#utilitarianism — Public Fediverse posts

@Brian @Arseni https://understand-veganism.com/ claims that backyard eggs are a defensible utilitarian position - as a utilitarian I disagree: Backyard eggs are wrong because it is theft which causes direct harm. Hens like to brood on unfertilised eggs and also like to eat them raw. Especially since layer hens are bred to lay 30x more eggs than they would in the wild in order to prevent calcium deficiency the best thing to do with their eggs is feed them back to them.

All of this can be understood through a utilitarian lens and rule utilitarianism can cover abstract abuses more typically thought of as deontological like treating someone as a means to an end

#Veganism #Eggs #BackyardHens #Utilitarianism #Ethics #Deontology #RuleUtilitarianism

@Brian @Arseni https://understand-veganism.com/ claims that backyard eggs are a defensible utilitarian position - as a utilitarian I disagree: Backyard eggs are wrong because it is theft which causes direct harm. Hens like to brood on unfertilised eggs and also like to eat them raw. Especially since layer hens are bred to lay 30x more eggs than they would in the wild in order to prevent calcium deficiency the best thing to do with their eggs is feed them back to them.

All of this can be understood through a utilitarian lens and rule utilitarianism can cover abstract abuses more typically thought of as deontological like treating someone as a means to an end

#Veganism #Eggs #BackyardHens #Utilitarianism #Ethics #Deontology #RuleUtilitarianism

RE: https://mastodon.social/@gwynnion/116483532834192001

This post notes out that defending absurd levels of wealth and income inequality with no social safety net is similar to believing “there must always be an Omelas child.”

“The Ones Who Walk Away from
Omelas” by Ursula K. #LeGuin describes a utopian city called #Omelas “whose prosperity depends on the perpetual misery of a single child.”

This idea critiques the moral philosophy of standard #utilitarianism, which allow such situations if happiness outweighs suffering

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ones_Who_Walk_Away_from_Omelas

RE: https://mastodon.social/@gwynnion/116483532834192001

This post notes out that defending absurd levels of wealth and income inequality with no social safety net is similar to believing “there must always be an Omelas child.”

“The Ones Who Walk Away from
Omelas” by Ursula K. #LeGuin describes a utopian city called #Omelas “whose prosperity depends on the perpetual misery of a single child.”

This idea critiques the moral philosophy of standard #utilitarianism, which allow such situations if happiness outweighs suffering

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ones_Who_Walk_Away_from_Omelas

Recent Poems

The Questions

Again the moon comes up in the night
Again the stars
They stir up in me some questions
Without letting me know
Where the answers might be
Nor is the sky helpful
Soon it will be dawn
And the most useless guy to ask
When it comes to such questions
Will be there, giving life to us
But not the kind of life we are seeking.

I and U

I love her still
Who I loved
40+ years ago.

Did she love me
Back then
Though I know
She does not now.

Are We Worthy?

That we can love
A boy a girl, a girl a boy
That we can learn
About volcanoes and the stars
That we can cry
At the most trivial of losses
That we can laugh
At the silliest of antics
That we can help
Whether a friend or a foe
That we can sacrifice
Our very life
Does it not give you hope
That we are well equipped
To find the Truth, too?

Bruised But Not Broken

The supercilious smile
The unmistakable smirk
Have taken their toll
Yes, I am bruised
But I am a smart guy
Smarter than others reckon
So, I am not broken.

Sam ki Shayari Ya Shaam ki Shayari

Jis shakhs se mujhe milna tha
Afsos toda bahut hoti hai ki
Woh mereko tab aakar mili
Jab meri shaam ho chuki thi
Lekin khuda ko maaloom hai
Ismay bhi kya meri bhalai hai.

Where Am I Headed? Where Am I Supposed to Be Headed?

Where’s life taking me?
Where’s my heart taking me?
Do they think they know me
Better than I know myself?
Who is this I that asks the question
What is his relationship
With life and heart?

This Thing Called Acceptance

Eckhart Tolle talked about it
Much before him, two more talked
Much, much about it
JK and Osho, naam toh suna hoga
But, damn it guys, I accept myself
Easily without breaking into a sweat
I can accept life also, whatever turns it takes
But, it is the “other”, who does not
Who looks at me askance
And sometimes the “Not Other”, too,
And thus I spend my life here on earth
Not knowing what is “acceptable”?

The Lips

A poet tells me
Lips are meant for kissing
A sage tells me
Lips are meant to be zipped
Confused, I take out my laptop
And start typing.

