Mharman

Does anyone else find the same number lining up oddly satisfying?

I wonder if there are other unfortunate numbers for any of those other HoF balls

Almost to page 50 that’s cool

Related to the previous post, I think it’s funny that the ball Matt Ryan threw to reach 60,000 passing yards is displayed as HoF Ball #283.

I wonder what makes certain athletes “choke artists”

Like did they always respond poorly to pressure? If not, when did it get to them?

I wonder some athletes can become choke artists if their first choke was egregious enough. Like it just gets in their head that they don’t want to repeat the same choke, which just makes it happen again and again.

^ Not really but they annoy me

That “no work tomorrow” sleep hits different

Ok this was a dumb question 

Also I’m not paying to read all that. Someone who did can give the people of this thread a summary

So military documents were leaked, and it wasn’t the War Thunder community. I’m surprised

I'm impressed

Wdym by dreams being real?

So many things we’ve created are engineering marvels. It’s amazing what humans have accomplished. 

Saying the above post bc my house is about half a mile up the road from a railroad crossing. Weirdly, it’s kinda soothing hearing the train go by.

I would hate to live in one of the houses right next to the crossing though.

Does anyone find white noise easier to sleep with?

50 miles is crazy. Ain’t no way

This link works now btw

There’s a chance we get an all-SEC Final Four. May God save us all.

I’ve never seen The Hunchback of Notre Dame but I imagine Quasimodo has at least some kind of faith.

Frick Pitino 🤬 

That has nothing to do with insomnia.

I hate insomnia.

Anyone else got a bracket?

Setup has been approved. I didn’t go out of my way to make Whiteflame design a game exactly as I would, but I did have him change a few things. 

My philosophy for setup help is that I don’t make people to copy my style (cause that would be boring); so I try to help others execute their styles better.

I think he cooked in the end.

Didn’t really pay too much attention to this game, despite spectating from the scum pm. Very wild setup, strange game. Doesn’t seem like my thing. No offense. I hope yall had fun ig

Welp that got busted quick 

Yeah Ik it is. I just got a feeling the top seeds are just plain better than the rest this year. I like my predictions

wdym

and what's yours?

Imgur links

Bracket image starts with the round of 32 matchups, but the round of 64 predictions are implied

Hold on I’ll get a version yall can see

Ok I went into incognito and apparently you guys can’t see mine. Bruh 

Nothing’s on the line but bragging rights.

I’ll go first:   https://fantasy.espn.com/games/tournament-challenge-bracket-2025/bracket?id=6bd74be0-0472-11f0-8c36-d58fad34d9c5

Wait, we almost had a government shutdown that gave Elon Musk the ability to cut govt programs even further, and it was thwarted at the last second? DAMMIT!!!

Tag

Oh right. Philosophy.

Sure, some of them, but make sure you have a good definition of meritocracy.

I see too many people claim that meritocracy means all of society is an arranged on a scale of how hard they work.  This thinking at best fails to account for the subjective nature of what can be considered “hard work” and at worst leads to something like the Marxian labor theory of value, where the value entrepreneurs and managers bring is treated as nonexistent because they aren’t on the assembly lines.

Hard work is a good thing, but a good work ethic is one of many merits. Competency, mental strength, physical strength, experience,  etc are all merits that have positive correlations with success.

All of these merits can be controlled, but only up to a certain limit. An unpleasant truth about our merits is that their limits are random. Our genes determine the hard limit for what we can do, assuming we are training ourselves as hard as we can.

And as long as free will exists, some people will be more successful than others. Therefore, some people will be born into better situations than others. This means they will have better resources for self improvement, outside of humility (humility is a gift of its own, however).

Simply put, life isn’t fair. The randomness of one’s birth and genes are red shells that you can never get rid of. And yet, the red shells do not make your choices meaningless, or your level of success predetermined.

Pure equality doesn’t exist, and therefore isn’t a reasonable goal. This is actually the strength of meritocracy. Since different people have different skill sets, and different levels of overall skill, some people are more fit for certain jobs than others. Those who are best at achieving desired results find themselves at the top of society, based on their merits. This makes society as a whole more competent, and helps even the least fortunate, as the most fortunate are able to use their competency to raise the standard of living. 

Consequently, when anything other than talents are considered in hiring/promotions (such as race or gender in the case of DEI, or parenthood in the case of nepotism), meritocracy is threatened in favor of kakistocracy. The result is a less competent society, which harms everyone.

When it comes to red shells, the only thing you can reasonably do is the ensure everyone has equal opportunity under the law. Key words: Under the law.

I wouldn’t say I’ve read Ayn Rand but this almost never happens. If you make good decisions, you will be rewarded in life. Not in every case, but over the course of time you will succeed. It’s really that simple.

As for Mariokart? It was always a casual game, directed towards casual players. Competitive players just find ways to deal with the randomness, and there’s some pretty neat tactics they have. For example, don’t want a random boo to steal an important item? Hold a coin instead of immediately using it.

Sure pure driving could be a bit more skill-based by pure mechanics, but the randomness tests one’s strategy. Sure it can screw you over too, but it adds a new dimension to skillful gameplay and makes the game more interesting as a whole.

Anyone else spend way too much time in the shower standing under the warm water?

Feels good when you don’t have to deal with someone anymore.

I’m pretty sure you already are lol

Case in point.

You know damn well it’s not over this one thread, and I haven’t sought bans on other users for threads they’ve created or debates they’ve started. I’ve asked mods to ban a few users for other reasons for sure, but never over what you do.

I will not be responding any further.