Some Things

Glad you're enjoying it. All three of his lecture series are worth watching but that one is my favorite. As for music, I've been listening to this a lot lately. It's a real grower. Hope you like it.

2 min. in I am intrigued and will continue listening. Ulver is on Spotify so that is good.

I liked Roderick's take on Sartre. I was not familiar with Heidegger at all but really enjoyed that lecture but I was really excited for the Sartre lecture. I really like his take on Sartre as a personality as the most value there. I remember reading Nausea and No Exit and Waiting for Godot (Becket) and eventually Being and Nothingness and it feeling like it was kind of life changing. Like that was the way. That was the incontrovertible truth. Now it is just fun to look at Sartre and his life. I am not surprised he claimed he was happiest when he was creating his most impact-full work I would say. Even though those works dealt with anxiety and despair and death I don't feel that they were fake and I certainly don't fell hoodwinked. I agree with Roderick that a lot of the value in Nietzsche and Sartre is the awakening that there exists a whole new way to be human. I don't know if I agree with Sartre that the only project worthwhile is to be a revolutionary but perhaps if Castro was telling the truth in that interview with Barbara Walters there is something to be said there. Definitely a brutal way to go about living or it can be that way. A modern day example is perhaps Julian Assange. I mean to get more educated on Marxism but it always seems to get put on the shelf. Roderick brings up a good point in that capitalism and marxism are in their infancy and that the workers brought about the trade unions/marxism and that it didn't happen in reverse.

Yeah, this album is good shit.

It's frustrating that these immortality projects are so ingrained in mass culture. It seems what that is what we are searching for in these lectures. How to be free regardless of what "they" think. How to be free of the anxiety, despair, nausea before death, about death. Roderick jokes about being a drunkard. I have plenty of experience that only works so well. It does work until it doesn't and once I pass a certain stage of progression there is unfortunately no going back. If i could just go back to drinking a bottle of wine or two in a night and quelling the structures without any problems that would be an intriguing situation to go back to. My hope is that through these lectures and other avenues that becomes less and less appealing.

We are born to suffer and then die. How do we deal with that? It is a pretty serious predicament. I was sitting at an AA potluck dinner tonight which was pretty cool. I made some roasted sweet potatoes. I have made friends with 2 particularly interesting people that I have been hanging out with. There were a lot of people there that we can all agree on one thing. That we were lost and AA has made that situation better. The speaker had a very powerful story but it was not particularly insightful or interesting to me. I am strong enough to look outside of a lot of these people and the sacred book but that does not mean there are not people that have what I want and can help me. It does not mean I can't help others. That has been a very worthwhile project in my story.

This album is fucking good.

I will use the word relegate. I can see a bit clearer now that I don't want to relegate myself to just AA. I could be fleeing from other projects, a better story. I want to be free from the "they" of AA as well. I don't pray, I don't believe in god, and I seek out more profound philosophies than just a single book written by a businessman in 1935.

So, I am watching this lecture on Derrida and Peterson has certainly misread him or never read him in the first place.

Very relevant in regards to the big book "Alocholics Anonymous" or any book or piece of information

"There will be no last books. No final commentaries. No ends to the flow of information. Meaning is not fixable or fixed."

There is no most right or perfect interpretation. Brilliant stuff.

Also, @5:25 rofl:

On (Derrida) having a sense of humor and not being a bore: "Professor's have to compete with MTV, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Jurassic Park."

Foucault was pretty good too about surveillance and jails and hospitals and schools and docile bodies. We are all in prison with different walkways. I wouldn't mind getting a little more into Foucault and Derrida but it sounds like Derrida is very difficult and maybe not worthwhile. I would like to read the bit about the interpreter finding a long lost Nietzsche aphorism "I forgot my umbrella."

On December 12 2017 03:48 RiKD wrote: Also, @5:25 rofl:

Lol, glad you picked up on it :D

I am sitting in this meeting today and I just can't get it out of my head "these damn 12 step meeting" in a west texas drawl. I was definitely looking at it from a new perspective. The 3rd step is so convoluted. How does one turn their life and will over to God (of their understanding)? It's always based in the Christian God. I just don't get how we can turn our will, the free will we have or the determined will that is already determined over to something that does not exist. Even if he did exist it is back to this pray for God's will and then God's will will be good. So, it gets back to the position that prayer will make our life better so everyone should pray. "These damn 12 step programs!" But, then a guy with about 4 years I think starts telling a story about how he wasn't doing well and got the obsession to drink and drove to a liquor store and just sat there and cried for 15 min. before calling his sponsor and then everything was ok. Most of the people in the meeting were struggling with life. That story kind of opened up the floor to let out the trials and tribulations. How do these people not get frustrated with prayer and God's will?


