Technology will not save you!

Re: Technology will not save you!
Cyracuz

MONEY!

Good one, val

That's why I'll never be swimming in it.

But money is only a means. To what end?

Cyracuz

I don't know. I think people who live to make money have only one end: make more money.

Why live to make money if you can't take it with you in the end?

Crazielady

I think they would answer saying that, in the end, we don't take anything. Not even ourselves.

I suppose the "thing" that many people hope to get out of the things they buy is happiness. However, people fail to realize the cycle that when the new mp3 player comes out, it makes them unhappy therefore they have to buy a new mp3 player to make them happy again.

I, however recognize this cycle, and have been able to combat it somewhat effectively. I no longer have the 'urge' to have the newest gadget. I even test myself by going into Best Buy and seeing if I want anything. I don't.

Now, the money I make is used to secure a future (which I understand may not exist, however should I live to a ripe old age I'd rather be prepared) where I can do whatever I would like to do without the need to work.

I do not plan to take any money with me when I die (even if I did plan it, it would be impossible). What I plan to do is invest my money in my family's education. I refuse to suppliment their lifestyle or buy them mp3 players. What is left over when I die will be invested in my grandchildren's education, if there's anything left over then it will be invested in my great-grandchildren's education and so on. Education is the best thing money can buy.

What about my tinfoil beanie? I have faith that will save me.

Answer to the larger question : all you have to do is walk away from it, stop caring and the technology will stop trying to get you to buy it (via adverts and comparing itself to fancier contraptions) .

Re: Technology will not save you!


Aggravation, frustration, the ability to understand how a person could want to kill another person (Bill Gates and his ilk), and a slow death due to stress and multiple ulcers on my colon.

I guess I pretty close to qualify as a technogeek, and I use all sorts of it for entertainment, convenience, and even actual work. Its just a part of life to me though, not a lifestyle in and of itself. I enjoy the opposite extreme, too; black-powder huntin', bamboo pole fishin', primitive campin', for instance - horses, hammocks, campfires, canoes, cast-iron cookware, and no canned goods. I do bring along a flashlight though, and my Gerber Multi-Tool - don't go anywhere without those.



Well, the hand-held GPS has sorta become a regular accessory for boonie-treks, too.

I do not subscribe to this camp - but I used to.

I played professional paintball for quite a few years and loved to have the newest paintsprayer 2000. I think I thought that it would by me happiness.

I think that Epictetus nailed it when he said that the majority of anxiety of humans today is caused by the false belief in the highest good.

Many believe that money and stuff is the highest good - it is not - and they will be miserable.

TTF

Re: Technology will not save you!


Pleasure.

Is it working?

Yeh, it's great. But it's not my *only* source of pleasure, just one of many.

In my experience money is not fun. It's dirty, foul smelling, you cannot eat it, and wiping yourself with it is uncomforable. The people on the bills are ugly, and they have a nasty tendency to transfer that to the ones holding the bills.

No, money is not fun. It is a nessecary evil, like the dentist

While its true money won't buy happiness, with it you can lease a good bit of entertainment.

Yep, but money is not entertainment. Note that it is when you're getting rid of money that good things happen.

Gotta say Mrs Timber is singularly devoted to makin' good things happen, then.

"Good things happen when you're getting rid of Money"... of course it does, you're buying stuff with it. Probably stuff you want, or you wouldn't be buying it. And if you're giving it to charity, then you're still getting satisfaction from giving something "valuable" to the charity, you're not giving them dog poo, that wouldn't be very satisfying would it.

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here Cyr. Money may not be entertainment, but it can certainly buy entertainment and experiences (like travel and education). And I'm not saying that money can buy happiness, but neither is money a bad thing by itself.

Money is just a tool for bartering. People have been bartering and trading since the beginning, and some people got fixated on collecting too many pretty shells, or too many buffalo skins, or whatever it was that gave them security and power. But the root problem with all this is people who lose sight of what makes them happy amidst the excesses of what makes them safe and warm. The problem isn't the money or the material posessions, it's the personality.

I'm not sure I'm amking any point. I agree with everything you say, and when I say that "good things happen when you're getting rid of money" it is with exactly the meaning you suggest in your post. I just thought it was a curious way to put it.

One point, though, is that money is a means, not an end. Many people tend to forget that...