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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   3357 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 22, 2023

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This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

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I look forward to reading about your story in next-year's newspapers.

I gather that you are not terribly optimistic about my chances of surviving the Hock.

I'm sorry: that joke was in bad taste. I don't want you to die. But in all seriousness your odds are less than 100%. People have died doing this. Is that the point of your hock?

I think you're just rationalizing reasons to run away. The real Hock is trying to meet women and getting turned down seemingly-endlessly. It's torture, and I can understand why you'd flinch away from that prospect to construct elaborate fantasies that involve becoming a wilderness mountain man.

But please work on yourself. Find some resources for how to attract women. And please don't post about here until you've found yourself a good woman.

But in all seriousness your odds are less than 100%. People have died doing this. Is that the point of your hock?

yeschad.jpg; the Hock is basically my homebrew substitute for war with far less potential for moral injury and far less potential to live as a horribly maimed cripple; the Hock provideth through victory or death. Like Everest or even K2: most people that attempt it either come back more or less in one piece, or not at all.

The real Hock is trying to meet women and getting turned down seemingly-endlessly. It's torture

Probably a good deal less torturous than a 100-mile solo ski journey through the Alaskan wilderness in temperatures that may be colder than 40 below zero, staring your own death in the face.

elaborate fantasies

Elaborate fantasies, my left foot. If all goes according to plan, I'll start the Hock at dawn on February 13, 2024. If you do not hear back from me by April 1, I have most likely died in the Alaskan wilderness; I will have left instructions for my next of kin and anyone that would search for or attempt to rescue me to NOT endanger themselves and expend resources by attempting to recover me, dead or alive. These writings are at least partially something that would explain or describe for posterity the thought processes of Skookum, the First Hockmaxxer, if he dies on his most excellent adventure. I know I'm maybe three parts Chris McCandless to one Don Quixote, but hey, what the hell...

Do I need to post proof that I am in possession of a one-way plane ticket to Fairbanks?

Do I need to post proof that I am in possession of a one-way plane ticket to Fairbanks?

Yes. Tix or GTFO.

These writings are at least partially something that would explain or describe for posterity the thought processes of Skookum, the First Hockmaxxer, if he dies on his most excellent adventure. I know I'm maybe three parts Chris McCandless to one Don Quixote, but hey, what the hell...

Well, for posterity's sake: I'd love to talk this guy out of it, but my best effort was going to be something like "do you realize you're maybe three parts Chris McCandless and one part Don Quixote", and if that's a dud I really don't know where to go from here.

I still miss trhurler's comments.

Try ‘have you considered that actually trying to date women you know would be a big improvement on this incel Ted k knockoff schizo larping’

larp

I suppose it's a LARP until and unless skis touch snow north of the Arctic Circle?

Oh dear, the motte is going to be subjected to media scrutiny as part of the fallout.

I mean...several things need to happen.

  1. I need to die on the Hock.

  2. They need to connect my frozen corpse to the Motte.

  3. There needs to be at least a small media circus around the dumbass that thought this was a good idea and that he could survive.

Some dumbass dies trying to climb a mountain or something without proper equipment, and it's basically local news.

Fantasy doesn't mean you won't do it. It's just that you're getting all worked up about about a 7-week(?) trek in the woods and somehow that will define your personality. Spare me.

I don't know. I feel as if the process of training in earnest for the Hock is already paying dividends in the form of better and healthier habits. It's still early days yet, but I am working out more and being more organized, which is something I've often struggled with. I'm more conscientious, I think, and maybe slightly less neurotic, too. Seriously considering the prospect that you may be a frozen corpse in four months' time seems to have that effect.

On whether or not Hocks work: I have heard it said that if Hocks worked, Hocking would be normal; my counterargument is that Hocks work reasonably often, but they're expensive as hell in blood and treasure and so not usually worth it. For me...I feel deep down in my bones that if I survive this, I'll finally be average in terms of grit, determination, and willpower. Also, I might still be disgusting, unattractive, etc. after this, but one thing I won't be is a hypocrite. My father was a peacetime military officer, and he always told me that an officer should never ask his men to do something that he is not willing to do himself. If I'm asking someone to endure a bunch of pain and shit for a basically pointless reason - even if I do my very best, no matter how much lipstick you put on a hog it's still a hog - then I damn well ought to be able and willing to do the same.

