I remember back many years ago I would only think about politics and all that when I read The Economist once every few days. Or I would read NewsWeek once a week.
Aside from that I wouldn’t think about the news at all.
Nowadays with smartphones the constant bombardment of news….thats what the new smoking. Not the news in of itself.
Actually if you look at the negative cognitive effects of constant news reading….I would say that reading the news is the new drinking rather than the new smoking.
So just based on these definitions that comment seems neither snarky nor indignant? There’s no anger because he’s a moderator calmly stating one of the rules of the site. And there don’t seem to be anything mocking, irreverent or sarcastic about him calmly stating the site guidelines?
“It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.”
The above quote is from a character from one of JRR Tolkien’s books. (Gandalf from Return of the King.)
Tolkien fought in the Battle of the Somme which was one of the most destructive battles in human history. So I think his views have some weight here.
Bad things have always happened in the world. Despair is a useless emotion that just precludes action that can better the world or even better a single other’s person’s life. For each person belongs to the world and by improving one life you improve the world. This cannot be accomplished through despair but through joy.
If Mahatma Gandhi had lived in despair over the horrible things the British were doing to the Indians, would he have been able to help anyone? It was through joyous resistance that he managed to inspire a movement to defeat them.
I actually don’t think the post was AI generated. It’s written in the same kind of style high school students are supposed to write for English class. When I was high school I would write essays in that style for English class and I was in high school long before AI.
I think it’s entirely plausible that this kid chose to write their first HN post in that same formal style.
I could be wrong though. But I always wonder if there would be moments where someone writes a genuine thing and it’s mistaken for AI.
“The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling” is also a good story.
But I really was referring to “Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom”.
I hope what I am about to write below in the rest of my comment here isn’t too much of a spoiler. It might be. I encourage anyone reading this thread to read that short story before reading the rest of my comment here.
But with (hopefully minimal) spoilers,
the character Dana in “Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom” realizes something at the very end of the story about a certain event that had happened earlier in Dana’s life. The story made me realize the same thing about certain events in my life.
Of course the events in my life are very different from what happened with Dana in the short story. But the realization Dana has is applicable to many things in people’s lives. Especially events related to emotions of regret and guilt.
His novella “Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom” altered the course of my life. It changed the way I looked back at certain pivotal moments in my life and taught me to think about those pivotal moments differently than how I was thinking about them. Similar to what happens to one of the characters in the story who ends up changing their perception of a key moment in their life.
I won’t go into detail because I don’t want to spoil the story but I highly recommend it. Actually I recommend all his stories to be honest.
There is absolutely no reason for a doctor to make over $1000 for a 15 minute conversation.
No doctor makes this much for a 15 minute conversation. A small portion of that money is going to the doctor. Much of it goes to all the other aspects of healthcare. The facility, other people involved in care, etc.
And no 15 minute visit costs 1000 dollars to the patient as well. That’s a pretty big exaggeration.
On Saturdays, in the town of Surfside, I would frequently see many Orthodox Jewish people at the beaches and cheerfully going for walks and so on. A pleasant and wonderful atmosphere.
The Industrial Revolution led to a substantial decrease in agricultural jobs for humanity. But ultimately there were new jobs created.
This happens with every technological innovation. It’s called creative destruction. The idea that some technology will lead to mass unemployment and then some kind of revolution…that is a myth that’s been around since Marx. Actually even before him.
I predict the same thing will happen. Some jobs will go away. Others will take their place. The people of the 1700’s and 1800’s couldn’t have even begun to imagine the kinds of jobs many do today.
Is this the new thing that’s going to happen now? People use phrases that have been around forever and people accuse them of using AI?
I’m glad I’m not going to college in this environment. How unfortunate and demoralizing it would be if I wrote an essay by myself in a college class and the professor thought I was using AI.
I haven’t been to college in a while. That was long before AI. I do have access to some of my old essays. Based on their tone and some of the wording I was using, I don’t doubt that some people would accuse them of being AI written were it not for the fact I wrote them many years ago.
Will college students now deliberately try to avoid certain common phrases out of paranoia of being accused of this?
This is an excellent article. The author does a great job taking all this data to reach the conclusion.
What I’m wondering about is…why?
As in…why is cancer rising among the later generations? Smoking has substantially fallen and this has led to a sharp decrease in lung cancer rates. So why are cancer rates overall increasing for those born in the later generations?