Are we too fatalistic?

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So... to go off of language usage:
An earnest [serious] question- I've been told I have a decent vocabulary. Lately, in particular it is not all that obvious. I'm having some cognitive problems and I'm sick and [blahblahblah a thousand excuses where I'm saying "no really guys I'm smart!"].

But, I tend to just use whatever words seem most right, not in an attempt to shut others out.It didn't occur to me that people might see language or particular words as alienating rather than as inviting or as a means of connection. I mean, I didn't know the meaning of obfuscate until I saw it in the XFiles movie- it's not like I learned it in an AP Lit course. I just tend to have a decent memory, I'm not super amazingly intelligent. Most people with a larger vocabulary, it's a memory trick. It doesn't really make them an intellectual.

Um...

I'm not sure the point of the post is to enforce anyone's standards on anyone else. I think the idea is "are we settling?" [but I don't tend to be great at estimating what other people intend, so I could be wrong]
So, if you are content with living simply, whatever that means to you, I don't feel like there is any judgement here. It is a right to live how one wants to live. But, I mean, do we just "accept" what we see as our lot in life or do we think there is more?
Working a trade is admirable and... I feel like there is no way I can express that without sounding patronizing. There are people who are damn good at what they do and that's kind of the point- if you are good at what you do and it's what you want to do, than why mess with it? I'm not sure you are really settling. You seem to be doing good.

If it's not what you want to do why are you settling? Not everyone is in a place where they haven't achieved what they want. I don't actually think it is part of the human condition to be perpetually unsatisfied. I'm having trouble figuring out how the OPs original post doesn't account for people who are already legitimately content with what they are doing because it is what they want to do and they are good at it.- not because they thought life has imposed too many limits already.

I hope that made some sort of sense. My brain doesn't feel quite online but I wanted to try to explain what I was thinking.

Based on what I know of you, I don't sense that you have any "cognitive" problems.

Perhaps, your difficulties of a physical nature interfere with abstract thought; even when I have a cold, my thought-pattern becomes more concrete, more literal, less flexible.

I understand the viewpoint you stated above; I'm not sure if I would maintain my optimism based upon what you've experienced. You have at least some intellectual/practical gifts--but it hasn't yielded success for by the standards of the "outer world." I'd be frustrated, too. I would feel stymied, and sometimes feel like I want to lash out at thngs.s

I do, however, feel strongly that an essential optimism propels people away from stagnating situations.

I truly believe cynicism/fatalism leads to physical maladies, and even premature death.

Whelp, I do.
You don't see real time chat, so you don't see like, that sometimes my fingers even write things I didn't intend. You don't know what I want to express versus what I do, nor do you experience the grasping for words I often experience. I have a lot of difficulty with space/time concepts- particularly since a major motor vehicle crash several years ago. The whole thing where I wasn't sure if it was winter in the random thread? That wasn't really a joke- not because I'm "absent minded" in the typical expected sense, but because I have a hard time remembering things that are going on beyond the door a lot.

I don't recognize my own face [which is not unheard of on the spectrum], and when things get bad I will even forget my own phone number. It's like it's just not there for me to retrieve. I don't know my boyfriend's birthday, my parent's phone numbers, I have trouble remembering local directions and orienting myself.
On the other hand- I can remember my phone number from when i was in highschool 17 years ago and I have literally over 20 different passwords at any given time that I do not write down, which frequently change, that I have no problem remembering.

The car accident also really screwed with my sense of space and perspective to the point where I had to work in a different way as an artist- I don't know how much water a cup or a tablespoon holds- conceptually, just that one holds more than the other. I have no concept of how to do perspective intuitively anymore, I have to plod through it step by step every time like a novice who has never done it, graphing it out carefully and eventually it comes to something that looks approximately right.

...my point is not to reprimand or like, be snarky or anything. So please don't interpret it as that.
My point is that none of us really know a lot about each other, ultimately. We know only what the other people here have shared. So when i say I have cognitive problems... I mean a lot of them. They may not be immediately evident in these little vignettes of discourse online. And it varies, depending on how many seizures, migraines, inflammatory symptoms I'm having and like, if I am catamenial woman at that point or not and if I'm sleeping well. I don't assume other people are necessarily on their game all the time even if they present well.

