I’m getting old

Someone might tell me some gossip these days and I feel (very strongly) I don’t want it in my head.

Weird these contagions, people indulging misfortune or whatever, dressing it (their interest) up as something nicer (or it could be overtly nasty).

I suppose I could handball whatever on, then maybe I wouldn’t have to lobotomize it from me brain. It’d be shared. Wonderful thing sharing.

I liked myself better before I heard it.

I’m going to crush any vestige of interest in my head.

This takes work, speaking of it more generally (what happens in the mind), and requires countermeasures.

I’ve been doing it for a while, the reluctance.

But have decided to be more so. More reluctant, a terrorist that way. Toward myself.

Stuff drifts into the background noise these days anyway. In one ear and out the other.

What do others do with their own dubious intrigues? What countermeasures do you employ?

transition said:

I’m getting old

Someone might tell me some gossip these days and I feel (very strongly) I don’t want it in my head.

Weird these contagions, people indulging misfortune or whatever, dressing it (their interest) up as something nicer (or it could be overtly nasty).

I suppose I could handball whatever on, then maybe I wouldn’t have to lobotomize it from me brain. It’d be shared. Wonderful thing sharing.

I liked myself better before I heard it.

I’m going to crush any vestige of interest in my head.

This takes work, speaking of it more generally (what happens in the mind), and requires countermeasures.

I’ve been doing it for a while, the reluctance.

But have decided to be more so. More reluctant, a terrorist that way. Toward myself.

Stuff drifts into the background noise these days anyway. In one ear and out the other.

What do others do with their own dubious intrigues? What countermeasures do you employ?

I tend to stay away from people as much as I can.
If they write it down I skim over it after the first few words.

Hello. I don’t have to go to work today. The house is organised for the most part and therefore the day is mine mine mine! :-)

Yep, stay away from people!

Tau.Neutrino said:

Yep, stay away from people!

Away from politicians, news media and advertising, I’d say, rather than away from people.

> What countermeasures do you employ?

An interesting question. Ridding yourself of an idea after accepting it tends to be much more difficult than rejecting it in the first place. So I try to always be in the position where I’m never forced to do either.

My main countermeasure is to hold the thought in limbo, neither believing nor disbelieving it until sufficient evidence arises to either accept permanently or reject permanently.

My second countermeasure is going back to first principles: conservation of mass, momentum, energy, using the past as a guide to the future, Bentham’s mortality, law of radiation, elementary biology, elementary mathematics, elementary ecology.

My third countermeasure is to always get a second opinion from someone trustworthy, such as Snopes, such as Google Scholar, such as Pub Med, such as the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics.

Coupled with the third countermeasure is my policy of always getting the same result using two totally different methods. One doesn’t have to be particularly accurate.

My fourth countermeasure is to answer all possible questions before they’re asked. Huh? The easiest way I do this is to ask myself “what if?” type questions. A second way is to enumerate all possibilities to avoid the trap of jumping for the obvious.

transition said:

What countermeasures do you employ?

Total sensory deprivation and backup drugs.

Woodie said:

transition said:

What countermeasures do you employ?

Total sensory deprivation and backup drugs.

Seems like a plan.

> Bentham’s mortality

Darn spelling checker.

Bentham’s morality