cool & unusual

existing primarily as a means to an end.

[cool & unusual @bra_zos]

So are hobbies JUST a means of warding off existential dread or am i missing something here??

[cool & unusual @bra_zos]

@niemandmagzeit @eigenrobot Just finished reading this and it rocks. I've met exactly one guy like him in my entire life, and we need about 100 more. He wrote 10,000 words just to end with "USA is clown world lol".

[jo johnson @josbjohnson]

talking about it is the methadone. you describe the project to a friend over coffee and feel the warm rush of having almost done it, the nodding, the encouragement, the sense of momentum, all of it real in the body and none of it on the page. the conversation scratches the exact itch the work was supposed to scratch, just enough, just often enough, that the pressure never builds to the point where you would have to actually make the thing to relieve it.

[cool & unusual @bra_zos]

@niemandmagzeit @eigenrobot Incredible, thanks.

[cool & unusual @bra_zos]

@niemandmagzeit @eigenrobot This is such a thorough takedown of this whole mindset, I'm stunned to see it's over 100 years old. We need this guy to speak at every college orientation across the country ASAP.

[cool & unusual @bra_zos]

@niemandmagzeit @eigenrobot People spend all of their formative years and sometimes well into post-graduate-school life trying to rebel against this and express themselves 24/7 bc they think they're wrong for taking a job that pays the bills. it's a shame.

[allan @niemandmagzeit]

@eigenrobot it has really always been this way though from 1922:

[cool & unusual @bra_zos]

@CrispinCowan0 @JosephOnions @KrisAbdelmessih Oh right, of course. That 'for life' is doing a lot of work if you're a young person.

[cool & unusual @bra_zos]

@CrispinCowan0 @JosephOnions @KrisAbdelmessih What do you mean by asymptotic in this context? Like your expected ROI is asymptotic over a long enough timespan?

[cool & unusual @bra_zos]

Eating chicken nuggets from first principles

[owen cyclops @owenbroadcast]

each parenting “issue” is a fractal trapdoor into true philosophical problems that have no answer - it’s a shame that so many notable philosophers either didn’t have kids or, apparently, didn’t find raising them very interesting (which, admittedly, may have been the style at the time).

here is just one example:

A) a child is presenting picky eating. first question: is this actually “a problem”? is this a pathology, or is the child learning “how to eat”?

in some situations, eating the wrong thing will kill you. so, surely the child has to go through some process wherein they learn how to assess food. is “picky eating” just us seeing this process from the outside? or, is it a serious pathology in a nascent stage? that’s two totally different ballgames.

B) now, whatever answer you chose there determines how you deal with it. now, there are wrong answers based on your input. because if this is a natural stage of development, where the child is learning “how to eat”, how to select foods - interrupting it is bad. if that’s the case, you’re interrupting a vital development process.

but, if that’s not the case, and you’re seeing an actual problem developing, it’s the opposite: in that situation, letting it develop is a dereliction of your duty. you’re making a huge error.

so, which is it? there’s literally no way to check this. it’s entirely up to you.

C) now, you can coerce the kid into eating, somehow. you can make them do it - usually with some type of bribery. so, let’s say you could get into a situation where the kid will eat the things he doesn’t want to eat, because you, the authority figure, are kind of making him do it (or getting him to do it).

is that good? is that teaching them to trust authority - and you? now the kid is eating all these healthy foods, and they’re doing it because they know you’ll give them a cookie later.

is that bad? are you teaching them that their mind and body might be telling them something, and that they should ignore it if an authority figure tells them to? is that a good thing? we’re almost already at: are people inherently good (can develop naturally) or bad (must be brought into submission), aren’t we?

so: listen to your body (which is telling you to only eat hot dogs) , or, trust authority (instead of yourself)? again, no way to check your answers here, it’s just entirely up to you.

so, here’s a kid who always eats all their healthy food, because they want to have cookies later - versus a kid who eats what their mind and body is telling them to eat, which right now happens to be only a handful of things.

which kid is in a better position? is the first kid failing to learn to listen to their body? now one of the most important basic actions to their life (eating) isn’t self directed or in response to actual bodily needs, it’s all subservient to a pleasure seeking desire (cookies) that’s being used as a coaxing mechanism by an outside force (the authority figure, you). they’re eating for outside “reasons”.

is the picky kid developing the ability to self direct their own eating - which seems like a pretty critical skill, or, are they on track to become one of those people who eats only chicken nuggets?

there’s no way to know any of this. and it’s all a microcosm of extremely large important questions - even just here we have: the individual vs authority, the mind body dichotomy, the question of innate intelligence, and more - that likewise have no concrete or fully resolved answers anywhere.

all this plays out in a situation where you have total control, basically, and are playing at the highest stakes possible. so suddenly, all this stuff you’ve read that was always purely abstract is right in front of you requiring hard immediate answers all the time. just eat the food - your body is far more intelligent than people think - but, it’s wrong right now, just listen to me and trust my authority, but later, question all authority, just, eat the food bro. it’s good. bro. just eat it.

[𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖊 🕯 @atlanticesque]

Debussy: Music is the spaces between the notes

Miyazaki: A film of nonstop action—with no pauses to breathe—is just a commotion

Lao Tse: We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that is useful

Tiktok creators: Finally, we can remove all pauses from everything

[cool & unusual @bra_zos]

@simonsarris I have a family and a longstanding itch to be self-employed. My (advertising) career is fine, but not 100% what I want, and it’s definitely shifting beneath my feet bc of AI. What does it take to be self-employed AND an exceptional parent in 2026?

[cool & unusual @bra_zos]

@goodalexander @edgefills Other people love it when you take risks. It’s like a reality show for them. They have nothing to lose in giving you advice unless they have skin in the game. It’s your actual life, but it’s just a conversation for them.

[cool & unusual @bra_zos]

@tenobrus Mine go down every time I tweet though

[cool & unusual @bra_zos]

Have kids

[alz @alz_zyd_]

During your "long 20's", from when you settle into a job a year or two after college, to when you have kids, nothing actually happens, really. Life is the same cycle of work, hit the newest fancy restaurant, get some drinks, work... as if things will go on forever like this

[cool & unusual @bra_zos]

@tomfgoodwin @moorehn Ever since Airbnb tbh. Way longer than 3 years.

[cool & unusual @bra_zos]

The term you're looking for is "big-budget advertising campaigns that only justify salaries and budgets."

[durandalcomplex @durandalcomplex]

theres gotta be a term for completely visionless but relatively absurdly high effort content that isnt "qualityslop"

[Chris Faulkner @ChristFaulk]

@vrizov William Gass

[cool & unusual @bra_zos]

I spent weeks trying to remember the antithesis of ‘wordcel’ bc it clarified something in me, stumbled upon roon’s article about it from 2022, and finally rediscovered shape rotation. All this just to know what it was, no real reason.

Classic wordcel

[cool & unusual @bra_zos]

I appreciate the fatherhood tweets giving me more actual fatherhood advice than real fathers I know. We gotta do better than this at a societal level.

[cool & unusual @bra_zos]

I leave the bad screen to look at the good screen. I leave the bad words to write (and say) the good words. I drive the bad commute to get home and drive the good roads. How is it all the same whether I’m working or not?