Past the Midnight Hour

Under the cover of darkness, emboldened
Many a memory makes its appearance
In the theater of my mind, one after another
And I who have had delusions in the past
Can no longer trust which memory is genuine
For instance, one memory is rather persistent
And keeps appearing every now and then:
A girl smiling at me; what to make of it?
Should I start taking that antipsychotic?
I’d rather not, lest my psychiatrist say
“I told you so”, with that stupid grin.

The “No”

The no
Falling from some lips
Is far more problematic
Than from some other lips.

The Contradictions

Somewhere in this quest
To make a living
To live and love
To find the truth, sometimes
Life lands a sucker punch
When we are least expecting it.

All the Good We Can Do in This World

It is good to be laughed at
It is good to be made fun of
It is good to become a lughing stock
What a wonderful way to be
Where we are so useful to others
And Bentham’s soul would rest in peace.

@sigismundninja @neilk @codinghorror all forms of #utilitarianism and #consequentialism are incoherent due to the consequentialist judgement paradox. Basically, there is a paradox with judging thing purely on consequences and then judging the consequences of your own moral judgement.

https://philpapers.org/rec/IONCJP

#philosophy #ethics

@sigismundninja @neilk @codinghorror all forms of #utilitarianism and #consequentialism are incoherent due to the consequentialist judgement paradox. Basically, there is a paradox with judging thing purely on consequences and then judging the consequences of your own moral judgement.

https://philpapers.org/rec/IONCJP

#philosophy #ethics

“They are no philosophical race”: Nietzsche’s Critique of the Englishman’s Philosophy

Nietzsche had a sharp and often contemptuous view of what he called “English psychology” and the broader tradition of British empiricist and utilitarian moral philosophy. His critique is scattered across several works — Beyond Good and Evil, Twilight of the Idols, On the Genealogy of Morality, and The Gay Science — but forms a coherent attack on a whole intellectual temperament.

1. The Critique of Utilitarianism and the “Herd Morality”

Nietzsche’s most sustained target was Utilitarian ethics — chiefly Bentham and Mill’s reduction of morality to the calculation of pleasure and pain, and the maximization of happiness for the greatest number.

• He found this mediocre and life-denying: it privileges comfort, safety, and the average over excellence, risk, and greatness.
• Utilitarianism, for Nietzsche, is the philosophical expression of the herd — a morality that flattens hierarchy and punishes the exceptional individual.
• “Man does not strive for happiness; only the Englishman does,” he quipped in Twilight of the Idols — meaning that making happiness the supreme value is a parochial, petit-bourgeois illusion.

2. The Attack on British Empiricism and Its Psychologists

In Beyond Good and Evil (Part I) and On the Genealogy of Morality (Preface), Nietzsche attacks English moral psychologists — figures like Spencer, Hume, and their successors — for:

• Lacking historical sense: They projected modern values (utility, sympathy, altruism) backward onto all of human history, as if these had always been the basis of morality.
• Flatness of soul: They could only explain the origin of moral concepts mechanistically — habit, utility, association — and missed the deeper question of the value of values themselves.
• “They are no philosophical race”: Nietzsche says this explicitly in Beyond Good and Evil (§252), charging that the English lack the instinct for genuine philosophy. They are capable of great industry and data-gathering but not of the bold, creative, self-overcoming thought he demands of a philosopher.

3. Darwin and the Problem of “Survival”

Nietzsche had a complicated relationship with Darwin, but largely rejected Social Darwinism and the popular English interpretation of evolution:

• The “survival of the fittest” was vulgarized into a justification for mediocrity — it is the most numerous, the most adaptable, the most average that survive, not the highest.
• Nietzsche argued that nature often sacrifices the species for the sake of the exceptional individual — the reverse of what the Darwinian moralists claimed.
• Evolution, in the English reading, pointed downward toward conformity; Nietzsche wanted to point upward toward the Übermensch.

4. Critique of Sympathy and Altruism (Spencer & the “Comfortable” Ethics)

Herbert Spencer attempted to merge evolution with utilitarian ethics, grounding morality in social cooperation and sympathy. Nietzsche despised this:

• Sympathy (Mitleid) — “feeling with suffering” — was for Nietzsche a form of weakness and even a contagion of suffering, not a virtue.
• Altruism as a supreme value he traced (in the Genealogy) to slave morality — the resentful inversion of aristocratic values by the weak.
• Spencer’s “evolution toward happiness” was, to Nietzsche, a comfortable lie told by a civilization in decline.

