Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/main'
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---
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id: 2026-03-14T08:24:04-04:00
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aliases: []
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title: 2026-03-14 08:24:04
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tags:
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- authorship/original
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- destiny/permanent
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- status/draft
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- type/periodic/timestamped
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dg-publish: true
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date-created: 2026-03-14T08:24:04-04:00
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daily: "[[2026-03-14]]"
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weekly: "[[2026-W11]]"
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monthly: "[[2026-03]]"
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quarterly: "[[2026-Q1]]"
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yearly: "[[2026]]"
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---
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# 2026-03-14 08:24:04
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My dad frequently tells me how people (especially immigrants)
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are taking undue advantage of welfare and other government programs.
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His favorite example right now is the "Somali daycare fraud".
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He tries to bait me into agreeing that these people are lazy or selfish.
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It's a frustrating line of argument,
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especially from a man I know is intelligent,
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because the blame is so obviously misplaced.
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It's not logical to criticize the abusers of government aid
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that you already believed was inappropriate.
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Despite benefiting from regulation in every aspect of his life,
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he fancies himself a small government type.
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For a libertarian like he claims to be,
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abuse of government programs
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is just a symptom of the real problem,
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that the programs exist in the first place.
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Complaining about something directly offensive to your personal sensibilities
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is just whining,
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and whining is a net negative for yourself and potential supporters,
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since it negatively impacts perception of your cause.
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Only the people responsible for the offense are unaffected,
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they may even be benefited by your tantrum,
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if (by pouting) you get the relief of catharsis,
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and don't actually do anything about the real problem.
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Turning whining into belief requires considering
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* why the the thing you don't like happens,
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* what could be done to stop it from happening,
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* what the secondary impacts of the solution would be,
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* if the result is even worth the cost.
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These are the bare minimum for discussing societal,
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or even just organizational issues.
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Until you have done them all several times
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and understand the problem from all sides,
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keep that shit to yourself.
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@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
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---
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id: 2026-03-14T23:17:58-04:00
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aliases: []
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title: 2026-03-14 23:17:58
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tags:
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- authorship/original
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- destiny/permanent
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- status/draft
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- type/periodic/timestamped
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daily: "[[2026-03-14]]"
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date-created: 2026-03-14T23:17:58-04:00
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dg-publish: true
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monthly: "[[2026-03]]"
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quarterly: "[[2026-Q1]]"
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weekly: "[[2026-W11]]"
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yearly: "[[2026]]"
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---
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# 2026-03-14 23:17:58
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## Utility for Meal Planning
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Would you take this offer?
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> You can no longer eat or drink,
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> but you no longer need to to survive.
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I wouldn't, but I've known people who would.
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I've also known people like the villain from _Ratatouille_
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that would never eat something just for the calories.
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I'd say I lean more towards the first,
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certainly my interest in cooking
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is one of cost optimization,
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not expressing myself through the medium of food.
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Taste does matter to me though,
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I realized this recently while eating particularly bland [[stroganoff]].
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Novelty of taste as well,
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which is why I rotate through recipes
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rather than just picking my favorite.[^1]
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But the value of taste declines sharply above a certain point.
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[^1]: Internalized social stigma probably deserves more credit there,
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but the outcome is the same.
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For me, a recipe with high [[utility]]
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is tasty, cheap, _and_ convenient to prepare.
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@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
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---
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id: 2026-03-15T12:38:20-04:00
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aliases: []
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title: 2026-03-15 12:38:20
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tags:
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- authorship/original
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- destiny/permanent
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- status/draft
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- type/periodic/timestamped
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dg-publish: true
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date-created: 2026-03-15T12:38:20-04:00
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daily: "[[2026-03-15]]"
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weekly: "[[2026-W11]]"
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monthly: "[[2026-03]]"
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quarterly: "[[2026-Q1]]"
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yearly: "[[2026]]"
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---
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# 2026-03-15 12:38:20
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I have this idea that people generally respond better to a good analogy
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than to a well-reasoned argument,
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so I'm frequently disappointed in myself
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for being unable to come up with one.
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It ought to be easy for me.
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When I'm sure of something,
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my certainty invariably manifests in the form of an analogy,
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only the parallel concepts are just that,
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and they resist my attempts to define them.
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I feel now that this judgement might be baseless anyway.
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Without the pressure of organizational enforcement,
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radical changes in thinking necessarily take years of incremental changes.
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No matter how much better the new framework is,
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a person must work up to the change,
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otherwise their trust in it will be hollow.
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At least that has been my experience in the past few years;
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knowing that a shovel is better for digging ditches,
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but still using a gardening trowel
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because it's what I'm comfortable with.
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It doesn't frustrate me when others use trowels,
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only when they can't acknowledge the benefits of the shovel.
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Like that one, most of the analogies I want to make
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would be intended to demonstrate why an action would be foolish.
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It would be fitting to write in [anapestic tetrameter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anapestic_tetrameter)
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a la [[seuss_1937_mulberry-street]].
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