Philosophy Now Forum

Posted: **Thu Apr 08, 2021 5:40 am**

Hello, I joined Philosophy Now! some years ago but never visited the forums. I was born in 1960 in Washington DC to a managing editor in the Washington Post and a debutante with drug addiction problems. Mainly to get food at first, as my mother bought drugs rather than feed me, I earned all paid boarding scholarships to Eton, Stowe, and Oxford University, the last to major in Philosophy, Psychology, and Politics (PPP) which is no longer offered as a major combo. After some confused years, including one as a Buddhist monk, I ended up in silicon valley, where I was an engineer for AT&T, Intel, Oracle and Apple for 30 years. When Steve Jobs died I retired, and I now live in a University party town called Chico in California.

Nice to meet you all. If I say something you think is stupid, please consider asking why I said it before telling me its stupid, because my general experience is that such replies dont understand what I was trying to say in the first place. So that's what I came here to say, so I can point to this message in the future, lol. Have a nice day )

Posted: **Tue Apr 20, 2021 12:22 pm**

ernestm wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 5:40 am If I say something you think is stupid, please consider asking why I said it before telling me its stupid, because my general experience is that such replies don't understand what I was trying to say in the first place.

An excellent principle!

A similar principle - I'm usually not interested in what anyone else thinks, but am certainly interested in why they think it. So I promise never to call you stupid (even after due reflection) without explaining why!

Posted: **Tue Apr 20, 2021 1:33 pm**

For one, your timeline doesn't make a lot of sense. First, you're only a couple years older than I am. I was born in 1962. I graduated high school in 1980. So you would have graduated in 1978, possibly 1977. Steve Jobs died in 2011. If you retired then after working in the tech industry for thirty years, that would mean you started working in the tech industry by 1982. So you had about four years between high school and the start of that so go to Eton, Stowe and Oxford and have a number of "confused years" including one spent as a Buddhist monk, plus you're somehow a retired philosopher?

It's nice to have someone new on the board, but I'm a bit skeptical of the biography already (and not just for the reasons above).

Posted: **Tue Apr 20, 2021 8:06 pm**

I am sure ernestm can defend himself, but I'd just like to say that, though his biog is unusual, it hasn't the problem that you identify. It appears he went to Eton and Stowe in Britain instead of high school in the US. Thus he could have gone up to Oxford in '78, graduated in '81 and had a year as a monk before joining Silicon Valley in time to complete 30 years in 2012 having worked on for a few months after Jobs died. Time for only one confused year, or maybe it wasn't quite 30 years, or maybe he took a year or rwo to ease himself into retirement having decided to do so when Jobs died, or maybe he came down early from Oxford without taking a degree. That leaves room for a genuine plurality of confused years.

You see how easy it is to not understand what ernestm was trying to say in the first place?

Posted: **Tue Apr 20, 2021 10:31 pm**

mickthinks wrote: ↑Tue Apr 20, 2021 8:06 pm I am sure ernestm can defend himself, but I'd just like to say that, though his biog is unusual, it hasn't the problem that you identify. It appears he went to Eton and Stowe in Britain instead of high school in the US. Thus he could have gone up to Oxford in '78, graduated in '81 and had a year as a monk before joining Silicon Valley in time to complete 30 years in 2012 having worked on for a few months after Jobs died. Time for only one confused year, or maybe it wasn't quite 30 years, or maybe he took a year or rwo to ease himself into retirement having decided to do so when Jobs died, or maybe he came down early from Oxford without taking a degree. That leaves room for a genuine plurality of confused years.

You see how easy it is to not understand what ernestm was trying to say in the first place?

He'd have to clarify, probably by shoring up the story he's inventing.

Posted: **Thu Apr 22, 2021 10:06 am**

Terrapin Station wrote: ↑Tue Apr 20, 2021 10:31 pm
mickthinks wrote: ↑Tue Apr 20, 2021 8:06 pm I am sure ernestm can defend himself, but I'd just like to say that, though his biog is unusual, it hasn't the problem that you identify. It appears he went to Eton and Stowe in Britain instead of high school in the US. Thus he could have gone up to Oxford in '78, graduated in '81 and had a year as a monk before joining Silicon Valley in time to complete 30 years in 2012 having worked on for a few months after Jobs died. Time for only one confused year, or maybe it wasn't quite 30 years, or maybe he took a year or rwo to ease himself into retirement having decided to do so when Jobs died, or maybe he came down early from Oxford without taking a degree. That leaves room for a genuine plurality of confused years.

You see how easy it is to not understand what ernestm was trying to say in the first place?
He'd have to clarify, probably by shoring up the story he's inventing.

Not much of a welcome to a new member. I'd give him benefit of the doubt.

Posted: **Mon Apr 26, 2021 1:54 am**

Terrapin Station wrote: ↑Tue Apr 20, 2021 10:31 pm
mickthinks wrote: ↑Tue Apr 20, 2021 8:06 pm I am sure ernestm can defend himself, but I'd just like to say that, though his biog is unusual, it hasn't the problem that you identify. It appears he went to Eton and Stowe in Britain instead of high school in the US. Thus he could have gone up to Oxford in '78, graduated in '81 and had a year as a monk before joining Silicon Valley in time to complete 30 years in 2012 having worked on for a few months after Jobs died. Time for only one confused year, or maybe it wasn't quite 30 years, or maybe he took a year or rwo to ease himself into retirement having decided to do so when Jobs died, or maybe he came down early from Oxford without taking a degree. That leaves room for a genuine plurality of confused years.

You see how easy it is to not understand what ernestm was trying to say in the first place?
He'd have to clarify, probably by shoring up the story he's inventing.

