Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

De-Brainrot Vacations

devz.cl

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 218 posts

Re: De-Brainrot Vacations

#151

Post by goalieca »

dwedge wrote: post #139
downut wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's possible that I'm in your grandparent's generation, or maybe your parents. I'm 65. I don't want to derail the conversation, but I do want to correct the bit about "exercise as a hobby was viewed as extremely weird, runners used to be arrested!". In the '70s at least, running was extremely normal. Endurance bicycling was normal. For instance, starting in 1979. I bicycled all over the South: FL GA NC, at least. Th…

I can't remember which decade he's talking about or verify his claims, but in Shoe Dog the creator of Nike talks about how running for exercise was viewed as very weird in the last century, and he implies that Adidas pretty much singlehandedly changed public perception on this. Not that nobody did it, but that it was considered very weird and rare. He was only talking about running, not exercise in general, but I see…

I think he was full of shit. I wasn’t around then myself but know tons of people who trained for their sports by jogging.

Re: De-Brainrot Vacations

#152

Post by qlte »

willy_k wrote: post #121
carlosjobim wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sleep is also a forced meditation, so we can't avoid processing information. But in a different way of course.

We can totally avoid (being conscious of) processing stuff during sleep too. Just take some SSRIs or smoke weed and you wake up in the next day. I think that that has more effect on people than people realize, dreaming is important but many people don’t experience that side of things any more.

I suspect you mean benzos or Z-drugs not SSRIs based on context.

Re: De-Brainrot Vacations

#153

Post by HedonicEscal8r »

poncho_romero wrote: post #117
p_j_w wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe we’re just getting older.

As a young person, I can at least anecdotally say the same thing is happening to people who, while older, ain't old yet.

As a young person, I have no idea what you guys are talking about, and recommend not overgeneralizing from anecdotes.

Re: De-Brainrot Vacations

#154

Post by alex_suzuki »

I’m married and have kids so there’s always something going on in my life and I don’t get many opportunities for “peace and quiet”.

What works wonders for me is swimming. I only do front crawl so I’m basically staring at the bottom of the pool for the entire duration of the swim. It’s incredibly boring. But something happens in my head, I can just think better. I will often take a problem from work and mull it over in the water, and very often I come up with either a solution or otherwise put it in perspective or some other strategy to deal with it.

Highly recommend. Also at my age (mid-40s), some form of movement that is gentle on the joints is appreciated.

Re: De-Brainrot Vacations

#155

Post by ziofill »

ChrisLTD wrote: post #141
ProllyInfamous wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>We get wise too late... >>...and old too soon. >>–Danish Proverb ---- At early-forties, I don't think I count as "young" anymore. Definitely: growing up without a cell phone was beautiful. I still remember driving around semi-lost, using paper maps, quite fondly (I still print directions). My last partner (eight years my junior) "grew up on her cellphone" and it was just remarkable how fucked her brain was... at le…

Forties isn’t old. You might not have the energy reserves of a younger person, but you shouldn’t feel like your brain is mush.

I’m a professional theoretical physicist in my 40s and I never thought the day would come that I would realize I became shit at mental math. I can do quantum physics in my head but don’t ask me to add 17 to 34

Re: De-Brainrot Vacations

#156

Post by alex_suzuki »

bArray wrote: post #92

> Add to that the usage of AI. While I know I’m way more productive than during those first months, my thoughts are getting slower, less profound, lazier. I have mostly stayed away from LLM usage, I think I am better for it. I use it just to offload things I wouldn't have had time for. I get more stuff done, but I am still doing what I did before. > Plus, dopamine is available at just a tap on my phone. There’s a ton…

If you have an iPhone, you can configure it as an Accessibility shortcut (triple-press side button to switch to monochrome ans back).

Re: De-Brainrot Vacations

#157

Post by carlosjobim »

SjokoladeIsHare wrote: post #144
willy_k wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can totally avoid (being conscious of) processing stuff during sleep too. Just take some SSRIs or smoke weed and you wake up in the next day. I think that that has more effect on people than people realize, dreaming is important but many people don’t experience that side of things any more.

> just sleep and wake up This is my default experience. Falling asleep, then waking up an unknown amount of time later as if nothing happened. Maybe I don’t pay attention to my dreams

If that's the case, you are missing the most important aspect of your life.

Re: De-Brainrot Vacations

#158

Post by RobRivera »

I was a university student around the time the iPhone came out. I stuck with a motorola razor until I graduated. I think back on the DAILY grind of university amd the consistent context switching between challenging studies that were so varied: analog circuits, aeronautical engineering, practicing foreign language, along with the other demands of working and ask how did I manage that cognitive load?

I think the brainrot is less noticeable when I fill my schedule, but when I have time off my brain atrophies IFF I emable brainrot.

Reading books, picking solid podcasts, or journaling leaves my brain feeling refreshed.

I feel this is the next wave of 'clean your processed diet up' or 'mind the tobacco'

Re: De-Brainrot Vacations

#159

Post by jmathai »

visarga wrote: post #105
herbertl wrote: post #83

"Fifteen years ago, the internet was an escape from the real world. Now the real world is an escape from the internet." https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/the-internet-wants-to-be-fragm...

7.5 years ago it was perfect

I think this answer depends on age. For me, it was up until right around 2014. That’s when, I think, social media and mobile phones unlocked a number of generally unproductive behavior both personally and in business.

The early 2000s were truly great.

Re: De-Brainrot Vacations

#160

Post by im3w1l »

SoftTalker wrote: post #131
FinnLobsien wrote: post #18

I think the „my brain isn’t the same anymore“ sensation is pretty universal. Between addictive online media in our personal lives and AI at work, I think we’ve made mental effort largely optional. That must be a horrible thing. One of my favorite theories is the physical activity transition. In my grandparents‘ generation, physical movement became more optional as work shifted from manual labor to knowledge work or o…

Quick example which just happened, my adult son is starting a new job and was looking at the bus schedules to work out what time he would need to leave the house. One bus runs "every 15-20 minutes" and he has to transfer to another bus that runs on a schedule. So he wanted to know what time he had to be at the first bus stop to be on time to work in a worst-case scenario. This problem he presented to Gemini because h…

For public transit in my city they have an official website where you can type in where you are and where you want to go and it plan it all for you. Can choose from arrive asap to picking a time when you want to depart or a time you want to arrive. This has been operational since 2002.

More recently Google Maps has the same functionality and it will work in many cities across the world.

Post reply on HN