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by madmanslitany
6170 days ago
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I don't think this is valid in the context of what the parent was saying about this guy; hackers and investment bankers are specialized professions which contribute to society in their own specialized way and specialization makes life better for everyone overall by enabling civilization. The subject of the article is hardly a specialized professional and while it's minimized to some extent, he even admits he sometimes mooches off of friends for meals and is basically a scavenger. He's contributing nothing to society and leeching off of its resources despite being able bodied and intelligent. Some might argue that his commentary on culture is useful in an artistic sense by pointing out flaws in our society, but there are better ways to do this without being a bum living in a cave. I don't like getting worked up over things in a "Something is wrong on the internet!" sense, but articles about guys like this make me kind of angry. There's nothing noble, nothing ideal here. This guy isn't worth praising. |
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Looking at his blog, it sounds like he still does that kind of thing, doesn't it? He wouldn't have to work many shifts to compensate for the resources he draws from the rest of society. Also, he writes things that other people enjoy reading, which has traditionally been considered productive work, and he's presumably performing some kind of minimal service just by diminishing the waste stream.
So I don't think it's quite true that he's contributing nothing to society.
You write, "Articles about guys like this make me kind of angry." Well, that's not surprising. His value system is clearly very different from yours, and anger is a normal human reaction when you're confronted with someone behaving according to a different value system. It takes a lot of maturity to get past that point.