Basman

Damn, the Chat is grilling 😭.

Therapy isn't for everyone. Just throwing yourself at something can be what you need if you are in a rut. Not everyone is blessed with the mind and character that is suited for intense self-direction and that is fine. I'm not saying that he definitely should-should go to the military. I can't decide that, but I disagree with this notion that it has no intrinsic value for the people in it. I do think that perhaps some more research would be a good idea before making a decision.

Who said you can only do one? Plenty of ex-military who lead great lives post service. And in my experience they are very active and disciplined. It's about prospects and gaining experience. The military is a viable option if you are in a rut and not academically inclined as a young person. Being completely self-responsible is an incredibly big ask. If it was so simple then we wouldn't need public education for instance. People would just teach themselves. But that is a goofy libertarian kind of thinking. People crave and benefit from structure. If you can run your own show, go for it. But don't be so arrogant as to think it is the only option.

One advantage of AI is that it is good at rewording you arguments to be more precise and clear and introduce subtle nuances that you didn't think of as well as challenge the weak links in your argument and oversights.

The military is a very important job and responsibility. You can't have society without soldiers. And being a soldier isn't exactly known for being comfortable or easy. Its not a failure of character to desire the structure something like the military provides. It is a bit like volunteering for the fire brigade or choosing to become a cop. It takes a special kind of person to be highly entrepreneurial and driven which most people aren't. Don't treat it like it is a given because it is not.

@Someone here The military will add a lot of structure to your life and push you to be more resilient.

Symbolic education. Education that is lacking in real life applicability and therefor lacking educational substance and purpose, IE. education that is largely a waste of time because it is useless. Like symbolic politics, it is meant to signal action without necesarilly being of substance. Note, any education is more educational than no education, but it is a matter of relative substance. Learning Latin is relatively useless compared to essential math and calculus or topics that are life changing but not taught at school like socializing or spirituality. The purpose of symbolic education is to exclude people who lack particular credentials from getting certain jobs/educations. It is a gatekeeping tool for institutions to reduce applicants. As a society, we don't talk much about the degree to which our education system is essentially symbolic as opposed to truly educational. We ignore it because it is too convenient to set arbitrary standards for excluding people that we can control.

Pollution and human industry is leaving its mark on nature surprisingly quickly. Plastiglomerates, stones fused with plastic waste, delineate human development and history into the geography.

The purpose of a strong military is to first and foremost prevent war from taking place in the first place. NATO spending more on military is largely to keep the peace.

Business can do welfare but only if it is a win-win for them. Therefor, private funded welfare tend to be band-aid solutions. Not permanent solutions. For that you need to build infrastructure and high quality bureaucracy, which only the government can effectively provide. Permanent solutions tend to be a net-loss monetarily but politically significant, which is why only the government can provide permanent solutions ultimately. You can build as many wells in Africa as you want but unless the local government doesn't start building it's own solutions for creating public goods then the situation will never truly change. It's an issue of corruption, a lack of resources and development. Not of a lack of goodwill or business corruption necessarily.

Of course shovel makers are getting rich during a gold rush. But the reality of the situation is that we are in a moment of time of heightened security needs. That is simply what it is. We need more shovels. It's not that deep. Corporations are ultimately not responsible for the welfare of society. That is the governments job. It's the government you should really be pressing. Corporations are going to do what they can get away with generally. If corporations are running amok than that is an issue of regulation in the same way that murderers and rapists running amok is an issue of policing. Of course it is a problem if politicians are in bed with corporations. Like starting unjust wars for profit. But that is an issue of corruption. Again, the responsibility lies with the government.

Security is a basic and essential need. Without security you can't have a functional society. Violence is an existential threat to society, which is why monopolizing violence is such a high priority, such that you can regulate violence. The alternative is society dissolving into tribes and gangs. Adequate military spending is more important than helping homeless people or feeding orphans.

Russia is on the warpath. More money spent on the military is just a necessity. NATO countries are actually very happy to under spend on their militaries otherwise, which they have until recently. Europe has long leaned heavily on the US military which has lead to them being woefully unprepared for an attritional war with Russia, especially as America withdraws its support. More money spent on the military is less money spent on public goods however. It could contribute to the degradation of trust in institutions in the long-term. A part of European welfare is getting to underspend on the military till recently.

Discussion > spoon feeding answers. The ultimate teaching style in my opinion is having a personal relationship with a mentor with which you discuss their teachings with. A lot of understanding comes from exploration. Just taking the answer that AI gives doesn't engage you intellectually with the material you are trying to learn. My stance is to use AI as a supplement. You want to be the one in charge of thinking because it is an act that is worth doing yourself even if you can delegate it.

You want to have a growth mindset where leveling up is more interesting than staying the same. There will always be some kind of pain to pushing yourself because you have to discipline yourself, put in effort and take risks. But see it as challenge that makes your life more interesting. Like, a video game on super easy mode gets boring fast. We tend to overestimate how painful pushing our comfort zone actually is anyway. You can handle much more than you think. Like soldiers going through boot camp push themselves physically much farther than they thought they where capable of and end up just fine.

Inside your comfort zone you already essentially mastered your environment. The experience you will gain from outside your comfort zone is what you'll need to grow ultimately. Anything valuable will require some short-term pain, but the long-term pleasure will pay for that pain with interests. The trick is to associate more pleasure than pain to acting on your growth and more pain than pleasure to avoiding taking action. What actions have you have been avoiding taking? Why haven't you been taking action? What pain have you linked to this action? What have been all the pleasures you've had indulging in negative patterns of behavior? What will it cost you if you don't change? What pleasures will you receive by taking action now?

Which is why AI is automating information based tasks first and foremost. There's no automation without infrastructure. Industrial infrastructure is expensive.

A lot of guys have bad taste. So it evens out slightly.

Most people are religious as products of their environment. People might gradually secularize if they live in a secular society where they maintain certain traditions as part of their community. Much of the west's traditions and values are religious ideas that have been secularized to become devoid of their original Christian belief. I believe that religion is in large part a survival response, so as society evolves it tends to secularize as religion becomes outdated relatively speaking.

Government is not for regulating people's personal relationships. Marriage is strictly a private matter.

You guys are always adding these magical qualities to busting a nut that don't exist. Jerking off is not a big deal in the slightest.

It's like playing video games or watching Netflix. You know when you are wasting your time and should be doing something else. I never experience loss of "vitality" or whatever and I jerk off almost everyday. If my balls get heavy enough I get so horny and bothered that it's not funny anymore. I might be above average horny though I think.

You can't perform good genes. A man isn't getting hard for ugly women.

If you need the government to lit a fire under your ass so you don't neglect your relationships then you shouldn't get married in the first place. Just divorce if you don't want to be married anymore. It's just a promise of commitment at the end of the day. Not actual commitment.