'm bored and I can". My mom absolutely hates this and constantly nags about monetizing it any way possible, since $$$$, but I'm rather content being middle class and TASing/play games than gaining more and more (but never satisfied).
It doesn't seem like I've had the same motivation problems in other areas of my life, but growing up my parents weren't too excited about the amount of time I spent playing video games, so I suppose I relate to that.
I got into TAS because it was fun to see how quickly some of my favorite games could be completed, and some of my favorite games didn't have a TAS. Additionally I'm a firmware programmer, and a bunch of these old consoles are very much embedded systems, so it can be a fun problem solving exercise to reverse engineer these games and see how they work/how they can be manipulated.
As for balance with other priorities that can be difficult. I'm not the busiest person in the world, but often things like my job, the wife, the dog, and ... sleep get in the way of TASing. I also have other rta and casual gameplay projects on my list. Really things like finding cool TAS strats that myself and others can use in rta runs makes it worth while for me, or even just seeing that people have watched/enjoyed the run.
It may be worth thinking about it this way. In the future you may actually have more free time to spend creating TASes if you focus a bit more time and energy on school and job skills now. Admittedly that is the sort of thing that is easier said than done though.
Your sewing analogy is pretty apt, I actually do some knitting in my free time. It is slow and tedious, and takes some attention to detail much like TASing does.
I'm not sure how helpful this is, but having a variety of perspectives is probably good, at least for you. Your father may be beyond convincing though, I don't imagine this thread will help much with that
Thanks. You've mentioned steam and other things as well though. But TASing is a really time consuming task, so it's not like other hobbies. I guess you could relate TASing as a hobby to sewing, since they are both hobbies people have and both take a shitload of time. So with either of these types of tasks, how do you really do TASing or sewing or other tasks that by default take a lot of time to complete something, "in moderation?" Obviously there are different methods that people use, but what is your best method specifically for TASing? Is it a good idea to make a to do list every day and once everything on that list is done, TAS for the rest of the day, or something like that?
i understand mmo games and tasing may have a more consuming nature but the trick is the same,you either have no TAS at all and stick with the more "time safe/no compulsion" activities or learn to make it in short bursts,only after doing all productive things possible.
Currently,i'm TASing in short bursts after i've done the daily possible part of my college's final paper,but what i really wanted to do was to play dota2 the whole fucking day.However,i'm pretty sure i cannot play short bursts of dota2,i guess to me dota2 is like TASing to you.This video is me in dota2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSNsERJl1OE
It's not about the activity but the nature of it,if you can control,do it.TASing is like this to me.If you can't,get rid of it until you're done with what you have to do.TASing seems to be like this for you, so i'd say byebye to TASing until you can do it as much as you want(vacation) or you no longer feel the compulsion.Also,it will show your parents you recognize your flaws and is responsible enough to do what it takes to improve your attainment of the goals set.I can tell you,when i'm done with my paper,satan or god himself wouldn't be able to stop me from doing what i want.But right now,i'm not gonna do it.
I want all good TAS inside TASvideos, it's my motto.
TAS i'm interested:
Megaman series, specially the RPGs! Where is the mmbn1 all chips TAS we deserve? Where is the Command Mission TAS?
i'm slowly moving away from TASing fighting games for speed, maybe it's time to start finding some entertainment value in TASing.
As TASers, you all know that you have to spend tons of time on your TAS projects. But then there are also my real life projects. So how do you (anyone?) personally balance your time so that the important things that need to get done get done while also doing a great deal on your TAS projects?
For most of the last few years, I felt I was able to balance real life and TASing about half and half. But I since learned that real life needs to come first. TASing and gaming both feel great and make me very happy but finishing college became more important, since I needed that to start supporting myself pretty soon.
That said, what I'm actually going into is Game Design, where I can directly apply the things I've learned from playing, watching TASes of or TASing these hundreds of games. In my first C++ college class, they talked about variable types and pointers and I already know about those because of RAM Search and Cheat Engine! Gaming and TASing aren't useless for a career, like my parents used to say, and you can use them to bridge the gap between your passion and your job. If you do want to go into it, you might find it easier than a traditional job, and you'd get to work alongside other likeable people who don't make you feel embarrassed. You might not even need a college degree for it where you live.
Learning to drive is helpful though, as is graduating from high school. But once you've pushed yourself to do them...that's it, they're done! And you'll never have to get your license or high school diploma again.
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
You're pretty young still. I'm 35 and I've learned that my life is mine to live. As long as you don't hurt others you should do with your life whatever you want to do with your life. It's yours. The criticism that comes from people close to you should be taken as suggestions from different points of view. They are interesting insights and may come from people with more experience. But, ultimately, do whatever you want.
