Dennis Hackethal’s avatar

Dennis Hackethal

@dennis-hackethal​·​Joined Jun 2024​·​Ideas

Founder Veritula. Author. Software engineer. I study the mind and build tools for thinkers. Ex Apple. Translator of The Beginning of Infinity.

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  Dennis Hackethal posted idea #4474.

Can there be such a thing as too much fun?
Can there be such a thing as too much profit?

In both cases, I think ‘no’. And I wonder if the fear of ‘too much’ fun and ‘too much’ profit is fundamentally the same thing.

Like, when parents worry that their kids are having too much fun, and when socialists are suspicious of companies turning a profit… is that an expression of the same fear?

Maybe the role of profit in the economy is the same as that of fun in a single mind: it signals successful discovery of common preferences.

  Dennis Hackethal revised idea #4467.

Link directly to user-bio field for convenience

This was a big week for Veritula. Users can now:

  • ✍️ Post ideas to their own profile, and others’ profiles, outside of discussions. (Beta)
  • 🔄 Repost ideas.
  • 🙋‍♂️ Set a profile description under Settings. Tell others about yourself!
  • 💻 Embed discussions on third-party sites. Similar feature to Disqus and Giscus. Ideal for comments on blogs, say. See the embed code under Settings. (Early beta)
  • 🌉 Show images while preserving viewers’ privacy.1

  1. To render an image, use this markdown syntax: ![Optional image description](https://example.com/direct-link-to-image.png)

This was a big week for Veritula. Users can now:

  • ✍️ Post ideas to their own profile, and others’ profiles, outside of discussions. (Beta)
  • 🔄 Repost ideas.
  • 🙋‍♂️ Set a profile description under Settings. Tell others about yourself!
  • 💻 Embed discussions on third-party sites. Similar feature to Disqus and Giscus. Ideal for comments on blogs, say. See the embed code under Settings. (Early beta)
  • 🌉 Show images while preserving viewers’ privacy.1

  1. To render an image, use this markdown syntax: ![Optional image description](https://example.com/direct-link-to-image.png)

  Dennis Hackethal reposted idea #2844.

A Life Guided by Reason

In #2281, I explain how Veritula helps you make rational decisions – in other words, how to live rationally, ie, a life guided by reason. (I use the words ‘reason’ and ‘rationality’ synonymously. The same goes for ‘unreason’ and ‘irrationality’.)

A life guided by reason defies the dominant, Kantian philosophy of our age. Ayn Rand summarized that philosophy as, “Be rational, except when you don’t feel like it.”1 In other words, it says to mix reason and unreason; to stray from rationality arbitrarily; to be rational only sometimes. It claims that there is a necessary clash between reason and emotion. It is an attack on reason, an attempt to do the impossible – and it leads to dissatisfaction with yourself and conflict with others.

If you are rational only sometimes, if you stray from rationality arbitrarily, then you are irrational. There is no third option. This conclusion can be proven easily: if you tried to stray from rationality non-arbitrarily, ie, if you tried to come up with a considered argument for straying from rationality, you could only do so by following the steps in #2281. And those steps are the application of rationality again.

So it’s impossible to stray from rationality rationally. There is no gray area between reason and unreason. Rationality has an all-or-nothing character. This does not mean that reason has to snuff out all emotion. On the contrary: there is no necessary clash between rationality on the one hand and emotion on the other. Rationality means finding unanimous consent between emotion, explicit thought, inexplicit thought, and any other kind of idea.

If you follow the steps in #2281 consistently, then you are always rational. A life worth living is one guided exclusively by reason. Consistent application of rationality may be difficult at first, but with practice, it will get easier. Master it, and you will have a fighting chance of becoming what David Deutsch calls a beginning of infinity.

  1. Ayn Rand. Philosophy: Who Needs It. ‘From the Horse’s Mouth’ (p. 110). 1975. Kindle Edition. As quoted previously.

#2844​·​Dennis HackethalOP, 4 months ago
  Dennis Hackethal reposted idea #2281.

Rational Decision-Making

Expanding on #2112…

If an idea, as written, has no pending criticisms, it’s rational to adopt it and irrational to reject it. What reason could you have to reject it? If it has no pending criticisms, then either 1) no reasons to reject it (ie, criticisms) have been suggested or 2) all suggested reasons have been addressed already.

If an idea, as written, does have pending criticisms, it’s irrational to adopt it and rational to reject it – by reference to those criticisms. What reason could you have to ignore the pending criticisms and adopt it anyway?

#2281​·​Dennis HackethalOP revised 5 months ago
  Dennis Hackethal reposted idea #554.

Veritula deserves to scale to the size of Wikipedia.

But it never will, unless its users innovate.

How can the global success of Wikipedia inspire Veritula?

#554​·​Tom Nassis, over 1 year ago
  Dennis Hackethal posted idea #4398.

This is the first idea posted straight to my profile, outside of discussions.