Curt Doolittle

Author: Curt Doolittle

  • PSYCHOLOGICAL GAME OF THE DAY. (old repost) (humor) Pulling out of a hotel parki

    PSYCHOLOGICAL GAME OF THE DAY.

    (old repost) (humor)

    Pulling out of a hotel parking lot in to traffic. Waiting to turn.

    Blonde boy, thin hair, black cap with skateboard asks “Please! Please! Give me your car! Please!?”

    My mind races through multitude of life lessons i might deliver at this moment.

    I choose one: “What will you trade me for it?”

    Shock. Open mouth. Silence. Fantasies fill his mind.

    Before he can gather his wits, I say “I want your soul.”

    Incomprehension. Pause. Twinge of fear.

    “I want your soul.”. I smile. “For the car.”

    Half smile mixed with confusion.

    I say, “Yes?” “I thought so. I have it already.”

    I smile, and notice a few horrified adult onlookers. Then pull into traffic.

    He’s never going to forget that moment. I’m sure.

    Source date (UTC): 2015-10-06 17:02:00 UTC

  • AMERICA HAS A MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEM EXACERBATED BY THE PREVALENCE OF MENTAL HEAL

    AMERICA HAS A MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEM EXACERBATED BY THE PREVALENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH DRUGS.

    The revelation that Umpqua Community College shooter Chris Mercer used the screen name “lithium love,” along with other references to prescription medication, strongly suggests that the gunman was taking psychiatric drugs that have been linked to violent outbursts.

    —“There are a number of indications that Harper-Mercer had mental health or behavioral issues. His screen name on some social media sites was “lithium love.” Lithium is used as a psychiatric medication.”—

    Lithium is used to enhance the effect of SSRI drugs, a number of which, “have also been linked to increase risk for violent, even homicidal behavior,” reports Time.

    On one of his Facebook posts, Mercer also made reference to a number of different prescription drugs he was taking.

    “I have a pill bottle with like five types of pills mixed in. I don’t know which ones are the sleep aids, so I just took four of each,” wrote Mercer.

    (DISCLAIMER: I have been taking mild prescription drugs for my obsessive aspie-thinking for thirty years, which dramatically reduces the challenge of changing contexts – and so I have some familiarity with the effects of these drugs even if I cannot really comprehend the desire to do violence. Or well, other than in the abstract political sense. 😉 )

    Source date (UTC): 2015-10-06 16:35:00 UTC

  • Curt Doolittle shared a post

    Curt Doolittle shared a post.

    Source date (UTC): 2015-10-06 13:17:00 UTC

  • Curt Doolittle shared a post

    Curt Doolittle shared a post.

    Source date (UTC): 2015-10-06 13:16:00 UTC

  • GUEST POST: KRISTINA ON UKRAINIAN GENDER ROLES (edited) Curt, RE: You explained

    GUEST POST: KRISTINA ON UKRAINIAN GENDER ROLES

    (edited)

    Curt,

    RE: https://www.facebook.com/curt.doolittle/posts/10153668125062264

    You explained this perfectly but I wouldn’t [describe Ukrainian women] as “broken.”

    Throughout the Soviet Union, the terms of masculine and feminine have always been quite defined. Compromising has never been much of an option and is never viewed as optional.

    Acts of service or kindness are often seen as manipulation due to the fact that they often are. I look at it as a duty coming from my end but will always be suspicious if it were coming from a man just in case if he is expectant of something in return.

    “Demanding” is how Ukrainian men ask. If men are not tough enough then the women will overrule the entire relationship/marriage. I don’t see how “turning the other cheek,” is not considered a sign of weakness. How can you not be passionate enough to fight and defend something or someone you believe in?

    Too often Ukrainian women have to do the duties of both a male and female. It is nearly impossible to survive on one income. Therefore, women have to be loving wives, raise children, grow food in a village, work, and of course, do all the housework. Maybe, because of this set lifestyle, we have higher expectations and are distant to any “standards” outside of our own.

    Perhaps, I’ll never be capable of understanding of how to be affectionate. It never came naturally and I’ve never considered it much of a necessity. Moving to the states after living in Ukraine is a transition that I’ll never be able to make in an emotional and cultural sense; too many differences in the perception of not only gender but of everything.

    — Kristina Protsenko

    Source date (UTC): 2015-10-06 09:46:00 UTC

  • DEAL DESTROYERS AMONG US!!! Yeah. Common catastrophe: failure to research the in

    DEAL DESTROYERS AMONG US!!!