5. The Deeper Charge: Mediocrity of Philosophical Spirit

Beyond specific doctrines, Nietzsche’s critique is temperamental and cultural:

“They are not a philosophical race — the English: Bacon represents an attack on the philosophical spirit generally, Hobbes, Hume, and Locke an abasement and a depreciation of the idea of a ‘philosopher’ for more than a century.” — Beyond Good and Evil, §252

The English philosopher, in Nietzsche’s portrait, is:

• Too empirical — chained to facts, unable to think beyond them
• Too Christian in disguise — utilitarian altruism is secularized Christian morality without the honesty of its theological roots
• Too comfortable — philosophizing in service of stability, society, and contentment, rather than danger, solitude, and transformation

Summary Table

A Fair Assessment

Nietzsche’s critique, while brilliant and penetrating, is also polemical and sometimes unfair. Hume, in particular, is a far deeper thinker than Nietzsche credits. And Nietzsche himself borrows more from the British tradition than he admits — his psychological method of unmasking morality owes something to precisely the “English psychologists” he mocks. The critique is best read not as sober scholarship, but as Nietzsche’s philosophical war cry against a particular vision of what life and thought are for.

“They are no philosophical race”: Nietzsche’s Critique of the Englishman’s Philosophy

Nietzsche had a sharp and often contemptuous view of what he called “English psychology” and the broader tradition of British empiricist and utilitarian moral philosophy. His critique is scattered across several works — Beyond Good and Evil, Twilight of the Idols, On the Genealogy of Morality, and The Gay Science — but forms a coherent attack on a whole intellectual temperament.

1. The Critique of Utilitarianism and the “Herd Morality”

Nietzsche’s most sustained target was Utilitarian ethics — chiefly Bentham and Mill’s reduction of morality to the calculation of pleasure and pain, and the maximization of happiness for the greatest number.

• He found this mediocre and life-denying: it privileges comfort, safety, and the average over excellence, risk, and greatness.
• Utilitarianism, for Nietzsche, is the philosophical expression of the herd — a morality that flattens hierarchy and punishes the exceptional individual.
• “Man does not strive for happiness; only the Englishman does,” he quipped in Twilight of the Idols — meaning that making happiness the supreme value is a parochial, petit-bourgeois illusion.

2. The Attack on British Empiricism and Its Psychologists

In Beyond Good and Evil (Part I) and On the Genealogy of Morality (Preface), Nietzsche attacks English moral psychologists — figures like Spencer, Hume, and their successors — for:

• Lacking historical sense: They projected modern values (utility, sympathy, altruism) backward onto all of human history, as if these had always been the basis of morality.
• Flatness of soul: They could only explain the origin of moral concepts mechanistically — habit, utility, association — and missed the deeper question of the value of values themselves.
• “They are no philosophical race”: Nietzsche says this explicitly in Beyond Good and Evil (§252), charging that the English lack the instinct for genuine philosophy. They are capable of great industry and data-gathering but not of the bold, creative, self-overcoming thought he demands of a philosopher.

3. Darwin and the Problem of “Survival”

Nietzsche had a complicated relationship with Darwin, but largely rejected Social Darwinism and the popular English interpretation of evolution:

• The “survival of the fittest” was vulgarized into a justification for mediocrity — it is the most numerous, the most adaptable, the most average that survive, not the highest.
• Nietzsche argued that nature often sacrifices the species for the sake of the exceptional individual — the reverse of what the Darwinian moralists claimed.
• Evolution, in the English reading, pointed downward toward conformity; Nietzsche wanted to point upward toward the Übermensch.

4. Critique of Sympathy and Altruism (Spencer & the “Comfortable” Ethics)

Herbert Spencer attempted to merge evolution with utilitarian ethics, grounding morality in social cooperation and sympathy. Nietzsche despised this:

• Sympathy (Mitleid) — “feeling with suffering” — was for Nietzsche a form of weakness and even a contagion of suffering, not a virtue.
• Altruism as a supreme value he traced (in the Genealogy) to slave morality — the resentful inversion of aristocratic values by the weak.
• Spencer’s “evolution toward happiness” was, to Nietzsche, a comfortable lie told by a civilization in decline.

