Government, and all bad ideas, are now primed and set to end.

[J’raxis 270145]

P.S. -- While I still fail to see the validity of the wildly optimistic claim that "it [ostensibly government as we know it] will disappear before the end of this month [February 2008]", I suppose it will not take long to find out

I hate it when people do that. When the deadline passes and nothing happens, it'll discredit in the minds of many what is otherwise a very good idea.

[Russell Kanning]

menno .... if you have good ideas, but cannot pull together a website and such .... why not just have someone build the stuph you need?

[srqrebel]

I hate it when people do that. When the deadline passes and nothing happens, it'll discredit in the minds of many what is otherwise a very good idea.

True... although it will damage MobileDigit's personal credibility more than the credibility of the idea.

[srqrebel]

menno .... if you have good ideas, but cannot pull together a website and such .... why not just have someone build the stuph you need?

The short answer is that I am a control freak... that is, in terms of anything I create.

As a matter of fact, I can "pull together" a website.  It will just take some time for me to gather the knowledge to do so.

I have a pretty clear idea of what I want it to look like, and how I want it to operate.  I am, however, very likely to improve on it even as it is being created.  If I hire another individual to set up and maintain a website, this will both antagonize that individual, as well as get prohibitively expensive.

Also, after experiencing the tough crowd on this forum, I would rather test market it to the public and work out the kinks before revealing it to "the choir".  The last thing I need is to be needled by those who have no interest in sharing my vision, while I am trying to focus on transforming that vision into reality.

Thus, I have concluded that it is better for me to learn the art of web creation, and do it myself.

Just to clarify, I do not owe my creation to you, or to any other member of society.  I owe this strictly to myself; if successful, everyone everywhere will ultimately benefit.

[Caleb]

I think you are being overly sensitive, Menno. Your idea is to create a forum for the exchange of ideas, no? How will that work if your ideas must be beyond the range of constructive criticism? You might as well just launch a blog, and turn comments off.

I have got used to the idea of people naysaying my ideas. When I think I'm on the right track, I really don't care because I have my own sense of direction. If you feel strongly about your idea, go with it. But don't view constructive criticism as a deterrent. You are always free to ignore it, and you just might pick up some good things from it.

[srqrebel]

Your idea is to create a forum for the exchange of ideas, no?

No. It is for the effective presentation of ideas, and will be set up so that only those serious enough to have fully perused those ideas can ask questions.  I do not need anyone wasting my time with questions when they have not even tried to assimilate the information presented.

But don't view constructive criticism as a deterrent.

I don't.

There has been some constructive criticism of my ideas on this forum, and I genuinely appreciate that.  In fact, that is the very reason I have been "cutting my teeth" on this forum -- in search of any constructive input, criticism or otherwise.

A lot of what I have experienced on this forum, though, was not even disguised as constructive: Snide comments, impatience, knee jerk reactions, etc.  While there is no way I will let such attitudes deter me, I do recognize the negative effect they have on my personal outlook, not to mention wasting my time with distractions.  Because of this, I will absolutely take steps to shield myself from such negative influences, however well-meaning the intent.

[Caleb]

Well, for my part, I apologize if I offended you. I find humor to be a nice way of backing off the seriousness of the tone sometimes. It certainly wasn't designed to mock you. I think you are close to something, but how close it's hard to tell because of the mystery and secrecy that surrounds your ideas. You often seem tantalizingly close, and then you get sidetracked (in my opinion sidetracked) by collossal wastes of time such as defining freedom. It's hard to know what your ideas are, because the very ideas where I suspect you are close to the answer you refuse to talk about, or else talk about only briefly before retreating to a position of "I don't want to go too much further on this ..." whereas, you seem more comfortable talking about things such as the previous thread, where I don't think, in all honesty, that you are on the right track at all. I don't think I do you a service by saying, "You know, Menno, you're absolutely right, let's peg down this definition" when I don't think that at all. For my part, I have tried to gently prod you to consider the avenues where you are most reluctant to talk about, my hunch being that is where you are closest to being productive, and that is where you have been reluctant to go along, where perhaps productive dialogue could be had. I am saddened that you have become discouraged by the lack of productive dialogue in a situation where such was not likely to be possible. In other words, you aren't going to get productive dialogue while discussing an inherently unproductive topic.

Those are my two cents anyway, and once again, I apologize for whatever part I played in discouraging you.

[Porcupine_in_MA]

I don't know if everyone's heard the word already, but Mr. Mobile allegedly burned his parents house down, and his father was burned in the incident, but alive. No updates at this point, its unclear whether its an accident or whether on purpose. Lots of hearsay back and forth of course.

