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Why our outdated brains are making us unhappy

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Re: Why our outdated brains are making us unhappy

#71

Post by danielam »

The overall way the author frames the discussion is putting the cart before the horse and ultimately Procrustean. The author's argument is a bit like a person with his head in a bucket of water claiming that human beings are "outdated" because we have this "primitive" need to breathe that's preventing us from being able to deal with having our heads stuck in buckets full of water. Maybe we shouldn't be sticking our heads in buckets of water? Maybe breathing is good?

There is a pathological strain of individualism divorced from reality that understands freedom not as freedom from all those things that are opposed to human nature (and especially our own vices), but as the right to arbitrarily will and do anything with no reference to human nature. Indeed, there is a hostility to the very idea of human nature because it is seen as an impediment to freedom.

Re: Why our outdated brains are making us unhappy

#72

Post by ashark »

opportune wrote: post #62
bluntfang wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>A far simpler solution is available to all of us: stop using Instagram. Easier said than done, no? That's basically saying "opt out of modern society," which I personally agree with, but it's not a reasonable solution. These companies that spend b/millions on psychological research to condition consumers is not going away anytime soon.

Almost all males I know are not on instagram, and I'm in my early twenties. It's not like Facebook in that you might "miss out" on things like invitations to events or participation in groups. It's just a photo sharing website. Calling it "modern society" is just ridiculous hyperbole

None of the males in my circle of friends (spanning mid 20s to mid 30s) who aren't single are on social media at all. The two single ones are only on social media because that's where they coordinate dates/hookups. Events and get-togethers are organized ad hoc over text or instant messaging (Whatsapp). I don't even know what possible use I'd have for Instagram or Facebook.

Re: Why our outdated brains are making us unhappy

#73

Post by collyw »

ejlangev wrote: post #44

Seems the author's intentions are good but it's such an odd way to frame it. He outlines that many companies are explicitly designing products in such a way as to exploit ("hack") people's brains at great detriment to those people. But his response is to frame it as that we should place blame on our own brains rather than on the people doing these things or the social structure that rewards them. Feels like he could…

I thought it was quite interesting after a bit of introspection.

I expected to pick holes in it and make critical comments here. Then as I read it, I realized that while I am not too addicted to posting shit on Facebook, I get the same dopamine release when I post responses here. Sure I feel a bit smarter because its usually involves a bit more reasoning than a selfie on Faceboook, but the end effect is the same. The reading of the article was the first step in chasing that dopamine hit.

Re: Why our outdated brains are making us unhappy

#74

Post by tracker1 »

deltafreq369 wrote: post #49

I tried 80% fat diet and blood ketone monitoring for a few months. I felt more energetic and happy. My girlfriend tried the same thing, she felt lethargic. I think individual customization based on genetics and lifestyle is necessary if you want to do any effective biohacking.

Agreed.. I recently discovered I specifically don't react well to legumes... nothing huge, just some upset stomach etc... but when I avoid them successfully, I do much better... I falter (get fast food fried in "vegetable" ie soybean oil), it's worse every time.

I did a year of very low carb, and was pretty good after about the first couple weeks. I just really like pasta, bread, etc. I've been heading in that direction again, as I did a lot better on beef, bison, elk, etc than poultry or legume sources. Also have noticed the effects of secondary animal products and what they're fed more than I expected.

I just wish soy free eggs weren't so much more difficult to find... and making my own mayo/ranch isn't so bad, just time consuming for a product that spoils relatively quickly. But I feel a lot better when I don't have the stuff.

Aside: trail mix is a whole new level of fun when you can't have legumes (peanuts), and are badly allergic to cranberries. Have to make my own.

Re: Why our outdated brains are making us unhappy

#77

Post by rwallace »

overcast wrote: post #24
graphitezepp wrote: post #17

Nobody will even bother to listen to me talk about social media anymore, because I am always telling people it is unhealthy and they should get off it (and yet I'm here). It is the worst fast food imaginable for our human need to socialize, transient and shallow.

I think comparing a discussion on HN to liking photos, and notifications on Instagram. Is a bit far fetched. You can easily argue about the addictiveness of an online forum, and social interaction. We are social creatures after all. But social media sites like IG, Facebook, Twitter, specifically target those weaknesses in our brain.

Just as different kinds of processed food vary in how bad they are, so do different social media sites. I think HN is like pizza: yeah, it's not perfectly healthy, but which of us is going to live a perfectly healthy lifestyle, and pizza still contains a good deal of nutritional value. It's certainly a lot better than cookies.

Re: Why our outdated brains are making us unhappy

#78

Post by nnd »

randomdrake wrote: post #67

More information about how you can avoid making apps that do this, or how you can control your own app usage, can be found here: http://www.timewellspent.io There's an interesting page where they show the results of 200,000 users of an app called Moment[1] where you can see which apps make people the least happy. Additionally, you can see the time limits at which users start to feel happy about their usage. http://ww…

Thank you for sharing this.

Re: Why our outdated brains are making us unhappy

#79

Post by goatlover »

taternuts wrote: post #60
devrandomguy wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are times, when I can't honestly claim that my behavior is any smarter than that of the houseflies that die in front of the window, or the salmon that spends the remainder of its life searching for a way past a dam. The environment might be more complex, but the behavior is not. It is helpful to have a name for the system that is responsible, makes it much easier to recognize and derail it. I believe Sir Mix-A-…

One of the books that really allowed me to think differently and sometimes overpower my train of thought is called "The Power of Now". The rhetoric can be super flowery at times (especially in the beginning), but the point he tries to get across was incredibly novel to me and there's strategies in there to help you control your brain and use it more as a tool. I often think that salmon has it better than us humans. T…

Would you rather be a salmon? I rather prefer the complexity that comes with having a self.

Re: Why our outdated brains are making us unhappy

#80

Post by amch »

devrandomguy wrote: post #48
jathu wrote: post #22

I've been reading a lot about this "ancestral hijacking" lately and have tried to cut out on a lot of them. My phone now only has two possible notifications: phone calls and Things app. I have 0 social apps or games. I am also slowly cutting out sugars and extra carbs. I think you guys should read about supernormal stimulus [1]. There is this comic [2] about supernormal stimulus that shows how man, and man alone, has…

There are times, when I can't honestly claim that my behavior is any smarter than that of the houseflies that die in front of the window, or the salmon that spends the remainder of its life searching for a way past a dam. The environment might be more complex, but the behavior is not. It is helpful to have a name for the system that is responsible, makes it much easier to recognize and derail it. I believe Sir Mix-A-…

Honestly, as an enthusiast of all things callipygian, Sir Mix-A-Lot's treatise (BGB) was groundbreaking.

To your point about being unable to control his own reptile brain, however, I don't know how much I buy that. From the get-go, SMA acknowledges that "[he] cannot lie", which I think is a concession to determinism more so than one to biology.

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