To me, caring about life means I must care about fairness. It's not even social or political either - there is something metaphysical or strictly logical about it.
Suppose you lived in a universe where there was no fairness, ever. It was maximally unfair at all points and times. You would drink water and it would turn to sand in your mouth. You would wake up and spears would pierce your eyes. Every action you took to help ease your suffering would instead maximize it, in the most unfair way possible. That sounds like a description of hell to me. I would beg for death in such a universe.
Of course, what you actually mean is that you shouldn't care about fairness so much, you shouldn't "bend yourself out of shape" over it. Getting skipped over for a promotion isn't nearly as bad as burning in hell, obviously. If you don't whine about unfairness and instead just focus on your work, you might end up getting that promotion soon after anyways. In other words, it can be valuable to trade a little unfairness for a lot of "good stuff" (whatever exactly that means in the situation).
I think this might be true, but it sets a really bad precedent. The issue is not accepting unfairness when it is happening to you, but when it is happening to someone else. Imagine telling a coworker who thinks that they're being discriminated against due to their race that they should "accept the unfairness and just deal with reality". IMO they should NOT just learn to accept that. It is deeply unfair and unjust and cannot be worth whatever you get by being quiet.
Finally, it's definitely not how "everything" or even only all businesses work. There are plenty of businesses that are doing their best to promote fairly and honestly, it's just a really hard problem to solve. Maybe unfairness will always find a way to creep back in, that doesn't mean that you should just blindly accept it.
But not always… when you’re the shepherd you should spend emotional energy on fairness. But when you’re the sheep you should not. When you’re the sheep you give a little BAaaa and then move on.
The key is knowing which moments in life you’re the shepherd and which ones you’re the sheep.
I don’t like how your comment advocates for conformity to “reality”. Sometimes going against the grain is absolutely the right thing, especially when dealing with individual situations versus generic advice.
Wigs are an option, although I'd be more inclined to own it and lean into it, shaving it outright. I'm not bald yet, but hair loss runs in the family, so I'll likely be dealing with this at some point. Skin care becomes important - sunscreen will help keep skin smooth and ward off UV damage over the long term. I worry somewhat about self inflicted scar tissue from the exuberance of my youth, but I'll dynamte that bridge when I get to it.
> glasses
Contacts or lasik may be an option. While my vision is good, I get nasty migranes from squinting too hard in the sunlight, so I keep a pair of sunglasses glued to my face most of the time.
> Life gets a lot better once one accepts and deals with reality and stops getting wrapped around the axle about fairness.
Life gets a lot better if one is forewarned, and knows what they're getting into - when one has agency and choice about the tradeoffs they make, and can embrace their choices, fair or not, with both eyes open. While you're right to warn against obsessing over fairness, karaterobot certainly didn't appear to be obsessing so. In that context of replying, intended or not, your words can come across as a suggestion to discourage - if not outright ignore - the topic of fairness and it's consideration. This is a great recipe for getting taken advantage of - fucked over through apathy or ignorance when you didn't need to be, through failure to advocate for oneself or for those whom one cares about - and this is unlikely to make life better at all, and which is what I suspect what some people are reacting to.
Neither extreme - obsession with fairness, nor utter apathy towards it - are particularly great. It's fine to embrace and accept what can't be helped - but it's also fine to acknowledge, be aware, and perhaps even fight to fix what can be helped.
Strategically placed folding ladders or footstools are convenient for even tall people to change lightbulbs, and appropriately sized furniture will be more convenient for all sizes. Finding more considerate roommates that don't leave all the good stuff on the top shelves can also help. But I suspect you're talking more on the social or romantic front?
Proper diet, sleep, stretching, and exercise can apparently still add an inch or two for an adult. While it's perhaps not much, it's not nothing either, and perhaps worthwhile for the other health, mood, and quality of life benefits anyways. Before 25, it's even more critical - malnutrition can make those with even the tallest-trending genetics short, lack of physical exercise can reduce the amount of growth hormones your body generates, and even generally "good" diets can be missing some nutrients. Platform shoes are also a thing, although quite possibly counter-productive if seen as "overcompensating," as fucked up as that might be. Perhaps worth experimenting with to see how much the extra height helps - or doesn't help. Perhaps on your next vacation, if you're worried about how it'd come across to your social circle. People aren't the same height everywhere across the globe, either, if you want to see what being relatively taller might mean.
Because this is all predicated on height being both the problem and the solution - and that's almost certainly too simple. Money, fame, intelligence, kindness, confidence, wit, good humor, bad humor - there are many ways to win hearts and minds, and different things will work on different people. Some of those are easier to improve upon than others, and what's easy for who varies. Nobody has every advantage, and everyone has their weaknesses.
And while I'm incredibly hesitant to recommend any kind of serious surgical procedure for "cosmetic" purpouses - with all the potential risks and costs - limb lengthening surgery is a thing. At the very least, I'd experiment with some of the options involving fewer knives before considering surgery, to see just how much the extra height would help, and verify - or refute - if the "benefit" would be worth doing all of that.
Sarcasm should beget sarcasm, yet grief should beget earnest sympathy, and there's maybe some 1% chance I'm being entirely too uncharitable and you're being earnest all the way through, not taking the piss out of me at all, which would imply your dad is dying, not dead, yet without any mention of under what circumstances. Yet something so nausiatingly generic as to cover all that - perhaps "I'm sorry for your struggles" - feels like it would come off as insincere.
> who do you suggest I take the issue up with to get the unfairness resolved?
There are plenty of people one can try to blame for those whom have died. God, the medical system, the political system that created the medical system, the society that created that political system, the insurance companies that failed to step up and meet their contractual obligations, the people whose negligence or malice lead towards death... and while trials, wrongful death lawsuits, insurance payouts, holding people accountable, and social safety nets - won't make one whole - and won't make things fair - they can at least make things a little less horrifically unfair. Or, if improvements are made, can make things a little fairer for the next victim of life. But I doubt you would be asking your question, sarcastically or not, if there was someone so easy and convenient to blame - or even scapegoat. It would lose it's biting edge.
What’s wrong with being bald? I saw the writing on the wall in my mid 20s that my hairline was soon going to look like Lebrun James or George Jefferson (https://images.app.goo.gl/oJmeW1o7VFYgzUqX7). I cut all of my hair off. I’ve been wearing a bald head and most of the time a clean shaven face for the past 20 years.
Another benefit is that no one has a clue how old I am. No gray hair or receding hairline if you cut it off.
With strong enough motivation, one could dedicate their life to research in these areas. Much of mankind’s thrust forward can be attributed to such individuals. But this is easier said than done.
To date, no double blind study has either proven or disproven the efficacy of human sacrifice. So, we really can’t say if it would be a good idea to dismantle Chesterton’s Volcano. /s
Since we’re already splitting hairs here and there, I can’t help but point out that a double-blind study would likely be a wrong kind of study for this purpose (gods could use it to find out if virgin sacrifices are a must, or non-virgins could be just as good), and you probably meant to say, “randomized controlled trial”.
It's how everything works.
> it's not rational nor fair
Life gets a lot better once one accepts and deals with reality and stops getting wrapped around the axle about fairness.