kikishortler

Genius = creativity + intelligence

You can preserve your creativity (doing things your own way) if you are prepared to pay the social cost but intelligence is largely inherited.

And intelligent women are having fewer children nowadays...

Low latent inhibition.

On the face of it this looks more like studying than learning. The distinction is not meaningless. I studied French for six years and passed an exam at the end. However despite all this activity I have never been able to converse in French. By a variant of Gell-Mann Amnesia effect, I conclude that I cannot do mathematics either.

Amusing nonsense. Pain is indeed not the same as damage. But nor is it the same as suffering, as lovers of curry and BDSM both know.

Many of the religious ideas about masturbation were wrong, e.g. that it caused blindness. These ideas were created by priests who felt guilty about masturbating.

Many of the modern ideas about masturbation are also wrong, e.g. that it is 'healthy'. These are merely scientistic attempts to reverse the former shaming and guilt.

For me the question remains: is masturbation any better or worse than taking drugs?

Several emotions/states seem to have a dual nature depending on context and interpretation. Obsessing over data seems like a good thing; obsessing over grant applications seems like a bad thing. Since both scientific ideas and our understanding of them improve with repeated recall and criticism perhaps 'anxiety' can be put to good use.