[FTL_Ian]

I don't know if everyone's heard the word already, but Mr. Mobile allegedly burned his parents house down, and his father was burned in the incident, but alive. No updates at this point, its unclear whether its an accident or whether on purpose. Lots of hearsay back and forth of course.

http://bbs.freetalklive.com/index.php?topic=19872.0

[Caleb]

Ouch! I will pray for him. I thought he was joking about being the singularity.    The sad thing is that he will be treated as a criminal, rather than as a person who is ill. My best friend growing up ended up being bipolar. It hit him maybe early twenties or so, and he did some things that were really ... well, inexplicable from a sane person's viewpoint, but I suppose in a delusional state they make sense somehow. The end of the story is that he was treated like a criminal. Didn't matter how many psychiatrists told the judge that he was sick, and that he would be ok as long as he took this medicine, nope, the judge said she felt sorry for him, but had to go by her "mandatory minimum sentencing" guidelines. I hope Jesse will be ok, and will find whatever help he needs to be whole.

[srqrebel]

Wow...

This is shocking, tragic... and downright confusing.

I never did go back and take a good look at his website.  My initial conclusions from a brief overview were apparently way too hasty... but after this latest development, I'm glad I didn't waste any more time trying to understand it.

In his defense, and to try and offer some perspective:

"There is a fine line between genius and insanity." -Oscar Levant

"Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked." -Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

...and this: http://www.rense.com/general66/madness.htm

[srqrebel]

Well, for my part, I apologize if I offended you. I find humor to be a nice way of backing off the seriousness of the tone sometimes. It certainly wasn't designed to mock you. I think you are close to something, but how close it's hard to tell because of the mystery and secrecy that surrounds your ideas. You often seem tantalizingly close, and then you get sidetracked (in my opinion sidetracked) by collossal wastes of time such as defining freedom. It's hard to know what your ideas are, because the very ideas where I suspect you are close to the answer you refuse to talk about, or else talk about only briefly before retreating to a position of "I don't want to go too much further on this ..." whereas, you seem more comfortable talking about things such as the previous thread, where I don't think, in all honesty, that you are on the right track at all. I don't think I do you a service by saying, "You know, Menno, you're absolutely right, let's peg down this definition" when I don't think that at all. For my part, I have tried to gently prod you to consider the avenues where you are most reluctant to talk about, my hunch being that is where you are closest to being productive, and that is where you have been reluctant to go along, where perhaps productive dialogue could be had. I am saddened that you have become discouraged by the lack of productive dialogue in a situation where such was not likely to be possible. In other words, you aren't going to get productive dialogue while discussing an inherently unproductive topic.

Those are my two cents anyway, and once again, I apologize for whatever part I played in discouraging you.

Actually, Caleb, you are one the few people that has actually given constructive input.  Except for (what I consider to be) badly timed humor, all of your input has been in the form of rational dialogue, which is inherently constructive.  I do not always agree with you, in fact in some cases I strongly disagree, but you present your insights combined with the reasons they are based on, allowing others to discern for themselves.  That is quite constructive.

The importance of precision in communication happens to be one of the areas which we disagree on.  Precise communication, or idea transfer, is one of the important elements of my approach.

The reason that I am not ready to talk about some of my core ideas, is because they are still under development.  I do my best work alone.  I have always created out of my own personal insights, and only turn to others when I have perfected my creations to the point where I can most efficiently improve on them through the input of others.  With some of my current ideas, I'm not there yet -- but I am quite confident that I will be.

As an example, when I started my pressure washing business in Florida, I did not do any research into how other pressure washing professionals were doing it.  I did not want to limit my own creativity that way.  Once I had pretty well perfected my system through what may seem as expensive trial and error, I turned to some of my fellow professionals for answers to a few persistent problems that I had not fully solved.  What I found was that (predictably) they did not have good solutions for most of those problems either.  But most importantly, exactly as expected, I had assembled an operation that was far more efficient and productive than anything they had come up with.  The few methods of theirs that were an improvement over mine, were readily obvious and easily integrated into my system as sort of 'the icing on the cake'.

If I had turned to them first, my mind would have been inevitably tracked along an inferior track, and I may never have developed the high degree of efficiency that I did through my own creative thinking.

[Caleb]

That's quite a forum you're running there, Ian.  How did you manage to collect so many pieces of human debris on one tiny little section of bandwidth?

I was criticized awhile back for calling libertarians "monsters". I've never felt so vindicated in my life.

[Porcupine_in_MA]

That's quite a forum you're running there, Ian.  How did you manage to collect so many pieces of human debris on one tiny little section of bandwidth?

I was criticized awhile back for calling libertarians "monsters". I've never felt so vindicated in my life.

*Breathes on fist brushing it against himself* Thanks man, we work hard to bring everyone the best of message board entertainment on the internets.

[J’raxis 270145]

That's quite a forum you're running there, Ian.  How did you manage to collect so many pieces of human debris on one tiny little section of bandwidth?

I was criticized awhile back for calling libertarians "monsters". I've never felt so vindicated in my life.

The FTL BBS is the "Fark.com of the liberty movement."