5. The Deeper Charge: Mediocrity of Philosophical Spirit

Beyond specific doctrines, Nietzsche’s critique is temperamental and cultural:

“They are not a philosophical race — the English: Bacon represents an attack on the philosophical spirit generally, Hobbes, Hume, and Locke an abasement and a depreciation of the idea of a ‘philosopher’ for more than a century.” — Beyond Good and Evil, §252

The English philosopher, in Nietzsche’s portrait, is:

• Too empirical — chained to facts, unable to think beyond them
• Too Christian in disguise — utilitarian altruism is secularized Christian morality without the honesty of its theological roots
• Too comfortable — philosophizing in service of stability, society, and contentment, rather than danger, solitude, and transformation

Summary Table

A Fair Assessment

Nietzsche’s critique, while brilliant and penetrating, is also polemical and sometimes unfair. Hume, in particular, is a far deeper thinker than Nietzsche credits. And Nietzsche himself borrows more from the British tradition than he admits — his psychological method of unmasking morality owes something to precisely the “English psychologists” he mocks. The critique is best read not as sober scholarship, but as Nietzsche’s philosophical war cry against a particular vision of what life and thought are for.

«‘Meta used BitTorrent because it was a MORE EFFICIENT and reliable means of obtaining the datasets …’ Meta’s attorney writes.»

Seriously ‽ They’re arguing that expediency justifies systematic and widespread copyright infringement for the sake of MAXIMIZING WEALTH‽

#utilitarianism runs completely #amok #buckvbell revisited https://m.einverne.info/@HackerNewsBot/116188132461060163

«‘Meta used BitTorrent because it was a MORE EFFICIENT and reliable means of obtaining the datasets …’ Meta’s attorney writes.»

Seriously ‽ They’re arguing that expediency justifies systematic and widespread copyright infringement for the sake of MAXIMIZING WEALTH‽

#utilitarianism runs completely #amok #buckvbell revisited https://m.einverne.info/@HackerNewsBot/116188132461060163

Prerequisites for #mercy: #utilitarianism in #solidarity spaces

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUrryzYE1xo/?igsh=MTl4bWVqdGthenZ3Mg==

Prerequisites for #mercy: #utilitarianism in #solidarity spaces

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUrryzYE1xo/?igsh=MTl4bWVqdGthenZ3Mg==

The fallacy at the heart of welfare economics

https://davidellerman.substack.com/p/the-petitio-principii-fallacy-in

@economics_that_works

#Economics #EconTwitter #Econ #PoliticalEconomy #WelfareEconomics #Philosophy #Ethics #Utilitarianism #Utilitarian #Consequentialism #Consequentialist #capitalism #Egalitarianism #Egalitarian #Inequality

The fallacy at the heart of welfare economics

https://davidellerman.substack.com/p/the-petitio-principii-fallacy-in

@economics_that_works

#Economics #EconTwitter #Econ #PoliticalEconomy #WelfareEconomics #Philosophy #Ethics #Utilitarianism #Utilitarian #Consequentialism #Consequentialist #capitalism #Egalitarianism #Egalitarian #Inequality

@jlou Well yes but is seems arbitrary, couldn't you say that you're making that decision based on the consequences of not doing so, making it more of a rule-utilitarian position.

#Consequentialism #Utilitarianism #Ethics

@jlou Well yes but is seems arbitrary, couldn't you say that you're making that decision based on the consequences of not doing so, making it more of a rule-utilitarian position.

#Consequentialism #Utilitarianism #Ethics

@wouldinotcallmyselfahumanbeing Preference utilitarianism also prevents interpersonal comparisons necessary to even notice that inequality is worth solving. The recognition of freedom as a fundamental moral value allows interpersonal comparisons between the rich and the poor, which justify wealth and income redistribution.

Thanks for the compliment. I appreciate your pushing back, and have also enjoyed the conversation.

@sz_duras

#philosophy #utilitarianism #consequentialism

@wouldinotcallmyselfahumanbeing Preference utilitarianism also prevents interpersonal comparisons necessary to even notice that inequality is worth solving. The recognition of freedom as a fundamental moral value allows interpersonal comparisons between the rich and the poor, which justify wealth and income redistribution.

Thanks for the compliment. I appreciate your pushing back, and have also enjoyed the conversation.

@sz_duras

#philosophy #utilitarianism #consequentialism

RE: https://mastodon.social/@jlou/115970177564955152

@ArthurI what do you think of this resolution I came up with to the consequentialist judgement paradox you came up with?

