Wednesday, March 9, 2022

learning from other industries

It's been quite a while. Over 3 years in fact. 

Something I've been listening to recently are the GDC talks. It may sound like they only talk about ganja related matters and that is the focus. However, if we step back just a little bit, a lot of what is said easily applies to other industries and work-life in general.

Want to make projects go on schedule with few issues and hotfixes? Check out the talk where they cover that.




Having trouble getting everyone on the same page? Here's a talk on that too



Just because something sounds like it's for one industry didn't mean it's only for that industry.


Another talk I like is the 10 principles of level design which I think can help with mentoring. 



Sunday, February 24, 2019

Blog Update

Can you believe it has been over 6 years since I started blogging? I have written so many posts and developed my philosophy so much during that time. Alas, due to health reasons, busyness, family needs, etc., I think I need to dial back on the amount of content I write. As a result, I do not expect to share even once a month.

I still intend to be active on Twitter. So if I do have something to share here, I'll tweet a link. That part will not change, just not as frequent as it used to be.

Thank you all for your support.

With love,
N. D. Moharo

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Love and manipulation

Below is another letter written for an upcoming Neostriker story. Please share your thoughts in terms of content, writing, and readability.

N. D. Moharo

---------------

My beloved children,

There comes a time in our lives where we become desperate for love. Quite typically, this occurs during our time from adolescence through middle-age. While I often write that you do not need romance to be happy, I am certain you will seek romance to find that love. There is nothing wrong with that, but I therefore want to prepare you for the vulnerabilities that come with that, particularly the rhetoric of love.

Love is one of the most complex things in the world and is also heavily prone to manipulation. We often desire love so much that we willingly are manipulated. While some people simply want to test our love for assurance, there is real danger when anyone tries to take advantage of out desire for love. Whenever someone tries to test your love, that is a warning sign that their love for you is not true. I say warning because it can also be an indication that someone was deeply hurt. In this case, even if they are unable to love as a result of that scar, I would be proud of you could help them heal without compromising your own virtue and safety.

There was a TV show I saw where the lead's daughter was manipulated into getting in a boy's van through the allure of love and other emotional tactics. While the boy did not give any hints of malicious intents, it was a trap. I bring this example up not only because it was the prompt for this letter, but it's a good example of how manipulation can work and why you should be careful even if you cannot detect malice.

Let's consider the factors. Already against the girl acting responsibly were the physical attraction to the boy and desire for love; she wanted to be with him. Then there was peer pressure of her friend saying she was not leaving. Then when she brought up her mother was worried, there was a challenge to her "independence" or "maturity" as a grown up. Then when hinting she would still go home is the challenge, "Don't you want to be with me?" coming again to love, but calling upon her "good nature" of loving. Notice that these are very emotional tricks, which distracted her from recognizing the danger of being trapped in a boy's van. Lastly, after placing so much emotional focus, they propose the compromise that they will take her home themselves. Result: she went with them, learned she was tricked and trapped, and her friend died in their attempt to escape.

I hope that example serves well enough to not only be careful with manipulation with love, but emotional manipulation in general. I originally planned for this letter to be more broad, but I realized focusing on love in particular would make it easier to understand.

I want you to be aware of when you might be manipulated so that you can make a better decision. One guiding principle for distinguishing the good from the bad is of the action is good and the motivations are good. However, even if the motivations of the  manipulator are not good, that does not mean the course of action is bad, but you should implement more scrutiny.

Again, while I know you are likely to search for love through romance, I want you to know one thing. Your mother and I love you so much.

With love,
Your father

Sunday, November 25, 2018

November Update

Dear readers,

I realized that time has gone by really fast and I haven't posted for a long time. My apologies. I have been distracted by other things that I haven't gotten around to writing a new philosophical piece. I have a couple of ideas, but none developed enough to share.

So what distracted me for so long? Work and family duties certainly took most of my time, but also health treatments, hobbies, and education. Unfortunately, those will need to continue for a long time. Perhaps I can still try to get a letter out once a month, but it might be less frequent than that. If you are looking for more frequent musings from me, the chances are better to follow my Twitter account at @ND_Moharo

Until next time,
N. D. Moharo

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Topic share: women in action stories

I'm not ready to share my latest topic so I would like to share this post from the Neostriker blog:

https://neostrikershining.blogspot.com/2018/10/what-neostriker-is-about.html

The topic it raises is an interesting one I think worth debating on. Why in action movies are women forced to fight the women? One theory shared in the post is to combat violence against women, which is a commendable goal and helps explain the common exception; Women fight men as long as they win. There are very few exceptions to this exception.

What do you think? Does removing women from facing men in construction help reduce violence against women? My guess is it probably does to a certain extent, but unless the core of addressed, it's only a step and not a cure.

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Pursuit of happiness: socialism

Dear Society,

Socialism has been a part of our world since at least the French Revolution. It has adopted a few other names in that timeframe such as Fascism, National Socialism (i.e. Nazism), Communism, Marxism, etc. As a result, the topic often appears in politics, especially by some groups that disdain capitalism. I have seen this topic risen a few times within the past few weeks, but not one has examined the main question that proponents assume the answer to; Can socialism make you happy?

To answer that question, let's take a look at a few factors. First, the primary evil of capitalism and socialism's promise of rectification. Second, the viability of a socialist nation. Third, the concept of equality and how it relates to love. Fourth, how it affects our individual happiness. Finally, we will examine if socialism really is the answer to our problems.

The evil of capitalism

The primary evil of capitalism is greed. Greed is evil to begin with, but capitalism feeds it by promising rewards to those who fully embrace it. Because of this, many evil actions are done and improper desires created all to fill the pockets of a few men. And it's not even the rich stealing from the rich. Rather it's often the poor that are swindled or robbed from. The promise of the market regulating itself is just a dream that only takes effect after many people suffer and the government threatens regulation.

