Mary

@zagrebbi Surely the answer is no? Just pick who you'd enjoy working with more at that point, all else being equal. But people often don't choose the one who's better at the job because hiring is hard.

"But I didn't have breakfast this morning!"

@thinkwithmark LOVE

We raised $1M dollars to reinvent how people read. Introducing Mark II - a $159 AI bookmark. Thread below

@amedhat_ @patrickc Fascinating. Thank you for taking the time to share this!

There’s a great density of humanity in Arabic literature in fact the majority, you’re just looking at the wrong genre. Arabic literature’s weight is predominantly in poetry not novels. The highest standards of Arab expressions of spiritual enlightenment, renouncement and altruism lived in poems, like Hallaj’ and Rabaa, not in plot lines. Many factors at play here. A technical one of which is that the language is naturally melodic, it's vocabular structure amplifies trees of meaning (most natively arabic words come from 3 or 4 letter roots, and sprout into trees of 100s of words that color value systems and how the world is seen. A perfect structure for poetry. For example the root K-T-B, leads to ketab (book), maktaba (library), but also maktoob (destiny). Another one is that expressions of philosophies and emotions were colored by spirituality, and poetry helped veil elevated spiritual experiences in coded language to avert accusations of blasphemy. For example, Poetry is far more absorbing of spiritual ideas of ego dissolution and oneness of being, than an explicit novel is. A theme that’s deeply humanist and will have more Arab poems than all Arab novels combined. Here’s an eleventh century excerpt from that century’s biggest heavy weight. عنصر الانفاس منا واحد و كذا الاجسام جسم عمنا فمتى ما كان خير فلنا و متى ما كان شرُ فمنا فإرحموني ترحموا أنفسكم “I only see myself as you, and I believe that you are I. Our organ of breath is the same, and similarly our bodies are unified in a single body that we share. Whatever is good we will come to share and whatever is bad has collectively sprouted from. So in having mercy on me you’re having Mercy on yourselves” And here’s another one from a century after another heavy weight, Ibn Arabi, a religious figure. “My heart has become capable of every form: it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks, And a temple for idols and the pilgrim's Ka‘bah and the tables of the Torah and the book of the Qur’an. I follow the religion of Love: whatever way Love's camels take, that is my religion and my faith.” Generally, If you look back at Arab (and Persian) Literature, as far back as centuries, the heavy weights will be poets, not novelists. And they will tend to divide between those elevated due to linguistic prowess and philology, which won't translate well (people like Al Mutanabbi), and those elevated due to the philosophies they expressed and tend to veer off to spirituality (people like Ibn Arabi, Ibn Al Farid and Hallaj for arabic, and Rumi, Hafiz and Ferdowsi in persian). There’s also a tendency for Arab poems to be sufficiently long that they’re fully fledged plot lines (like this one en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Confe…) Even significant historical novels, will be closer to philosophy and allegory like Ibn Tufayl’s The Self Taught Philospher. ——— As for more recent literature, post 20th century you’ll see a balance of both, and as an Egyptian, I’d actually say there’s a density of 20th century Egyptian literature that’s humane, liberating, positive, revisionist and progressive, while not attempting to distance from the past. Most notable novelists from an Egyptian perspective are Naguib Mahfouz, Tewfik Al Hakim, and Ihsan Abdul Kodous. The density of humanism will be in poetry however, and there’s too many names to list here.

