And check out this David Roche Trailer Runner article.
Why Should I Care About Running? - Trail Runner Magazine I am 110% certain after reading this excerpt that the fake ChatGPT is David. Hi, David
"As the ethicist Chidi said in the amazing show The Good Place, “Michael is having an existential crisis. It’s a sort of anguish people go through when they contemplate the silent indifference of our empty universe. Look, the good news is, if he can work through this, it’s the first step towards understanding human ethics.”
Non-ethicist Eleanor: “And if he can’t?”
“Well, then, he’ll be a lifeless shell of misery forever and we’re all doomed.”
Eleanor expands in a later scene. “All humans are aware of death … so we’re all a little bit sad.” A few lines of dialogue go by. “And if you try to ignore your sadness, it just ends up leaking out of you anyway. I’ve been there— everybody’s been there. So don’t fight it. And in the words of very wise Bed, Bath and Beyond employee I once knew, ‘Go ahead and cry all you want, but you’re going to have to pay for that toilet plunger.’”
When I was a kid thinking about this stuff for the first time, I didn’t have The Good Place or a deep connection with a specific faith, so I was desperate and impressionable when I read a couple quotes from Kurt Vonnegut’s A Man Without A Country. I actually wanted to make them the inscription of our book, before realizing that I didn’t know how Vonnegut felt about hill strides. Those two quotes:
“We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is.""
And
"
I was listening to a podcast with comedian Pete Holmes talking to Billy Eichner about the meaning of life, and Buddhist Jack Kornfield was quoted. There has never been a more apt description of my understanding of these topics than a game of podcast telephone with two comedians talking about Buddhism. But that quote struck the same chord as Vonnegut did decades ago:
“What would love have me do today?
Like a producer really feeling a beat in the studio, I rewound that part and turned up the headphones. That is my stuff right there! It’s one of those questions spurred by the one big question that gets to the point, at least for my unique blend of lifelong introspection and self-conscious ignorance. What would love have you do today?
I think love points first toward the important stuff. Racial justice (Black lives matter), gender equality, equal rights, making sure our lines of empathy go beyond our personal connections, trying to support other people going through the same confusing journey no matter what their backgrounds or perspectives. Therapy, mental-health awareness. Lifting people up with unconditional support, not crapping on other people and their
feelings/beliefs, etc.