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Meaningness's profile
David Chapman
David Chapman
David Chapman
@Meaningness

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David Chapman

@Meaningness

Better ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—around problems of meaning and meaninglessness; self and society; ethics, purpose, and value.

meaningness.com/about-my-sites
Joined September 2010

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    1. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 5 Apr 2018
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      David Chapman Retweeted Welp Banana

      A coincidental convergence of recent tweets: we are wasting the surplus from technical and economic innovation on mandatory, soul-killing busywork. 1/https://twitter.com/literalbanana/status/981730992330174464 …

      David Chapman added,

      Welp Banana @literalbanana
      “As income rises, people’s time use does not appear to shift toward activities that are associated with improved affect.” We are so dumb
      Show this thread
      10 replies 44 retweets 164 likes
      Show this thread
      David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 5 Apr 2018
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      David Chapman Retweeted David Chapman

      2/ It’s tax season in the US, so everyone in the country is forced to spend a couple days doing administrative work we hate and consider idiotic. IRS official estimate is that for individuals this takes 13 hours on average. Including biz, ~$500 bn/year.https://twitter.com/Meaningness/status/981732729388544000 …

      David Chapman added,

      David Chapman @Meaningness
      Replying to @literalbanana
      Seems to me that all the time saved by mechanization has been taken up with administrative negative externalities. Everyone spends 20 hours/week dealing with dysfunctional institutions that demand form-filling and phone calls with low-level bureaucratic staff
      10:36 AM - 5 Apr 2018
      • 4 Retweets
      • 29 Likes
      • L A Thornhill foolish executives! TOD-zilla ∃𝑋[∅∈𝑋∧∀𝑦(𝑦∈𝑋⇒𝑦∪{𝑦}∈𝑋)] Ben Southwood simpolism Dan listens to the sudden reconfiguration Jeff C Lindsey Lobot
      3 replies 4 retweets 29 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 5 Apr 2018
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          David Chapman Retweeted David Chapman

          3/ What makes dealing with health insurance, credit card company errors, retirement plan allocation, and taxes so awful?https://twitter.com/Meaningness/status/981734411304497153 …

          David Chapman added,

          David Chapman @Meaningness
          Replying to @literalbanana
          I think it’s: (1) they are mostly obviously pointless, (2) they take much longer than they need to, (3) outcomes are unpredictable and out of your control, and (4) they can impose vast arbitrary costs. Everyone is doing taxes now, which is an obvious case.
          2 replies 3 retweets 22 likes
          Show this thread
        3. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 5 Apr 2018
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          David Chapman Retweeted David Chapman

          4/ Mandatory unpaid administrative busywork is mostly new, enabled by innovations in IT. We could use IT to free ourselves from nonsense; instead, collectively, we’ve used it to enslave ourselves.https://twitter.com/Meaningness/status/981733918918389760 …

          David Chapman added,

          David Chapman @Meaningness
          Replying to @Meaningness @literalbanana
          I don’t think my parents spent much time on this stuff, and I don’t remember having to do much before ~ the mid-90s either. Cheap mainframe computers have made it possible for govs & cos to impose huge amounts of pointless work on other people
          4 replies 9 retweets 41 likes
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        4. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 5 Apr 2018
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          David Chapman Retweeted David Colborne

          5/ We’ve replaced the drudgery of actual work with the drudgery of talking about work (mostly done by machines). Actual work may be rougher on the body, but at least you feel like you’ve done something.https://twitter.com/ElectDavidC/status/981745576365535232 …

          David Chapman added,

          David Colborne @DavidColborne
          Replying to @Meaningness @literalbanana
          Trouble is, mechanization made it possible to work at scale, and humans really don't do that very well. The way we work around that is by communicating, which technology has also enabled at scale, so now our work is sorting through our communications to find the effects of work.
          2 replies 3 retweets 33 likes
          Show this thread
        5. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 5 Apr 2018
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          David Chapman Retweeted Vicki Boykis

          6/ “Talking about work” is now most of the economy.https://twitter.com/vboykis/status/981939305483563008 …

          David Chapman added,

          Vicki Boykis @vboykis
          The US Economy, broken down into components: 35% VBA Macros 21% Fwd:Fwd:RE:RE:IMPORTANT 13% Dialing into conference lines and getting the user ID wrong 31% Requesting password resets for Outlook
          2 replies 5 retweets 42 likes
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        6. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 5 Apr 2018
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          7/ Quantifying our waste of human lives on pointless administration (♻️@slatestarcodex) https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/04/why-its-time-to-rethink-the-meaning-of-work/ …pic.twitter.com/kvxdTnM448

          1 reply 9 retweets 37 likes
          Show this thread
        7. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 5 Apr 2018
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          David Chapman Retweeted ЬᏂ​au​ϮᏂ

          8/ Collectively we have frittered away the vast surplus generated by systematization. And, we’ve allowed those systems to rust. Basic institutions of modernity are increasingly dysfunctional—and we’re so rich we can get away with neglecting maintenance.https://twitter.com/peroxycarbonate/status/981739924968751106 …

          David Chapman added,

          ЬᏂ​au​ϮᏂ @peroxycarbonate
          Replying to @turrible_tao @Meaningness @literalbanana
          My view is that better technology lets institutions keep going past the point where they would have collapsed from internal rot before.
          2 replies 3 retweets 38 likes
          Show this thread
        8. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 5 Apr 2018
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          David Chapman Retweeted Venkatesh brrrRao

          9/ @vgr made a similar point in a long tweet thread a couple days ago:https://twitter.com/vgr/status/981603366508756992 …

          David Chapman added,

          Venkatesh brrrRao @vgr
          17/ This business-normalcy-field is in fact the greatest economic asset that separates developed and developing/third-world economies. It's an operating system that carries 80% of the intelligence of running a thriving, wealthy economy.
          Show this thread
          1 reply 0 retweets 16 likes
          Show this thread
        9. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 5 Apr 2018
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          David Chapman Retweeted Venkatesh brrrRao

          10/ @vgr’s thread is both terrifying—because he points to evidence that systematicity is collapsing overall—and hopeful, because he thinks alternatives are possible.https://twitter.com/vgr/status/981603954009108480 …

          David Chapman added,

          Venkatesh brrrRao @vgr
          19/ My point is this: as and when this field finally starts to collapse, the business world will be at a fork in the road: collapse into developing country state, or reinvent management knowledge on a new assumptions stack.
          Show this thread
          4 replies 1 retweet 26 likes
          Show this thread
        10. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 5 Apr 2018
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          David Chapman Retweeted Venkatesh brrrRao

          11/ I agree with @vgr’s objection here: systematicity should be optional for most people. It’s unnatural and most people are bad at it and don’t like it. We haven’t yet got a good alternative…https://twitter.com/vgr/status/981958713031385088 …

          David Chapman added,

          Venkatesh brrrRao @vgr
          Replying to @Meaningness
          I’m not convinced systematicity is essential to flourishing constructions of consciously apprehended reality. I’m toying with idea that it is only necessary in built environment (eg, infrastructure and native morlocks have to embody scientific systematicity, but not “civilians”)
          1 reply 0 retweets 20 likes
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        11. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 5 Apr 2018
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          12/ Can a future society provide the emotional rightness of pre-modern community, smoothly-functioning systematic institutions, space for diverse subcultures, and creativity for all? I believe so:https://meaningness.com/fluidity-desiderata …

          2 replies 4 retweets 30 likes
          Show this thread
        12. End of conversation

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