why do i hate that artist thing that people keep posting on my facebook so much? why am i such a jerk?

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13659208_1730230557240526_654056775174738989_n.jpg?oh=369ee1567f2c23424a74fc5b7a990368&oe=58106A04

Talent requires hard work to perfect, but natural ability is real and helps get the ball rolling. I don't spend my time learning how to draw because I know I lack the ability to do it well and no amount of hard work will get me there.

Plus having to hold a crayon for 20 years seems inconvenient

i think that altho his point is unnecessarily aggro and hectoring, as is the fashion, it's mostly right

yeah that's totally correct, it's just something that's kind of pointless to be a dick about

like, that person is going to keep on wishing, but probably not even that often, and you're going to keep on drawing so

yeah true

what's the opposite of a humblebrag? a hubrisbrag?

I've also just become kind of attracted as an adult to the exercise of practicing a lot to get better at things I'm "naturally" bad at. Not that I become brilliant at them, but I find the progress I'm able to make at them incredibly satisfying, and it makes me think I probably underestimated my ability to be good at certain things when I was young on account of the overestimation of natural talent in western culture.

process not product!

but yeah i find myself regularly telling kids who want to be games designers or musicians or writers or whatever to always be making stuff, in their free time, not just waiting for the 10 hours a week they spend in a classroom with somebody nagging them

Drawing one kinda takes us full circle to the original 'artist thing' in a way. Like NV I think the point's not totally ill-taken, it just sounds obnoxious because the actual context of comments like this "omg you're so good, I wish I could draw!" is usually a kind of casual friendly compliment. It's underthought because it does diminish the hard work the person has put in, as if their art is some kind of neat party trick they can do and not, like, their career or their passion... but it's kind of a banal nicety and I feel like most artists kinda are willing to let those things slide when they're meant well.

Dr. C and man alive otm.

There does seem to be a period of greater porousness to learning in childhood (which makes sense, biologically). That window closes somewhat in adulthood (for a lot of people) (for a lot of pursuits). I totes respect people who try to learn a language or learn an instrument or begin to paint as adults, but it's a much harder learning curve for them than it would be if they were children, because children tend to be more malleable and adults tend to be set in their ways.

For example, I spoke French pretty well when I was 13 or so, but it's all completely lost from disuse. I very much want to learn Spanish, because it's widely spoken in my neighborhood and in my social circle. But every time I open a book or put on a CD I get discouraged, because I'm just not as porous to language-learning as I was 40 years ago. Ditto for reading music, which I cannot do (though I play lots of instruments and write and record and perform songs). Not for lack of sincere trying, I just think the window of porousness has closed.

One thing I think would be helpful is if people embraced amateurism as a reasonable pathway. Personally, I draw and paint more or less the way I do. I play the guitar like myself. I don't need to compete with professionals in those arenas if I'm allowed to just do them for fun, on the front porch on a lazy Saturday.

But the focus on excellence - if you aren't Olympic-caliber by age 9, you should give up gymnastics - sometimes keeps us away from doing things just for fun.

just assumed that was a scott adams post

Mad puffin, have you tried memrise? Free learning app, do a bit every day and it gives you points. Found it quite good for building up vocabulary and then as for grammar well, we'll see about that but with the steady drip feed of words going into my head I feel less discouraged

As for me, that artist thing I posted just makes me too angry for words - it's the sort of unconscious sales-pitch/giving-a-ted-talk/randian/dawkinsian rhetoric that person is using.

i'll try memrise, thanks

Although ...

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13880409_1120637984659632_66544701805625623_n.jpg?oh=08a2428e28be90a3045364636d1157d1&oe=582BC86F

My tongue has a tongue. That's why I don't need a nose.

thought that was just an advanced case of thrush at first.

this one really irked me somehow

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10101092530811487&set=a.866901146187.2227381

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13880413_10101092530811487_2456312721011320432_n.jpg?oh=555eb1beee3c8e96cf21fce0b2b38eb4&oe=5812ACED

Combination of gross narcissism and two different terrible meme concepts ("leveling up" and "not sorry")

Feel like "not sorry" has a lot of good uses, but I'm mainly thinking of things like "women have been raised since birth to apologize for X, and I'm not doing it anymore!" Put against that, every use of it in connection with something totally stupid about which nobody would ever feel compelled to apologize is just maddening. Who is going around demanding apologies for leveling up...? I get the strong whiff of Gamergate meets Harrison Bergeron - those SJWs would like nothing better than to keep everybody stuck at Level 1 with only leather armor and a short sword! etc.

