Ponder
8mo ago
you should be able to participate competently.
You can, but I think this perspective dismisses an important point.
People have limited metabolic energy and therefore must have a system of filtering information in the environment to avoid combinatorial explosion. If your relevance realization machinery focuses on mastering a domain and looking into the unsolved questions of the domain then you can start finding small talk far less relevant. It is taking time away from you making a potential contribution to the domain that could help many people.
Small talk becomes far less interesting when you get good at predicting what the other person will say because you’ve had similar conversations with other people. It is no longer a source of interesting/relevant information.
Ponder
8mo ago
Is there some Machiavellian tactic I can pull to force Bob to work harder or get fired altogether?
Potentially, you could convince Bob that he would like some other job better. Then you could provide encouragement and support with helping him get another job.
It will probably be hard to convince Bob to pursue a new job, but you may know him well enough to figure out his motivations. Maybe you can appeal to his laziness by finding him an easier job that pays more. Maybe you can show concern that you think he may be let go by company for not performing, but you would like to help him find a new job before that happens.
Ponder
8mo ago
- Choose environments that you’re more comfortable in that naturally highlight your good qualities. Maybe something like a book club
- Prepare and bring something thoughtful to share with people. In book club it could just be some interesting knowledge related to the chapter. At a house party it could be a homemade snack. The thing that you share should be something you put thought and effort to, not just something expensive.
- This last point is very controversial, and you need to proceed with extreme caution. In party situations you can explore the use of psychoactive substances that do some combination of: (1) reduce your anxiety (2) increase confidence (3) make socializing more interesting/fun (4) don’t make you noticeably impaired.
Participating in flow arts.
ETA: Some animal shelters have a program where you can borrow a dog for the day. You could do that and go around trying to find someone to adopt it.
Ponder
8mo ago
From the perspective of a long-term investor, I wouldn't buy. Stocks are a claim on future profits of the company and I don't think their future looks better than other investment opportunities.
- The user base isn't as sticky as other social media because it is based on interacting anonymously. Other social media has more of a moat due to the connections you have with people you know IRL.
- Users could easily get similar content elsewhere on the internet
- Since users can easily leave any attempts to increase profitably could drive users away (such as the API changes). Competitors can eventually capitalize on any errors Reddit makes while chasing profitability.
- Advertisers continue to shift to more targeted advertising and Reddit has a lot less data that is useful for this type of targeting than other social media that has user's personal details.
- The utility of the site is going down. It isn't good for truth-seeking. It is a good place for social confirmation but eventually people get bored with constantly seeing variants of the same content everyday.
- The quality of the data is going down as people get better at gaming the system to push their ideologies or spam.
- I think there is a general societal trend of getting sick of all the bullshit on social media and wanting to have more authentic connections. At a minimum people are shifting to things like invite-only discords or online communities that require some digging to find.
Ponder
8mo ago
The vast majority of his dogs went to a sanctuary. They say “adopted” and that is technically correct- but they went to the dog equivalent of a zoo....Most were never integrated into homes....
The point of the link I shared was that his dogs went to the sanctuary, received rehabilitation, and then most were then able to pass the Good Canine Citizen test and be adopted by individual families into their homes.
The fallout from all of this has been 15 years of pro-pitbull propaganda and an incredible increase in dog bite attacks, disfigurements, and deaths. We have plenty of dogs, put the bad ones down.
The crux of this issue is determining if the increase in dog bites is caused by bad dogs or bad training. I think the evidence points to bad training being the cause in more cases than not. Pit bulls were a popular breed of dog in the 1900s and earlier. It doesn't make sense that they would be popular if they were an inherently bad breed. Generally, pit bulls are intelligent and loyal which makes it easier to train aggressive behaviors into them. Some people wanted a dog trained with this behavior (people living in dangerous situations that wanted a protective companion) and just happened to choose pit bulls because they are one of the easiest to train to do this. There are certain characteristics that are specific to the breed, but others like biting are more influenced by how humans train/raise them.
