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I analysed 20 years of my chats

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Re: I analysed 20 years of my chats

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well if it's bitlocker encrypted I have some good news (potentially) Yellowkey (CVE-2026-45585) is able to bypass it.

I was gonna say something like "If it's MSN chats, unlikely Bitlocker even existed at that point" but seems they are actually closer than I remember, only a ~10 year difference when they launched, MSN in 1995 and Bitlocker in 2006. I think me and most of my friends were using MSN all up until the "Windows Live" rename, then I think we started using Ventrilo instead, but looking up the year that was around 2005 someti…

Oh I mis-understood, I thought the drive was encrypted not the chats.

From my understanding of their encryption, you could brute force the password. It's AES-128 I think? So might take a while xD

Re: I analysed 20 years of my chats

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Being genuinely interested and sharing experiences and common interests and learning from each other are good reasons though. (Not OP, but interested to hear more) In terms of motivation, do you know of a way to begin a sincere and genuine interest in others that doesn't have some ulterior motivations? That may sound kind of mechanical, but what I mean is roughly something like: "I don't know people, so I do not ha…

A genuine relationship is not transactional. I never expect anything out of a friend, or anyone really. I will simply give them my time, advice, or help because I choose to with zero motivation beyond it making me happy to know I could help someone in some way. I have limits, of course, but I never expect anything in return. It is as simple as that. Some of the time I ask friends for help or they offer it. I don't ex…

> A genuine relationship is not transactional

But helping other people often brings happiness on its own.

Re: I analysed 20 years of my chats

#153
post #145
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't keep them in any context. I literally cannot see the point. Like I said I genuinely can't understand why you'd want to.

But if storage isn't an issue, why go out of your way to remove them? Don't you think there is an underlying reason you are changing the default to remove them?

I remove mine after about a year.

You keep saying storage isnt an issue, but having a large digital footprint is just more baggage to manage in future. I want to let these conversations/relationships evolve and change over time, I dont want to keep revisiting them at a certain point.

Each time I get a new phone, I go through and curate the photos/ files worth saving, back them up offline, then start fresh.

Just because you can store everything, infinitely, forever, doesnt mean you need to.

Re: I analysed 20 years of my chats

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A genuine relationship is not transactional. I never expect anything out of a friend, or anyone really. I will simply give them my time, advice, or help because I choose to with zero motivation beyond it making me happy to know I could help someone in some way. I have limits, of course, but I never expect anything in return. It is as simple as that. Some of the time I ask friends for help or they offer it. I don't ex…

> A genuine relationship is not transactional But helping other people often brings happiness on its own.

That is kind of the point. Doing something for no extrinsic reward. It is a part of practicing gratitude and expecting nothing in return (from the other person). If you experience genuine joy or happiness from helping others I think you are doing alright :)

I helped because I could and I wanted to. It makes me happy to help other people. Happy is a loaded word anyway. What is happiness? Some bits of chemicals in our brain? I have trained my reward function to be happy for something it gets no real material or survival benefit from. Maybe it thinks it is getting some benefit in my default mode network. I help people and they will help me? I am sure the DMN sets forth that narrative at some level. But there is a deeper trick to all of it in which I know there is often no survival or conscious narrative benefit. I just did a pro social human thing. Maybe the hormones that generates are enough to convince my DMN to keep doing it? Maybe if you wire your empathy centers deeply enough to experience things through other people you can convince your DMN it is valuable. IDK how it works, I do meditate on it. But mostly it is just about connection and helping people on their journey through life as countless others have helped me. I figure if I end it with having helped others more than I was helped that's a pretty good score. Sort of like the seinfeld quote about driving a porsche: Having the lowest mileage Porsche when reaching heaven signifies a failure to enjoy life, which is considered one of life's greatest sins?

something like that maybe? Who knows. I am going to keep putting help others mileage out there until my time is up, I am very fortunate in this life.

Re: I analysed 20 years of my chats

#155
post #146
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if storage isn't an issue, why go out of your way to remove them? Don't you think there is an underlying reason you are changing the default to remove them?

