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otterley • today at 12:39 AM • 3 replies • view on HN

> What makes you think everybody will be able to adapt to 'the new reality'? That's pretty cruel.

I don’t, necessarily; but I do know that if you’re not even trying, then you’re putting yourself at greater risk. This isn’t one of those developments that people can just stubbornly dig their heels in about.

Life throws obstacles at everyone. Learning how to dodge and weave is essential to survival.

> I suspect that when all this is over 1929 will look pretty good.

Oh come on. Let’s not be so dramatic, shall we?


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fugalfervor • today at 2:21 AM

> I don’t, necessarily; but I do know that if you’re not even trying, then you’re putting yourself at greater risk.

We could also all put our gifts toward preventing the "new reality" you see as inevitable, and put you at greater risk.

The future isn't written yet. Your ability to predict it is an illusion. In aggregate, people whose job it is to predict large-scale economic events are worse than chance in their predictions.

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crabmusket • today at 1:52 AM

> Life throws obstacles at everyone.

This is sensible and pragmatic, but I think you're talking past the other commenter.

Obstacles presented by, for example, your boss, or your company's competitors, or your political system, are not the same as obstacles like heartbreak, natural disasters, emotions, illnesses we cannot yet cure.

> Learning how to dodge and weave is essential to survival.

A lot of people perceive that elites are throwing dodgeballs at them in order to increase their own profits. Saying "them's the breaks, it's just the way it is" appears to be deflecting criticism from those elites and that system.

It probably depends on whether you think we could actually feed everyone, today, if we chose to, or if you think e.g. human nature prevents that from being possible.

jacquesm • today at 1:15 AM

> Oh come on. Let’s not be so dramatic, shall we?

You'd have said the same thing in 1928...

Seriously: this is a massive problem that we are creating and given that the tools that make the problem require better tools to solve them I really am not all that happy about how this is going.

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