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: oh gosh, the airport... it's like rich white men said, "lets take the poorest sector of the city and put an airport in it. But here's the catch, lets hire _only people from the suburbs, MUAHAHAHA"

cads: imo, hating on atlanta and loving on it are the same practice, so anyways, enough loving on atlanta ;)

cads: still, there is something rough, vulgar, and thriving about this city that I don't feel when in, say, pittsburg, or saint louis, or miami

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: at least so I tell myself, lol

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: or the phrase "what had happened was..."

cads: thestringpuller: the real test: do you ever use the word "y'all"

cads: thestringpuller: and some nice architecture, to boot

cads: I'm amazed with the care and attention that romanian schools give to the smart kids - here in america, being bright means being ridiculed

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: just.. don't learn any lessons that are not profitable

cads: truff1es: good deal. as long as we remain teachable, life is pretty good, I find

cads: I guess maybe the only claim to legitimacy I have is that I'm genuinely interested in understanding assets

cads: it's time to cook some breakfast and get started with the day here :D

cads: *shrug*, in any case, we could philosophize about this all day

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: In other words, ignore actually can be used as an asshole strategy. is that part of your argument against the desirability of ignore?

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 would agree 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: that was uncharitable, but I hope you get my drift - ignoring someone is just one of the many ways of filtering your information input

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: would you not ignore the offensive charachter? Or would you force yourself to take cognitive loss, and manually take the time filter out the useless chatter?

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: truffles, lets put it this way. Consider you talk to 10 people online, and you know that 9 of those people tend to say things that you fine useful, some of the time. But now imagine that the 10th person not only says things that are useless, they also try to mislead you, and they drown out the reasonable words 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: truff1es: I mean, some people are so incoherent in their opinions that I get the distinct feeling that I'm _stupider_ after arguing with them, and if these people consistently attack my positions with poor argument tactics, then I have little to gain from them in way of exchange of ideas, and I ignore them.

cads: hehe, truffles, are you just used to people ignoring you?

cads: Chaang-Noi: are you from thailand?

cads: mircea_popescu: this is common here in upper management in mid to large scale businesses. My understanding is that when the amounts of money are that large, it becomes profitable to remain private about them. People say "I got the raise!" but don't say how much the raise was.

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: for salaried upper middle class workers in romania, what is the normal attitude towards revealing their exact salary figure to their coworkers?