I don't go out my way, I just change the default. The underlying reason is it's useless data, why would I keep it? I don't transfer chats when I move phones either so... I feel like you think there's something wrong with not collecting and keeping this data. I genuinely don't know why you would.

I do not think there is anything wrong with that (just that this is uncommon and surprising, so I'm curious), but in my hypothetical scenario where storage isn't an issue, having useless data stored should not matter.

Changing the default is not a big deal, for sure, but would you still do it if it required 10 minutes of your time every 6 months? If yes, I just cannot believe that you have no reason to do it. Perhaps it makes you feel freer, perhaps you think your device is more organized or cleaner, or something else.

But of course in real life data uses storage, but I feel like most people are on the other extreme and keep too much (data or possessions) because they cannot let go, but chat data footprint is usually minimal unless you receive lots of photos/videos.

Re: I analysed 20 years of my chats

#156

I do wanna do the same, but at times I fear about getting too aware from the insights of the analysis, I fear my opinions my faith might change in certain people.

Or how about your opinions on yourself? Analysis of your own behavior, done by AI, seems like a a decade of therapy provided by a maybe-good-or-bad psychologist happening in minutes. The impact of that could change how you think about the world by reinforcing biases you hold or weakening strengths by making you self conscious. Ultimately you run the risk of having a computer program redefine who you are as a human an…

Exactly! That's another thing, and I don't wanna be way too self aware , I fear it'll redefine me (I know a lot for the good but then also where do you draw the line when a machine starts to redefine you?)

Damn strangely good times we are living in, (that's what every generation thought looking around themselves).

Re: I analysed 20 years of my chats

#158
post #112
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How to start riding a bicycle in your 40s, if you never developed bike skills? How to snowboard, if you never developed snowboard skills? … Do it; suck. Do it more; suck less. “How to Make Friends and Influence People” is a great & classic book about giving people social room, focus, support, and attention with genuineness and humour (“influence” isn’t meant in a manipulative sense). Effort and attention are required…

I mean.... Riding a bike is nothing like making friends. “How to Make Friends and Influence People” is a salesman's guide, Dale Carnegie was an traveling salesman and the book techniques he learned making sales. The techniques you need to be a salesperson is probably not the same techniques to build lasting relationships. These tips are great for brief interactions; they are not for building relationships. There's a…

> These tips [...] are not for building relationships

These tips gots me friends and girlfriends, one of her lasted 11years and still counting. Before reading it I'd describe myself 95% asocial + 5% weirdly social, with mostly no relationships.

These book really deeply changed me and oh boy I'm far from a salesman.

Your mom and robotic salesman obviously aren't good exemple to follow and that's a great start you noticed it. Get courage, one week of reading and I promise you you'll be changed, my friend.

Re: I analysed 20 years of my chats

#159
post #155
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't go out my way, I just change the default. The underlying reason is it's useless data, why would I keep it? I don't transfer chats when I move phones either so... I feel like you think there's something wrong with not collecting and keeping this data. I genuinely don't know why you would.

I do not think there is anything wrong with that (just that this is uncommon and surprising, so I'm curious), but in my hypothetical scenario where storage isn't an issue, having useless data stored should not matter. Changing the default is not a big deal, for sure, but would you still do it if it required 10 minutes of your time every 6 months? If yes, I just cannot believe that you have no reason to do it. Perhaps…

I just not that way included. I don't like clutter. And were it a 10 minute process id never use the service at all. Maybe I'm odd, I don't use social media either, and only use a single chat app currently on my device. I regularly delete chats as well, not just alter the default retention period. I'm just really not interested in chat history at all. I view it as useless data once it's a week or so old.

Re: I analysed 20 years of my chats

#160
post #68
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be angry then, IM communication is not a contract with terms unilaterly decided by one party. Or put a confidential signature with every message, see how well that works for you

Be a better person. Or at least put a message in your status that you record everything and send it to Google for analysis for minimum personal gain. Do you also carry a second phone to take a photo just in case someone sends you a disappearing photo?

google? signal desktop is not on android, is it? no, its on a pc, as could be a local llm. did i even say i did this before you wanted to assume that you are a better person because what your preferences should be universally obeyed?
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