I generally don't like puting my first post in someone else's thread, but the irony is dripping all over the place and I couldn't resist. You clearly didn't read his entire post. He literally said try to read carefully before passing a judgement . . . only for you to get daft and pass a judgement, get corrected by someone else, then stick to it. On a philosophy forum. Did you mean to visit reddit or something? I'm honestly confused.

Posted: **Mon Apr 26, 2021 12:42 pm**

Thinking Enemy wrote: ↑Mon Apr 26, 2021 1:54 am
Terrapin Station wrote: ↑Tue Apr 20, 2021 10:31 pm
mickthinks wrote: ↑Tue Apr 20, 2021 8:06 pm I am sure ernestm can defend himself, but I'd just like to say that, though his biog is unusual, it hasn't the problem that you identify. It appears he went to Eton and Stowe in Britain instead of high school in the US. Thus he could have gone up to Oxford in '78, graduated in '81 and had a year as a monk before joining Silicon Valley in time to complete 30 years in 2012 having worked on for a few months after Jobs died. Time for only one confused year, or maybe it wasn't quite 30 years, or maybe he took a year or rwo to ease himself into retirement having decided to do so when Jobs died, or maybe he came down early from Oxford without taking a degree. That leaves room for a genuine plurality of confused years.

You see how easy it is to not understand what ernestm was trying to say in the first place?
He'd have to clarify, probably by shoring up the story he's inventing.
I generally don't like puting my first post in someone else's thread, but the irony is dripping all over the place and I couldn't resist. You clearly didn't read his entire post. He literally said try to read carefully before passing a judgement . . . only for you to get daft and pass a judgement, get corrected by someone else, then stick to it. On a philosophy forum. Did you mean to visit reddit or something? I'm honestly confused.

When you read closely, the timeline doesn't add up.

Posted: **Tue Jul 20, 2021 9:14 am**

You said you worked with people with addiction problems. I have a book on addiction, but I couldn't find an answer to my questio about addiction. Maybe you can.Do all addicts have an underlying emotional or psychological problem? If I don't have a mental problem, does it mean I won't get addicted to anything? Can you get addicted if you have no psychological hang-ups?

Posted: **Tue Jul 27, 2021 8:25 am**

Jori wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 9:14 am You said you worked with people with addiction problems. I have a book on addiction, but I couldn't find an answer to my questio about addiction. Maybe you can.Do all addicts have an underlying emotional or psychological problem? If I don't have a mental problem, does it mean I won't get addicted to anything? Can you get addicted if you have no psychological hang-ups?

Addiction is a need to change the avenue of perceiving the present. Once one fully accepts the present, the addiction falls away.

This is how one can take out the pack of cigarettes, toss it, and never smoke again.

The way I see it, most everyone has illusions which can be umbrella'ed under "mental problem."

Attachment to delusions is the ignorance that leads to suffering.
There is a cure for that kind of ignorance, as Buddhists know, and can tell you.

Posted: **Tue Jul 27, 2021 8:58 am**

ernestm wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 5:40 am If I say something you think is stupid, please consider asking why I said it before telling me its stupid, because my general experience is that such replies dont understand what I was trying to say in the first place.

I tried to explain this principle to my wife. I won the argument, but she still convinced me it's a stupid principe.

Posted: **Mon Aug 16, 2021 8:19 am**

Nice to meet you all. If I say something you think is stupid, please consider asking why I said it before telling me its stupid, because my general experience is that such replies dont understand what I was trying to say in the first place. So that's what I came here to say, so I can point to this message in the future, lol. Have a nice day )

Spoken like a man with a philosophical background.

Posted: **Mon Aug 16, 2021 11:13 am**

Jori wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 9:14 am You said you worked with people with addiction problems. I have a book on addiction, but I couldn't find an answer to my questio about addiction. Maybe you can.Do all addicts have an underlying emotional or psychological problem?

Yes.

Jori wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 9:14 am If I don't have a mental problem, does it mean I won't get addicted to anything?

Is there a human being who does not have a mental problem?

If yes, then who, exactly?

Jori wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 9:14 am Can you get addicted if you have no psychological hang-ups?

EVERY one is born with a need, or 'needy'. So, in a sense, EVERY one is born with an addiction, or addicted, anyway.

Posted: **Mon Aug 16, 2021 11:45 am**

ernestm wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 5:40 am Hello, I joined Philosophy Now! some years ago but never visited the forums. I was born in 1960 in Washington DC to a managing editor in the Washington Post and a debutante with drug addiction problems. Mainly to get food at first, as my mother bought drugs rather than feed me, I earned all paid boarding scholarships to Eton, Stowe, and Oxford University, the last to major in Philosophy, Psychology, and Politics (PPP) which is no longer offered as a major combo. After some confused years, including one as a Buddhist monk, I ended up in silicon valley, where I was an engineer for AT&T, Intel, Oracle and Apple for 30 years. When Steve Jobs died I retired, and I now live in a University party town called Chico in California.

Nice to meet you all. If I say something you think is stupid, please consider asking why I said it before telling me its stupid, because my general experience is that such replies dont understand what I was trying to say in the first place. So that's what I came here to say, so I can point to this message in the future, lol. Have a nice day )

Allow me to apologise in advance for the poor quality of debate here on the Forum, oh worshipful scholar!
I hope you are willing to inject a little quality into the proceedings

Posted: **Mon Aug 16, 2021 11:47 am**

fiveredapples wrote: ↑Mon Aug 16, 2021 8:19 am
Nice to meet you all. If I say something you think is stupid, please consider asking why I said it before telling me its stupid, because my general experience is that such replies dont understand what I was trying to say in the first place. So that's what I came here to say, so I can point to this message in the future, lol. Have a nice day )
Spoken like a man with a philosophical background.

I wondered what had happened to maggot infected fruit.
Where have you been?

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