I would like to get more acquainted with some of these post-modern thinkers primarily Foucault, Derrida, and Baudillard. I think Roderick recommended a Foucault but my damn Waze was telling me where to go and I didn't hear and I don't remember where in the video it was. With Derrida I want to find the book where the interpreter finds a Nietzsche scribbling of "I forgot my umbrella" and anything else worthwhile. Baudillard the obvious one would seem to be Fatal Strategies.

From the short lectures it seems like these guys are explaining the world and how it is and how it is going to be. Peterson is full of shit.

There are transcripts to all his videos here if you want to find something: http://rickroderick.org/

Pretty sure it was Discipline & Punish though. The one I was most interested in after hearing the lecture was Marcuse. Banalisation and cynicism in the face of complexity was something that I was thinking a lot about and I was amazed to hear it there.

Did you follow up and read any Marcuse?

I enjoyed that lecture too.

"Have the audacity to reason for yourself."

So, a structure can be anxiety, anomy, nausea, forlornness, dread, despair, alienation. These are a structure we wish to avoid most of the time if we can. We don't want to end up like Roderick's students that have no hopes, dreams, aims, and worthwhile projects. What sort of structure are we looking for? One in which we have hopes, dreams, aims, and worthwhile projects?

Also, I was trying to look back and find those books you suggested in a past blog.

Do you remember those books and do you have any updated suggestions?

One of them was the sex addict who is using Schopenhauer to try and overcome the addiction. I am reading Tree of Knowledge but very slowly because it always seems to hit the back burner. I just got some Foucault, Derrida, and Baudrillard to further dip my feet in some post-modern thinkers. Oh, I also am finally going to read the "Communist Manifesto." I didn't really find anything that I wanted to read from Freud and I would rather re-read Nietzsche than get to his later works. I may be mistaken with that opinion.

Here were the recs: https://www.liquidpoker.net/poker-for...d_Opening_+_Desire_Fulfillment.html#6

If you don't want to lose track of things you want to read, I'd recommend opening a Goodreads account.

When I recommended "The Tree of Knowledge" I recommended it alongside another book that serves as an introduction to understanding complex systems and epistemological constructivism. It wasn't meant to be a standalone recommendation; I saw it as complementary to the other. ToK has a lot of technical scientific jargon and it's easy to be overwhelmed by it without any background in biology and systems thinking, even if it's just a distilled version of Maturana & Varela's much more technical work, "Autopoiesis and Cognition".

Sounds like you already have a lot on your plate so I'll avoid throwing out more recommendations since it's just going to be too overwhelming. Freud's "Civilization and Its Discontents" is a very quick read though.

What was the other book with ToK?

The translated title of the other book would be "Introduction to Complex Thought" but as I said in my PM when you asked, it hasn't been translated yet. The best way to read the material that it addresses in English would be to start with Morin's "Seven Complex Lessons in Education for the Future" (which elaborates on the topics in the video that you said you liked of Morin) and then reading his collection of translated essays in On Complexity. Personally, this is the most important material I have read in my entire life. Everything I have read prior to this led to it in some way or another.

I don't use Goodreads automatic recommendations, but it's a pretty decent system as far as I know. I just look at reviews and friends ratings if I'm interested in something. I can't find your profile with just your name but you can add me: https://www.goodreads.com/washedoutcolours

Am i the only one that didn't receive that fucking email. Fuck you spotify I've been paying you for years now


Also Kaytranada - Lite Spots is his best track imo, that drop at the beginning is just sick

If you use last.fm (a free service) then you don't need Spotify to send you emails of what you listened to, it's all recorded there.


Looks like this is my top played track of 2017. Makes sense, it's catchy af.



Rest of my top 5 played (not necessarily my favorite tracks, just most played):

+ Show Spoiler +

Most played albums: https://www.last.fm/user/ecartelement/library/albums?date_preset=LAST_365_DAYS

On December 15 2017 14:13 Spitfiree wrote: Am i the only one that didn't receive that fucking email. Fuck you spotify I've been paying you for years now Also Kaytranada - Lite Spots is his best track imo, that drop at the beginning is just sick

It showed up under home as a playlist. It might still be there. It should still be under there. Mine still is but I have to scroll a bit. Go to home and look under Made For You. The playlist is called Your Top Songs 2017.