Ponder
8mo ago
I think this perspective discounts the transformative power of dog training. There are a lot of changes that can be made by a skilled trainer. Here is some information about what happened to dogs rescued from Michael Vick's fighting ring: https://bestfriends.org/sanctuary/about-sanctuary/animal-areas/dogtown/vicktory-dogs/champions-film/stories-about-dogs
It may be worth paying a trainer to help your dog learn less anxious behavior if you don’t have the time/skill. Also, it is worth considering how to adapt the environment to make the dog less anxious. Maybe put the dog in doggy daycare, or hire a pet sitter, if you are going to be for extended periods.
I have seen someone that had success drugging their dog, but I don’t recall the drug. The outcome was that they gave it to the dog when they had guests and the dog would become sleepy. I don’t think the dog had any other issues, it just got excited in friendly ways when new people entered its environment.
The best ways to avoid dog behavior problems is to adopt one slightly past the puppy stage that has all the behaviors you want already trained into it. Or do extensive training when the dog is a puppy and seek external help if you can’t train the desired behaviors yourself. Once a dog gets past the ~puppy stage it takes a lot more effort to change its behavior.
Ponder
8mo ago
There is a weird sense of freedom that comes with truly believing you will never find another suitable relationship. It opens you up to trying weird things. If you believe everything that you do will leave you single and alone then there aren't any real consequences to your future relationships by trying new things and failing.
You could try weird/new things to break out of your thought pattern. In certain contexts you are correct that dating gets hard past a certain age, but you can change the context to make it easier. There are lots of places you can seek unconventional relationships, but you have tunnel-vision and have already dismissed them.
Also, if you are going to be alone forever you might want to look into communities that explore spiritually/contemplative/meditative practices to alleviate your suffering. Being connected to something larger than yourself may help provide a sense of meaning/purpose in your life.
I don't think you will be alone forever. I think you just have given yourself too many constraints on how to approach the problem and it is preventing you from discovering a clever solution.
Ponder
8mo ago
I can do small talk and sometimes even get a bit of enjoyment from it. The problem IRL is that many people's beliefs are so intertwined with their politics. If I talk about something completely unrelated to politics they might bring up progressive stack concepts as a way to discount a source.
I do talk about things they are interested in too, but they aren't interested my truth-seeking style of discussing the topic. I like to pull in a lot of data, consider all sides of an argument, and explore the topic in novel ways. Most IRL people seem to just want the social confirmation/validation of their deep thoughts instead of wanting to think in a scientist/rationalist adjacent style.
The thing is I've found online spaces where I can talk about deep things in a way all participants enjoy. We use our real names and do video conferencing. So some of this is specifically me being frustrated by IRL people because they are so different than my far away friends that I talk to virtually.
decide if what you really want is to have a conversation with another unique human .... or to have an audience.
Sometimes I'll watch a podcast where 2 people get deep dialogue on a subject. I'd like to be participating in conversations like those without being on a podcast.
Ponder
8mo ago
That's interesting. I do sometimes take NAD+ precursors, but I never realized that it might help prevent hangovers.
Ponder
8mo ago
Almost everyone I know supports my sobriety. I have a few friends that say things like, "we miss seeing you at the bar it is more fun when you're here", but that is no big deal.
This issue is more that alcohol allows me to get into a playful state that makes socializing fun. If I stay sober for long periods of time my interest in socializing goes down and I tend to get fixated on special interests. I get bored with IRL conversations because nobody wants to have deep conversations or talk much about the things that I find interesting.
Ponder
8mo ago
When I drink I aim for .05-.08 BAC, but sometimes I'll get as high as .1 BAC. I have a series of controls in places to make sure I stick to that that when drinking. I don't get hangovers. I just want to limit negative effects as much as a I can. I have noticed that certain parts of memory (like word recall) feel a bit worse as I've gotten older and I don't want alcohol to exacerbate any memory issues.