#philosophy #ethics #Consequentialism #utilitarian #utilitarianism #consequentialist #deontology #deontological

RE: https://mastodon.social/@jlou/115970177564955152

@ArthurI what do you think of this resolution I came up with to the consequentialist judgement paradox you came up with?

#philosophy #ethics #Consequentialism #utilitarian #utilitarianism #consequentialist #deontology #deontological

In the context of workplace mobbing, how can managers balance the happiness of the majority with the well-being of the individual, and what role does empathy play in moral decision-making?
https://www.mobingas.lt/en/when-killing-brings-more-happiness-or-how-to-protect-from-mobbing/
#WorkplaceBullying #Utilitarianism #Synderesis #science

In the context of workplace mobbing, how can managers balance the happiness of the majority with the well-being of the individual, and what role does empathy play in moral decision-making?
https://www.mobingas.lt/en/when-killing-brings-more-happiness-or-how-to-protect-from-mobbing/
#WorkplaceBullying #Utilitarianism #Synderesis #science

“Utilitarianism asks: greatest happiness for the greatest number. Does the majority always know what’s best?”

#Utilitarianism #Ethics #Consequentialism

“Utilitarianism asks: greatest happiness for the greatest number. Does the majority always know what’s best?”

#Utilitarianism #Ethics #Consequentialism

"The focus on mathematical formalism and consequent abstraction from important issues in the real world do not only have consequences for understanding the economy — it also has consequences with respect to the questions asked within the discipline. Far too many economists are concerned with how a change in measured variable X affects measured variable Y rather than asking normative, important questions such as: Is capitalism preferable to socialism? What are the global consequences of China’s rise in the world economy? What are the limits of looking at climate change purely through the lens of market failures? In fact, I’ve met many economists who say that they think economics is a ‘hard science’ that should be unconcerned with these types of questions. Both Adam Smith and Karl Marx, two of the most important figures in classical economics, would turn in their graves if they heard this. Despite their political differences, these two scholars approached economics in a similar way. They both understood that economics is shaped by human values, social norms, and ideologies. According to Smith and Marx, to be an economist is also to be a philosopher.

The crisis in economics education isn't just an academic problem — it's a societal one. When policymakers, business leaders, and analysts graduate with a mathematically sophisticated but contextually impoverished understanding of economic systems, it has serious consequences."

https://www.theglobalcurrents.com/p/how-economics-lost-its-soul

#Economics #PoliticalEconomy #Philosophy #Utilitarianism

"The focus on mathematical formalism and consequent abstraction from important issues in the real world do not only have consequences for understanding the economy — it also has consequences with respect to the questions asked within the discipline. Far too many economists are concerned with how a change in measured variable X affects measured variable Y rather than asking normative, important questions such as: Is capitalism preferable to socialism? What are the global consequences of China’s rise in the world economy? What are the limits of looking at climate change purely through the lens of market failures? In fact, I’ve met many economists who say that they think economics is a ‘hard science’ that should be unconcerned with these types of questions. Both Adam Smith and Karl Marx, two of the most important figures in classical economics, would turn in their graves if they heard this. Despite their political differences, these two scholars approached economics in a similar way. They both understood that economics is shaped by human values, social norms, and ideologies. According to Smith and Marx, to be an economist is also to be a philosopher.

The crisis in economics education isn't just an academic problem — it's a societal one. When policymakers, business leaders, and analysts graduate with a mathematically sophisticated but contextually impoverished understanding of economic systems, it has serious consequences."

https://www.theglobalcurrents.com/p/how-economics-lost-its-soul

#Economics #PoliticalEconomy #Philosophy #Utilitarianism

I present to you, meta-utilitarianism:

the most ethical action is the one that maximizes the existence of utilitarians

#philosophy #ethics #utilitarianism #morality

I present to you, meta-utilitarianism:

the most ethical action is the one that maximizes the existence of utilitarians

#philosophy #ethics #utilitarianism #morality

The Strava IPO and My Desire To Quit the App

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Strava intends to float itself on the stock exchange. In my experience of Twitter, Facebook and other social media apps this is the beginning of the end for the app. In my experience when an app such as Zwift gets VC funding it loses control of its app. Users go from being the customer to investors becoming the client. In this situation user experience degrades continuously.

Years ago, when I was using Zwift, they got VC funding, and within days bluetooth pairing between the speed and cadence sensors and Zwift failed and their solution was "Have you tried turning it off and on again" rather than "Which devices are you using, we'll see if we can recrate the bug and patch the issue?"