On December 15 2017 15:47 Loco wrote: If you use last.fm (a free service) then you don't need Spotify to send you emails of what you listened to, it's all recorded there. Looks like this is my top played track of 2017. Makes sense, it's catchy af. Rest of my top 5 played (not necessarily my favorite tracks, just most played): + Show Spoiler + Most played albums: https://www.last.fm/user/ecartelement/library/albums?date_preset=LAST_365_DAYS

This Zola Jesus is good. IO Echo I like too. Browsing the albums I don't recognize much but that is a good thing. I like Lana Del Rey, M83, and Grimes. The others I get to discover some new music which is always fun.

I agree with Roderick when he said something like it is not easy to read a lot of philosophy when he was a dishwasher. I echo the sentiments for being a prep cook. I get home and many times my first inkling is to shut off which is a shame. I don't quite go down as far as network television but I go down to the depths of LP and pornography. Posting grants the illusion that I am coming to some conclusion. I am sure I am coming to some conclusions but it is obvious to me that reading more Edgar Morin would be a better use of my time. I fell asleep reading the Communist Manifesto yesterday in the afternoon. I don't know if I was bored or tired. Probably both. I mostly read novels late at night as I fall asleep. It was great when I was unemployed I could wake up have some coffees and read first thing but I do not wish to be unemployed for a number of reasons. Well, I desperately wish to be unemployed but I do have expenses that need to be covered. There is something to be said for circadian rhythm and little projects to do but that is not mutually exclusive. I could have that with being unemployed I just don't have anything going that could make an income and it is going well not asking my parents for help every month. It is what it is. I'll read what I read.

I don't know why I buy books anymore. It is like motivation or something. Do you really like having a nice new book and the freedom to read it at my leisure. Well, yes I think I do but I should certainly be getting some books from the library if not all.

Oh well, I have to get some food before I go out tonight. I don't even know if I like AA meetings at this point but there are cool people that attend and hang out. I will likely be looking for more interesting meetup.com opportunities if those exist in the future.

I finished up reading a short book that deals with procrastination and how to best combat it yesterday and there was a bit that relates to this. Basically, the point is that willpower is a limited resource, and by going to work and using it all day (or night), doing things you don't like but have to keep doing, once you get back home your willpower is largely exhausted so the impulse to procrastinate is incredibly likely to win out. The research is pretty clear on that, but there are some common sense strategies to help deal with this.

Definitely stick around AA at least until you find another supportive environment. Unemployment is cool for a while but it loses its charm. Work is a large part of one's identity. There are very few people who could be happy with their lives being unemployed for a long period of time. None of which are secular extroverts, I think.

There is a guy I sat next to for dinner one night randomly and we had a conversation about atheism and free will (determinism and compatiblism) that is always at the meeting on Friday night. I really wanted to pull him aside and ask him what his experience is with being secular in AA meetings more so starting to get annoyed by meetings. I could see him being my next sponsor.

So, I was inspired to go back and listen to Born To Die by Lana by your last.fm album list. Such a classic but what was slightly disturbing is I remember I was driving up to Chicago listening to "Carmen" on repeat as if that were my destiny. I was Carmen, I wanted to be Carmen, I wanted to be with Carmen, I felt like that was my uncontrollable destiny. That trip to Chicago was actually one of the starting points for me to try and quit drinking. Listening to it today it is yet another tragic story straight out of the human predicament. I like your observation though that the steps may be great or not but they are not enough. I think reading more Morin will illuminate that. I am only through the first chapter but culling the deception and illusion for lucidity is so important in life. It is what the 4th step and constantly in communication with honest people is for. My current sponsor likes to talk about the Johari window. I am not really sure how to diminish deception and illusion with out other people.

On December 15 2017 23:20 RiKD wrote: Show nested quote + On December 15 2017 14:13 Spitfiree wrote: Am i the only one that didn't receive that fucking email. Fuck you spotify I've been paying you for years now Also Kaytranada - Lite Spots is his best track imo, that drop at the beginning is just sick It showed up under home as a playlist. It might still be there. It should still be under there. Mine still is but I have to scroll a bit. Go to home and look under Made For You. The playlist is called Your Top Songs 2017.

Nice, found it.

Kendrick - HUMBLE 1st
Wolven Storm - Marcin 2nd :D

Feels like the whole top100 isnt right though, since I don't have GoT & Westworld soundtracks there eventhough i had them on repeat for like 2 months



This is the best in top10 imo tho - she sings better live than studio recordings ... thats insane

I've never heard of the Johari window before. I like the idea a lot. It seems to be limited in its applications though.