I'm not in many social settings where I'm expected to drink and I know how to politely decline alcohol in these settings. The issue is more that drinking gets into a playful mood and allows me to practice humor and different ways of being charismatic. When I don't drink for long periods of time I start to lose my interest in socializing and the more creative/playful parts of me get weaker, which makes it harder to connect with people.
Ponder
8mo ago
I've been sober since December, but I think I might start drinking once a week again in order to improve my social life. I've made some progress at sober socializing, but then I got to a plateau where I started losing interest/motivation. The people I meet IRL aren't interested in having deep conversations about the things I'm interested in, and navigating modern conversation norms is exhausting.
Can you prevent most of the long-term damage from alcohol by boosting glutathione to quickly break down the acetaldehyde?
How effective is this supplement stack at preventing the negative effects of alcohol?
Before drinking: emoxypine, milk thistle, S-Acetyl L-Glutathione
After drinking: Dihydromyricetin, Pyroglutamic Acid, Succinic Acid
Ponder
8mo ago
You are correct I'm not asking if I should belong to a religion. I was pondering the concept of 'Religion of No Religion' that John Vervaeke talks about
...we need to do something like what religion used to do. We need a comprehensive set of psychotechnologies that are set within communities of practices that allow for the comprehensive transformations of consciousness, cognition, character, and culture in a way that is analogous to religion...
Ponder
8mo ago
Is there anything that you can only get from belonging to a religion that you can’t get from secular alternatives?
There are things that you can get from both religion and secular alternatives (such as moral guidance, community, solace). Is there something about religion that makes religion the better place to seek them?
Ponder
9mo ago
you would have to be totally disconnected from reality to think a single piece of media reshaped someone's entire worldview.
A single piece of media can get someone to buy a product. A single piece of media could make someone decide to try a drug, or always avoid that drug. A single meme can cause people join online groups and that can lead to real-world consequences. It is directionally correct that media reshapes people's worldviews. Some people just steelman the main points to more reasonable positions instead of responding to the literal content of the post.
More generally, people lose interest in things over time. A video game can be fun at first, but then you get to the end and lose interest. You realize there are more fulfilling ways to spend your time. You skim top-level posts for the few topics that most interest you and ignore the rest. You can predict what will happen if you post a reply. There is no longer an expectation of getting into a novel conversation or learning something new.
Ponder
9mo ago
This is already an issue with prescription drugs that are far more addictive and dangerous than psychedelics. This risk could be further mitigated by diversion control requirements like: the newly legal drugs must be stored in a locked location that only adults have access to, a log must kept anytime the drug is consumed/sold/gifted.
If a parent allowed kids to consume the drugs then they could face harsh penalties under the existing laws regarding providing controlled substances to a minor.
Ponder
9mo ago
I definitely knew people who did coke on weekday afternoons in college, presumably cost wasn’t an issue for him.
But coke is usually a social drug and he was found alone. If he wanted a stimulant to use alone I assume he had access to prescription Adderall or Ritalin. I don't have personal experience on this subject so this is just speculative guesswork.
Also, I thought fentanyl test strips are often ineffective for eg laced coke because it could be just a tiny fraction of the powder that’s fentanyl, so the strip could come back fine even if the drug isn’t?
That is true that there is a detection limit on test strips. You could just test a larger sample, but then you'd have to turn the coke/water mixture back to coke or take it sublingually.
Ponder
9mo ago
When I left reddit I removed all my posts and comments
I think some people have taken this even further. Intentionally poisoning the AI training data with false facts or doing SEO type shenanigans to get it to promote their products.
Ponder
9mo ago
I’m paranoid I’m doing something laced now and have largely cut out doing anything now.
There are safety precautions when taking something that didn't come from a pharmacy:
- Fentanyl test strips
- Reagent test to make sure you got the expected substance
- Never use alone and have Narcan on hand. That way if you have an adverse reaction someone can call the paramedics in time.
dealers either sell both and cross contaminate or lace other drugs to get people addicted.
