71–80 of 143 posts
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There was a great documentary on medically assisted dying in Canada recently (by CBC's the Fifth Estate), where social safety nets have become so woefully inadequate for the disabled that some are successfully applying to be legally euthanized by doctors rather than become unhoused and freeze to death on the street.
Apparently they just need like, meditation and good vibes, man. Totally not a platitude.
I've decided to part ways with my partner now and move out, be on my own again at 30. I could've started a family now, but chose not to. I don't know if that opportunity will ever come again.
I've tried hard, but I just couldn't shake off the feeling of living a life according to a template, or a recipe. Holding myself up to everybody's expectations but mine. Feels like I'm ruining my life by walking away from people that truly care about me.
I don't want to bask in regret. Am I ruining my life?
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I don't understand this comment. You can, like me, fail to engage with the writing or the topic. But what's wrong with writing about your experiences on your blog? Why should that not be centered around yourself?
If you want to share the first hand account of your life, do that. If you want to make theoretical arguments, do that. If you want to offer empiricism by looking broadly or in detail, do that.
What’s less worthwhile is to share as little of your life as possible while generalizing it into advice as much as possible. You can claim “I’m just sharing my experiences”, but that’s not really it. The experiences are a fig leaf, a way to speak with maximal authority with minimal accountability.
When I was 23, I misdosed myself and took 110mg of 4-AcO-DMT. The experience was EXTREMELY traumatic and I believed I was dying. At one point I was so overstimulated I just lay on my kitchen floor convulsing uncontrollably. The next few days I didn't know what to do. My body would just shake, I couldn't sleep and I stayed up until I passed out for an hour, and then my shaking would wake up myself up again. I was over…
That's good advice, but unfortunately it also applies to situations like "being put to death."
Maybe my response seems flippant, but it's the core reason I was never able to internalize platitudes. There doesn't seem to be any nuanced or precise advice.
Interestingly, one of the most effective for me was dang's: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13110096
He probably didn't mean it as philosophical advice, but when I read it, I burst out laughing and never really stopped. When things get tough, I just shrug and try to embrace it. After all, things can always get worse.
If you take an attitude of "I wonder how bad things can get?" then you tend to discover that there's an upper bound on most forms of badness, which did make me feel better.
E.g. it's hard to imagine a shot at the dentist getting much worse than the worst pain you've ever experienced in your life. So if you've already felt something worse, you can calibrate your temporary expectations and snap yourself out of fear loops.
A shot at the dentist isn't so bad, but mental loops can be. So if you're in an anxiety spiral, compare it to the worst emotional distress you've ever felt, and see if it's worse. If it's worse, switch to physical pain. I'm able to stay in a good mood when I'm nauseous thanks to having had one of the worst illnesses I've ever had, a few months ago. Headaches and queasiness feels small in comparison.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Social media profile notifications. Web push notifications. Good ol trusty RSS...
> Social media profile notifications Requires you to create an account on that specific platform, plus we have a few examples (eg: Facebook, YouTube) where the platform might decide to not notify everyone if the content isn't "worthy". Edit: And since timelines now are curated by some algorithm, you can't trust it to show you all new content. > Web push notifications Abused by many to send you crap, not always easy t…
Precisely. One downside is you have to have an account on the platform to receive notifications but this can be overlooked by the fact that SM platforms have X10/0 reach (potential) comparatively. Besides the type of person who wants to engage audiences via email subscriptions isn't necessarily eager to post unsavory content.
> Edit: And since timelines now are curated by some algorithm, you can't trust it to show you all new content.
No. The point is to receive alerts for new content. No sorting is done for this list as far as am aware of.
> Abused by many to send you crap, not always easy to keep everything working when moving to another device. It's disabled on my browser.
I think if we are being fair, we can say email has been abused far more (famous Nigerian prince) than push notifications maybe ever will.
> I like RSS. And this blog offers a feed
Yes. But none of this is immediately clear from the article nor from the main page. I honestly wouldn't know there's an RSS feed if you hadn't posted it.
Why do people still use email as a way of subscribing to content? There are many better and more efficient ways to solve this problem rather than having your subscription mail go straight to junk mail.
What drugs?
As good a guess as any, but I vote Salvia Divinorum.
I always found it a somewhat enjoyable experience, extremely reality melting during, but short in duration with an interestingly profound "afterglow".
I guess it having been sold in gas stations and head shops as ridiculously potent extracts with no readily accessible dosing data might have a lot to do with that.
It's actually human nature afaik. In studies into human happiness Leda Cosmides and John Tooby found that our brains set our happiness level relative our neighbours.
-- article gives no good advice on what to do when you ruined your life - so maybe hackernews has some good advice? --
For the attention-starved, here's the TED version: https://www.ted.com/talks/jon_ronson_when_online_shaming_goe...
Everyone is different; both in situation and tolerance for / ability to recover from trauma:
- find a project that you're deeply passionate about and throw yourself into it
- recruit a good therapist
- don't skip exercise; lap swimming (Google AfterShokz Xtrainerz) is an excellent way to calm your mind and keep your heart ticking
- don't let anyone convince you that the dumbest 0.01% of your life precludes you from finding meaning, belonging to a community or being loved