'come in my life'

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13900131_1055862007828798_2243408289653821017_n.jpg?oh=d08e712247f8a6a641e8e6507b4c5d05&oe=5819025F

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/p417x417/13718624_1223307464347509_267298781799549078_n.jpg?oh=90c11168982c91aa4bfa0bd34022dbd3&oe=58228795

I want circular saws implanted in my brain.

Feel like "not sorry" has a lot of good uses, but I'm mainly thinking of things like "women have been raised since birth to apologize for X, and I'm not doing it anymore!" Put against that, every use of it in connection with something totally stupid about which nobody would ever feel compelled to apologize is just maddening. Who is going around demanding apologies for leveling up...? I get the strong whiff of Gamergate meets Harrison Bergeron - those SJWs would like nothing better than to keep everybody stuck at Level 1 with only leather armor and a short sword! etc.

― we're gonna live in spatula city (Doctor Casino), Monday, August 1, 2016 11:53 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, the person who posted it actually tends toward a mix of feminist and weirdly narcissistic facebook posting. Definitely not a gamergater, but a weird sort of appending of feminist trappings to "look how awesome I am."

Fuck you!!!!
You disgust me.
You bastards.
I'm going to kill you.
(Now read bottom to top.)

Can't claim credit for that masterpiece but the sentiment is mine

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/p480x480/13921035_1063113340391692_699530735887787255_n.jpg?oh=6b6f041377cd78d7f34a05ad8d8eb707&oe=581D5D37

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13659104_1059838484052511_6491619883747319321_n.jpg?oh=c273bee948f561cd10f3a745bbeb1636&oe=58557817

http://i67.tinypic.com/rhpytd.jpg

Is that a Lupe lyric

https://scontent-cdg2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13962669_1257631580923171_7441690137786814117_n.jpg?oh=e24f8cfffacabb33e9f7729aed2598b6&oe=585B0F05

Nikola giving it the Poochie the Hound eyebrow raise there

*fewer

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13876304_1090214674360742_6922462100063890196_n.jpg?oh=16a465e801fead86ef5beaaadeef6675&oe=581095C4

shared by an account called Cold Dead Hands, with caption #TRUTH

delicious and proud consumerism

When you give poor people money and they buy food with it, that employs farmers, truckers, and grocery store clerks.

Further, when a government agency exists to administer that aid to the poor, the employees of that agency are able to buy things like houses, food, clothing, and cars. So if you are in the business of selling houses, food, clothing, or cars to them, your hard-earned tax dollars are coming right back to you.

Something tells me the author of that wouldn't extend the logic that far, though.

Also, a pretty central concept in socialism is 'surplus value', the fact that workers aren't payed what they work is actually worth. To write such a screed, without mentioning surplus value, just goes to show that the writer knows shit.

He's not too bad on Capitalism, but his socialism knowledge is less than zero.

'when you give someone something for nothing, you rob them of your dignity and self-worth'

xmas in this guy's house must be shitty

"You want this bicycle, Timmy? TOUGH TITTY. Go shovel the fucking driveway and then we'll talk."

To be fair:

'when you give someone something for nothing, you rob them of their dignity and self-worth'

Wd also think if that someone is in some kind of suffering due to need, giving them the thing they need could bring back their dignity and self-worth

https://scontent-cdg2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/p480x480/12360335_10156393085520078_1393872322824876163_n.png?oh=b77515e7c964dcb6da4826afdc0a24f1&oe=581D2D53

have a nagging feeling their only actual beef is with religion, and that they don't know what metaphysics is, so insulting philosophy too is really just padding that they wouldn't even agree with if they thought about it for five minutes.

haha but he basically didn't get a single one right

thought this was pretty much settled anyway:

http://i459.photobucket.com/albums/qq313/doctorcasino/ediesmall_zps7e04c5c5.jpg