The great picture of our lives

[adrianh]

Dude, you're giving yourself a headache.

You are a true Economist.

The only reason why you say that things happen for a precise reason is because you look at an event and then build an explanation that looks to you like it could have been the cause. 20/20 hindsight simply has no value unless that learning is applied to future decision making.

Your philosophy: I am f*cked because my program makes it so.

My philosophy: I will never give up, f*ck the plan, f*ck the Matrix, I am a an active player in my Plan and in my Matrix.

This is what I want written on my tombstone "Man, he sure did try"

[Citizen X]

Well then, graduates of philosophy must be extremely stupid because any fool can philosophize....talk to anybody who'se had 6 beers.

No Adrian, not like this, if one studies what everyone has said, and how they drew their conclusions, you can't really accuse them for not have a sound premises! I'm not referring to aimless drinking talk, this is a structured debate. In my book everyone has stated their individual case satisfactory and noone can really be accused here of not having made a good and compelling case using one or more techniques or methods to justify their conclusion. This is what the final outcome of philosophy is i.e philosophizing but when Plato was born, what he ate, who his girlfriend was, what he said, that is superficial! This is what academia fails to realise, look at the learning outcome, the outcome of philosophizing has been achieved here by everyone who contributed thus far to this thread!

[adrianh]

There is no final outcome. It is all a mindless discussion starting nowhere and ending nowhere.

Some toss ideas around and some talk about tossing ideas around.

We, the uneducated, toss ideas around because we are too stupid to know what the great Tossers of yesteryear had to say!

[tec0]

My philosophy: I will never give up, f*ck the plan, f*ck the Matrix, I am a an active player in my Plan and in my Matrix.

This is what I want written on my tombstone "Man, he sure did try"

And there you go... took you long enough adrianh

Sorry I played you but the design here was to limit option and outcome call it a "situation" and just nagged you ever so slightly with it until I got the result, your post here. I am honestly sorry but I needed to proof a point and really it was between you and vieome.

So again my apologies,

My intention is to show how easily we get played into thinking it is our choice when it is clearly not. Truth is we get played everyday by other people that benefits from our mistakes. That is why the little choices are so important.

If you scanned back at my posts you will see how I suggested things and that would get under your skin... Other posts rendered you powerless no one will accept it.

Yes we all have choices, we are not just programs... But the post here showed you how you can be programmed and manipulated.

I felt it important enough to do because I see many business being manipulated many people doing the wrong things with there investments. I hope that the readers can look at this with a open mind and protect themselves in the future against this type of manipulation.

[adrianh]

Aye well, I'm no different to any other person, I have lots of buttons that can be pushed...

[vieome]

Sorry I played you but the design here was to limit option and outcome call it a "situation" and just nagged you ever so slightly with it until I got the result, your post here. I am honestly sorry but I needed to proof a point and really it was between you and vieome.

Are you not just taking a given result and now turning your argument into - that was the plan all along. But lets assume that all along you have being playing programmer of men to a given result, why write such a long program?

Simply you could of wrote your program like this
>>> Print " Hello World "

Then link to Behavioral Economics which is about how to get people to make choices you desire. E.g supermarkets putting sweets at checkouts at kids eye level.

Instead of
>>> Print "H"
>>> Print "E"
>>> Print "L"
>>> Print "L"

[vieome]

http://nudges.org/

[tec0]

Aye well, I'm no different to any other person, I have lots of buttons that can be pushed...

Nope this would have been a pointless exercise without you and the others. We live in and learn and thanks to you everyone will benefit when those pesky manipulators comes around. Now we can bust there balls good and proper!!!

[tec0]

Are you not just taking a given result and now turning your argument into - that was the plan all along. But lets assume that all along you have being playing programmer of men to a given result, why write such a long program?

Simply you could of wrote your program like this
>>> Print " Hello World "

Then link to Behavioral Economics which is about how to get people to make choices you desire. E.g supermarkets putting sweets at checkouts at kids eye level.

Instead of
>>> Print "H"
>>> Print "E"
>>> Print "L"
>>> Print "L"

Nope this was a real live demonstration on manipulation. As I said before I have seen with my own eyes how people lose fortunes tanks to manipulators. Thanks to everyone here we have a realistic model and the tools to identify manipulators and how they work.

I only hope it helps people in the future... This will make you alert to value the small decisions. I do feel like a jerk for doing it but it needed to be done. It is one thing to read about something and then forget it but once you are a part of it you will never forget the importance.

[vieome]

Nope this was a real live demonstration on manipulation.

[Blurock]

Life is a result of the choices you make...

If you do not like your life, its time to make better choices.

[ians]

Ditto, it just easier blaming everyone else.

[Blurock]

This one is specially for my good friend tec0;

If you're not familiar with the work of Steven Wright, he is the famous erudite comic scientist who once said:
"I woke up one morning, and all of my stuff had been stolen and replaced by exact duplicates."
His mind sees things differently than some of ours do. Here are some examples:

1 - I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.

2 - Borrow money from pessimists -- they don't expect it back.

3 - Half the people you know are below average.

4 - 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.

5 - 82.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

6 - A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.

7 - A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

8 - If you want the rainbow, you have got to put up with the rain.

9 - All those who believe in psycho kinesis, raise my hand.

10 - The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

11 - I almost had a psychic girlfriend... But she left me before we met.

12 - OK, so what's the speed of dark?

13 - How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?

14 - If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

15 - Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.

16 - When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

17 - Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.

18 - Hard work pays off in the future; laziness pays off now.

19 - I intend to live forever... So far, so good.

20 - If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?

21 - Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

22 - What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

23 - My mechanic told me, "I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder."

24 - Why do psychics have to ask you for your name.

25 - If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.

26 - A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.

27 - Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

28 - The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.

29 - To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.

30 - The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.

31 - The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.

32 - The colder the x-ray table, the more of your body is required to be on it.

33 - Everyone has a photographic memory; some just don't have film.

34 - If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.

And finally:

35 - If your car could travel at the speed of light, would your headlights work?

[ians]

Some are already drunk in the pub at 6 pm on a friday night, others are putting words of wisedom on the forums

[adrianh]

@Blurock - brilliant

35- Yes, light always travels at the speed of light irrespective of your point of reference, so if your point of reference is the speed of light then light will still travel at the speed of light. It is the same as saying can you throw a ball forward in a car travelling at 500km/hr, yes, because the ball is also already travelling at 500km/hr but is travelling at 0km/hr relative to your car.