Ah yes sorry I isolated the point up to cup's comment.
But I'm still sure that there are/will be times when great discoveries are proven to be mistakes. Barring practical ones like penicillin, there has been numerous 'discoveries' proven wrong much later; Newton's colour theory comes to mind, and of course the rather famous its-a-particle-no-a-wave ping pong.
With respect, "God" is just a term referring to a being that has supreme powers that humans imagine to be the best of the best - and different people define these powers and other attributes differently. So even if you are an atheist, the study of Gods can still be an interesting reflection of people and society!
Also worth mentioning is the old universities did not have formal assessments so 100% students graduate with certificate. While this would be a bit woolly in our hyperactive world, I think being able to study without that pressure could significantly loosen up our perceptions of what we can and cannot learn. But since the sum knowledge base acquired by the human race has grown considerably (I know, a total understatement) true polymaths will continue to be rare. But in the first place, no one should be pressured to become one. There is so much content made accessible today that 'tinkerer' IMO is an honourable occupation. It probably needs a more glamorous label though ...
Yep. Stereotypes are almost always being debunked too, either by a new generation with a new culture/outlook, or someone belonging to a stereotyped group steps out with unique enough traits that conflict with the stereotype itself - but of course those with the stereotype would fling their hands in the air and proclaim "Of course I don't mean to say that about all of them." Damage's done though.
We all inevitably stereotype, even the most liberal can't claim otherwise. But history has never shown anything less bleak and painful when one stereotype is carried loudly and by a growing mass of hysteria. It's not worth it, imo, to debate so much of the validity of a stereotype, particularly when it involves lots of lives as you risk dehumanisation.
I think it also depends on the type of startup you have, and how confident and knowledgeable you are of your target market.
I'm currently reaching the end of the ideation phase, and although I'm familiar enough with my target users, I plan to spend a few months in Asia (where they are) to test my assumptions - hidden and conscious - and see if I'm missing out anything else. No matter how careful and smart your assessments are, ultimately it's all in your head! So yes you're right, we need to be wary of false positives and make sure that we really understand our users. But launching fast is a pretty valid idea too; personally it would be a wasted opportunity if I go on the trip without anything to show! A simple prototype can be more powerful and a much better conversation starter, plus the further advantage of lighting the fire under your bum. That would close the catch 22 loop, I hope.
I feel that "Inside Out" is more of a rites of passage story, where the falling of those childhood 'infrastructures' is due to change, especially disruptive ones (just the denial of "sadness" felt a little too simplistic).
But I think with depression, there is less 'logic'; it's much harder for you to follow what the hell is going on. Kinda like a big mess of yarn that's so knotted up you really wanna grab a pair of scissors and cut them up, and throw them in the fire for good measure. It's destructive, and that's why depression is awfully dangerous. Now you might think that the process itself will lead to that blank slate - I gave a pile of cards metaphor earlier - enabling a chance to build better and even turn the experience to some sort of character enrichment. But it's not that glamorous; not everyone can hold on for that long. I do count myself extremely lucky.
But one thing the film definitely got right was the concept of support. Riley eventually got through by allowing herself to break down and tell her parents everything, acknowledging the bits that she consciously feels to be weak, pathetic et cetra, like sadness. And that's really important for someone who's depressed; you will not be able to help yourself. Contrary to your belief, you need outside support to help you battle those demons and tell you that A is A and not a+b+c-d. It might be difficult to find good support, and initially I didn't either, but I knew my mom to be fundamentally caring about me and by approaching her, we slowly went down the road to detangle the mess. I'm not gonna kid, it was rocky as we didn't have a very good relationship, but we got there eventually. And learnt a bit more about humanity.
Edit: This turned out to be a mini memoir, please skip if irrelevant to you
This is veering off-topic so apologies. I tried to match my experience with the feelings described by the author in the article, but yes, you're right, depression can be much more than that. Now I say can because I visualise depression as a spiral, not necessarily consistent throughout, but definitely like a bottomless well. The feeling of being a "pressure cooker" is a level of depression, but I'm tempted to say that it's not the worst. The worst, and the most dangerous, I felt was self-transparency, where I lost all sense of what makes "me" and the world feels like a ghost and passes straight through. It was much more than numbness, it was emptiness that felt more white than black, yet I remember tears that won't stop welling, of shaking and shivering and lots of switching offs, usually to actual sleep. This was different to melancholy though, this was really the point when you don't consider but believe that you're absolutely and weightlessly nothing - and consequently there is no difference in physical life and death. There's no more anger nor confusion, just whispers of what's the point. I know that all this sounds poetic (and I haven't covered all that precedes this point such as guilt/imposter/self-ripping) but damn it wasn't beautiful. Suicide might be an idea my mind fiercely puts a gate around, but the desire for death creeps in anyway: there were a few incidents when my foot slowed down when crossing the road, when I walked alone at midnight ... no it wasn't nice.
I'm glad no harm came to me. It turned out that the worst was actually the beginning of my recovery; I managed to hold on for a little longer (thank you to my few friends and family) and gradually the world trickled in. I became fascinated by the sky though it hurt my eyes, but it had so many colours with clouds of different shapes, and a depth that showed that there is much much more beyond. Then the sounds came in. And looking at small children, I realised that I had become one too because we spoke the same language. It was very strange, but that was when I first felt happy! And proud and glad that I had hold on after all.
