there is a man known to many people as “JohnGuru” on IRC Undernet #philosophical; John was a programmer who wrote successful programming books, even graduating to teaching programming, as well as managing programming-teams, who, it turns out, eventually learned to dislike programming, & overemphasis of science in general, in favor of humanism & leading a more humanistic life, including patronizing the humanities, esp. discussing philosophy publically —
John even runs a 24-hour philosophy chatroom.
normally for this kind of thing we plug people’s books, when, they have written them, & John has written some programming books; but this time i’d like to ‘plug’ *his chats* – because John as i say publically discusses philosophy most days on the IRC Undernet server, on the #philosophical channel, & even holds a weekly class on western philosophy in another channel. you could ask him about it yourself. say what you think back to John.
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& on a broader note, i think we have a want/need for ‘happy news’ – we have a distinct lack of positive news stories;
& as well we honor our dead, esp. the beloved immediately deceased but really all to some degree – Joan Rivers who died recently was featured, recently…
why not just feature people doing good things & do a little tribute to them, *while they’re alive*, in the media?
honor the people who are doing it right – using them as living examples of what we can attain – & doing this while you can, while they are alive to have ears; this over shaming people who are doing bad, in as much it is tenable.
why don’t we let them ‘have their cake’ while they’re alive. it is ok to like & honor people, & it is good to learn from positive examples all kinds of people have set in all kinds of ways.
yes show a local hero who saved someone from a fire, but there are many many other types of good deeds we might be best recognizing as a community, for their sake & for ours.
so with that in mind, i just thought i’d feature on my little site a blurb about “JohnGuru”, a.k.a. John J. Valley.
JohnGuru can be found on IRC Undernet #Philosophical most days.