The Opportunity Cost of Eating, Sleeping and Copulating

Started by Xerographica, March 12, 2013, 06:40:45 PM

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Xerographica

Are you happy with my choice of the word "copulate"?  I'm not, it kinda has a Discovery Channel feel to it, but that's the best synonym a quick Google search had to offer.  Honestly I kinda wanted to just use "f******", because, well, it was the first thing that came to mind.  But I'm sure it would have offended quite a few people.  Other slightly more viable possibilities were "humping", "boning" and "screwing"...but they are all still too vulgar.  One somewhat "fun" possibility would have been "fornicating".  It's "fun" in the sense that the word is imbued with delicious puritanical righteousness.  Of course I could have gone with two words, ie "making love", "having sex"...but that would have made the activity the odd man out.  I also thought of "loving" but that's too broad and "sexing" has a different meaning.  "Reproducing" is kinda loaded...the vast majority of the time we really do not want to reproduce when we have sex.  

What word would you have gone with?  Would you have invented a new word?  

It trips me out to consider that some unknown individuals invented every word we use.  I'd certainly value the option to put a name to any word.  You know, to give credit where credit is due.  

Who gets credit for inventing the greatest quantity of integrated words?  Who was the wordsmith who spent the most time thinking up new words?  But just because they spent the most time doing so, doesn't necessarily mean that they produced the most accepted words.  Perhaps they just wasted their time coming up with words that nobody would use.  Tragic...right?

One gaping word gap that I've thought about on and off is the opposite of "to waste".  

You: What are you doing?
Me: I'm trying to think of new/better words
You: Don't waste your time, we already have more than enough words
Me: I'm not wasting my time, I'm...err, saving it...no...I'm multiplying it...that's not right either.  See what I mean?  
You: Why not just say that you're using your time productively?
Me: Why use two words when I could use just one?  

Another word gap is the opposite of "to improve".  Recently on Wikipedia I battled against three editors who consistently made edits that did not improve the articles.  They worsened the articles.  They degraded the articles.  They _______ the articles.  

How much time do we spend looking for improvement gaps?  Just now my stomach indicated where there's room for improvement.  So I grabbed a bag of almonds...a resealable bag of almonds.  Roasted almonds are pretty great but after eating a few I decided that there was additional room for improvement.  So I added some craisins to the mix.  And now I'm thirsty.  If I had a drink right next to me I'd drink it.  But I don't.  Getting up would involve finding a place to set my wireless keyboard and mouse and then I'd have to take the blanket off...which would ruin the pot pie joy.  "Pot pie" is a cat that likes to sleep on my legs.  It's not my cat.  It wasn't my idea.  Stupid cats.  

More importantly, getting up to get a drink would take time away from the task at hand.  Here we see the difference between cost (~30 seconds) and opportunity cost (~30 seconds that I could spend on more important things).  

Long before I even heard of "opportunity cost"...I had decided that, if there was a magic pill that I could take that would irreversibly "cure" me of the need to eat and sleep, then I would gladly take the pill.  In terms of giving up sex though, I think that perhaps I would take the pill, but I wouldn't take it as gladly.  

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't really enjoy steak and sex...it's just that there are better things that I could be doing with my time.  For example, when I look at a "naked" tree I see plenty of room for improvement.  That's why I should be walking around Los Angeles puritanically clothing trees with epiphytes.  Every day would be Christmas if every tree was pimped out with a fascinating diversity of living ornaments.  There's no poem as lovely as a tree, and there's no tree as lovely as an orchid on a tree.  Unfortunately, there probably won't be an orchid on every tree anytime soon...the revolution will be indefinitely postponed...and it certainly will not be televised...because I'm too busy eating steak and having sex.  Errr, and watching Duck Dynasty.

Have you watched Duck Dynasty?  Not exactly sure why but the characters on the show are surprisingly likable.  Perhaps it's because they are really good natured?    

All the guys on the show have these really long beards.  Jase Robertson, my favorite character, explained it like so..."If we combined the time we waste cutting grass with the time we waste shaving our faces, we'd be goin' to Venus, you know, we could be doin' whatever."