Now, of course, there's reality, and that means being able to be responsible and take care of yourself. Having a means of income, thinking about the future, where will you live, etc. Plan that. But don't live the life others tell you to, live your life.
Thanks, you guys; I feel much better now. I think it's great to hear so many different perspectives from different users on the site. I will take all of these into consideration.
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11492
Location: Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg
Ready Steady Yeti wrote:
My dad has known about my interest in the TAS/speedrun community for pretty much all the time I have been. He pretty much hates the community, he thinks it's a big joke basically, a huge waste of time and that "pretty much the entire world would not even care if the TASVideos community was shut down for some reason."
BTW, has he seen this?
http://tasvideos.org/GamesDoneQuick.htmlLink to video
Standing avations:
Link to video
As for the community... Being seriously involved into TASing concerns tons of different spheres of knowledge and skill, so it's a perfect means of personal evolution (also resulting in making more people happy with what we do).
Ready Steady Yeti wrote:
1.) How can you justify TASing? Why is it okay for me to be TASing if it makes me happy? What good things are it really getting me? What's your philosophy behind that?
Here's a post incredibly overhyped by myself at the time when I was writing it, but I asked myself that exact question for so many times until the moment I came up with that post, that it might help a newbie understand our motivation behind TASing. See even some old school heroes have found time to post there.
http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11977
Also, http://tasvideos.org/NewcomerCorner.html cover it a bit.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Yes, I do agree, that TASing has so many benefits. I suppose there will always be critics of us, who look down upon us, but fuck their thoughts of that. What we do is a hobby just like any other, and if it makes us happy, then so be it. There's nothing wrong with it. We certainly aren't hurting anyone.
1.) How can you justify TASing? Why is it okay for me to be TASing if it makes me happy? What good things are it really getting me? What's your philosophy behind that?
It is a hobby. Hobbies are there to make you feel better about your life when everything else fails to; that's literally the reason for their existence. If they also make you better as a person by means of honing some particular skills or encouraging you to learn something useful, well, that's a very sizable bonus already. But it's just that—a bonus. Hobbies serve to make you feel better, period.
Note that the ability to sit down and do hours of grinding with a definite goal in mind is essentially what most office job employers are looking for. You just need to adapt your capability to do it to something that also brings you income. I know using the word "just" in that context is awful of me, but the point is it's still easier to get yourself into a mindset that you're used to if you see it as such. Of course, if you manage to find a job that is nothing like TASing, yet you still enjoy it and want to progress in it, well, more power to you!
Ready Steady Yeti wrote:
2.) Asking from the experience of others, how can one be successful and all that in college and high school and everything else and still be a TASer on your free time? How should you go about that? [...] As TASers, you all know that you have to spend tons of time on your TAS projects. But then there are also my real life projects. So how do you (anyone?) personally balance your time so that the important things that need to get done get done while also doing a great deal on your TAS projects?
Can't really say much about the college as it's been almost a decade since I graduated, but one of the possible solutions is to find a job or a combination of jobs that gives you ample control over your free time (for instance, I'm basically working a relatively high-profile part-time job and a similarly high-profile freelance job at the same time—and yes, it pays very well for the amount of time and effort I'm putting in). On one of those jobs I write, translate, and edit a lot of text—usually various documents, often related to technology. There's a lot of optimization involved to make sentences succinct, fluid, and on-point, attention to detail to weed out mistakes and poor word usage, as well as out-the-box thinking that is sometimes required to adapt a given thought in a non-literal but very precise manner. Apart from that, it requires a certain amount of research, and the process is typically a multi-hour grind. Any of that sounds familiar to you? Because all of those are abilities and skills required for TASing and those honed by TASing. There are other jobs like that; eg. programming, architecture and design, even various finance-related jobs are a lot like that. Hell, you can even apply all that to baking a cake. If you learn to see those aspects in a profession you're interested in, it's not unlikely that your passion for TASing will translate into passion for your job, and TASing won't be needed as much (true story!).
Keep in mind that if you want to be successful at your job or education, you first need to ensure they're actually enticing for you—i.e. something that you want to be doing as opposed to something you wish you weren't. Therein lies the more important question addressed to yourself: what it is exactly that you want to be doing, other than TASing? That one thing has to take priority, and by that I mean you just do it first and do it well, and the other things you just do when you're finished. Accept TASing as the second in line for your time (and preferably third, because social life is still very important, too).