Socialism essentially promises that there will be regulation for everything. At the same time, it promises to take from the rich and distribute to the “people”. But if we think about it, that is still greed. If not greed, then it's envy and that is a powerful poison to society and it won't even touch its promises.

Maybe some of the poor will receive money, but that won't be enough. This is because “to the people” is code for “to the government” which in turn means “to top bureaucrats”. Even the money that does not end in the hands of politicians will not be put to good use and the nation will sink.

The viability of a socialist nation

Governments are notorious for wasting money. This is in part because they are politicians rather than economists, but also because they feel like they have money to spend and no care that they accrue debt. Very few politicians actually act on reducing the debt, which would actually help our credit to borrow when we need it. At the same time, companies take advantage of the government's weakness here and massively overcharge for services.

It might be helpful to also consider which socialist countries are thriving. Most fall for economic reasons. Even Communist China has become Capitalist economic-wise in order to grow. This is not a new thing either as it started in the 1970’s. As one of my Chinese co-workers put it, they are taught that China is politically Communist, but economically Capitalist.

The concept of equality

What does it mean to have equality? Is it that everyone is treated fairly? That definition is actually for Justice, but the word is not used for some reason. My theory is that because the goal of the people who are trying to control the meaning of equality know that they want to use unjust means or create a system that is unjust.

Most often, socialist leaders try to take property by force to distribute among their favorites. No equality is present here. They steal from people who rightfully earned their property and made sound choices. Then the thieves give to those who did not deserve it.

This bias already exists in the United States in the form of political parties. It should be well-known that both parties prefer to act for the sake of their party rather than the good of America. Would anyone be surprised or care if Watergate happened again? I doubt it as parties even sabotage their own primaries as was shown with Bernie Sanders in 2016 elections.

It's also important to look at how is “equality” reached. Typically the answer is by persecutions. Anyone who doesn't abide by the ruling party’s ideals is persecuted. Even if they aren't killed, they would treated as lower class and therefore not equal. After the French Revolution, they attacked the countryside because they supported their local church. And the basis of these productions is due to strongly held beliefs, such as the kind that gave a certain group their power. Can you imagine if anyone who supported abortion would be killed for that ideal? Or how about the other way around? Or if anyone who volunteered for PETA were unable to get jobs because of that volunteer work? This would be evil, because we're attacking someone for their strongly held beliefs on what is right.

If we consider what love is, the purpose of life, and what our path to perfection is, then we must realize that of we have hatred in our souls, then we are flawed. If we hate someone that we want to kill them because of their ideal, we are perhaps even more evil than we perceive that person to be. Otherwise we open the door that someone is fair to hate us for our own ideals. Again, we must strive for Justice, then true equality will follow.

Will socialism make us happy?

Let's be fair. Pure socialism cannot make us happy, but some aspects can help if implemented properly. Health is an important aspect of our happiness. Affordable healthcare should be a reality, but it cannot as long as medicine, hospital prices, and insurance are left to their own private books, no nation can afford it. This is especially true of a government that does not know how to be economical. The man who bought a life-saving drug so as to inflate it to more than 1000 times its price did not break any written laws, but he certainly did break the natural law. Then again, whether it's private or government that provides the healthcare didn't matter as long as it's good and adorable.

At the same time, our core rights are also of great importance to our happiness and we should not surrender then for any lesser right. For if we lose our core rights, what's to stop the government from taking away the lesser rights? We must remember that the core rights help keep the government in check and that is one reason why the United States have thrilled for so long.

If you hate Trump, wouldn't you hate it even more if he had even more power and would persecute you for speaking out? Elections in the US are decent because the power changes regularly as people are allowed to speak out. This is not the case in countries were elections are just a disguise for corruption. Crimea was under military control by a foreign power and not moderated by the UN when they “voted” to join Russia.

We should also be careful not to dismiss the improvements capitalism has bestowed upon us. Are not many inventions done by individuals and entrepreneurs? Would we have airplanes if the government was the sole driving force?

The government certainly needs to protect citizens from other citizens. That's why we have the police. And yet, if we go back to China, persecutions are still occurring. I asked another one of my Chinese co-workers if it was true and he said he would not be surprised by that. There is a balance to things and it's never good to go from one extreme to another. The only guarantee in that situation is that many people will be unhappy.

Is socialism the answer to our problems?

Socialism may sound like a simple solution to a wide variety of problems, but it is not. The escalation of bureaucracy would frustrate everyone. The incompetencies will also frustrate, especially when it comes to economics. There are too many issues that are far too complex. That is one reason why there is such strong political divides.

Gun control is an example of one complicated topic to finding the right balance and conditions to work. After all, if we don't trust the cops, why let only them have the guns? If even cops lack guns, then gangs will naturally be better equipped and rule. If armed cops were present at shootings but do nothing, why should we depend on them versus letting a teacher defend her class? Then again, are children really safe if there is always a gun around them? And then I think everyone can agree that mentally ill and drunks should not hold a gun, but how is that determined? What if a tyrannical government just claims all Democrats are mentally ill and therefore unable to buy a gun to defend themselves?

There certainly is a balance to freedom of the market and government involvement. Arguably, capitalism is what allowed the tobacco industry to thrive, despite how it harms everyone around it. The greed it promoted also caused some wars. And yet, governments with too much power also persecute innocent people and create unnecessary wars. Perhaps the ideal solution is making sure everything is properly checked and balanced, but that itself is another topic.

With love,
N. D. Moharo