Clearly mowing lawns and shaving our faces are optional.  We don't have to do these things.  We certainly might be coerced by friends, family and society in general...so we might not have much of a choice in the matter...but the choice is there.  However, with eating and sleeping we even have less of a choice in the matter.  When it comes to sex, well, some people have chosen to forego it entirely.  But even if you choose not to have sex, that doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be able to escape from the distracting desire to have sex.  If you do have sex though, at least right afterwards there's a window of time when you aren't thinking about it...which gives you the opportunity to think about more important things.  

So would you give up the need/desire to eat, sleep and copulate?  Are there better things that you could be doing with your time?  Assuming the complete absence of any adverse effects, would you entirely sacrifice these three activities in order to spend more time on making some crazy dream of yours a reality?  

Doesn't everybody have crazy dreams?  What are yours?  Maybe you wanna be a Rockstar?  Maybe you want to be Richard D. James?  Would you sacrifice food, sleep and sex in order to be him?  

You can choose the path marked "Rockstar"...but whether you make it to your destination ultimately depends on whether enough consumers are willing to sponsor your success.  You can sacrifice everything and then some...but if people don't buy your music, then they've decided that they have better things to spend their money on.  Maybe it was a mistake to give up your day job.      

Corey Robin, over at the Crooked Timber blog, shared the following passage in his recent post...The US Senate: Where Democracy Goes to Die...

QuoteVermont's 625,000 residents have two United States senators, and so do New York's 19 million. That means that a Vermonter has 30 times the voting power in the Senate of a New Yorker just over the state line — the biggest inequality between two adjacent states. The nation's largest gap, between Wyoming and California, is more than double that. - Adam Liptak, Smaller States Find Outsize Clout Growing in Senate
All things being equal, why should a person from Wyoming have far more voting power than a person from California?  That doesn't make any sense.  Let's compare it to the private sector...

QuoteIn the market place minorities have "representation" and the number of "votes" a person has is related to his "proportioned productivity," so the incentives to act wisely are greater here than in the political sector. Therefore, it is relatively easy for an efficient firm to survive since it need only gain the support of creditors and consumers who have a direct personal interest in making wise decisions. - Gary S. Becker, The Economic Approach to Human Behavior
Shouldn't influence be determined by "proportioned productivity"?  The less time you spend eating, sleeping and copulating...the more time you'll have to produce things that other people may or may not value.  If consumers do value whatever it is that you produce...then they'll reach deep into their own pockets and give you their own influence.  The logical outcome is the increased production of things that we, as a society, truly value.  

So what do you think?  Should there be an orchid on every tree?  Or do you have better things to spend your money/time on?  

My favorite Crooked Timber liberal, John Holbo, in his recent post...Weird Arguments About Love and Marriage...wrote this...

QuoteImagine a character who is always telling people what to order in restaurants and, when they refuse, rolling his eyes unto heaven: "The early Christians were persecuted, too!"
If I knock on your door and ask you if you're willing to pay me to attach orchids to your trees..how important is your freedom to say "no thanks"?

Davka

Orchids won't grow outdoors in LA, it's too dry. So fuck your epiphyte-attaching shakedown, bucko!

I believe you could utilize your time more efficiently without resorting to edits which devalue Wikipedia articles, don't you? Like, eating steak and having sex, ideally at the same time. Or having sex with steak, which, albeit messy, is ultimately less problematic than the human kind.

As for sacrificing food, sleep, and/or sex, forget it. If I could eat, sleep, and fuck simultaneously, I'd be doing it 24/7.

SilentFutility

I mean this in the nicest possible way....are you high?

aitm

A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

Mermaid

Quote from: "SilentFutility"I mean this in the nicest possible way....are you high?
:rollin:
A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities â€" all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness. -TR

stromboli

I'm totally down with whatever the fuck it was you said there, bro.  :shock:

Hydra009

Quote from: "Xerographica"Doesn't everybody have crazy dreams?  What are yours?
I'm alone in a forest at night.  A nearly full moon looms prominently in the sky.  Black wolves with red eyes stare at me from the brush, following me.  I try to leave, usually by following the creek - the only noticeable landmark aside from the moon amidst this impossibly vast network of trees and brambles.  I'm attacked - always by man or monster, never the wolves - and lose.  I never successfully make it out.