Which are the most humane (empathetic, compassionate) Arab / Middle Eastern novels? Thought behind the question: I read a bunch of these novels last year -- my selection algorithm was to sample widely among the award-winning works from the region (Egypt, Sudan, Iran, Palestine, Jordan, among others) -- and, overall, I was very struck by the darkness and violence. (Abundant rape, murder, violence, and so forth.) In trying to figure out why the outlooks are so consistently bleak, I don’t think it’s only a matter of colonialism. For example, The Blind Owl is often ranked as the best novel to come out of Iran, which was never colonized as such, but nonetheless describes an obsessive madman who kills and dismembers his partner. In Season of Migration to the North, the colonizer -- Britain -- is described as being quite benevolent at least at the object level (granting a scholarship to the protagonist; treating him unreasonably justly during his murder trial). Men in the Sun is similarly grim while taking place in a post-colonial Arab world. Even books that are sometimes described as heartwarming (such as Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy) centrally feature rape and female oppression (that Amina is not permitted to leave the home is a core plot issue). One guess is that it is a function of award selection algorithms: gritty despair is seen as high-status and structurally celebrated. Another theory would be the period: there are lots of humane novels in the Western canon (Dickens, Tolstoy, Eliot…), but those are more likely to be from the nineteenth century, whereas the Arab / Middle Eastern novelistic canon didn’t emerge until the twentieth. I’m not sure this explains it, however. In Search of Lost Time, Great Gatsby, Ulysses, Midnight's Children are all critically-acclaimed 20th century novels, close to the top of almost any list, that one would not describe as macabre. It’s possible that I just read the wrong books and got unlucky. So: which authors from the region can best be compared to Faulkner, Eliot, Fitzgerald, or Rushdie? (And if they haven't won major awards, does that indicate that the awards have a negative bias?)

@Austen x.com/_wallwalker/st…

Honest question: Why does he keep saying this?

TIL the term nightmare comes from the malevolent female demon seen during sleep paralysis. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, up to 75% of people who have sleep paralysis have hallucinations where they see, hear or sense something in the bedroom that isn't there.

@paintoshi @PropheticAI Interesting!! apparently this is the origin of the term nightmare!

@paintoshi @PropheticAI Yeh I've met a sleep paralysis shadow / "demon" type person as have some of my friends, but their experiences were way more scary with some hovering right above them while they were paralysed.

Today we are launching two revolutionary products: Dual and Phase. These devices will enhance how humans dream. Prophetic Dual retails for $449 and starts shipping at the end of this year. Prophetic Phase retails for $1299 and starting shipping middle of next year.

@maxwellcoffee @PropheticAI Interesting - were you purposefully trying to lucid dream to get rid of the nightmares?

@morty_lin @PropheticAI I would also say that lucid dreaming did get rid of my nightmares, as I was able to change them from scary to fine or even enjoyable

@maxwellcoffee @PropheticAI What was the supplement for dreaming? Just curious

@morty_lin @PropheticAI I’ve never had sleep paralysis, and I’ve had quite a few lucid dreams. There was one time where somebody came into my room and touched me and I woke up and still felt the touch, but that’s the extent of it. But that experience did happen while I was taking a supplement for dream

@joentolgraven @PropheticAI Ah right haha yes agreed. Why on earth is he on the ground. Serves him right 😂

@morty_lin @PropheticAI Wait what do people actually stay on the ground? I just fly everywhere all the time and so did everyone else in there. Never really thought about that fact hah

@joentolgraven @PropheticAI I can literally move tectonic plates in my lucid dreams I definitely am not scared of a measly car 😂

@morty_lin @PropheticAI Your friend may want to ponder why their instinct would go "well it's just a dream I guess so I best get frolicking on the highway lol"

@WorldDomStudios @waitbutwhy That's probably what every single person who committed an atrocious act on humanity said. At least retarded is harmless.

@morty_lin @waitbutwhy A lot of good, kind humans are retarded and we're better-off without them.

Everyone in the world has to take a private vote by pressing a red or blue button. If more than 50% of people press the blue button, everyone survives. If less than 50% of people press the blue button, only people who pressed the red button survive. Which button would you press?

@Cerealsnax @PropheticAI I have no idea how common it is but you're the first person I've heard say they've never had it who lucid dreams😂 But even if there's a 20% chance I'd probably want to know. I know some people who've met some scary ass sleep paralysis "demons".

@morty_lin @PropheticAI I lucid dream all the team and haven't had sleep paralysis ever. Is it really that common?

@joentolgraven @PropheticAI Yeh but some people really don't enjoy it and don't know about it - hence my point about the warning. I've had it when lucid dreaming and it's fine but I probably wouldn't pay 2k to have that experience 😂

@morty_lin @PropheticAI Sleep paralysis. I just meant it's something you get used to

@joentolgraven @PropheticAI I mean it's not just scary if you can't tell between real life and dream-state. My friend almost got run over by a car.

@joentolgraven @PropheticAI What are you saying "so?" to? The effects? If so, the bit you're looking after is the first half of the comment.

the less i know the better

@waitbutwhy Tfw people think this is an IQ test 🫠