cads: in the town, 11 with a janitor, and so on. You did not have legal resource in these situations, and the 2 men that you secretly had killed, they could put you in jail from beyond the grave if you are discovered. You live in a world of unprecedented prosperity, where vigilantism is prohibited.

cads: mircea_popescu: I would be forced to agree, though in your writeup consider that you are a parent with a daughter. You live in a world where the collapse of the viability of marketing strategies has lead to an unprecedented increase in the productivity and quality of life, on average. And all that you've had to pay is that your daughter got raped 6 times while she was growing up, starting at the age of 6, with her teacher, 9 with a boy

cads: hah, mircea, for someone with such a pretty mouth you sure are courageous to unleash rape on the world

cads: haha, you're going to think me a philistine, but I've not seen the film, despite being a pitt fan

cads: mircea_popescu: I wasn't in a mental state to attempt to compute rational expectations at the time.

cads: mircea_popescu: worse, I was a customer. He was a pot dealer, nothing serious, but he had a high profile.

cads: I despise rascism as a form of extreme mental weakness

cads: thestringpuller: one time some black dudes came into my house and beat me and robbed me at gun point. The interrogated me for an hour about where the drugs were (my roommate at the time was a drug dealer - bad fucking choice on my part). In the months after that I found rascist sentiment from around me was taking root in my mind very easily.

cads: actually, there's a lot of that 'white privilege' sentiment going on it Atlanta. That, and the narrow religious views, those are the only things I really dislike about my city.

cads: thestringpuller: haha, as a recent college dropout, I can attest to the lame college. As a daily marta rider for the last two years, I can attest to the failing infrastructure.

cads: mircea_popescu, ThickAsThieves, ty. I love my city, and really, economically, architecturally, culturally, there are only a handful of other american cities that match or exceed it.

cads: mircea_popescu, I read your story - quite the adventure, I see. I admire your tenacity and natural talent, while being relieved to see that you do not yet have it "all figured out", which I feel would be boring for you. I wish you continued prosperity and a future that does not cease to provide interesting situations!

cads: I would argue that I have used ignore judiciously many times... but I'd also admit that I've used it a few times in a mean spirit.

cads: truff1es: If I ignore someone in a chat, they can still see what I'm saying. So it's not the same thing as leaving the chat. Ignore can be used to assert a sort of dominance.

cads: truff1es: also, it occurs to me that leaving a chat room is not the same as ignoring everyone in that chat room. Information is not symmetric, in the latter case.

cads: nah, I think I may have made a red herring there

cads: I believe that you simply assign a negative emotional connotation towards it because you've been at the blunt end of an ignore or two, and you know how much that stings

cads: hehe, truff1es I hear what you're saying, but surely even you draw limits at a certain point: consider, one may choose not hang out on 4chan. This is the same as ignoring every single member of 4chan. If you believe you have the capacity to filter out all information by directly reading it, then why aren't you plugged into every chat in the world, filtering?

cads: truff1es: giving yourself a cognitive advantage by ignoring the poor information source is a good strategy in these situations - it's not weakness, it's prudence.

cads: truff1es: sure, let me clarify with an example. 9 people are decent people interested in talking about the topic, and the 10th person is just a troll, interested in ridiculing anyone that gives them attention. Say they are flooding the channel, and there are no ops, and you're being distracted from your other 9 contemporaries.

cads: And suppose that after extensive attempts at asking for clarification, the person continues to demonstrate that they do not have your interest in mind - they continue to BS you, and what's worse, arguing with them makes you look like a fool in front of the other 9 people.

cads: truff1es: information from a random variable is what you make of it, true, but if the variable is too random, it's impossible to make knowledge from it, however hard you try :D

cads: Say I receive $100K a year, and I suspect that this is $20K more than the rest of my coworkers in the same position as me, because I'm more skilled. Would it be something I'd brag about?

cads: mircea_popescu: yep. And they're also very guarded about their real capabilities, so for example, whereas a romanian might be happy to brag about how little he payed on a car if you ask, asking an american the same question is often a faux pas.

cads: From my personal experience, for example, when Romanians show off in front of Americans, at best they tend to be perceived as lovable assholes. The fact that many romanians tend to show off only they can back it with something tangible helps in establishing relationships between americans and romanians, but there is often a secret distaste.

cads: In america, when someone shows off they tend to be an asshole. Keeping your cards close to your chest is often a better social move here, because showing off invites open ridicule.