It's pointless because of the hedonic treadmill. Any feel good feeling is neurochemical in nature, and any moment of feeling good will be counterbalanced at one point or another.
Everything that makes us feel good is neurochemical in nature, including exercise. Exercise can lead to a withdrawal period of feeling shitty and unproductive, and it can be quite addictive.
Really important not to confuse "feeling good" with being good for you. Have seen a lot of people overdo it and lose their lives to pointless exercise while accomplishing very little else. Also important to realize that most things in life that give you a boost in life also give you a debt to pay back at a later time/date.
Where I live in Atlantic Canada you can rent the same for $550 USD, or just buy a brand new modern home for $180k USD. People here work remotely for companies like Google. The government will also help fund your startup’s product development through various programs (hundreds of thousands of dollars).
Always wanted to move to San Fran but starting to feel pretty grateful about being here.
“Remember when we looked forward to every advance?”
No. Humans have always been afraid of change and skeptical of technology. Books and the printing press were considered destructive inventions that would prevent people from thinking for themselves. There were also extremely negative perceptions of television and the internet.
Encouragement is not a bad idea, and there’s nothing stopping doctors from doing that today.
But the idea of “prescribing” an activity that is meant to be intrinsically motivated seems misguided.
It reminds me of those kids growing up who’s parents forced them to do every extra-curricular activity. They ended up -hating- everything they were made to do. And from my anecdotal evidence, kind of miserable.
Creative activities require a real intrinsic desire to participate in them in order to be joyful. Forcing them spoils them, and can make the participant feel even more down on themselves (I’m practicing, why don’t I like it?).
I think the better alternative is for the dr to flesh out what things the person really wants to do already, and continuously encourage them to go for it.
Maybe what I’m missing is that by making it a prescription, medical insurance will cover it? I guess that would be pretty great, as long as the person has an intrinsic desire to do the thing.
While gold has a much later stage "shared illusion of value" that comes from its brand and emotional associations, I'd argue that Bitcoin is extremely similar, just much earlier stage.
The purported uses of gold have no relevance, they're just part of the illusion of gold having value. We value 3 swimming pools of an arbitrary substance at 7 trillion dollars. There is no utility that even justifies 1% of this valuation. It does not produce dividends.
Would you rather speculate on a "shared illusion of value" that has massive room to grow into the digital age, or one that is potentially reaching peak levels of absurdity?
Both assets are illusory bullshit - but you can make a lot of money trading bullshit.
We value 3 swimming pools of an arbitrary substance at 7 trillion dollars. Any utility for it is irrelevant at this valuation - it does not produce dividends. Gold is a brand, and the value of gold is a shared illusion. Bitcoin is much newer brand but it's not inconceivable that it could maintain a similar shared illusion.
Well, the gold bubble has yet to "permanently" pop, and has been through multiple phases of mania - an arbitrary substance worth trillions of dollars which our entire supply of fits in 3 olympic swimming pools. Socially agreed upon value can potentially last for generations without any fundamental sense.
I bet if you measured contentment levels then and now you would not find much of a difference! In fact you might find people are less content now than shitting in a ditch 2000 years ago.
But I did not mean this as an excuse for “non-progress”. Humans will “progress”, it’s their natural instinct and drive. It makes more sense to make our lives easier than to make it harder.
But the shining city doesn’t exist, and there’s nothing that will significantly increase our internal contentment but winning the internal battle of acceptance.
In life, we will always find “shining cities” to chase. The perfect house, the perfect job, the perfect romantic partner, the perfect software team.
But, like a mirage, when we reach these goals it seems that the thing we thought was perfect is actually riddled with flaws.
“The shining city” is purely a mental construct, one that gives us structure and purpose, staving off “existential nausea” - the anxiety that comes from living a directionless existence.
The way to everlasting peace is to be able to acknowledge: “we live in the shining city right now. Everything is operating according to the laws of physics, humans follow human nature and their genetics. Everything is exactly how it should be.”
But this isn’t “giving up”. It’s ok for us to have “shining city goals”. It’s human nature. It’s fun and allows us to experience a journey.
But at the end of the day when you see the mirage fade, smile about the journey and the experiences you had along the way.
The concept of “the library” is one that holds deep emotional attachment for many people. The nostalgia of book smells, the exhibitionism of reading “cool” physical books in public, the idea of being physically connected to “the community”.
The core function of a library, storing physical books, makes little sense anymore. Digital books are far superior in cost and functionality. But those emotionally attached will claim “they’re not the same”.
Our province in Canada has a population of 500,000 and has over 100 libraries. Each of those libraries needs to carry multiple copies of important literature. Many of these libraries go unused. It’s a big waste of money yet people can’t move on because of emotional attachment and emotional reasoning.
I do believe in the reinvisioning of libraries as a more digital space, a place to work, and a place for the public to learn.
But let’s stop the emotional reasoning and use pure logic. “Civil society” is more alive than ever, on the internet.
I’m not sure it matters too much. A user can only have an absolute maximum of 5000 friends and most people don’t ever reach that, including famous people. Networks like Twitter and Instagram which are focused on asymmetric “following” rather than friending have a lot more to lose when a “hub” leaves.
It's complete crap. The saddest part is that they do have some amazing technical minds behind the scenes. They give their stage to sleazy marketing and salespeople who have no idea what they're talking about way too often.
IBM is an embarrassing company. They are not culling based on age, they are culling based on severe lack of skills and dated values. IBM is saturated with tech people who threw in their technical chops 20 years ago to become a salesperson.
Everything they do, from their blockchain efforts to Watson, is so embarrassingly driven by oldschool sales/marketing people that they can't be taken seriously by technical decision makers at their customer companies.
IBM is an embarrassing company. They are not culling based on age, they are culling based on severe lack of skills and dated values. IBM is saturated with tech people who threw in their technical chops 20 years ago to become a salesperson.
Everything they do, from their blockchain efforts to Watson, is so embarrassingly driven by oldschool sales/marketing people that they can't be taken seriously by technical decision makers at their customer companies. They no longer have the ability to lead their customers in technical decisions.