adolfojp
I didn't even do it on purpose, it was a force of habit. I programmed myself to interrupt myself with mindless distractions, not even diversions, distractions.
So yeah, I always carry a small notebook and a kindle (and a fanny pack) and I have no social media apps on my phone which is a start.
We're both in our late 40s so we grew up before the Internet but then aged into it.
Our political views were very different and yet the lengthy conversation that we had was not just polite but also oddly relaxing. We found ourselves finding common ground and even persuading each other to grow our views on some topics.
When I left he told me that this was the nicest most interesting conversation he's had in a long time and I agreed.
And then I remembered having these conversations all the time when I was in my late teens and early to late 20s and that trying to have these conversations in the last decade was always futile so I stopped.
And then I remembered being ashamed of myself several times for being dysregulated and defensive and even volatile, guilty of what you describe and aware of it, not just online but also in person.
So yes I agree with you about what you're saying but sadly I don't know of a solution.
I guess it works like putting bitterant in cans of compressed air to stop people from huffing them.
It started as you expect, with more and more bot accounts pretending to be real people to either act as sleeper agents for future causes or to actively promote politics and products, except they're now interactive so you're tricked into engaging with them.
But the tipping point for me was when real people started using AI to write their posts and comments for them. And I'm not just talking about randos but about real people you follow who have written tech books and such. I've seen a few of them admit to this when confronted and they use the same excuse, that these are their thoughts and they stand by them, they're just improved by AI.
And I'm not just talking about long posts or comments. You see it with one liner responses which leads me to think that their reddit experience has now been automated and that at the most they hit approve on a queue.
So I've become cynical, almost in a state of solipsism, about every post and comment that I see, assuming everything is AI by default until I've checked which is now almost impossible with the private history. And at that point being on reddit is just like chatting with an LLM but with extra deception.
I had been to doctors, gotten colonoscopies and endoscopies and other tests, elimination diets, etc.
One week of this powder mixed with water and my ever present mild diarrhea is basically gone. It's as close to a miracle cure as I can imagine.
However, I haven't lost a single pound or lost a single inch from my waistline.
I have, however, gained muscle, because I can now work out more because I'm not constantly fatigued and my body can recover much faster so I'm lifting weights quite steadily.
I'm so enthusiastic about this that I sound like a bot or a shill but it is what it is.
It doesn't work as a bulking agent like psyllium husk did. I can vary the dose and take it with or without food on a full or an empty stomach and it still works making me think that it might be related to changes in microbiota. I apologize for too much info but I must add that the solidness and color and smell of my feces changed completely and that my digestive system has slowed digestion.
Moreover, leather is a widely available product and a byproduct of the meat industry.
You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. Perfect is the enemy of good. This is acceptable collateral damage. The number is surprisingly low. I've seen so many bullshit justifications like these.
But if you're still shopping at Costco then you don't really care about the effects that these big box stores have on small town economies.
You're just into performative activism.
But Costco does have better working conditions so I'll give you that.
Hear me out.
It's right next to Costco, literally in the same mall.
Products are kind of shittier but they're good enough. But good enough is better for me because the rest of the experience is just better.
Walking through Sam's Club is often a breeze whereas through Costco I waddle like a penguin sandwiched between a waddle of penguins, each competing for enough space and quiet and mental clarity to score a good purchase.
It can be panic inducing.
At Sam's Club I don't even walk to a cash register. I pay with my phone and I'm out.
They don't even ask me to show my ID at the door.
I think it's a combination of:
1. Ragebait being so useful at generating engagement that it's become a standard form of human interaction
2. The Internet making people feel safe from physical repercussions which makes people feel comfortable with treating others badly
3. Internet communities quickly becoming echo chambers where you're forced to pick a side if you want a sense of belonging
So we've been programmed and manipulated to be angry, to be tribal, and to act without fear of retaliation, and all for what? For ads and followers.
1 person talking about how they wish react native didn't exist
1 person asking about Capacitor
1 person complaining about Expo
1 person saying that they wouldn't use react native and recommending Kotlin Multiplatform instead
1 person complaining about the quality of the discussion (Me)
0 people talking about the new architecture
I still love Hacker News but the discussions are becoming increasingly pointless.
All that's missing is:
1 person complaining about the style in which the article was written
And no, there are no other movie theater chains available. And no, going to a matinee doesn't solve these problems. And there is no solution to these problems because they've become normalized so people will rush to defend them.
Interacting with other mod teams we've learned that this mod scarcity is apparently universal.
None of this matters to reddit because in all honesty they would probably be happier and more profitable by converting the website into a read only feed of memes and kittens.
We talked to an admin who reviewed our logs and they were surprised by the fact that our community was modded as a team because most of the communities that they had seen and worked with were apparently modded almost exclusively by a single person.
I thought at first that this was a joke because our head mod does most of the work and because we get new mods every year and they always leave.
So when our head mod leaves the subs will die. We'll become /r/worldpolitics. And there's a good chance that he'll leave during the protest.
What I'm trying to say is that we often see moderators as interchangeable, one leaves and another joins and nothing changes, but the reality is that good mods are scarce. I don't expect an inexperienced mod to join a sub with half a million users and know what to do. Most of our team doesn't know how to use the automoderator. I'm the only one who knows how to use the custom automation bot that I wrote. And then there's the issue of understanding the culture.
So whether reddit lives or dies in my opinion won't be a matter of how fast reddit can replace moderators but a matter of how many moderators will stay and put up with the bullshit because it has become part of their lives.
UNIX was not an option for most people which is one of the reasons why NT killed the Unix workstation market and Microsoft software like IIS, MS SQL and Exchange was already established when Linux gained mainstream adoption.