Comments on: Was It Worth It?

By: James Altucher

James Altucher — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

A more important question might be why were you googling “woman self immolation”?

By: Darcy Palmer

Darcy Palmer — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:49:00 +0000

How bizarre, I was googling woman self imolation and this pic came up in the google image search, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thich_Quang_Duc , either that or you’ve been peeking in my internet browser history again?

By: Gonzojh

Gonzojh — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:28:00 +0000

Add another one to the self immolation… http://news.yahoo.com/tibetan-monk-dies-self-immolation-protest-group-says-125531147.html

By: James Altucher

James Altucher — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 12:58:00 +0000

A couple of points:
A) clearly the guy is very brave
B) unfortunately it inspired a lot of copycats who killed themselves (very sad) and accomplished nothing
C) its unclear what he accomplished. the regime upped the persecution of buddhists.
D) I think all suicide is bad (I don’t use the safer word “immolation”) and leads to further deaths. Death only inspires death.

By: kamal

kamal — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 07:30:00 +0000

This post was shared by my colleague. Although the theme of the post resonates a little with Indian mythology which questions “if anything is real or its just a hallucination you are living in”. However I think the post was a little disappointing in picking up the example. By now lot of people have commented on and told you who the monk in this picture is. When I connect the two (the picture and what you are saying), it almost seems to mean to live life like a worthless individual without any passion, any cause to vouch for. Anything that upsets you, should be disconnected and hence you should avoid anything that upsets you.

Would you say the samething for Steve Jobs too. From your replies to some comments, it looks like looking back everything is preordained and would have eventually happened irrespective of whether any one tried to make an effort or not.

P.S. I don’t have much in common with Vietnam and such cause.

By: Andrew MacNeill

Andrew MacNeill — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:06:00 +0000

Your examples: People will use the typical argument that taking drugs, having sex w/ random people, stealing from a rich person or company, etc does not affect anyone but themselves.

Those aren’t valid arguments. As you said, of course, it affects someone ( for example, the random people).

How does it help humanity if you do something and die doing it? Because of all the people that followed you? Wouldn’t it be better to be doing the right thing and others follow suit because they agreed with it?
(the more I follow this line, the more I sound like those silly Liberty Mutual ads)

By: Priceat

Priceat — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 19:21:00 +0000

I was a professional athlete and my career was cut short because of a foolish play on the part of one of my teammates. I lived with that anger for over a year until a close friend of mine gave me a ring with the inscription “This too shall pass.” This prophetic insight from King Solomon helped me transcend the pain and actually use the anger for a constructive purpose. Every time I feel the nagging doubt of failure leaching off my enthusiasm, I remember what has happened, where I am and what I have done.

By: Kevin M

Kevin M — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 19:13:00 +0000

I’ve only seen the picture because it was cover “art” for a Rage Against the Machine CD. At first I thought it was a fake.

By: fatelephant

fatelephant — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 18:10:00 +0000

Buddhist believe in re-birth. The cost is not very high.

By: Juan Mehris

Juan Mehris — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 16:32:00 +0000

James, I agree with your thesis but your assertion that slavery would’ve been abolished if the American Revolution hadn’t happened is absurd, especially as a line of reasoning supporting your point. Britain would have been far less likely to implement the same law if it owned the Southern States practicing slavery.