Author Archives: stephboisvert

… That no one can take for us or spare us

I posted a quote a few days back. But I think I should of expanded on what it means to me. To explain why I find that quote appealing.

“We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.”
“On ne reçoit pas la sagesse, il faut la découvrir soi-même, après un trajet que personne ne peut faire pour nous, ne peut nous épargner.”

Marcel Proust

There are a few implications, and they all stem from the last few words, “that no one can take for us, or spare us”.

The first is that it means that we need to accept that we cannot learn, we cannot become wiser, without adversity. We can read all the books, but we won’t find wisdom. We’ll find information, we may even find knowledge, but we won’t find wisdom.

That wisdom has a cost. It has an emotional toll. It has some painful introspection. It may lead to some self delusions that were protecting us shattering.

The second implication is that we cannot transfer wisdom. The corollary is then, that I can’t stop something that needs to happen. To do that is to rob that person of the wisdom it will bring. It’s often a bitter pill to swallow since we’d prefer to protect the individual from the inevitable pain that will accompany this, but at times it’s the only option.

Who am I?

Perhaps I am this stuff here, i.e., the ordered and chaotic collection of molecules that comprise my body and brain.

But there’s a problem. The specific set of particles that comprise my body and brain are completely different from the atoms and molecules than comprised me only a short while (on the order of weeks) ago. We know that most of our cells are turned over in a matter of weeks. Even those that persist longer (e.g., neurons) nonetheless change their component molecules in a matter of weeks.

So I am a completely different set of stuff than I was a month ago. All that persists is the pattern of organization of that stuff. The pattern changes also, but slowly and in a continuum from my past self. From this perspective I am rather like the pattern that water makes in a stream as it rushes past the rocks in its path. The actual molecules (of water) change every millisecond, but the pattern persists for hours or even years. [read more]

Ray Kurzweil

Approximate Answers

“I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I’m not absolutely sure of anything, and many things I don’t know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we’re here, and what the question might mean. I might think about it a little bit, but if I can’t figure it out, then I go on to something else. But I don’t have to know an answer. I don’t have to… I don’t feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in the mysterious universe without having any purpose, which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell, possibly. It doesn’t frighten me.”

Phillip Richard Feynman

Many thoughts, few posts

Recently I’ve been having a lot of thoughts but they haven’t translated into posts. I think this is because, since this is public and friends, family, work, can all see it, things need to be at least slightly polished.

I do think that’s a bit BS since it means against living authentically (and by doing so, increasing the amount of mis-information or ignorance in the world [IMHO, living honestly and authentically is the only way to help the world get better since it’s only with better data about the world that we can make wiser decisions about it]) but I recently don’t want to have the tough conversations that will happen if I just write everything I’m thinking. I don’t want to have to explain to some well meaning family member that yes, things are fine even if I talk about all the things that are on fire. (This also applies to friends and co-workers, but family is the usual suspect.)

I’ve started writing some drafts since that seems like a good balance.

I have one I’m working on that I think will be titled “Buddhism, Rage Against the Machine and George Bernard Shaw”

Hopefully at some point I’ll find a way to massage all these opinions in a way that won’t “offend my political connects”

If not, they’ll be sneakily published without being posted anywhere. (I mean, if it’s not on social media, it might as well not exist)

Radical Candour

I know many people talk about Radical Candour and I  know I’ve mentioned it a few times and I wanted to just put this article here: https://www.radicalcandor.com/challenging-conversations-radical-candor/

I think one of the reasons I mention radical candour is not to tell others I’m doing it. But to remind myself that I’m trying to get better at it.
In all honesty, I think I’m pretty mediocre at it. I’ll often say things that are sub-optimal and will often shy away from tough conversations.
This article reminded me of the rewards having those conversation has, especially in the long term.

One of the things people seem to miss most when implementing something like radical candour is to first listen and to try to understand the other person. How can you expect someone to listen to you, if you haven’t listened to them?

Y fait beau aujourd’hui

English automated translation follows

C’est 15C en se moment et c’est ridicule comment du bien sa fait. Genre, c’est la premiere journée que je peut etre comfortablement dans mon screened in porch. On a été pour une marche, on avais pas besoin de manteau, y’avais un beau soleil.

Je sais que l’hiver est pas finit. Et pas juste pcq mes parents mon envoyer une photo de la nouvelle dump de neige que y on eu mais aussi pcq je sais que y neige souvent a Ottawa en avril. Cela étant dit, le printemps approche tout doucement.

J’ai commencer a planter des raises dans la maison. Pas vraiment pcq j’ai besoin plus de plant de fraise mais plutot par ce que sa me donne quelque chose a faire en attendant que je peut jardiner dehors. Y reste au moins 6 semaine avant que on peut penser a planter dehors mais on y arrive.

On avais pas mal de plan pour la cours encore cette année mais je pense que avec la pandemic on va en mettre plusieurs en pause. Focuser plus sur apprécier la cours que esseyer de l’amilioré tsé?

Automatted English Translation: (deepL)

It’s 15C right now and it’s ridiculous how good it’s doing. Like, this is the first day that I’ve been comfortable in my screened in porch. We went for a walk, we didn’t need coats, it was sunny.

I know winter’s not over yet. And not just because my parents sent me a picture of the new snow dump we had there but also because I know it snows a lot in Ottawa in April. That being said, spring is slowly approaching.

I started planting strawberries in the house. Not really because I need more strawberry plants but because it gives me something to do while I’m waiting for me to be able to garden outside. It takes at least 6 weeks before you can think about planting outside, but you (editor’s note: we’ll) get there.

We had a lot of plans for the class (editor’s note: yard) again this year but I think with the pandemic we’re gonna put a few on hold. Focus more on enjoying the class (editor’s note: yard) than trying to improve it.

I just don’t like Red Dead Redemption 2

I mean this post is pretty self explanatory. What I did realize is that I felt like I needed to keep playing, the sunk cost fallacy that I paid good money for it (okay, it was on sale and I had a gift card, but you get what I mean). I felt like I needed to finish the story, I needed to complete it, not just leave it half done.

But that’s really poppycock, I mean, I don’t play games to get achievements, I play them to unwind and relax. I shouldn’t feel compelled to do finish anything I don’t want to.

As to the specifics of why I don’t like it, it’s all about the story. It’s really not engaging. I mean, I see where this is going and it’s not like I can influence the story (or at least have the illusion of influencing the story) so what’s the point? It reminds me of GTA V (which shouldn’t surprise anyone) in that it’s a sort of “you’re a bad person, but not bad bad, just like kinda bad”.

Like, it’s okay to shoot the sheriff, but don’t shoot someone’s horse, only truly awful people kill horses.

If you want to watch a really long movie with an anti hero set in a western, it is technically beautiful….