Memetics and the evolution of memes

jersey_jezebel's Foto Friday meme - post a random pic from your harddrive, explain if necessary.



just a random photo on my hard drive. Didn't even remember what it was until I posted it. But yeah, I really love this woman's work - I even have her book, though I don't remember her name right now. This one is very true, and sometimes I need to be reminded of that.

Hi everyone. I just wanted to take a minute to encourage you to join a new community called ljunited , a community dedicated to working towards defending and restoring the original promises made to LiveJournal's members, standing up for the free speech of LiveJournal's members, restoring LJ's original strong support for Open Source software, and restoring community participation in the successful operations of LiveJournal.

Although ljunited is a brand new community, it has grown rapidly and is building a strong, inclusive, diverse coalition, united in standing up for us.

LJUnited overwhelmingly endorsed rm recently as their candidate for the upcoming LJ Advisory Board elections. I hope you'll consider supporting her nomination. Thanks!

lately I've been interested in opposing cliches (which are a type of meme)
I think the thing about cliches, is, they aren't some all mighty "truth" - they are things you pull out to convince someone (maybe yourself) to do what you want.

Many hands make light work/Too many cooks spoil the broth
Look before you leap/He who hesitates is lost
Absence makes the heart grow fonder./Out of sight, out of mind
The more the merrier/Two's company, three's a crowd
Birds of a feather flock together/Opposites attract
Nothing ventured, nothing gained/Better safe than sorry
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts/Never look a gift horse in the mouth
The clothes make the man/Don't judge a book by its cover
The pen is mightier than the sword/Actions speak louder than words
The third time is the charm/Three strikes and you are out
Great minds think alike /fools seldom differ
Variety is the spice of life/Go with what you know
The road to hell is paved with good intentions/It's the thought that counts
The Devil is in the details/Don't sweat the small stuff
The early bird gets the worm/Good things come to those who wait
Two heads are better than one /If you want something done right do it yourself

I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird, and not enough the bad luck of the early worm. (Franklin Roosevelt)

Dilbert Principle — The most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage: management.

This one makes me sad... because every job I've ever had, I've always wound up in management

I used to go by Cynthia Heimel's dictum;

"Never believe anyone's interested until you feel their tongue down your throat"

that's awesome! 'cause I can sure never tell!

Hanlon's Razor — Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

as I tend to often be very clumsy and inept, and basically stupid. So apologizing and trying to make people believe it wasn't malice is often tricky


Side note - I just got Douglas Hofstadter's book, . Yes, Hofstadter of "Hofstadter's Law" fame

I'm thinking "Baerana's law of gift giving"



ok, you spread that one while I try to think of something better :)

which is why at work, I double the time my engineer tells me the project will take when I'm telling the customer, and my engineer doubles how long he actually thinks it will take when telling me. Then, we are on time about 95% of the time...

The concept of a meme is, I suppose, relatively new, but it has been used in a few works of fiction: for example, A Miracle of Science. In particular, this story centers around Science Related Memetic Disorder – effectively 'mad science disease' – with infected characters providing the drive for the story.

Anyone want to offer other examples of memes in fiction?

One of my favorite memes - Godwin's law

As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

And of course, traditionally, once such a comparison is made, the argument is finished and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically "lost" whatever debate was in progress.