It makes sense that a company like Strava would want to go ahead with an IPO, because it means that instead of waiting for organic growth, it can raise funds and expand much faster. In practice, and in my experience, as demonstrated by the selling of Twitter for an absurd amount, social apps, once they are under VC or investor funding lose their joie de vivre. The app becomes a job rather than a passion project, and with time the user experience degrades.

When Reddit was about to float it did things that angered its community and they moved to free and open source alternatives. When Twitter degraded people flocked to Mastodon, Bluesky, and ironically Facebook owned Threads. (I know people will say Meta, not Facebook, but Meta is just patte blanche)

Connecting on Garmin and Sports Tracker

I would love to connect with people on Garmin Connect but the social features are different. If you want to share your profile via Garmin Connect you need to add someone as a contact, and then invite them. The same is true of the Apple Fitness app. Sports Tracker makes social sharing with a hyperlink much easier.

The Sports Tracker premium plan costs 30 CHF per year, at least when I chose to experiment with it, whereas Garmin Connect and Strava are both around 80 CHF, at the time of writing.

Sports Tracker and Apple Watches

Recently I have noticed that Sports Tracker is pushing to become relevant once again. I have tracked 4400 activities since the 2000s, covering 33,000 kilometres over thousands of hours. Sports tracker has its own tracker app, for activities, but you can also use the Apple's native workout app and integration is seamless on iOS. Sports Tracker, and the Suunto app are practically the same app, except for the Suunto ingesting data from Suunto and Xiaomi devices seamlessly.

Garmin Connect and Garmin Devices

For the sake of this blog post I did a quick check and I see that plenty of people use either Garmin watches, or garmin cycling devices. Some use Coros, Apple Watches or other but in terms of community, if you dump Strava, then the community, in large part is still in the same place. By this I mean that people are tracking with Garmin devices, and that data is pushed to Strava.

Garmin has groups, but not group events. That's a niche that Strava has, for now.

Komoot and Map Drawing

I experimented with map drawing, with Strava, and Komoot, and the experience with Komoot is much, much better than with Strava. With Komoot it's quick and intuitive to do, and it is free. With Strava it is clumsy. If you're drawing routes, and riding for pleasure, then Komoot is better.

And Finally

If a site like Strava is viable through our financial contributions, then I am moderately happy to pay. I am not happy to pay when VC funding appears, as with Zwift, or IPO conversations are floated. I have seen too many social sites, and Strava is social, ruined by corporate greed, via investors. Twitter was the most glaring example.

With one hundred and fifty million users, and a two point two billion dollar valuation we are only worth fourteen dollars. I am surprised that it is so low. I was expecting it to be more.

And Finally, it is normal for me to subscribe to a product with Apple devices, and then to cancel the subscription a few minutes later. I do this so that when it comes time to renew, I am asked whether I want to, rather than for the renewal to be assumed.

#decline #degraded #funding #ipo #media #social #strava #utilitarianism

The Strava IPO and My Desire To Quit the App

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Strava intends to float itself on the stock exchange. In my experience of Twitter, Facebook and other social media apps this is the beginning of the end for the app. In my experience when an app such as Zwift gets VC funding it loses control of its app. Users go from being the customer to investors becoming the client. In this situation user experience degrades continuously.

Years ago, when I was using Zwift, they got VC funding, and within days bluetooth pairing between the speed and cadence sensors and Zwift failed and their solution was "Have you tried turning it off and on again" rather than "Which devices are you using, we'll see if we can recrate the bug and patch the issue?"

It makes sense that a company like Strava would want to go ahead with an IPO, because it means that instead of waiting for organic growth, it can raise funds and expand much faster. In practice, and in my experience, as demonstrated by the selling of Twitter for an absurd amount, social apps, once they are under VC or investor funding lose their joie de vivre. The app becomes a job rather than a passion project, and with time the user experience degrades.

When Reddit was about to float it did things that angered its community and they moved to free and open source alternatives. When Twitter degraded people flocked to Mastodon, Bluesky, and ironically Facebook owned Threads. (I know people will say Meta, not Facebook, but Meta is just patte blanche)

Connecting on Garmin and Sports Tracker

I would love to connect with people on Garmin Connect but the social features are different. If you want to share your profile via Garmin Connect you need to add someone as a contact, and then invite them. The same is true of the Apple Fitness app. Sports Tracker makes social sharing with a hyperlink much easier.

