It’s obviously better when there’s good data. People like myself who frequent HN often do because they want to hear an expert cut through the propaganda with the inside baseball on the real science. And I hope someone does on this thread. But in the absence of a qualified expert interpreting the inside data laypeople are as always thrown back on the thoughtfulness arbitrary creative force gave a rock and anecdata. An…
It sounds trite but just do it. Go out. Go to bars, go to the gym, go to the coffee shop, go to wherever people are congregating. Living cooped up in a box is no way to live. Unsurprising that the study in TFA found that creatures living in unhappy circumstances seek mood-altering substances more than those living more freely and naturally.
But historically I’m a rabid extrovert on paper in terms of coffee shops and bars and comedy clubs and music shows. Before the risk was that I’d meet some cool people and talk until I had to race to the morning’s first meeting.
And when I say “empty-seeming” I don’t mean there are no people exactly, but rather that walking up to someone and introducing yourself seems to go over about as well everywhere as it historically has in Paris.
Now one random guy having a bad time socially isn’t data, but I thought it was worthwhile to throw out in case I wasn’t the only one.