JonShartwell

How is an elected representative a dictator? About half of the US population voted in 2020, something like 100x the proportion of the population who voted to elect representatives at the time of the constitution. By any standard the US is far more democratic than it was then. I do agree that things should be more democratic now though.

I appreciate the advice, but I already see a therapist. Here I was looking more for perspectives from people with personal experience.

Also I think “get a counselor” is really overused advice that can be a lot less helpful than people think. I have had 5 therapists in my life (I clearly have a lot of problems haha) and all of them except the current one I would say were actively harmful to my mental health. I think I have had particularly bad luck and am an unusual case, but the generic advice glosses over the fact that finding a therapist who works for you is not an easy task, whether you can afford it or not. If someone is asking for advice with a specific problem online, I think it’s a lot more helpful to try to help than to tell them that they need to undertake what could be a months or years long process to find a therapist who works for them, and act like that’s easy.

Thanks for your comment and advice. That makes sense and I think I understand - if I want to achieve something then it takes discipline and motivation will not always exist for me to rely on. But the part I’m struggling with is why try to achieve it / do good work to begin with.

I think I’m overcomplicating things. If I want to do good work and clearly not doing good work doesn’t make me feel good, maybe it’s enough to understand that doing better work will make me feel better and that’s enough motivation in itself. Kind of like how the amateur runner doesn’t run to win a medal but because they see it’s good for them and that makes them happy.

Thanks a lot for your comment. I think you’re right that I have fallen into habits out of line with what I really value (doing good work) and fixing those is very useful advice. I can write a lot of words whining about how it’s hard for me to find motivation but if my problem is that I don’t feel like I’m doing good work then the solution can only be to actually do good work.

WRT imposter syndrome, I understand it’s very common but I don’t think it’s my current problem. Earlier in my career I did have this imposter feeling like “I don’t belong to be here with these people much smarter and more capable than me.” Now I feel like I have proven myself and I do deserve to be here, but I feel like I can’t motivate myself to live up to the potential I have. I.e. I want to do better work, and I feel like if I could motivate myself then I could, but I struggle to motivate myself. Maybe if I think more about why it is that I want to do better work then that will become a more powerful motivator for me.

It’s a common experience to order something from a website and have its appearance be different from your expectations based on the photos and description. If you can see the appearance of the item you’re buying before buying that problem is impossible

Does the word “correction” not imply that the previous price was incorrect?

It absolutely is up to the law to set the standard. Wishing people would all live up to your ethical standards for no reason will always have the same result: no difference. You can wish it all you want but it’s never going to actually cause an improvement to the world.

Making unethical behavior illegal actually does have an impact on what people do because it changes their cost/reward decision

The only difference between a manufacturer’s online store and a retailer’s from customer point of view is that the retailer sells multiple brands. I guess maybe there’s some value if you want to browse different brands, but if you already know what you want then the middleman is not providing you any benefit at all over the manufacturer’s online store.

Brick and mortar is different because they’re actually maintaining a space to show the items and bringing them close to you which is a benefit to the buyer.

Other countries also have groups who have historically been discriminated against and the numbers show they do a much better job at solving these crimes than the US

I’d also add Barbara Ehrenreich’s Bright-sided, motivated in part by her irritation with people telling her to be positive after hearing about her cancer diagnosis https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113758...

How would you be able to tell what’s veiled skepticism vs legitimate skepticism?

I don’t know, the criticism in OP seems pretty substantive to me. I don’t know much about this subject so I can’t really weigh in on how much the post makes sense but regardless appeal to authority is essentially the opposite of modern science. That’s why nullius in verba has been a motto of science for 300+ years.

On that point, scientists don’t need you to chastise people for questioning their authority online. I think a lot of them would be offended at the idea that you think that is what they want.

It’s absolutely in the spirit of science to question an experiment’s methods and results. If you disagree with the criticism then present some evidence. An appeal to authority is pretty unconvincing considering scientists have been confidently wrong about quite a lot in the past.

I have been in and out of AA (thankfully in a good place currently) and I think this idea that addicts are fundamentally different from everyone else is a complete myth that only makes people with addiction problems feel more hopeless and separate from society. Have you ever had a harmful habit you have had difficulty breaking, or been unable to do something that you know will improve your health? Then you can relate to an addict. Their habit is likely a lot more harmful than yours, and affects their brain chemistry, but it’s the same mechanism that prevents you both from stopping even though you know it would help you.

Judson Brewer is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who researches addiction and advocates this view. I found his book The Craving Mind[1] to be incredibly illuminating and true to my experience as a person who has struggled with drug use.

[1] https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300234367/craving-mind/

Yeah, the 12th step is to sponsor people (among other things), there is no shortage