News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Testosterone levels show steady decrease among young US men. Parent comment

Re:Testosterone levels show steady decrease among young US men by tachyonbeam on Thursday January 14, 2021 @05:35PM (#25783807)
That's an interesting hypothesis. I do feel that as the amount of content online increases, it becomes harder and harder to feel like any output you have matters. Be it writing a blog or open source software, there's competition everywhere. It's also harder to make it a say, a musician, when you consider the amount of music that everyone can access on Spotify for example. Any amount of creative output that someone can output is somewhat diluted.

I find it much harder to motivate myself to produce anything than I did 10 years ago. I might just be older, but I do think that content dilution has something to do with it as well. How do you free yourself from that?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Testosterone levels show steady decrease among young US men by moosedev on Thursday January 14, 2021 @10:03PM (#25786493)
I struggle with similar feelings as an aging amateur musician, particularly in genres like jazz where it sometimes feels like there is almost no point putting something out there unless it's world-class technically... which I'll never be.

Something I realized recently - and admittedly this hasn't changed any behaviors for me yet, but maybe it will help you - is that a lot of the music I listen to is objectively not the best in the world in terms of technical skill, originality, popularity, etc. and yet I enjoy and appreciate it anyway. So maybe it's OK for me to make music that's also not the best in the world - someone might find it and like it anyway. And if not, no harm!

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Testosterone levels show steady decrease among young US men by agent008t on Friday January 15, 2021 @05:09AM (#25789051)
Go offline I suppose? Talk more openly to people in real-life, to build a real-life community of like-minded people? Easier said than done, I know.

But we have kind of inadvertently let the internet shape our lives. There is nothing stopping us from living like it is the 80s + using the internet only where it makes our lives actually better.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Testosterone levels show steady decrease among young US men by tachyonbeam on Friday January 15, 2021 @09:41AM (#25791453)
That might be especially difficult right now with the government mandating that people shouldn't leave home.
[ Parent | on HN ]