The Sports Tracker premium plan costs 30 CHF per year, at least when I chose to experiment with it, whereas Garmin Connect and Strava are both around 80 CHF, at the time of writing.

Sports Tracker and Apple Watches

Recently I have noticed that Sports Tracker is pushing to become relevant once again. I have tracked 4400 activities since the 2000s, covering 33,000 kilometres over thousands of hours. Sports tracker has its own tracker app, for activities, but you can also use the Apple's native workout app and integration is seamless on iOS. Sports Tracker, and the Suunto app are practically the same app, except for the Suunto ingesting data from Suunto and Xiaomi devices seamlessly.

Garmin Connect and Garmin Devices

For the sake of this blog post I did a quick check and I see that plenty of people use either Garmin watches, or garmin cycling devices. Some use Coros, Apple Watches or other but in terms of community, if you dump Strava, then the community, in large part is still in the same place. By this I mean that people are tracking with Garmin devices, and that data is pushed to Strava.

Garmin has groups, but not group events. That's a niche that Strava has, for now.

Komoot and Map Drawing

I experimented with map drawing, with Strava, and Komoot, and the experience with Komoot is much, much better than with Strava. With Komoot it's quick and intuitive to do, and it is free. With Strava it is clumsy. If you're drawing routes, and riding for pleasure, then Komoot is better.

And Finally

If a site like Strava is viable through our financial contributions, then I am moderately happy to pay. I am not happy to pay when VC funding appears, as with Zwift, or IPO conversations are floated. I have seen too many social sites, and Strava is social, ruined by corporate greed, via investors. Twitter was the most glaring example.

With one hundred and fifty million users, and a two point two billion dollar valuation we are only worth fourteen dollars. I am surprised that it is so low. I was expecting it to be more.

And Finally, it is normal for me to subscribe to a product with Apple devices, and then to cancel the subscription a few minutes later. I do this so that when it comes time to renew, I am asked whether I want to, rather than for the renewal to be assumed.

#decline #degraded #funding #ipo #media #social #strava #utilitarianism

Are there any utilitarianists/consequentialists out there?
What are the arguments that you find most convincing?

I personally feel like utilitarianism misses the point of ethics a bit, focusing too much on the (possible) consequences than the actions themselves.
But I don't have a particularly well-thought out view.

Looking for a mild discussion maybe, thought I'd try short-message social media for friendly debating. Could be insane.

#philosophy #utilitarianism #ethics #moral #discussion

Are there any utilitarianists/consequentialists out there?
What are the arguments that you find most convincing?

I personally feel like utilitarianism misses the point of ethics a bit, focusing too much on the (possible) consequences than the actions themselves.
But I don't have a particularly well-thought out view.

Looking for a mild discussion maybe, thought I'd try short-message social media for friendly debating. Could be insane.

#philosophy #utilitarianism #ethics #moral #discussion

A quotation from John Adams

We ought to consider, what is the end of government, before we determine which is the best form. Upon this point all speculative politicians will agree, that the happiness of society is the end of government, as all Divines and moral Philosophers will agree that the happiness of the individual is the end of man. From this principle it will follow, that the form of government, which communicates ease, comfort, security, or in one word happiness to the greatest number of persons, and in the greatest degree, is the best.

John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Letter (1776-04) to George Wythe, “Thoughts on Government”

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/adams-john/36226/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #johnadams #government #happiness #policy #politics #society #utilitarianism

nonzerosum.games/reconcilinge... Are you a consequentialist? A virtue ethicist? Or a deontologist? Or perhaps even all three? (I am). This win-win-win combines different ethical measures, so we don't need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. #Philosophy #Ethics #Morality #Morals #Utilitarianism

AN ETHICAL WIN-WIN-WIN

nonzerosum.games/reconcilinge... Are you a consequentialist? A virtue ethicist? Or a deontologist? Or perhaps even all three? (I am). This win-win-win combines different ethical measures, so we don't need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. #Philosophy #Ethics #Morality #Morals #Utilitarianism

AN ETHICAL WIN-WIN-WIN

𝑳𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝑵𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒔: 𝑶𝒕𝒊𝒖𝒎 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝑷𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒐𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒓 - 𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒎 𝑱𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒔 -

Le Guin leans on an essay by William James, but what does that have to do with all our garden talk? It's about our blind spots and our privilege. We dig into the key question in James's essay and worry a bit.

https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords_podcast/otium-and-the-moral-philosopher-william-james/

#podcast #literature #books #bookworm #book #read #readreadread #otium #hideousbargain #opposition #garden #nature #philosophy #utilitarianism

The key to enjoying Finnish summer is taking advantage of the moments of sunshine between the rain.