The above also means you shouldn't really strive to match the output of the most productive TASers here because, while some of them are just that efficient at doing things, the others—and it wouldn't be a stretch to say that—are only able to reach that level of output because they sacrifice other aspects of their life, or don't have these other aspects in their life in the first place. For a hobby to stay a hobby it has to have lower priority than things that ensure your sustainable survival. This is the way it has to be, because excelling at the fun stuff while failing at other aspects of life will eventually make you miserable, and this feeling will poison even the best of fun times. If you sustain your survival, you automatically sustain your hobby as well and make it a more rewarding experience, so it's a win/win.
Ready Steady Yeti wrote:
My dad has known about my interest in the TAS/speedrun community for pretty much all the time I have been. He pretty much hates the community, he thinks it's a big joke basically, a huge waste of time and that "pretty much the entire world would not even care if the TASVideos community was shut down for some reason." And he's told me this so many times, and has (attempted to) take away the privilege of TASing from me so many times (even though I snuck and still did it anyway in various ways).
Your father's arguments naturally boil down to one thing: he wants to ensure your own long-term survival and the survival of your offspring. These concerns are hardwired into any parent, really, and it's not a bad thing; it just takes twisted shapes from time to time because parents aren't always mindful of it. If you can demonstrate that you're able to stand on your own two feet, or at least show enough determination to do so, he'll drop the subject eventually, I'm sure. In some cases it just won't happen until you move out to live on your own, though, so be prepared for that. If you feel your father is being too dismissive, you might want to confront him at some point and tell him that such attitude doesn't help you. Being negative about things is a poor motivation strategy in general, so unless he is a master of human psychology, which it doesn't sound like he is, he might want to reconsider his approach and help you solve your problems instead of creating new ones and exacerbating the old.
Another piece of general advice would be to make more friends IRL while you're young. You can never have too many, and it's almost universally useful. For instance, pretty much all of the jobs I have ever been engaged in I've found thanks to my friends. And in my experience, doing something for a hobby just doesn't compare with a good conversation or a fun party with close friends. It's truly a wonderful thing that you probably won't realize until much later; many things are taken for granted at 17, aren't they. :p
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Jobs are overrated. Let's just create a communist, post-scarcity or "resource based economy" society so that no one has to work, and everybody can do TASes. Capitalism destroys TASing and hobbies, because everybody has to work for income, even though the robots are doing most of the jobs, so politicians have to invent pretend-jobs where people roll their thumbs or some other meaningless waste of time/life.
But since moozooh lives in Russia, maybe you have some first-hand experience and knowledge about communism and can tell us if it's a dream or a nightmare.
This is really off-topic, and I'll probably end up splitting the thread here, but let me humor you for a bit first.
Communism is neither a dream nor a nightmare—it's just one of the ways to build a society in the light of limited resources. It is more effective the more limited the resources are, and is often the necessary step to society's survival (eg. small-scale colony or a group of stranded people are typically much better off pooling their resources) when there's clearly not enough surplus to kickstart a working capitalist economy. Capitalism is similarly just a phase that is neither perfect nor final. Its limits were well-researched more than a hundred years back.
Additionally, many of the communist doctrines don't actually prohibit private property per se—the only thing they have in common in this regard is the need to share the means of production, i.e. have tools, factories, etc., collectively owned to prevent exploitation of labor (in the form of "I let you use my tools, so you'll have to give me a cut just for that while I'm doing nothing") and, consequently, prevent the snowballing effect of concentration of power in the hands of a few wealthy families. That is the only golden rule of communism, it has clear ethical implications, and it would be great if there was a political party who would concentrate on just that instead of piling up all the silly garbage all the communist states end up with.
The way communism was being built in the USSR was destined to fail. The country was way, way too huge to support planned economy long-term. Add to this the sheer incompetence and corruption in the upper echelons, the negative selection of the brightest people (by means of expulsion and other repressions), the disregard for many basic human rights, the rampant propaganda, the radical aggressiveness of territorial expansion, and the role of a human factor in man of its key falures. It was conceived as a country "for the people, by the people", but ended up neither. It would be interesting to see what would happen if it were the Mensheviks who ended up in power, as those were a lot more moderate and liberal-minded.