I've tried following the creek.  I never get very far.
I've tried traveling away from the creek - only to find it again sooner or later.
I've tried talking to the wolves to no avail.
I've even tried nothing once.  Didn't work.

Xerographica

Quote from: "Davka"Orchids won't grow outdoors in LA, it's too dry. So fuck your epiphyte-attaching shakedown, bucko!
This photo was taken in LA...


Cattleya Penny Kuroda 2 by epiphyte78, on Flickr

LA is too dry for the vast majority of plants that people grow...which is why they have to water them.  While there are plenty of orchids that require a ton of water...there are literally 1000s of species that require less water than the ubiquitous lawn.  There are even dozens of species that grow directly on cactus and other succulent plants.

For more info on drought tolerant orchids read my third post in this thread...An Orchid On Every Tree.

SilentFutility

I actually read the title of the thread with interest and wanted to discuss this topic.
Meh.

Plu

QuoteSo would you give up the need/desire to eat, sleep and copulate? Are there better things that you could be doing with your time? Assuming the complete absence of any adverse effects, would you entirely sacrifice these three activities in order to spend more time on making some crazy dream of yours a reality?

Eating, sleeping and copulating are practically the only breaks I get from working on my crazy dreams :P
It'd be really stupid to give those up.

Jason78

Quote from: "Davka"Orchids won't grow outdoors in LA, it's too dry. So fuck your epiphyte-attaching shakedown, bucko!

I believe you could utilize your time more efficiently without resorting to edits which devalue Wikipedia articles, don't you? Like, eating steak and having sex, ideally at the same time. Or having sex with steak, which, albeit messy, is ultimately less problematic than the human kind.

As for sacrificing food, sleep, and/or sex, forget it. If I could eat, sleep, and fuck simultaneously, I'd be doing it 24/7.

It is possible to roll and smoke a joint, while having sex at the same time.
Winner of WitchSabrinas Best Advice Award 2012


We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real
tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. -Plato

Jason78

Quote from: "Hydra009"
Quote from: "Xerographica"Doesn't everybody have crazy dreams?  What are yours?
I'm alone in a forest at night.  A nearly full moon looms prominently in the sky.  Black wolves with red eyes stare at me from the brush, following me.  I try to leave, usually by following the creek - the only noticeable landmark aside from the moon amidst this impossibly vast network of trees and brambles.  I'm attacked - always by man or monster, never the wolves - and lose.  I never successfully make it out.

I've tried following the creek.  I never get very far.
I've tried traveling away from the creek - only to find it again sooner or later.
I've tried talking to the wolves to no avail.
I've even tried nothing once.  Didn't work.

Have you tried throwing a bright red ball for the wolves?

They probably just want to play.
Winner of WitchSabrinas Best Advice Award 2012


We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real
tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. -Plato

Shiranu

Quote from: "Jason78"
Quote from: "Davka"Orchids won't grow outdoors in LA, it's too dry. So fuck your epiphyte-attaching shakedown, bucko!

I believe you could utilize your time more efficiently without resorting to edits which devalue Wikipedia articles, don't you? Like, eating steak and having sex, ideally at the same time. Or having sex with steak, which, albeit messy, is ultimately less problematic than the human kind.

As for sacrificing food, sleep, and/or sex, forget it. If I could eat, sleep, and fuck simultaneously, I'd be doing it 24/7.

It is possible to roll and smoke a joint, while having sex at the same time.

But while eating steak?
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

SilentFutility

Quote from: "Shiranu"
Quote from: "Jason78"
Quote from: "Davka"Orchids won't grow outdoors in LA, it's too dry. So fuck your epiphyte-attaching shakedown, bucko!

I believe you could utilize your time more efficiently without resorting to edits which devalue Wikipedia articles, don't you? Like, eating steak and having sex, ideally at the same time. Or having sex with steak, which, albeit messy, is ultimately less problematic than the human kind.

As for sacrificing food, sleep, and/or sex, forget it. If I could eat, sleep, and fuck simultaneously, I'd be doing it 24/7.

It is possible to roll and smoke a joint, while having sex at the same time.

But while eating steak?

Yep, unless I'm misteaken.

AllPurposeAtheist

So you wrote all that while fucking? At least you can multitask.. I guess..
All hail my new signature!

Admit it. You're secretly green with envy.