Delicious LiveJournal Links for 6-21-2010

[andrewducker]

• Saving "virtual worlds" from extinction
  (tags: games archive history)
• The City that Ended Hunger - Belo Horizonte, Brazil
  “I knew we had so much hunger in the world,” Adriana said. “But what is so upsetting, what I didn’t know when I started this, is it’s so easy. It’s so easy to end it.”
  (tags: food politics brazil sustainability democracy)
• "That guy has too much spare time" is one of the most odious, intellectually dishonest, dismissive things a person can say.
  (tags: time psychology rant productivity corydoctorow innovation)
• Morality, Religion and The Prisoner's Dilemma
  (tags: religion ethics cartoon christianity funny)

Comments

[simont]

"That guy has too much spare time" is one of the most odious, intellectually dishonest, dismissive things a person can say.

Yes! And it's also infuriatingly unfalsifiable: once somebody has criticised you for being too interested in something, you can't defend it by any argument about the specific merits of the thing without knowing in advance that they'll just point and laugh again and say "See what I mean?". Of course you probably stop caring quite quickly what they think in this situation, but if the argument is in front of other people, it's difficult to find any comeback that won't do more harm than good in the eyes of the spectators, even if you're right.

[broin.livejournal.com]

"That guy has too much spare time" - I despise that one! Grrr, I have a relative who dismisses a billion and one things, from artists to writers to hobbyists. GRR.

The only argument I'd have with Cory's rant is that I don't think it's necessarily important to look at the potential benefits to the world of such diversions. That is, me footling around with Word has partially led to me being l33t with Word, which has made me more valuable to the world. Yay me. But there's more to it than that.

There's a woman in my apartment block who tends flowers in the communal courtyard. Even if no-one ever saw her flowers, and no-one outside benefitted, doing it for herself seems reason enough.

[andrewducker]

Yup, totally agree. Doing things for ones own amusement is a perfectly good way to spent ones time.

[broin.livejournal.com]

Presumably, as a gamer, you've had this directed towards you more than once, right? So where do you think it comes from?

In my occasional exploration of the issue (itself a waste of time, certainly ;) ), it seems to be an expression of fear or wariness with a little envy thrown in. A fear at the 'arrogance' or 'ego' perceived in someone valuing something a bit out of the ordinary. And then envy because the quoter isn't really doing anything of value, or developing much themselves, but feels their day is full.

[andrewducker]

I think it's a rationalisation. Thy have an instant "I wouldn't want to do that." and "What a waste of time" response, and then try to justify it by saying that the person doing it is clearly the wrong kind of person, who has "no life" and "too much spare time".

They're completely un-self-directed themselves, and cannot comprehend that someone would have self-directed aims that would be valued by the person for their own ends. To them, aims are only valuable if they gain you some kind of instant hit, or money to pay for that.

(And that's my cod-psychology moment for the day)

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Your cod-psychology works for me.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Here's another vote for hating "too much time on their hands" as a dismissal of creativity. A good response is "maybe they don't watch television." Or if you know the dismisser well enough, make it something the dismisser engages in (but usually television is a good first shot).

[simont]

http://xkcd.com/178/ ? :-)