Vish

Delicious Ambiguity | Cyclist | Swimming | Investor | Fitness Enthusiast

[Vish @viishh]

@Novartis @Novartis @NovartisIndia I had emailed them 4 days back and they had no idea. They are completely clueless. Screen shot of their reply is attached.

[Vish @viishh]

I am not able to get Myfortic S 360 mg in Kerala, India or to get it delivered from online. It is out of stock. Please help as it is a part of my immunosuppressive regimen post kidney transplant and facing such a situation for the first time in 19 years
@Novartis @NovartisIndia

[Vish @viishh]

@Novartis I had emailed them 4 days back and they had no idea. They are completely clueless. Screen shot of their reply is attached.

[Vish @viishh]

When you look back, you forget about all the things you worried about that never came true. So life appears better in the past because in hindsight there wasn’t as much to worry about as you were actually worrying about at the time.

https://t.co/pqcfELPPzJ via @collabfund

[Anders K. Hvelplund @Falliblemusings]

I used to think Sapiens was a great book. Sweeping, provocative, the kind of book that makes you feel like you finally understand the big picture of human history. It's on every CEO's bookshelf, assigned in universities, praised as a masterwork of synthesis. Yuval Noah Harari is treated as one of the serious thinkers of our time.

But something nagged at me. Some passages felt off. Claims that human rights are just figments of our collective imagination, not real things, just stories we tell ourselves. That nations, laws, money, justice, doesn't exist outside our heads. That meaning itself is a delusion we've invented to cope. That we're far more powerful than ever before but not happier. That hunter-gatherers had it better because they had no dishes to wash, no carpets to vacuum, no nappies to change, no bills to pay.

That sounded depressing to me, but was perhaps just the realistic scientific worldview? What it meant to see the world clearly, without comforting illusions.

Then I read The Beginning of Infinity by @DavidDeutschOxf. Deutsch has a concept he calls 'bad philosophy.' Not philosophy that's merely false, but philosophy that actively prevents the growth of knowledge. Ideas that close doors rather than open them. That makes problems seem unsolvable by design.
After soaking in Deutsch's framework (it's dense, a bit like digesting a delicious whale), it becomes clear: Harari's books are riddled with bad philosophy. They're smuggling nihilism in under the guise of scientific objectivity. Some examples:

On meaning: "Human life has absolutely no meaning. Humans are the outcome of blind evolutionary processes that operate without goal or purpose... any meaning that people inscribe to their lives is just a delusion."

On human rights: "There are no gods in the universe, no nations, no money, no human rights, no laws, and no justice outside the common imagination of human beings."

On free will: "Humans are now hackable animals. The idea that humans have this soul or spirit and they have free will, that's over."

On progress: "We thought we were saving time; instead we revved up the treadmill of life to ten times its former speed." The Agricultural Revolution? "History's biggest fraud." We didn't domesticate wheat, "it domesticated us."

On our cosmic significance: "If planet Earth were to blow up tomorrow morning, the universe would probably keep going about its business as usual. Human subjectivity would not be missed."

On the future: "Those who fail in the struggle against irrelevance would constitute a new 'useless class.'" Homo sapiens will likely "disappear in a century or two."

This is bad philosophy. It tells us our problems are cosmically insignificant, our solutions are illusions, and that progress is neither desirable nor within our control. It's also perfect nonsense. No one would ever go back to being hunter-gatherers. Would you rather worry about your kid spending too much time on Roblox, or face the 50% chance she won't reach puberty?

And our so-called "fictions"? They ended slavery. They gave women equal rights. They solved hunger. They eradicated smallpox. They turned sand into computer chips. They got us to the moon, and hopefully soon, to Mars and beyond. These "fictions" are already reshaping the universe, and over time they may become the most potent force in it.

Now compare Deutsch:
"Humans, people and knowledge are not only objectively significant: they are by far the most significant phenomena in nature."