Will define?

Do I need to post proof that I am in possession of a one-way plane ticket to Fairbanks?

I am also still waiting for a picture that proves your irrecoverable unattractiveness.

I am also still waiting for a picture that proves your irrecoverable unattractiveness.

While I'm solidly below average physically, I'm no Quasimodo. The unattractiveness isn't the kind that can be readily captured in still photos.

For an extreme example, consider Elliot Rodger. Was it his physical appearance that was the problem?

Was it his physical appearance that was the problem?

No, it was his social awkwardness, introversion, lack of people skills and narcissistic entitlement - his physical appearance had essentially nothing to do with his loneliness. I very much doubt going to Alaska for however long would have helped him with any of the above.

If he cooked up anything that was hock like, he would definitely not have the same type of narcissistic entitlement. Supreme Gentlemen are already Supreme and so don't need to fucking Hockmaxx.

I'm sure others have said this before, and I know this isn't kind - so I apologise, but you have this exactly backwards. It is because of the narcissistic entitlement that he would have required the hock to be a good man.

Similarly it is because of your narcissistic tendencies that you think you require the hock to become a good man. If you can cut out that narcissism you won't need the hock, but if you don't you will surely need it. Because the hock is, and has always been, about you. And given you are already at the point where you have decided, no matter what anyone else says, that you are disgusting and unworthy of love, that nobody else's opinion matters, more narcissism isn't going to help.

What do you think will happen, once you have conquered the hock and found a boyfriend-free girl of your own? You live happily ever after? With a woman you know for a fact (in your mind) wouldn't give you the time of day if you hadn't gone camping? You would not trust her, you would resent her and even grow to hate her. She would become a totem of your inadequacy, reminding you every time you saw her that you are disgusting.

The crazy part to me is that the hock has worked already, in its capacity as a way to prove to yourself that you have the courage to face constant rejection. Because the hock has already proven that you don't have any reason to fear rejection. From the second you first mentioned it you have been mocked and ridiculed for it, so much so that it's a motte meme. And yet your confidence in it doesn't falter. Now you just need to overcome the hock in your mind that tells you being romantically rejected is any different.

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You've often compared the Hock to fighting in a war, Navy SEAL training or other physically taxing tests of endurance and determination. Your theory assumes that anyone who undergoes a Hock-esque ordeal would never commit a mass shooting (as Rodger did), but I don't even have to go back earlier than this week to find an example of a military veteran doing exactly that. Can't wait to hear your rationalisation for how it doesn't count because he only went through boot camp.

I reiterate: if you want to do your camping trip, go for it, but don't delude yourself into thinking it'll fix all of your problems in one fell swoop, or that it's the underlying secret to human civilization or a male rite of passage or similar. I'm not telling you this out of spite or meanness: I'm urging you to manage your expectations and be realistic. You say "the Hock provideth" so often it's starting to sound like a religious incantation, which is not a healthy approach to adopt in the pursuit of self-improvement.

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The unattractiveness isn't the kind that can be readily captured in still photos.

https://www.themotte.org/post/485/wellness-wednesday-for-may-10-2023/100343?context=8#context

I talk about being unattractive. My physical appearance is...20th percentile, I'd say. Not Quasimodo, but not at all good. Add autism to that, and it's not looking good at all. I will contend that autism functions in more or less the same way as physical deformity or ugliness. Someone could watch me talking with my friends and form a durable opinion on my awkwardness after just a couple seconds. A single still photo would be enough.

Okay, it's not unattractiveness, but awkwardness leading to unattractiveness.

Still, pics or it didn't happen.

Do I need to post proof that I am in possession of a one-way plane ticket to Fairbanks?

I think that would be best.

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