Many people will be resolutely antiasshole, however the cultural winds blow and regardless of the potential upside. Yet they may nevertheless find themselves unable or unwilling to maintain full cooperation. Instead of switching [to asshole ways], they simply withdraw, being unable or unwilling any longer to do the things people need to do if cooperation is to continue as before. Withdrawal may take any or all of the following forms:
Category: english
About Blaming Assholes
Thinking like an asshole: The man takes it as given (perhaps subconsciously or inchoately) that he is justified in allowing himself special advantages in social relations, in light of special entitlement to them. That is, his sense of special entitlement tells him that he has no reason or insufficient reason to abide by the expectations of conduct that normally apply among mere mortals.
About Decay of Morality
One could argue that asshole production proceeds at a uniform and steady rate and that there has merely been an increase in asshole reporting, with increasing media scrutiny of public figures and profit-driven exposure of assholes on TV, in print, and on the Web. At the same time, however, increasing reportage also creates powerful incentives for assholes to bare themselves in public, for a large audience. That could itself cause asshole production to rise on average.
Aaron James – Assholes: A Theory
About Swearing
Consider why we swear out loud at the asshole in traffic. We often know that he cannot hear us in his car. Indeed, we are especially prone to do this while driving alone (because passengers may be disturbed or offended), knowing full well that no one else can hear. Is there a point to this? Is it simply that there is pleasure in venting, the gratification of a cathartic, ejaculatory burst? No, or at least not entirely. We do this, rather, in order to recognise ourselves, as a proxy for the recognition of others. We are reassuring ourselves that we do deserve better treatment and that this is something that any reasonable onlooker, were one present, would agree with.
About Predictions
Research shows if you believe someone is going to be an asshole, you will act hostile, thus causing them to act like an asshole. This same research shows if people think their partner doesn’t love them, they will interpret small slights as big hurts–and this will then lead to a feeling of rejection that causes the partner to distance him- or herself. The feedback loop will build and build until the prophecy is fulfilled. […]
Policy Enforcement vs. Port-Based DPI
A really tricky issue with DPI is how to avoid port checks inside the code while making sure the code doesn’t produce false positives. For example, it’s not possible to reliably detect data transfer connections in FTP. If one doesn’t add port 20 to the equation, it’s not possible to detect those transfers properly. That’s just one of a couple of cases where one is inclined to use the port-based approach to make the detection more reliable. But here comes the kicker: It makes hiding traffic easy while also providing the administrator with a false sense of security.
About Chance
J. E. Littlewood wrote about the law of truly large numbers in his 1986 book, Littlewood’s Miscellany. He said the average person is alert for about eight hours every day, and something happens to the average person about once a second. At this rate, you will experience 1 million events every thirty-five days. This means when you say the chances of something happening are one in a million, it also means about once a month. The monthly miracle is called Littlewood’s Law.