Re: [Pan-users] Re: Advice on other lists

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Thu, 27 Aug 2009 03:09:59 am Ron Johnson wrote:

> > Delayed gratification is irrelevant to the issue being discussed.
> > Nobody is suggesting that Chris would have better CDs and more of
> > them if he waits to get home and listen to music.
>
> But he could have spent his money on an MP3 player which, in order
> to keep costs reasonable, trades high capacity for higher quality
> sound.

That's a functional tradeoff, nothing to do with delayed gratification.

Besides, even if he had spent his money on a mp3 player with which 
trades capacity for good quality, you would probably be complaining 
that nobody needs to have such high quality sound in an mp3 player, how 
can you possibly enjoy it on the train or in noisy cafes or walking 
down the street with traffic sounds in the background... 

:)


> If such a beast even exists...
>
> [snip]
>
> > you miss out. While de Posada is saying "Don't eat the marshmallow
> > yet", and telling us to work for the future, others remind us of
> > the importance of living in the now: eat drink and be merry, for
> > tomorrow we die, and don't forget to stop and smell the flowers.
>
> <flame>
> That's the difference between the Puritans who worked hard and
> became rich, and the ex-hippies who have presided over the
> destruction of the country?
> </flame>

You mean the difference between Dick Cheney and George W Bush?

In any case, Dubyah was never a hippie. Not everyone who slacks off, 
takes drugs, acts irresponsibly, gets out of Vietnam service and then 
goes AWOL from his cushy job in the National Guard is a hippie.

Evil bastards are evil bastards, no matter what side of the political 
fence they're on. Whether they're lazy or hard-working, they're still 
evil. Lazy evil bastards break into your house and steal your DVD 
player, because it's easier than getting a job, while hard-working evil 
bastards invade your country, drop bombs on your city, destroy your 
infrastructure, and torture you, because the return on investment of 
war is so much greater than that of productive work when the tax payers 
are paying the costs and your shareholders get to enjoy the profits.

Quite frankly, I'd rather be plagued by two dozen lazy criminals over a 
single workaholic like Dick Cheney. At least I can expect the police to 
protect me from petty criminals, instead of working for them.


> > I'm not being critical of de Posada's talk or his general idea, but
> > I am questioning that it's the slightest relevant to the question
> > of iPods with a million CD's worth of songs on them.
>
> It's not a perfect analogy, but what is?

It's not a valid analogy at all. Just because you disapprove of Chris' 
decision to buy an iPod capable of holding a million songs doesn't mean 
he hasn't worked hard and saved up and delayed eating the marshmallow 
for years so he can have an iPod with a million songs on it.




-- 
Steven D'Aprano