Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

It is both the hardest bit of advice on the list to follow, and the most profound. Many religions have some version of a holy man/woman going to a mountain/cave/ocean/forest and coming back with divine/enlightened wisdom. What they all have in common is some version of 'Unity: we are one'. It makes violence much harder, among other things. What left hand wants to shoot the matching right hand?

Pragmatically, this means whenever you are thinking with the us vs them mentality you can try to realize that there is some value of us which includes you and the ones you consider 'them', a common ground. A possible first rule is that this is the key step in any negotiation. A possible second rule is that everything is a negotiation.



Ultimately, you can say everyone is human.

But some humans are more human than others, at least in my system of ethics.

I don’t necessarily blame the bad apples, but in the same way that I don’t blame my infected finger. It’s still going to require a strong dose of antibiotics.


That's already shifting the way you look at things. You'll still have to deal with the infection, but you aren't hating your finger.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: