Random Thread

[Travis B.]

I've told you before that I'll pay for an initial session.

You use your brains only to find excuses for why you can never do anything. This is itself a problem for which you need therapy.

Sure, but who's paying for the subsequent therapy sessions? Perhaps there simply are no good options. Even putting aside the current crisis with my soaring car insurance costs, the world is full of catastrophic problems that I simply can't address in any meaningful sense. Is it rational to feel content in a world run by fascists and AI and ravage by global warming?

Have you even looked at your car insurance costs and the costs of other car insurance providers?

And seriously, doomerism won't help the world by any means.

[alice]

I've told you before that I'll pay for an initial session.

You use your brains only to find excuses for why you can never do anything. This is itself a problem for which you need therapy.

Sure, but who's paying for the subsequent therapy sessions? Perhaps there simply are no good options.

Perhaps there are? Explain your financial situation to your therapist, and if they're sensible, they'll adjust their fees accordingly. That's what mine did - she asked me to pay what I felt I could afford, which at some points was one-tenth of her usual fee.

[Raphael]

That's what mine did - she asked me to pay what I felt I could afford, which at some points was one-tenth of her usual fee.

Wait - you have to personally pay your therapist in the land of the NHS?

[Lērisama]

That's what mine did - she asked me to pay what I felt I could afford, which at some points was one-tenth of her usual fee.

Wait - you have to personally pay your therapist in the land of the NHS?

Unless you are mentally ill in the specific ways that fit into the specific boxes of insert overwhelmed mental health trust where each service has very specific entry requirements and will ferociously redirect to to someone else who won't take you if you don't meet them, yes¹. Demand² greatly outstrips supply², and underfunding has done its magic work as well.

¹ To cut a long and complex story short. There may be some caveats
² Edit: Thank you bradrn

[Raphael]

Ah, thank you.

[malloc]

Have you even looked at your car insurance costs and the costs of other car insurance providers?

Not yet, but it's quite a lot of work, having to dig through vast amounts of records and explaining them over the phone and so forth. All that with no guarantee that it will make any difference. I could easily spend hours or even days struggling with automated voice menus just to learn that I'm already paying the lowest amount possible.

And seriously, doomerism won't help the world by any means.

Sure but it seems obvious to me that my psychological issues stem primarily from all the problems currently plaguing the world. No amount of therapy can change the fact that my life basically sucks.

[bradrn]

Supply greatly outstrips demand

Or perhaps the other way around?

[Travis B.]

Have you even looked at your car insurance costs and the costs of other car insurance providers?

Not yet, but it's quite a lot of work, having to dig through vast amounts of records and explaining them over the phone and so forth. All that with no guarantee that it will make any difference. I could easily spend hours or even days struggling with automated voice menus just to learn that I'm already paying the lowest amount possible.

Getting quotes for car insurance providers is as simple as filling out an online form or two on their website, and there are even websites that will do this for you for multiple car insurance providers at a time! It sounds like you are just trying to come up with excuses not to try.

And seriously, doomerism won't help the world by any means.

Sure but it seems obvious to me that my psychological issues stem primarily from all the problems currently plaguing the world. No amount of therapy can change the fact that my life basically sucks.

Your psychological issues are not due to the outside world but are your mind's own creation -- and saying that all is lost only serves to discourage people from actually doing something about the problems of the world. (And not all is lost, either -- e.g. the Democrats are projected to be the strongest in the midterms than they have been in the last eight years.)

[Lērisama]

Supply greatly outstrips demand

Or perhaps the other way around?

Erm, yes. Oops. Will edit.

[linguistcat]

malloc, have you considered that you don't actually know how things work and are just assuming things are much harder than they actually are? Because that seems to be the only conclusion I can draw from some of your reasons/excuses not to do things. Please at least try to make your life better instead of wallowing. And if you don't know how something works, ask people instead of coming up with the most difficult, convoluted way it could work. The world is not against you, your brain is.

[Raphael]

malloc, have you considered that you don't actually know how things work and are just assuming things are much harder than they actually are? Because that seems to be the only conclusion I can draw from some of your reasons/excuses not to do things. Please at least try to make your life better instead of wallowing. And if you don't know how something works, ask people instead of coming up with the most difficult, convoluted way it could work.

So far, I agree with all of this.

The world is not against you, your brain is.

OK, here is where I start to disagree. These days, if you're not really well-positioned in life, then the world is against you. Although it's probably true that in malloc's case, the fact that his brain is also against him might well be the more serious problem.

