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We need to reclaim our attention

theguardian.com

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Re: We need to reclaim our attention

#291

Post by freewilly1040 »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #223
bnralt wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think many of your examples are of times we failed to counter problematic tendencies as a society, gave up, and then even worse (in this case, more addictive time consuming activities) things come along. It's basically the realization of a slippery slope, where failure to stop one problematic trend is used to justify an even worse trend. Society can survive with bad tendencies. Think about 50 years ago when America…

Totally agree. When I hear the argument "People always say this, they said this before with TV and videogames", it just makes me think that people are discounting some of the huge negative impacts these technologies have had (or at least contributed to). Just look at the overall physical fitness of, say, an average 18 year old in 1950 vs today in the US. By loads of measures (obesity, muscle strength, cardiovascular…

Slight tangent re: fitness. Over Christmas my dad and some similarly aged people (70’s) were reminiscing about their childhood, and pointed to the lack of Doritos as memorable. Junk food was neither the product of decades of addictiveness-enhancing R&D not cheap.

A poor person today by contrast has junk food as the cheapest option.

Re: We need to reclaim our attention

#292

Post by thegrimmest »

Apocryphon wrote: post #287
thegrimmest wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being able to choose between horrible options is exactly the definition of freedom. Believe it or not many people would choose free destitution over pampered slavery. It is exactly the ability to make this choice, at the most extreme level, that should be respected. To take an maximal example: you should be able to sell your kidneys to fuel your heroin habit, for no other reason than because no one can claim more own…

What is wrong with paternalism?

The authoritarian and condescending nature of it.

Re: We need to reclaim our attention

#293

Post by acrobatsunfish »

seanp2k2 wrote: post #252
gnicholas wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve never gone spear hunting but I did play paintball once. It was thrilling, and when I woke up the next day I was more sore that I’d ever been in my life (including playing varsity sports). I realized that’s because it was the closest I’d ever come to ‘running for my life’. FPS mimic the pleasure of this experience, but without the physical engagement. It’s like the refined carbs version of hunting.

Really wish CQB paintball was more popular in the US. I’d love to play the equivalent of SWAT or Rainbow Six with paintball, but most of it these days seems to be “spray thousands of balls at large inflatable barriers on a tennis court hoping to mark a bit of your opponent’s elbow”. The CTF events seem fun, but I want something more like a Battlefield round if it’s going to be like that.

Try playing with one hopper of ammo a round. You can't create Lanes of fire and denial without an obscene amount of paint.

Re: We need to reclaim our attention

#295

Post by thegrimmest »

Apocryphon wrote: post #290
thegrimmest wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not strictly in favour of total economic freedom and wasn't the one to bring it up. Namely I am in favour of regulating the physical commons - rights of way, air, water, etc. that we all must physically interact with. I'm against the paternalistic regulation of how free people should peacefully interact with each other, with the view to steer outcomes to some random idea of good.

What ensures the parties involved are free? Many of these issues being discussed deal with consequences experienced by one party that were never disclosed by the other. Information asymmetry makes such contracts un-free and thus the legal framework should permit nullification and redress.

> What ensures the parties involved are free?

The prohibition by the government of the physical force requisite to deprive people of their freedom.

> the legal framework should permit nullification and redress

It does already. Contracts have disclosure clauses all the time.

Re: We need to reclaim our attention

#296

Post by thegrimmest »

Apocryphon wrote: post #294
thegrimmest wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The authoritarian and condescending nature of it.

Why is paternalism within the family not authoritarian or condescending?

It absolutely is! In the context of raising a child, it may be appropriate. When interacting with an equal it is not.

Re: We need to reclaim our attention

#297

Post by freewilly1040 »

SavantIdiot wrote: post #178
fullshark wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another possibility: the moral panic about comic books / rap music / low brow culture was justified and its ubiquity has done active harm to our society.

How?

To take an example - one of the most popular songs of my childhood glamorized smoking weed (literally had the lyrics “smoke weed everyday”!).

Stripping away all the justified opposition to prohibition, it’s really not good for most people to smoke weed everyday. Pointing out any potential harms became deeply uncool. It’s not difficult to imagine people probably smoke weed regularly as a result.

Re: We need to reclaim our attention

#298

Post by hackingthelema »

curun1r wrote: post #285
hackingthelema wrote: post #67

I often wonder what the world would be like if the Buddhist sciences of the mind (e.g. mindfulness) were taught at all levels of society, as a priority, and TFA mentions it near the end, to say it's not enough: > Meditation is a useful tool – but we actually need to stop the people who are pouring itching powder on us. We need to band together to take on the forces stealing our attention and take it back. I'd argue t…

I've done a bunch of Buddhist trainings, 10-day retreats and such and, for me at least, the saying "no plan survives contact with the enemy" seems to apply. I've yet to be able to carry what I've learned forward into a modern lifestyle. I'm able to keep some amount of discipline for around 2ish weeks following my period of isolation from the world, but I eventually find screen time and work pressures overwhelming my…

10 minutes of meditation, consistently & properly performed once or twice a day over time does a lot more good than any temporary boost like a retreat. In Mindfulness in Plain English, Venerable Henepola Gunaratana says:

> When you first start meditation, once a day is enough. If you feel like meditating more, that's fine, but don't overdo it. There's a burn-out phenomenon we often see in new meditators. They dive right into the practice fifteen hours a day for a couple of weeks, and then the real world catches up with them. They decide that this meditation business just takes too much time. Too many sacrifices are required. They haven't got time for all of this. Don't fall into that trap. Don't burn yourself out the first week. Make haste slowly. Make your effort consistent and steady. Give yourself time to incorporate the meditation practice into your life, and let your practice grow gradually and gently.

The way 'mindfulness' is taught and the business of retreats and training gets in the way of the real work, which takes place every day and in normal life, a little at a time. It doesn't need to be complicated.

Re: We need to reclaim our attention

#299

Post by erikbye »

pier25 wrote: post #277
erikbye wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you try to "keep it all in your mind?" Document. Wiki. Code comments. Good commit messages. Etc. Use a task/issue tracker. Whether that is a text file, Trello, or whatever. Track progress.

Of course I have documentation. What I meant is that when working on certain features you will need to understand it all to implement it. It's like when you're working on some code and you need to understand all the classes and abstractions involved to make it work.

> What I meant is that when working on certain features you will need to understand it all to implement it.

That's more or less true regardless if you're soloing a project or on a team. Depending on the design. It's true, you do sometimes, for a period of time, have to keep several things in your head at the same time, but how the code base, class, function, or whatever, is structured, can increase or lessen this cognitive load. There's many ways to skin this cat. Generally you shouldn't have to keep more in your head than the current module. It's all about encapsulation. Do you need to understand just the interface, or the implementation as well? That's your choice, as far as how you design your codebase, since you're a solo dev.

Re: We need to reclaim our attention

#300

Post by sbolt »

Zak wrote: post #273

I want a digest system for notifications on my phone. This used to be common for mailing lists and web forums with email notification systems. I could get an email daily or weekly with the replies to my posts and subscriptions instead of real-time. The temptation to poll manually was reduced because I knew I'd be notified eventually. I want to be able to tell my phone to do the same with its notifications, preferably…

iOS 15 added something like what you are describing called Scheduled Summary. Notifications are snoozed and delivered at set times throughout the day (twice per day is the default). I believe there is also an API for developers of messaging apps to allow notification privilege escalation.
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