05-12-2003, 11:51 PM
Hi,
A fool is someone who does something even though they know they shouldn't.
The first definition in www.m-w.com for fool is "a person lacking in judgment or prudence". Knowing what one should do is judgment, doing it is prudence. You (along with Humpty Dumpty) are free to adopt whatever meaning you want for a word. The rest of the world is free to disagree. However, that makes the discussion pointless.
they will make rational decisions to maximize it.
No. In most cases people will rationalize the purchase of what they desire, however irrational that desire is. As in buying a 200 mph car in a country with maximum 70 mph speed limits. Most people wouldn't know a rational though if it bit them, and probably would die from the shock of something so foreign to their experience.
No one who buys these items is stupid, although they may appear that way.
Stupid and foolish are not the same thing. Stupid is lacking brainpower. Luck of the genetic draw. Foolish is not using that brainpower. There are many smart fools.
they also get to forgoe the time they would have spent to find their own.
Games are pastimes! As in "something that amuses and serves to make time pass agreeably" (same source). Anyone who spends money in order to avoid having to spend time in a game is more than a fool, he is an idiot. In case those braniacs never figured it out, there are no other returns from a game than those obtained by playing it. If those returns don't work for someone, then they should find something else that interests them. If they can't find anything that interests them, then they should kill themselves and quit wasting the air that a relatively *intelligent* being (like a slug) could be using.
They did not see that they would be ruining the game for themselves in the long run, they only saw the instant gratification. So were they a fool? No. At the time they made the decision, it looked like a pretty good deal.
First, one sure indication of a fool is that he cannot tell a good deal form Shinola. So, is he a fool? Yeah. By and large, anyone looking for "instant gratification" is a fool. More so in a game than anywhere else.
Consider: games are totally optional. There is no law, no natural drive, not even any real social pressure to play games. So, if one is going to spend the money to get games, then the only reasonable justification is for the enjoyment of the gaming experience. But, the gaming experience is the "doing" not the "having". Anyone who does not see this has a severe (but fairly common in our society) maladjustment to the world around them. And that outlook -- the idea that *owning things* will make them happy -- is what makes them fools. Fools because there has never been a recoded case where that actually worked.
Sorry, I can understand the sellers. Pure profit motive and easy suckers to fleece. But the buyers? Fools every one. Chasing a worthless goal in pursuit of what they threw away when they spent their money.
--Pete
A fool is someone who does something even though they know they shouldn't.
The first definition in www.m-w.com for fool is "a person lacking in judgment or prudence". Knowing what one should do is judgment, doing it is prudence. You (along with Humpty Dumpty) are free to adopt whatever meaning you want for a word. The rest of the world is free to disagree. However, that makes the discussion pointless.
they will make rational decisions to maximize it.
No. In most cases people will rationalize the purchase of what they desire, however irrational that desire is. As in buying a 200 mph car in a country with maximum 70 mph speed limits. Most people wouldn't know a rational though if it bit them, and probably would die from the shock of something so foreign to their experience.
No one who buys these items is stupid, although they may appear that way.
Stupid and foolish are not the same thing. Stupid is lacking brainpower. Luck of the genetic draw. Foolish is not using that brainpower. There are many smart fools.
they also get to forgoe the time they would have spent to find their own.
Games are pastimes! As in "something that amuses and serves to make time pass agreeably" (same source). Anyone who spends money in order to avoid having to spend time in a game is more than a fool, he is an idiot. In case those braniacs never figured it out, there are no other returns from a game than those obtained by playing it. If those returns don't work for someone, then they should find something else that interests them. If they can't find anything that interests them, then they should kill themselves and quit wasting the air that a relatively *intelligent* being (like a slug) could be using.
They did not see that they would be ruining the game for themselves in the long run, they only saw the instant gratification. So were they a fool? No. At the time they made the decision, it looked like a pretty good deal.
First, one sure indication of a fool is that he cannot tell a good deal form Shinola. So, is he a fool? Yeah. By and large, anyone looking for "instant gratification" is a fool. More so in a game than anywhere else.
Consider: games are totally optional. There is no law, no natural drive, not even any real social pressure to play games. So, if one is going to spend the money to get games, then the only reasonable justification is for the enjoyment of the gaming experience. But, the gaming experience is the "doing" not the "having". Anyone who does not see this has a severe (but fairly common in our society) maladjustment to the world around them. And that outlook -- the idea that *owning things* will make them happy -- is what makes them fools. Fools because there has never been a recoded case where that actually worked.
Sorry, I can understand the sellers. Pure profit motive and easy suckers to fleece. But the buyers? Fools every one. Chasing a worthless goal in pursuit of what they threw away when they spent their money.
--Pete
How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?