The dealer's incentive is to get people addicted to something that will get the user coming back frequently to buy more. Fentanyl is cheaper by weight than many other drugs and doesn't last very long before it puts the user into withdrawals and causes them to seek out more.
If a first-time user comes in for drug X and then get addicted to fentanyl the dealer then has a daily recurring revenue stream.
In this case a potential pipeline is that the deceased user started with a party drug in the past, but it was laced with fentanyl and he then became addicted. Like you say it is hard to imagine what other drug he would have been intending to use on a weekday afternoon that would have been laced.
some would say things like legalize drugs to kill fentanyl and people get “safe” drugs
The DEA scheduling system is absurd. They should make some of the safer ones legal (especially psychedelics) so that:
- People are getting a pure substance
- People can create safe environments to use the legal drugs in (because if the drug is legal then you can legally have medical and support staff in the environment).
- Takes money away from the drug dealers (who are selling impure/laced product) and creates tax revenue (which can be used on support services to get people to quit more dangerous drugs).
Ponder
9mo ago
That’s a good point, but I think the court can ultimately conclude if something is addictive. This would be similar to how the court can conclude if something qualifies as a religion. They use a list of characteristics common to established religions and say these things indicate something could be a religion, but at the same time realize that not every religion would meet all the criteria.
Furthermore, people can become addicted to video games, gambling, or porn and there are some established criteria for what those addictions look like. In the DSM-5-TR Internet Gaming Disorder is included in the section recommending conditions for further research:
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Preoccupation with gaming
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Withdrawal symptoms when gaming is taken away or not possible (sadness, anxiety, irritability)
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Tolerance, the need to spend more time gaming to satisfy the urge
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Inability to reduce playing, unsuccessful attempts to quit gaming
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Giving up other activities, loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities due to gaming
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Continuing to game despite problems
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Deceiving family members or others about the amount of time spent on gaming
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The use of gaming to relieve negative moods, such as guilt or hopelessness
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Risk, having jeopardized or lost a job or relationship due to gaming
Ponder
9mo ago
I wonder if there are any parallels between this case and lawsuits against tobacco companies where those companies had been covering up the health risks associated with smoking. I'm not very familiar with the cases. I'm thinking there is probably some precedent that if you have internal data showing something is dangerous/addictive and then you continue to present it as not dangerous/addictive then that opens you up to legal liability.
Since social media companies collect tons of data to optimize engagement on their platforms they probably have something that shows they know social media is addictive. If you have that internal data then you put out something that says, "Facebook builds its products to create value, not to be addictive" https://about.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/What-The-Social-Dilemma-Gets-Wrong.pdf then I could see how this case has some legitimacy. It could also be strategically correct. They know social media companies will settle out of court to avoid a discovery process that would expose the internal documents showing that social media is addictive.
Ponder
9mo ago
trying to figure out how to treat my depression without making my dick not work
You could use supplements like Icariin/Yohimbine or prescribed pharmaceuticals as a temporary solution.
...maybe find a kinky alt girl with weird makeup...I have this intense craving for sexual novelty. I want to explore kinky sex...
A lot of your desires for novelty and kinks could probably be explored with your current partner. Work on training your imagination so that you can feel different things when you are intimate with your partner. Get creative with the use of costumes/makeup/props/toys. Exploring many kinks is best done with someone you know deeply and are comfortable with.
I was using relevance realization to mean the process by which things motivate people, what arouses their energy, what attracts their attention, etc. Right now you probably aren't paying attention to the wall or the furniture even though it is in your environment, there is a process that puts it in the background as not important.
You can find anything relevant, including just having fun. A drug addict finds drugs highly relevant and salient. I was indicating that there is a process that causes people to find certain things relevant and causes them to background other things. Relevance changes depending on context too (such as when someone is at work, and when they are at home).
It isn't that you can't get anything out of it. It is that you have limited time/energy and you can get similar things more efficiently. If you read certain books you will gain knowledge you find relevant at a faster pace than if you spent that time on small talk.
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