Archive for the ‘philosophy’ Category
Tuesday, December 26th, 2006
I tend to believe that ethics is a sort of sense, a faculty that is developed by making sound and unsound choices and gaining experience from living through the results.
Those aspects of an action (mental, vocal, or physical) that lead to benefit of any sort for any being push the action toward the ethical end of a scale, while harm of any sort to any being push it towards the unethical. In this sense most choices have some mix of the two and it is often the case that we find ourselves having to compromise, though generally through lack of awareness of the true nature of the situation.
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Tags:conditioning, ethics, health, meditation, philosophy
Posted in philosophy | 2 Comments »
Thursday, December 7th, 2006
This is a long one!
I’ve always liked computers. I liked that they could play games and produce documents. I liked that you could use them to draw and even make music. I liked them even more when the internet landed and you could use them to communicate. But it’s long been apparent to me that without software a computer is just a fancy electricity sucker. And in the past few years I’ve become more and more aware of how the quality of and intention behind the software can affect the usefulness and even usability of the computer. Bad software and poorly motivated software development can seriously affect the social empowerment of the end user.
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Tags:amiga, environment, free geek, free software, home, internet, langara, linux, open source, philosophy, school, technology, travel, ubuntu
Posted in philosophy, technology | No Comments »
Thursday, November 2nd, 2006
In a computer programming forum recently, I was chided for being competitive when I asked if anyone had managed to solve a particular problem in less lines than I had done. My critic then poked fun at another forum writer, suggesting that the amount of time spent working with computers was an indication they didn’t have a girlfriend, ending with “I’ll lend you a few of mine…”
I’ve spent a fair bit of time pondering questions on the nature of competition, and what purpose it serves.
So, what exactly is competition? And is there such a thing as healthy competition?
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Tags:competition, cooperation, footbag, hackey sack
Posted in philosophy | 1 Comment »
Sunday, October 8th, 2006
I’ve had various struggles with discipline throughout my life. I wrote before about keeping focus, putting things off, and getting enough sleep.
Discipline requires dedication and decision making. Dedication is necessary for maintaining effort during adversity, and decision making is needed to ensure there is no stalling because of uncertainty. Both dedication and decision making demand a certain degree of belief in why the goal is worth striving for in the first place.
And so we come to meditation.
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Tags:conditioning, discipline, focus, meditation, school, sleep, vipassana
Posted in meditation, philosophy | 2 Comments »
Saturday, September 30th, 2006
I used to be a terrible procrastinator. Any excuse to not do something today was good enough, though the excuse was usually TV or some variant of screen watching. I would push aside most things that weren’t an immediate need until the last minute.
Anything with a deadline resulted in a flurry of rushed work. Essays that were started in the evening were finished just before I walked out the door to school in the morning. Personal projects were left undone. Cleaning simply wasn’t done (because who likes cleaning?).
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Tags:home, philosophy, procrastination, school, sleep
Posted in philosophy | 2 Comments »
Monday, September 18th, 2006
There’s a funny thing about getting things done… you need to stay focused to do it.
That’s not to say that one who isn’t focused won’t accomplish anything, just that they’re unlikely to have much control over what they get in the end.
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Tags:discipline, focus, goals, ouch, philosophy, vision
Posted in philosophy | No Comments »
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