"Feeling insignificant because the universe is large has exactly the same logic as feeling inadequate for not being a cow."

"Problems are soluble, and each particular evil is a problem that can be solved."

"We are only just scratching the surface, and shall never be doing anything else. If unlimited progress really is going to happen, not only are we now at almost the very beginning of it, we always shall be."

Where Harari sees a species of deluded apes stumbling toward obsolescence, Deutsch sees universal explainers, the only entities we know of capable of creating explanatory knowledge, solving problems, and potentially seeding the universe with intelligence.

The difference isn't academic. Ideas shape action. If you believe life is meaningless, progress is a trap, and humans are hackable animals with no free will, how does that affect what you build? What you fight for? What you teach your children?

Harari's books sell because they flatter a fashionable pessimism. They let readers feel sophisticated for seeing through the "delusions" everyone else lives by. That smug cynicism is corrosive. And it's everywhere: in schools, in media, in bestselling books. More than half of young adults now say they feel little to no purpose or meaning in life. This is what happens when you teach an entire generation bad philosophy. Less progress, less health, less wealth. Less flourishing. And ultimately, a higher chance that civilization and consciousness go extinct.

Fortunately, there's another equally well-written, but much truer, account of homo sapiens, appropriately titled 'The Beginning of Infinity'. And this one smuggles no despair in by the backdoor. But let's give Harari credit where it's due. He is right about one thing: if planet Earth blew up tomorrow, we wouldn't be missed. Because there'd be no one left to miss us, just a careless universe, blindly obeying physical laws. We are the only ones who can miss, but we're not going to. We're going to aim, hit, and keep going.

Full credit for the amazing meme to @Ben__Jeff

[Vish @viishh]

@ntushar So, you mean to say that various AQI monitor data of AQI in Delhi is wrong? Can fog spike AQI readings too?

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Correct exercises for the lumbar spine

[📹 Dr Son]

[Vish @viishh]

@AshwiniVaishnaw @RailwaySeva @RailMadad @SpokespersonIR Despite all the GDP growth talk, most Indian trains are still the same of some bygone era. Last I travelled in 1998 and now travelling today. Same condition of berths. No advancements at all! #IndianRailways @NarendraModi

[Vish @viishh]

@AshwiniVaishnaw @RailwaySeva @RailMadad @SpokespersonIR Despite all the GDP growth talk, most Indian trains still lack automatic closing doors—a basic global safety norm. Let’s move from boasting to real action for passenger safety. #IndianRailways #PassengerSafety @NarendraModi

[Paul Couvert @itsPaulAi]

So Google Sheets now has a "=AI" formula?!

You can process data that was impossible before in a spreadsheet.

Gemini understands what's in the cells and returns a tailor-made answer according to your instructions.

Examples and formulas below

[Vish @viishh]

@TimesAlgebraIND @RemindMe_OfThis after exactly 3 years

[James Clear @JamesClear]

It only takes five minutes to break the cycle.

Five minutes of exercise and you are back on the path. Five minutes of writing and the manuscript is moving forward again. Five minutes of conversation and the relationship is restored.

It doesn't take much to feel good again.

[Vish @viishh]

Just finished 👍

[Paras Chopra @paraschopra]

i strongly recommend this #book if you’re entering into your 40s, 50s or beyond.

talks about acceptance of the inevitable changes that happen to us as we age, and what makes midlife a difficult period for people addicted to professional success.

[Vish @viishh]

"Asking questions is fun! We ask them because it's fun learning things. Learning things allows us to explore what we like and to show off what we know about it to show who we are!"

[LynyrdsMom @Lynyrds_Mom]

@elonmusk

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

The excess government spending is what causes inflation!

ALL government spending is taxation. This is a very important concept to appreciate.

It is either direct taxation, like income tax, or indirect via inflation due to increasing the money supply.

[Vish @viishh]

https://t.co/hVCFI7ueGK

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Trust those who return the shopping cart