I'm not like, trying to overcome some horrible malady- this is just my life.
I had a lot of these issues before. The space/time stuff is what got worse with the car accident. When I am under stress I lose my ability to "pass" or cope very well.

But I mean I guess- none of us necessarily let out all of our vulnerabilities or weaknesses. We are all trying to "pass" for something. Whatever that means. So if someone says they are having difficulty with something, it's hard for them to get a response that another person doesn't see that- even if it's well intentioned. And I think it is often.

You're absolutely right--we don't really know each other. We only know each other, for he most part, through written content via the Internet.

I do understand what you are saying.

The fact that you are able to convey what your convey via the written medium is significant in itself, IMHO. I believe that ability could, with relative ease, be employed as "scaffolding" which would serve to enable improvements in other areas. Thus, through this work which you do, your "schemas" will expand, and lead to other "schemas"--which, through an osmotic-type process, lead to still more "schemas."

Of course, Piaget isn't perfect. It's not THE authority. But I do like many aspects of his work.

So, because of that I have a habit of driving conversations off course. Apologies.

Nothing of the kind. I think, by and large, that you stick to the topic. It's like a classical piece vs a rock-n-roll/popular music piece. Classical pieces tend to veer in directions--but they return to a certain point (for the most part). This is what you do. You veer slightly, then come back to the relevant point. It provides flavor to what you say. Popular pieces tend to stay within the rhythm, thus making is more "palatable" to people who do not like to veer off in different directions--who are complacent and stuck in a certain rut.

I meant the concept of "scaffolding" and schemas" in more of a "future" sense. You might be at a certain point now. With the aid of "schemas," you would be at another, probably more "evolved" point in the future. Then, making use of the "schemas" which derived from other "schemas, you would go further still, "evolve" still more.

Not sure what the question is here...
Language is traumatic to me. Being Belgian and all that. Typed loads more but decided against it.
Looked up the wiki entry on fatalism instead. It's not me...

I'm not very bright by some people's standards. Couldn't calculate the volume of a barrel these days. Hell, can't even cook a decent meal without my recipe map.
Language to me is a tool. One that I have learned to use in ways that allowed me to survive. Suppose that makes me a cultural scizophrenic.
If I interpreted your use of 'that' word as different than intended my apologies.
I'm tired now

Well there wasn't really a question there- other than rhetorical. It was a clarification that not all situations fit the conversation- as you yourself pointed out. I was agreeing and explaining why I agreed [which I kind of failed at].

But if you want a question you could make one of this:

...What's it fukkinn' matter we're all gonna die anyhow ?

Hey Guzzle,

I think you say lots of intelligent things.

You do pretty well for somebody whose first language is not English.

A hell of a lot better than I do with Dutch or French!

From my original post:

I should have been a little clearer on this point.

As SignOfLazarus inferred, I don't count people who have found their bliss, as needing to do anything more. In some ways I'm envious of them. My brother-in-law is essentially a farmer, who loves working on cars. Between those two things, he seems to have found his bliss. My father-in-law retired after almost 60 years as a builder and loves going fishing. In both things, he found his bliss. Conversely, I've been a mechanical engineer, an IT consultant, several other things, and the last 6 years a teacher, but I still haven't come close to finding my bliss. I've had to find contentment in the journey itself.

But just as those who push beyond fate are a minority, I think those who have found their bliss are probably a minority too. I admire both, and I'm not sure which I'd rather be - the one who pushes fate or the one who has found his bliss.

If you are content with that, then it doesn't. : ]

To all the above, don't doubt yourselves. You've all added some wonderful thoughts to the topic.

Also, don't worry about understanding the question posed.
I rarely confine a question, preferring the openness of where different interpretations may lead.
When I take a trip to anywhere, I still like to look out the windows, and I don't mind getting lost.

As for 'big words' I think it's their over-use that becomes pretentious, especially too much jargon. I haven't seen any of that in this thread, and hardly any of it in this forum.

what the f**k are you f*****g talking about?!?!?!

f*****g expletives are fvking 'actual WORDS'....for f**k sake!! !! !

sarc/

i'm joking