I am not a nihilist.

mircea_popescu Wait, you mean you're trying to make a game or what ?
Anonymousⁱ Not directly. It's just whats happening in my head as a result of thinking about the splash screen concept. Basically to do art I need direction and since none was provided I am creating my own, which is more interesting than drawing :)

mircea_popescu Haha that's a plan.
Anonymous Like I've said in the past, I'm better at finding angles, than fully executing them.

mircea_popescu The problem is angles aren't useful really.
Anonymous New ideas and paradigm shifts are the most useful thing, no? They are the spark.

mircea_popescu Nope.
Anonymous What makes one game more appealing than another, the splash screen art?

mircea_popescu You're taking an idealist view of the world, which is another way of saying wrong. In point of fact things are done. You can either be one of the people that are trusted to do things, in which case you'd better have ideas but nobody cares if you actually do, or else you can be one of the people who can do things on their own, in which case you'd better have ideas but nobody cares if you actually do. Outside of these two cases, having ideas is a waste of your time.
Anonymous Take yourself for example, you have an idea to make games, but you are not sitting there doing the programming right?

mircea_popescu Programming is not "ideas", as proven by you not doing it in the shower. Think of ideas as basic body excretory function. Like shit and like sweat. It's what they are. And THATs the real reason you have them in the shower.
Anonymous I think you are generalizing my portrayal of an idea too much.

mircea_popescu Mebbe. Problem is nobody can distinguish between one random thought and another.
Anonymous I don't mean to say I had a thought at random. There is analysis and progression of thought involved.

mircea_popescu So you think.
Anonymous And when you take an idea and vet it it becomes worth doing. Not all ideas are equal, like opinions.

mircea_popescu There exists no vetting process for ideas. The only vetting process is for people. As described.
Anonymous So if I have a great concept, it is worthless unless I make it myself? Is not me reaching out to you an effort of making it happen?

mircea_popescu You can not have a great concept, in that there's no such a thing as a great concept before it's made.
Anonymous It cannot be proven great til it suceeds by whicever measure you choose.

mircea_popescu It simply can not be great.
Anonymous So how do you choose one concept over another?

mircea_popescu As to which one makes you want to waste your time. WASTE your time.
Anonymous Haha. All time is wasted then.

mircea_popescu Think of it in the more illuminating approach of gambling. People come up with strategies for just-dice all the time. Which one is a great strategy ?
Anonymous None.

mircea_popescu None is. Provably so, all fail.
Anonymous Because it's random no matter what.

mircea_popescu Ideas are no different. You can't pick a winning strategy aforehand.
Anonymous Success in retail is not random. You can certainly choose a strategy more likely to succeed. There are certainly factors more valued than others. You are painting this like some kind of buddhist when it does have real world factors at play. You yourself have chosen to play a game which has rules and value systems, thus angles to choose and ways to "win". A game does not succeed by simply creating it. Other than your own self-satisfaction of completion I guess.

mircea_popescu But success in retail is not "ideas". It's being one of those people trusted to make shit.
Anonymous Again you generalize an idea to be a sneeze. It is fact that if you fail to choose good ideas/concepts, your game will fail as well. Unless you market the shit out of it.

mircea_popescu Hehe.
Anonymous However I do agree with you in one sense. A measure must be decided to value one man's ideas over another, and you have noted your measure. I just think it is lacking.

mircea_popescu Well but that's fine!
Anonymous Your way misses out on all my ideas!

mircea_popescu Just, the notion that ideas can somehow be compared "on the merits" is nonsense. Facts and facts only can thus be compared. Ideas are not facts.
Anonymous Ideas contain assumed facts within them.

mircea_popescu No, they do not.
Anonymous They aren't just abstract art.

mircea_popescu They contain contextual representations. These are not facts. Just like the woman in your dream sucking your cock is no actual factual stripper blowing you.
Anonymous SOMETHING must be assumed to vet an idea.

mircea_popescu You never vet ideas. You vet the idiot in question.
Anonymous And idiots can only be vetted by their successes.

mircea_popescu History. Yes.
Anonymous Hrm. Seems too limited.

mircea_popescu Hey. I'ma publish this anyway. But you'll be anon.
Anonymous idc. Nothing to hide.

mircea_popescu Anon is better anyway. Stops people from focusing on the person. Helps them understand it really is about them.
Anonymous Word.

1. They are legion. [↩]