From something I wrote a while back:

Stupidity, typically, is not a product of Nature but of impudence. It has little or nothing to do with intellect: some of the most obtuse idiots I have met in my life have had above-average IQs.

It is an insult to the memory of Data's cat.

Just listen to the first 30 seconds of this from Alan Watts (nearly half a century ago).

And if 7 of 9 is in this new show, I'm watching. (ST Voyager, season 6)

Well the message is all the same, legalities or not: we are the NFL, a massive, mega-billion dollar, tax-exempt corporation with the government deep and firm in our pockets. If we say you've done something wrong and bring out our army of lawyers to intimidate you, you will be intimidated, make no mistake about that. You may therefore split hairs all you like; we can chop heads and get away with it.

On balance, anyway, I will join Zirin in rooting for Seattle because of what they can make socially of another victory. But I won't be watching.

I have different sense of it (the whole thing is here):

This “character” is the Orwellian collectivist organization that lives in a giant cube of wires and darkness and ignorance. There is a daring genius to this image: the program was exposing the insanity of its own genre, television. It is holding up the great mirror of Art to the very thing that gave it life. Wow.

Nowadays this seems the most sensible response; though I do recall years ago running the Yellow Dog distro on an ancient iMac with some benefit.

"if the self who is directing and executing the self-improvement is the same f-u'd self that needs improving, then how can there possibly be improvement?"

Agree completely. In fact, all the ST films failed to even approach the quality of the series. The best movie-length ST "films" ever made were the various 2-parters of TNG and Voyager, led by "Chain of Command."

I wrote the following in an essay a number of years back:

But first, a word about discipline: any discipline — of the body, the mind, a student, a child, an animal — that strays from the purpose of liberating and fulfilling its potential is no longer discipline but despotism. This betrayal of discipline, this loss of purpose, is in many respects the defining error of our age and culture — in education, government, the workplace, our markets, and our media. Natural discipline is more about possibility than limitation; it affirms and supports freedom and rejects oppression and punishment. If a path of discipline that you are involved with contains a trace of punishment, guilt, or imperiousness, then I would encourage you to leave that path immediately; for it is not discipline.

If you're a student you have to research and write; try the same thing in your personal life as well. I've written a little on the tl;dr phenomenon: the point is not so much to swim against the current of society but rather to follow the flow of your own native ability. In any event, avoid at all costs the solution to which so many become slaves (Adderall).

The cashless society that Capt. Picard talks about, that's what I'm waiting for. Another 3 centuries, I guess..

Whatever language it is in which you specialize, know that to stop doing it and just watch it for a while will not make you lose it. It will, however, deepen your understanding of yourself. Spend this time in this extraordinary place in debugging yourself. Thus, if you'd like to "practice fundamentals," here is a place to start.

Mr. Watts would like to comment

CT was one of the most creative and refreshingly natural shows in the history of broadcasting -- among radio, TV, Internet, whatever, combined. Tom, you have left an extraordinary legacy.