Office Space + Idiocracy = Silicon Valley
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Silicon Valley is set in the high tech gold rush of modern Silicon Valley, where the people most qualified to succeed are the least capable of handling success.
The problem might really be that the APA has no real competition. It’s a monopoly held up by the government, who designates the DSM as the bible for mental health when it gives out payments only for approved diagnostic codes. Clinicians ought to continue to develop alternative methods of diagnosis and treatment. Paired with modern data analysis, we can prove that there’s something better than the existing bureaucracy.
Psychiatry is failing those with personality disorders – New Scientist – New Scientist
A workable diagnostic system is needed, because sticking with the status quo is not an option
IF DOCTORS sent patients with angina home with nothing but a prescription for a painkiller to control chest pain, they would be sued for malpractice. Sadly, that is a fitting analogy for what happens all too often to people with personality disorders.
A related question answered by Leonard Peikoff was why we cry at joyful occasions. His answer: we perceive the beauty of life in context with the knowledge that it is not always so. If you feel that complex mix of joy and sorrow welling up in the coming weeks, take my advice: let the tears flow. That’s how nature made us.
CultureLab: Tragic tears: Why we are the only animals that cry
WE ARE the only animals who shed tears from emotion. But why? And what parts of the brain govern our impulse to weep? In Why Humans Like to Cry, Michael Trimble looks to neuroscience, art and evolution for answers.
His basic argument is that there is a set of neural systems in the brain that respond selectively to emotional stimuli and, specifically, tragedy. By this, he means the individual experience of loss, whose co-evolution with language and culture led to – or at least aided in – the birth of the art form of the same name, which deals with loss and suffering as essential aspects of humanity.
If you are living half-consciously, you can expect that the simple act of explaining an argument might change your mind. The solution, of course is to live in full consciousness. But that will require a possibly painful process of weeding out all sources of cognitive dissonance.
Your Beliefs Are Malleable
Many years ago, while teaching my first college level course in Human Sexuality, I was having a bit of difficulty dealing with two students who seemed to always be at each other’s throats. Each time a controversial topic (e.g., abortion, homosexuality, pornography) was covered, their open disagreements seemed to escalate into full blown arguments. After a few weeks of this I’d had enough, and I executed a plan designed to teach them (and the rest of the class) to expand their horizons and to find common ground. I asked all of the students to write a short paragraph expressing their positions on a list of ten sex-related topics, and to turn it in after they had signed it. They were then instructed to write a research paper in which they attempted to support the opposite of their own opinion on one of the topics in the list. This is an old trick, and I expected a bit of resistance and protest, but I had faith that most would follow through and learn from the experience.
Another example of government “protecting” us.
How to Win at Poker
On April 15, 2011, a day that has been dubbed “Black Friday” in the poker community, the DOJ shut down the American operations of three major sites: PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Ultimate Bet.
Michael Kaplan has an update on the story:
In January of this year, Full Tilt and the DOJ worked out an arrangement in which the DOJ took ownership of Full Tilt with the intention of selling it to raise funds to pay back American players. Seven months later, on July 31, PokerStars purchased Full Tilt from the DOJ. Businessweek estimated that the transaction would make $547 million for the U.S. government. At the time, the DOJ vowed to reimburse Full Tilt’s U.S. players; Stars said that it would take responsibility for returning $184 million to non-American customers.
PokerStars followed through on its end of the deal and recently relaunched the Full Tilt site outside of the U.S.
So has the DOJ paid the U.S. players? Of course not.