Falling into the spiral is like your world collapsing into a pile of cards. But let it collapse, and be patient: you will have the chance to rebuild, except with a cleaner slate and more thought for the now and the future. Just need to hold on for a little longer, and sleep, lots of sleep.
Devil's advocate for the Internet. I'd say that our being so connected helps spread and magnify these fears, and the fact that most of us carry smartphones et cetra helps keep us consistently in that state of mind.
Ah but my mind is very good at stripping down artificially constrained environments - just artificial. The lazy part of me will always seek for the comfort zone.
That's another wild horse to get in control of I guess.
You definitely have more discipline than I have, I could never consider writing as something as consistent as brushing my teeth! Most of the time I'm just stuck, or feel bored with myself. Did I mention that I don't like journals! I think that I will regret it though, just as I sometimes now wish that I've been less photophobic when I was a teen.
>>And the grandparent is right: you'd better be ready with a philosophy that accepts that reality on its own terms.
This makes me despair. How many times must history repeat itself?
You may be able to acknowledge just the difference, but I stick to what I said earlier: it's a slippery slope. And I'm not talking about dissimilarities in physical features like Irish vs Kenyan legs, but things like comparing intelligence in different races opens up Pandora's Box. Intelligence is not the only factor that makes up who we are, but it is easily and so often turned into a debate where it seems that it's the only thing that matters.
I also kept a small journal (which I was very ashamed of!) when I was depressed, and like you I found that it was helpful as it was at least a small but very free outlet to express what would definitely be difficult to talk about.
And I've also recovered :) And like you too, I don't keep a journal so much now, in fact very rarely I'd write in it and come to think of it, it was usually when I was very grumpy that I turned to it.
So I can't help but be glad that I don't have much of a journal now. I also feel your conundrum with happy memories, but one thing depression has taught me is to count every "now" moment as a blessing. I've a goldfish memory but I'm very precious about remembering the good emotions, like happiness, peace etc, and that for me is enough. And enough to carry me forward and whack the occasional blues. And anyway, I always find that we inadvertently store memories, be it random phone captures, spontaneous scribbling, reminders of cringey moments by friends and family ... as corny as it sounds, we're all made of our past and we all love to share things. So no need for fomo!
My own experience led me to a slightly different conclusion.
I'm considered to be "creative" by my peers as I enjoy the arts and applying them for practical use. Contrary to the article, I found that I was significantly less creative when I was depressed. What was extremely frustrating was that it all felt 'stuck' - you can imagine a composer letting out his black-hole reservoir of pain and sadness in a stream of intense, out-of-world music, a cry for the greater ... but sadly for me it was less romantic. I just got stuck. Unable to speak properly, unable to write or draw or express anything for that matter. And yet it felt like I was ready to explode.
Now that I've recovered and drawn a line to separate those demons, I can get intellectual. One consequence of depression is too much noise; of bad chattering and self cruelty and emptiness. Emptiness can also be crushing. That could explain why I couldn't be 'creative' at all.
On the other hand, the author of the article mentioned a very good point:
>>Negative emotions appeared when they fell on hard times financially, when their health became poor or especially when a close relative died.
But I interpret this slightly differently. Poverty gives pain but I don't think this is the part that gives rise to creativity. I grew up in a very rural area where there was nothing interesting to do like video games and cinemas. That was when I was at my most creative and proactive, like using poor materials to make something really awesome and crazy. I prefer to call this "resourcefulness" but thinking about it now, maybe that is what creativity is all about: the ability to transform something deemed to be poor or average into another thing that is so much more than the sum of its parts. It's a weird irony that when my family moved to a "richer" environment, I found myself hopelessly stuck. Here are the things all laid out for me to draw and model. Here are the information to do this and that. Here's an infinite supply of paper. What a joykiller.
>> which I think requires a new narrative and philosophy for what human equality means and a way to ground it on something more fundamental than a wished-for genetic similarity.
I'm sorry but that sounds mighty dangerous. Human equality was never grounded in genetic similarity; you do not need to know that your salad mix of ancestors are different to others to understand that every human today deserves equality. Sure groups of people may be different - like culture - but once we start thinking that one is better than the other, we get hierarchy, and we get superiority. It's not as if it doesn't exist today at varying degrees but careful that it doesn't gain mass momentum. It's a slippery slope and one we've gone down far too often.
Aaand that's popped the balloon and back to reality. Nevermind billion dollar ideas, let's just focus on a lifestyle business where you can't go wrong, headache and conscience-wise
I sortof agree with your "toughen up!" stance; as a member of a minority group this is actually practical - but only when I've developed sufficiently thick skin. I've worked in organisations where I was blatantly ignored/sidelined (I'll spare the details of how I came to conclude that it was due to discrimination rather than other factors) and that was pretty demoralising. I share your opinion, but count my blessing that I am able to carry it out.
But I'm still sure that there are/will be times when great discoveries are proven to be mistakes. Barring practical ones like penicillin, there has been numerous 'discoveries' proven wrong much later; Newton's colour theory comes to mind, and of course the rather famous its-a-particle-no-a-wave ping pong.