This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
There are a lot of things that you can get surprisingly good at with just a one-hour investment daily. I picked up running about 10 years ago and currently run right around an hour per day based on logs (some variance by week, of course). This results in ~55 miles per week of running and now, nearly 40 years old, I'm competitive with college runners. If you offered me more running or more books, I'd absolutely take the running - I'm just limited by injury avoidance. Of course, if I really wanted to dedicate myself to aerobic fitness, I could tack on another few hours of biking and swimming without much of an injury tax to pay.
Of course, I could still fit in more reading as well - it's not like my schedule is genuinely that tightly packed. The point is that at some level, you have to start picking and choosing which things you want to be good at and when you're going to stop trying to self-cultivate and just play Slay the Spire or something. I think reading 33,885 pages in a year is great. I think being as strong as @FiveHourMarathon is great. I think being an excellent parent (as many Mottizens surely are) is even better! But, ultimately, one is limited in their mental and physical resources and we cannot be all things to all people.
So, yeah, I guess the punchline is that you're overestimating books to the average local denizen in all likelihood. I like reading (and read voraciously as a teen), but I don't like it more than going to bar trivia with friends, going to my run club with friends, watching the Bills game on Sunday, or just shitposting on the internet. Replacing the latter with more reading would be good, but I bet I won't do it.
Congrats on the running! I also too run around 7 hours a week (although I would like to run closer to 10-11, injury prevention is holding me back). I agree it's very hard to balance more than a few hobbies. I'm struggling with this as I try to learn Italian on top of my English and Spanish, and also with fitting in biking and swimming during triathlon season (swimming is the real problem because I have a stationary bike in my bedroom).
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link