Unsure if this is what the poster means when they talk about semi-permanent congestion, though.

Report comment

I very purposely ask a small set of questions which are extremely simple; the first one has a naive solution that is absolutely at the FizzBuzz level, and I have absolutely had people fail at it.

Abject failure like that is fairly rare, but the follow-up questions (all of which are still trivial, simple problems) catch up a surprising number of people who can code, but extremely poorly, and yet somehow still think themselves worthy of working at Google.

Report comment

Whether or not you pre-commit with insurance isn’t super-relevant here, because getting gouged by the hospital beyond what your insurance is willing to pay still sucks, and paying for “help, the hospital they took me to when I collapsed gouged me” insurance is a moral hazard.

Report comment

Report comment

1) Fewer chickens die from disease & stress under modern intensive raising systems than when living in situations with less controlled environments. This is why the industries moved to these systems, even though housing is more expensive, the trade off in ‘more chickens to sell’ is worth it.
2) Modern livestock animals produce more meat per animal and per pound of feed than their ancestors. This requires fewer lives to produce the same amount of food-for-humans. Likewise, concentrated mechanical processing plants allow for concentration of offal and other non-eatable parts, so that these can be readily transformed in to useful products. Elsewise, these parts of the animal – and that animal’s life – would go to waste.

That’s two ways, maybe three.

Report comment

“The ghost of perfect emptiness” 😉

Report comment

Metta is super good for you, but 15 min at the end of each session should be plenty for everyday use. I don’t know of any “advanced metta”. You’re welcome to try inventing some though 😉

There’s 3 directions I know of that you could take it now:

1. Use it as a platform for jhana entry: Once you yet into metta focus on stabilizing it. Bask in it (mindfully) until you enter jhana (you will know). Don’t stress to much about doing something special, just make sure to stay focused/aware.

2. Use it as a platform for dissolution: Dissect the feeling – where is it most intense? Does it move/change over time? How quickly? does it change with the breath? Try to find the smallest the feeling covers. Be aware of every minutia in realtime. Once you get into the flow you can shift your focus to include all sensations.

3. Stabilize it so that you can rest in metta at all times, without distracting yourself.

Try each and see what’s most natural. I recommend trying 1 until you can get jhana, then switching to 2. If you try 1 for a few weeks with nothing happening, just switch to 2. 3 comes “for free” with 1/2, but you can strengthen it alone if you really want.

A word of caution:
Staying in metta a lot will greatly increase empathy, which (while usually good) can be bad if you forget that humans are insane and inconsistent. Remember rationality if you have a *goal* to *really help* people – feelgood actions are totally subjective and not necessarily productive.

Report comment

Report comment

I do. Sometimes it seems worth it, other times it seems like it would take too long, and I manage to restrain myself.

Report comment

But yeah, kudos for fighting the good fight.

Report comment