    Yeah. Common catastrophe: failure to research the interests of every decision maker on the other side. (Ignorance) usually caused by Selfishness. Laziness. Wishful Thinking. (and outright lack of intellectual capacity.)

    Lawyers are the WORST at f__king up deals by the opposite means. On the scale of risk protect us from likely scenarios, but do not burden us with constraints. This is unwise. Stop them.

    Middle (and senior) management folks are too often enthusiastic imbeciles trying to stroke their egos and careers and get attention by demonstrating their ‘value’. This is unwise. Stop them.

    Most of the time ignore your lawyer, and listen to your finance guy (assuming he’s skeptical). Your finance guy will try to show his cunning by seeking extra profit somehow. This is unwise. Stop him.

    Ask your sales people (not marketing). Even though they are largely blabber-mouths, sales people are in the business of determining incentives.

    Learn basic Austrian economics (incentives of rational choice: marginalism, subjective value) and micro-economics, as well as finance and the first two years of basic accounting.

    Learn how to write your own contracts. It’s just like programming really. There are design patterns, functions, objects, etc. “Simple-er is better-er”. Give lawyers your draft to start from. Try to cut everything they add unless they can justify it to you.

    In a business deal, if you do not want it on the front page of the NYT, then don’t do it. It will f__king haunt you, and you deserve it. My position is to hold the moral high ground no matter what. We all screw up. But there is no down side to doing the right thing.

    EMPHASIS ON M&A DEALS:

    Furthermore the secret to M&A deals:

    (a) companies have no objective value – none. Numbers are meaningless.

    (b) the price of a business is what it requires to tip the decision makers.

    (c) very often that price is lower if liquid, higher if not, and more often money is a secondary concern.

    (d) the cost is determined by the impact of the effort to merge the business cultures and processes.

    (e) use relationship building, time to comfortably adapt, and abstract goals to do it rather than micro management and detailed top down planning.

    (f) every manager’s opinion of staff is the opposite of factual value, since managers are mostly dead weight and rely on staff for upward processing of information. Mergers are good opportunity to give hidden talent room to innovate. Look for it.

    (g) a low end venture capitalist is looking to create addicts. They will very often burn shareholders, staff, management and founders. You are a ‘drug user’ they are trying to hook while you are in startup mode. Once you have value you are a debtor (addict). They will treat you like one the moment they prefer to exit. (No, not the big players, which is why you want them, but many of the rest. Selling money in an investment hierarchy and selling drugs in a distribution hierarchy are similar business models. )

    Source date (UTC): 2015-10-06 09:39:00 UTC

  • PETITION TO FIX AUTHENTIC NAME POLICY I have no problem requiring that you regis

    https://act.eff.org/action/dear-facebook-authentic-names-are-authentically-dangerous-for-your-usersSIGN PETITION TO FIX AUTHENTIC NAME POLICY

    I have no problem requiring that you register your account with a real name, as long as its not visible to other users, and Facebook provides the ability to use an alias, and that aliases are ‘flagged’ as aliases. (not that most of us need such things).

    But requiring people to use real names in public opens non-conformists to violence, harassment, intimidation and employment persecution and bias.

    And so I am against the real name policy and in favor of the ‘nickname’ policy.

    I use my real name everywhere. But I am successful and independent; I live free of western government oppression; and my arguments are also scientific. And scientific arguments are very different from ideological arguments, and gossip (criticism).

    So I suggest you sign this on behalf of the people who are victims of the less savory elements of our society. (the left)

    Source date (UTC): 2015-10-06 06:06:00 UTC

  • Human tribes are no more equal than breeds of dogs are equal. Sorry. Just how it

    Human tribes are no more equal than breeds of dogs are equal. Sorry. Just how it is (ladies).

    Source date (UTC): 2015-10-06 05:40:00 UTC

  • Freudian psychology is just an instance of critique

    Freudian psychology is just an instance of critique.

    Source date (UTC): 2015-10-06 04:40:00 UTC

  • (surprised. hmmm. we are winning the argument that the problem is mental illness

    (surprised. hmmm. we are winning the argument that the problem is mental illness, not guns. it’s working. this cause however violates the female reproductive strategy seeking to avoid the need to aggress against dangers by justification and gossip, and it also avoids the female reproductive strategy of defending unworthy, and dangerous children because they are female gene vectors.)

    Source date (UTC): 2015-10-06 03:55:00 UTC