[skyechurch]

I was being glib, of course. Presumably there's some legitimate technical philosophical issue, and actual philosophers are capable of using answering machines and even landline telephones without having all their assumptions about reality collapse around them like a PKD novel (those born prior to 1980, anyway). But, like Jay Z, I've got problems of a more pressing nature, and legitimately don't see how this matters.

(See also the 'Problem' of Induction, which I had to spend a great deal of time on in college, and even after reading centuries of debate about it, is the least problematic 'problem' I've ever encountered. Maybe this is a linguistic issue, and philosophers should stop calling things 'problems' when the rest of us have to make rent.)

[thecodedmessage]

Math problems are quite similar in this way!

[skyechurch]

... not the ones involving the rent check.

[lupire]

If you have problems of a more pressing nature, why are you faffing about on HN?

It smells like you are just mocking people for being interested in thinking about things. Why?

[vsuperpower2020]

This is also why people don't like philosophers. You have no monopoly on "thinking about things" and you aren't being mocked for doing that.

[djur]

The implication here seems to be that people can't think about and discuss philosophical problems and also take care of more immediate physical concerns at the same time. Do you feel that way about other intellectual endeavors without immediate applications, like "pure" science and mathematics?