On a purely objective level, Finnish summer is shit. But nevertheless, Finns consistently score top 5 in metrics of happiest people in the world.

That’s where #utilitarianism goes wrong: It assumes external conditions as sole keys of #happiness.

There is a threshold of material needs of course, but beyond that it has more to do with applying your wits & humanity to whatever your context is!

The key to enjoying Finnish summer is taking advantage of the moments of sunshine between the rain.

On a purely objective level, Finnish summer is shit. But nevertheless, Finns consistently score top 5 in metrics of happiest people in the world.

That’s where #utilitarianism goes wrong: It assumes external conditions as sole keys of #happiness.

There is a threshold of material needs of course, but beyond that it has more to do with applying your wits & humanity to whatever your context is!

and here's a pointer to a - maybe - broadly interesting current [paywallfree] discussion in #utilitas

#ethics #utilitarianism
#morality_by_degrees

taken from a #cup #philosophy newsletter

https://click.updates.cambridge.org/?qs=d8fc04d905cf035b2b8344d3d5e3999331c49809f2b8d456ff9cecb93987bea7dc65d8e704522b69361690d466b1669c

and here's a pointer to a - maybe - broadly interesting current [paywallfree] discussion in #utilitas

#ethics #utilitarianism
#morality_by_degrees

taken from a #cup #philosophy newsletter

https://click.updates.cambridge.org/?qs=d8fc04d905cf035b2b8344d3d5e3999331c49809f2b8d456ff9cecb93987bea7dc65d8e704522b69361690d466b1669c

Into #Philosophy but Find It #Intimidating? Start here!

This #book tries to answer the #moral dilemmas we all grapple with through the lens of #deontology, #utilitarianism, #existentialism, #ubuntu, and more.

https://bookriot.com/how-to-be-perfect-michael-schur/

Into #Philosophy but Find It #Intimidating? Start here!

This #book tries to answer the #moral dilemmas we all grapple with through the lens of #deontology, #utilitarianism, #existentialism, #ubuntu, and more.

https://bookriot.com/how-to-be-perfect-michael-schur/

#philosophy #utilitarianism #newyorker #cartoon #flux

The text is mine, and the image is flux.

#philosophy #utilitarianism #newyorker #cartoon #flux

The text is mine, and the image is flux.

Why #Democracy is Mathematically Impossible

https://youtu.be/qf7ws2DF-zk

#elections #voting #SocialChoiceTheory #SocialChoice #economics #politics #utilitarianism #utilitarian #GameTheory

Why #Democracy is Mathematically Impossible

https://youtu.be/qf7ws2DF-zk

#elections #voting #SocialChoiceTheory #SocialChoice #economics #politics #utilitarianism #utilitarian #GameTheory

Ultra-cheap public transport or polluting fossil fuel combustion congestion?

Bellingen folks seem to subscribe to the 'more and wider roads now' and 'fix the potholes - yet again' paradigm.

Transport planning is done by white male engineers driven by utilitarian considerations alone. A tidy 'carpet to carpet mobility' is aimed for, eliminating the 'landscape' in between and the livable climate.

Cheap or free public transport (EV buses etc) would have no chance here with the old school fossil fuel mindsets of the 50s. They do that new fangled stuff overseas: free public transport across the whole country!

In this new mobilities paradigm "planners consider not just transport’s utility, but its associated “psychological and sociological and emotional aspects". In this way, transport becomes not just about achieving a purpose – like getting to work or the shops ... but becomes “a purpose in itself."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/oct/11/the-best-50-cents-you-can-spend-queenslands-ultra-cheap-public-transport-fares-revitalise-travel-for-pleasure
#publicTransport #cars #Utilitarianism #FossilFuel #PublicBads #MobilityDesign #Bellingen #roads #mobility #PlaceMaking #health #BiodiversityCrisis #ClimateBreakdown

Existential Comics is great.

#economics #liberty #utilitarianism #liberalism

The Upbringing of John Stuart Mill - Existential Comics https://existentialcomics.com/comic/570

-- If God exists, is everything permitted? | Dr. Justin Mooney & Dr. Luis Oliveira --
(at Majesty of Reason)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i3Yk6qod3A

#God #theology #theodicy #suffering #utilitarianism #philosophy #ethics #axiology