[malloc]

Getting quotes for car insurance providers is as simple as filling out an online form or two on their website, and there are even websites that will do this for you for multiple car insurance providers at a time! It sounds like you are just trying to come up with excuses not to try.

But they also need to know your driving record to determine your rate. My current car insurance has always raised my car insurance costs after every accident and ticket so clearly they pay attention to such things.

[WeepingElf]

malloc, have you considered that you don't actually know how things work and are just assuming things are much harder than they actually are? Because that seems to be the only conclusion I can draw from some of your reasons/excuses not to do things. Please at least try to make your life better instead of wallowing. And if you don't know how something works, ask people instead of coming up with the most difficult, convoluted way it could work.

So far, I agree with all of this.

So do I, and it also applies to you (see below).

The world is not against you, your brain is.

OK, here is where I start to disagree. These days, if you're not really well-positioned in life, then the world is against you. Although it's probably true that in malloc's case, the fact that his brain is also against him might well be the more serious problem.

You may feel that way, but it is not helpful. There are people and things within the world that are against you, but not "the world". The world is just a vast collection of entities of which some are against you, some others are helpful to you, but most just don't care about you. Now that you have found a psychotherapist, talk with them about this.

[Raphael]

In that context, I'm using "the world" as a shorthand for "the circumstances of life".

[linguistcat]

I meant the actual world in malloc's case. I'm pretty sure he thinks the Earth and all the entities on or in it are out to get him, specifically. I will change this assessment when he shows evidence to the contrary.

[alice]

This doesn't quite seem to go in the Languages forum, but... IIRC the author of Sound and Symbol in Modern Chinese remarks at one point (not in these words) that Western languages work by building up the meaning of an utterance from its individual parts, whereas Chinese starts with a large set of possible meanings which each part then removes invalid meanings from until only one is left. I had the realisation today that this is recognisable to anyone familiar with digital logic design as the difference between a sum-of-minterms implementation and a product-of-maxterms one. You can find harmony in the Universe in the least unexpect places.

[malloc]

This doesn't quite seem to go in the Languages forum, but... IIRC the author of Sound and Symbol in Modern Chinese remarks at one point (not in these words) that Western languages work by building up the meaning of an utterance from its individual parts, whereas Chinese starts with a large set of possible meanings which each part then removes invalid meanings from until only one is left. I had the realisation today that this is recognisable to anyone familiar with digital logic design as the difference between a sum-of-minterms implementation and a product-of-maxterms one. You can find harmony in the Universe in the least unexpect places.

That sounds quite interesting. Did the book have some concrete examples of this in practice? Perhaps you could post in more detail in the Linguistics forum since this sounds potentially quite informative from a conlanging perspective.

You may feel that way, but it is not helpful. There are people and things within the world that are against you, but not "the world". The world is just a vast collection of entities of which some are against you, some others are helpful to you, but most just don't care about you. Now that you have found a psychotherapist, talk with them about this.

Sure but I couldn't help but notice that plenty of other cars were driving just as fast as mine without getting pulled over.

[alice]

This doesn't quite seem to go in the Languages forum, but... IIRC the author of Sound and Symbol in Modern Chinese remarks at one point (not in these words) that Western languages work by building up the meaning of an utterance from its individual parts, whereas Chinese starts with a large set of possible meanings which each part then removes invalid meanings from until only one is left. I had the realisation today that this is recognisable to anyone familiar with digital logic design as the difference between a sum-of-minterms implementation and a product-of-maxterms one. You can find harmony in the Universe in the least unexpect places.

That sounds quite interesting. Did the book have some concrete examples of this in practice? Perhaps you could post in more detail in the Linguistics forum since this sounds potentially quite informative from a conlanging perspective.

Alas, no; it wasn't much more than a passing ovserbation originally, and the author certainly didn't know about digital logic design. That aside, if anyone has any useful ideas about conlanging with Karnaugh maps, I'd certainly like to hear them.

[rotting bones]

That aside, if anyone has any useful ideas about conlanging with Karnaugh maps, I'd certainly like to hear them.

I have a grammar of the Phong telepathic language that claims to use graph theory on symbolic maps.

PS. I've been trying to create a clean version for this document for hours. This thing is a nightmare.

[rotting bones]

This is the best I can do right now: viewtopic.php?p=102149#p102149

Honestly, very little is surprising about it. It talks a lot without saying much.