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Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Randomize His Life

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111–120 of 187 posts

Re: Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Randomize His Life

#111
post #106

This "I'm bored with my life. I shall appify it and travel to random countries" stuff is a whole level beyond First World Problems. It is something like First World Problems of the Jet Set. Yet, this article doesn't cast him as a member of the Jet Set. Modern Life has gone to some rather weird places that were simply inconceivable until incredibly recently.

>Modern Life has gone to some rather weird places that were simply inconceivable until incredibly recently.

You'd be surprised.

Humans are not animals. They can have such worries and desires regardless of their material status.

Even people in eras that were horribly materially constrained, had to fight wards, work their ass off, people in anything that we can define as "First World Problems" had similar (and even more extended) concerns.

The movement of existentialism in Europe, for example, was created and popularized by people who had participated in major wars and struggles, and then were left to make a living in the ruins of post war Paris and Berlin and such (Sartre himself was drafted, caught, and spend a year as a prisoner of war in Nazi camps).

And there have been people with wanderlust (desire to travel to "random countries") for as long as there have been people -- including tons of people in dire economic situation, from third world countries, and what have you, sailing etc.

Re: Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Randomize His Life

#112
post #16

This is great. I think that the illusion of time speeding up as we get older is due to getting into a routine where we do the same thing every day, and the brain begins compressing memories as our everyday experiences become less novel. Using a "randomizer lite" program to shake things up might be a good start to breaking the routine.

>I think that the illusion of time speeding up as we get older is due to getting into a routine where we do the same thing every day, and the brain begins compressing memories as our everyday experiences become less novel.

That's part of it. Another part is that, even if everything you see is novel everyday, if you are 1 year old, a year, e.g. getting to 2 years old is 100% increase in your life experiences. Getting from 31 to 32, not so much. It gets exponentially less, to the point of going from 40 to 50 a mere 25% extra lifetime for a whole decade. Whereas a decade when you're 1 is 10x more lifetime.

Re: Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Randomize His Life

#113
post #106

This "I'm bored with my life. I shall appify it and travel to random countries" stuff is a whole level beyond First World Problems. It is something like First World Problems of the Jet Set. Yet, this article doesn't cast him as a member of the Jet Set. Modern Life has gone to some rather weird places that were simply inconceivable until incredibly recently.

> Modern Life has gone to some rather weird places that were simply inconceivable until incredibly recently. You'd be surprised. Humans are not animals. They can have such worries and desires regardless of their material status. Even people in eras that were horribly materially constrained, had to fight wards, work their ass off, people in anything that we can define as "First World Problems" had similar (and even mo…

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Re: Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Randomize His Life

#114
post #51
post #7

I actually met Max while we both happened to be in Thailand in 2015. We spent the day on bicycles following the directions his script told him, without hesitation. Regardless of where it was in the city, that's where we went next (a laundry mat, daycare, cafes, and the zoo iirc). Nothing was skipped, because it was what the software told us to do. Here are some pictures from that day https://goo.gl/photos/gyCNRz2rs7z…

Reminds me of a "game" some friends would play in the early days of turn-by-turn GPS. "Garmin Knows Best", where you input a location and follow the GPS exactly. Driver beware.

Michael, that's a lake!

Re: Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Randomize His Life

#115
post #78

NPR so diligently points out white privilege. It couldn't be that he dresses well, has good hygiene, is educated, well off, and speaks politely. It is only because he's white? In San Francisco of all places? > At first, he was nervous: What if people wouldn't let him in? But, as a kind of unassuming white guy, he actually didn't have this problem. (And Max acknowledges this privilege.)

Really? You think that this is exclusively a matter of hygiene and style ? I don't know what's worse, that you're so misinformed about the existence of white privilege, or that you feel comfortable trying to bring some edgy socio-racial nonsense into this conversation.

White privilege is modern civilization.

Re: Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Randomize His Life

#116
post #71

To a certain extent, this how we used to travel back in the day. You hung out in a hostel, had conversations with other travelers (instead of thumbing through Instagram), and let the randomness of other people and life, not apps, dictate your itinerary. You walk down a street, "oh hey that looks interesting", and wander down a quiet alley that leads to cute cafe, or jump in the back of a tuk-tuk headed to a waterfall…

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Re: Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Randomize His Life

#117
post #71

To a certain extent, this how we used to travel back in the day. You hung out in a hostel, had conversations with other travelers (instead of thumbing through Instagram), and let the randomness of other people and life, not apps, dictate your itinerary. You walk down a street, "oh hey that looks interesting", and wander down a quiet alley that leads to cute cafe, or jump in the back of a tuk-tuk headed to a waterfall…

The 'old way' is exactly how I traveled Vietnam. My and my friends didn't have any plans at all, all we had booked was our first night's accommodation in Saigon. The rest we planned from talking to people at hostels, we ended up with a big group of about a dozen of us by the time we got to Hanoi. In my opinion, it's the only way to travel. I have never understood planning in advance your entire holiday down to the ho…

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Re: Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Randomize His Life

#118
post #71

To a certain extent, this how we used to travel back in the day. You hung out in a hostel, had conversations with other travelers (instead of thumbing through Instagram), and let the randomness of other people and life, not apps, dictate your itinerary. You walk down a street, "oh hey that looks interesting", and wander down a quiet alley that leads to cute cafe, or jump in the back of a tuk-tuk headed to a waterfall…

The 'old way' is exactly how I traveled Vietnam. My and my friends didn't have any plans at all, all we had booked was our first night's accommodation in Saigon. The rest we planned from talking to people at hostels, we ended up with a big group of about a dozen of us by the time we got to Hanoi. In my opinion, it's the only way to travel. I have never understood planning in advance your entire holiday down to the ho…

When I was in grad school, this is how I traveled each summer with my brother and cousin. We'd pick a country and have our first night (maybe a couple of nights) accommodations picked out and then let the feel of the day guide us. Some of our best times were with random people we'd meet at the hostel and then travel around with for a couple of days before going our own way.

Re: Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Randomize His Life

#119
post #16

This is great. I think that the illusion of time speeding up as we get older is due to getting into a routine where we do the same thing every day, and the brain begins compressing memories as our everyday experiences become less novel. Using a "randomizer lite" program to shake things up might be a good start to breaking the routine.

> I think that the illusion of time speeding up as we get older is due to getting into a routine where we do the same thing every day, and the brain begins compressing memories as our everyday experiences become less novel. That's part of it. Another part is that, even if everything you see is novel everyday, if you are 1 year old, a year, e.g. getting to 2 years old is 100% increase in your life experiences. Getting…

I get the math, but the reasoning feels unjustified: why should we assume our brains work that way? It would make sense if we remembered the same amount of stuff every year, but reality is, you have fewer memories of the past.

I am on the "routine makes every day the same and days just pass unnoticed" camp.

Re: Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Randomize His Life

#120
post #71

To a certain extent, this how we used to travel back in the day. You hung out in a hostel, had conversations with other travelers (instead of thumbing through Instagram), and let the randomness of other people and life, not apps, dictate your itinerary. You walk down a street, "oh hey that looks interesting", and wander down a quiet alley that leads to cute cafe, or jump in the back of a tuk-tuk headed to a waterfall…

The 'old way' is exactly how I traveled Vietnam. My and my friends didn't have any plans at all, all we had booked was our first night's accommodation in Saigon. The rest we planned from talking to people at hostels, we ended up with a big group of about a dozen of us by the time we got to Hanoi. In my opinion, it's the only way to travel. I have never understood planning in advance your entire holiday down to the ho…

[deleted]
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