Unfortunately, the whole USSR situation has carried for so long and so many things have become equated in public view that only a very small portion of people worldwide have learned the proper lessons. I mean, nfq, you're saying: "Let's just create a communist society". Consider for a moment that Lenin and some other members of his close circle were some of the smartest people of their time who have spent several decades rigorously analyzing the sociopolitical context and the ways a communist society can be built. You cannot possibly do this on a whim, let alone as the logical end state of the society.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robasghar/2013/04/12/five-reasons-to-ignore-the-advice-to-do-what-you-love/
please read this,reality won't wait for you to find your passion or whatever
if you don't have a passion,start making strategic decisions(mercenary even) in financial terms.Do not go to social sciences college,for the love of satan.It's better to be a technician in STEM fields than a graduate in those(in terms of cash flow,which prioritizes early earnings).
I want all good TAS inside TASvideos, it's my motto.
TAS i'm interested:
Megaman series, specially the RPGs! Where is the mmbn1 all chips TAS we deserve? Where is the Command Mission TAS?
i'm slowly moving away from TASing fighting games for speed, maybe it's time to start finding some entertainment value in TASing.
I agree with the general standpoint of "identify your best skills first, find their applications second", but I think many of the critics take the "follow your passion" thing too literally, contriving it all but completely. It's evident in this article because for some reason the author attributes to Steve Jobs the teaching of Zen as the main passion of his life. This is incredibly contrived because that's just not how you define passion. Passion is the driving force that informs your life decisions given sufficient freedom of choice. Jobs's passion was to change the ways we interact with high technology and the ways we interact with the world by the means of high technology. He helmed the company that was dedicated completely to that goal, and largely succeeded at it (even if it wasn't the sole contributor) because Jobs made sure it was followed through. Things he had to dabble in, like marketing and management, were tools to reach and further this goal. His personality as reflected in his decisions, interviews, quotes, and biographical works written by other authors, should tell you that realistically he was nothing close to a Zen teacher, so how could that possibly be considered his main or only passion?
The point is, if you do something you enjoy and agree with, and if your career futhers your own life goals, you are so much more likely to progress professionally and not feel dissatisfied with your life, as your career and your interests amplify and feed off of each other. The results of your work then make you feel accomplished, and the process doesn't drain you mentally. It's a win/win.
On the other hand, those who fail to find a career that correlates with their interests in life tend to accumulate mental strain; this is expected because their life goals and their career goals go orthogonal, or even opposite of each other, inhibiting each other. Money doesn't alleviate this. It's exactly the same thing as marrying a person who you neither love nor respect. What good comes out of such marriage? And the worst part is that you can't just divorce and find someone else. I have examples all around me; people who hate their job but can't leave it because it's the only job they're competent at, and thus the only way for them to sustain. It's a very dangerous situation to find youself in, because if your current career doesn't let you accumulate enough surplus to afford a sabbatical, let alone a long-term career switch (which typically involves the expenses on re-educating yourself while not bringing in regular income, and having to start from the lowest points of a new career), you're as good as stuck with your initial choice for life. And when do you typically have to make that choice? At around 16–20, when you still know fuck-all about the world and even about yourself (I'm 30 now, and virtually none of my peers nor myself are the same people they were 10–15 years ago). It's presumptious to think people can generally make well-informed choices at that age. And the way Western economies are built, it's more likely for a person to find themselves in debt, rather than surplus, by the point they realize their initial choice was wrong.
I was lucky enough to switch from my initial, poorly chosen career, while I was still young enough to enjoy the benefits of parental support. I had to start anew from low-wage positions and rely mainly on the general bits of university education and the knowledge and experience I accumulated by myself over the years. Had I made a better, more informed, more conscious choice from the beginning, I wouldn't have to waste years of my life on irrelevant things that I morally disagreed with or otherwise found myself unable to enjoy doing. My new career(s) very much correlate with two of my actual passions: language and technology, so I feel very comfortable with them, intend to progress in them, and wish everyone would feel at least as much about their careers as I do about mine.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
I agree that communism is the ideal thing (in my opinion so ideal that it is utopic as there are way too many people that won't work unless they absolutely have to) but it still involves people having to work. The discussion brought up by nfq was the mistaken relation between people having to work to be able to live and capitalism. I merely said that it does not have to do with the system, but with the simple fact that people have to work to be able to live. "Work" isn't just getting a job and having wages, it's doing stuff you don't necessarily want. So even if you worked for nobody you'd still need to work to plant the vegetables you eat, fix your house, etc. To believe that capitalism is the culprit of that reality is insane.
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11492
Location: Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg
Who doesn't work, doesn't evolve.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
On another note, I feel like people often stereotype participants of speedrunning communities, especially this one, to be extremely antisocial. However, I've seen lots of different kinds of people here, including those who have a very large social life. So this stereotype doesn't exactly add up for all of us, but it does for me.
I think that it's all about balancing your time. Different people do it in different ways.
