Quote from: p32.. this is very likely why there are so many different definitions of happiness--many different on-ramps, many different roads, many different speed limits--but only one destination for contentment.

Quote from: p7[..] the toxic environment in which we currently find ourselves [..and] how we remain there. ([..] the punch line is that it's not about personal responsibility, but only you can help itself, because no one else will.)

It's not true that no one else will, but I like the dichotomy presented here. It may not your personal responsibility... but it may still be your personal problem.

Starseed Pilgrim presented a broken hedonic loop.

Quote from: p6entire industries and governments have pushed hedonic (reward-generating) substances and behaviours on their unsuspecting populations for profit, which has only caused further unhappiness.

I thoroughly expect Lustig to get more into the explicitly stated link here later in the book: reward-generating X unhappiness.

Quote from: p1, John Butler YeatsHappiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that, but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing.

My kinda quote! Damn!

re: Robert H. Lustig's
"The Hacking of the American Mind"

re golden krishna's
"the best interface is no interface "

*i took one picture which i don't have the time to transcribe right now. read while sick and not taking notes.

It's not particularly funny. I regret it. But hey, live and learn. I'm glad I can refer back to that error because if I didn't have this regret I would find it harder to understand this particular problem in the moment, now; ... ... I wanted to write some kind of summary of my regret and the LEssons Learned but I don't think I can.

Given this context, I'll translate, para-rephrase, Pol's position for myself:


It's funny... I think in Cruel World I ended up shoehorning non-politics into a game that was about politics. ("politics".) I learned the lesson the hard way and in reverse. I genuinely regret it. Everyone talked about how the platforming was fun and cool! So I wanted to do it justice. But Cruel World was always about something very specific, and I feel like treating it as my capitalist job wound up undercutting its message.

Quote(in practice, if making games is your capitalist job there is a hard limit to the genuine political material you can communicate through it - and if you do, it'll likely be coopted.)

I agree with most things and disagree with a few. The harshest thought I have is about the ending, and I suppose also the title?

Quotei think it is important to ask the question of whether making a given game or art piece with a political message is the most impactful way one can participate to the struggle, and whether it will effect meaningful change or simply act as a pacifying agent for a privileged class with a guilt complex.
Organize, educate yourself, wage struggle outside of games! Don't shoehorn politics into your marios!! They're marios!!!!

To keep myself from focusing on a strawman I need to include this quote from earlier about pol's position:

QuoteThis isn't to say noone should set out to deliver political teachings through the medium of games - like all media games can be a fertile tool to educate, articulate, mobilize etc. But such political games should generally be political from the get go, with a clear articulation of how the form and the political content respond to each other; and they should also be cognizant of the production and distribution systems they fit into (more on that below). If your motive and expertise lie in 2D platformers with a mechanical gimmick, i think it's good to remain cold-headed about your motivations for that and the scope of your work.

Alright, so in the context of this second (chronologically first) quote I can understand where pol is coming from, specifically marios is referring to 2D platformers with a mechanical gimmick; taken more broadly, marios is referring to the sort of games which I have been internally chafing and railing against lately,  games whose primary focus is... I don't want to say "their gameplay" but for lack of a better term I will say games whose primary focus is their gameplay.

Goddamn it I wasn't going to write a post about this but I actually have some thoughts I wanna record so here I go

Change! 12-14 becomes 13-17 min.

Preheat oven to 345 F

Put in two trays of macarons at once, staggered positioning - top rack to right, bottom rack to left

Set oven down to 320 F once macarons are in.

At 13 min, remove bottom tray only.
4 min later (at 17 min), remove top tray.

Quote from: p334There was process: process was all. You could go in a promising direction or you could go wrong, but you did not set out with the expectation of ever stopping anywhere.

Quote from: p334his radical and unqualified will to create was[..] its own justification. His sense of primary responsibility towards his work did not cut him off from his fellows, from his society, as he had thought. It engaged him with them absolutely.

uhh what the fuck

Quote from: p333, read today[..] the real mutuality and reciprocity of society and the individual became clear.
[..] though only the society could give security and stability, only the individual, the person, had the power of moral choice--the power of change, the essential function of life.

Quote from: a text document i wrote yesterdayOnly humans are capable of morality.

Only the individual, the person, has the power of moral choice.