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Solving Tech Addiction Is an Underappreciated Market Opportunity

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Re: Solving Tech Addiction Is an Underappreciated Market Opportunity

#161

Post by cimmanom »

peacetreefrog wrote: post #116
buboard wrote: post #74

How many businesses can I remember around addictions? What s the most famous anti-TV addiction company? Anti-cigarettes? Anti-sex addiction? If it's none, then the opportunity is not underappreciated. Making an anti-addiction product is by its nature the opposite of a sellable product. And the people who have the frontal lobe to willingly go against their addiction, have already solved their problem.

This is a good point (about #'s of comparable products), but I disagree that anti-addiction products are inherently unsellable. I think you could make the argument that weight loss products could fall into this category. There are a ton of diet books/advice, and Weight Watchers has a market cap of 4.4B. As for actual products, I know there's the kitchen safe: https://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-Safe-Locking-Container-Heig…

Yup. Or the nicotine patch.

Re: Solving Tech Addiction Is an Underappreciated Market Opportunity

#162

Post by tareqak »

ip26 wrote: post #131
wccrawford wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a gamer and about as attached to tech as you can be without actually having mental issues over it. My wife and I recently bought a house and I've been finding that I'd rather spend time fixing it up than playing games or doing other stuff with electronics much of the time. That doesn't mean that I've quit wholesale, though. I eventually get physically or mentally tired and want to just relax, and it's back to the…

actually improving our house has proven even more enjoyable Plus you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor. That was what completely killed my interest in any amount of game grind- it hit me mid-game that if I spent that time grinding my actual corporeal self, I'd have something to show for it after. I've since improved my AeT mile pace (your "all-day" level) from around 15:00 to 10:00ish. (My dream/goal is to get to…

I agree with you, but at the same time, I have to point out that not everyone might have that perspective (anecdotally or not). I'd argue sometimes that the rewards from grind in real-life might seem so marginal such that some people feel as if they have made no effective progress.

Re: Solving Tech Addiction Is an Underappreciated Market Opportunity

#163

Post by 2shillerly »

Bakary wrote: post #6

In my own experience struggling with addiction I've found that it is a symptom rather than a cause. Once you craft a life that is actually stimulating the tech loses its hold over you pretty quickly, if not instantly (for example when you go on a weekend outing in nature and completely forget your phone). Of course, the time and energy wasted due to the dysfunctional behavior presents a chicken-and-egg roadblock agai…

In a behavior-line; action => reaction => effect you can attribute 'emotion' as a catalyst (starting, speeding up, changing or steering a chemical process) so falling into euphoria, but not being able to infer fixed coherencies - maybe insights - it may be (thesis:) fatal and momentous. Cos, 'if i lose my ability to gain insights - i can't leave that maybe fatal situation that fast and easy' (-;

Re: Solving Tech Addiction Is an Underappreciated Market Opportunity

#164

Post by chiefalchemist »

dwaltrip wrote: post #79
chiefalchemist wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well. Um. But... craving an unnatural amount of attention __is__ a root cause. Wanting to seek conflict __is__ a root cause. Seeking to reconfirm my confirmation bias __is__ a root cause. FOMO __is__ a root cause. The device enables these things - take the device away and they will still exist - it does not create them. It doesn't make sense to blame the device for what is ultimately a human behavior issue. The abuse…

I am saying that these devices can cause issues for normal poeple who don't have other severe issues. Do you disagree with this statement? For those people, the device itself, and the relationship with the device, is the place to look when trying to improve the situation. There is also an issue of practicality here. Even for people with significant issues that need to be addressed, it may be practical to do things li…

re: "I am saying that these devices can cause issues for normal poeple who don't have other severe issues."

Yes. But don't you see the irony in that statement? How "normal" can you be if a device and a few swipes "makes" you into something else? Sure, maybe without the device you could bottle it up? But for how long? And at what cost? Where does that "energy" go (to other bad habits)?

If what you said was true then EVERYONE would have this problem. As it is, that's just not true. In fact, the media often spins reports of those not on social media as being abnormal.

Don't get me wrong. We do have a collective problem. But it's bigger than just these devices, and simply blaming the devices is not going to help solve for the root.

Re: Solving Tech Addiction Is an Underappreciated Market Opportunity

#165

Post by flatline »

loceng wrote: post #160
ramphastidae wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some "random guy that's making a startup" presumably would do things to be safe, and ethical, no? “They ‘trust me.’ Dumb fucks.”

In context I was speaking of health-related companies, that generally are scrutinized more - you can't create a medication and just start giving it to everyone, and you can't claim a medicine does something it hasn't been proven to do in studies, etc. And once again, Facebook et al, ties into health as social is health. Facebook did some experiments/research specifically to see the impact of showing more positive or…

Soylent and Theranos are two recent counterexamples that come to mind. In the former case, a company made many claims they have since dialed back; and in the latter case, outright fraud, though it may not have started out that way.

23andMe were shut down for a period by the FDA.

There are of course plenty of healthcare startups that are working within the established boundaries of the existing system, but if you want to push those boundaries, it's going to take a while for regulations to catch up, and in the meantime caveat emptor.

Re: Solving Tech Addiction Is an Underappreciated Market Opportunity

#168

Post by ip26 »

tareqak wrote: post #162
ip26 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

actually improving our house has proven even more enjoyable Plus you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor. That was what completely killed my interest in any amount of game grind- it hit me mid-game that if I spent that time grinding my actual corporeal self, I'd have something to show for it after. I've since improved my AeT mile pace (your "all-day" level) from around 15:00 to 10:00ish. (My dream/goal is to get to…

I agree with you, but at the same time, I have to point out that not everyone might have that perspective (anecdotally or not). I'd argue sometimes that the rewards from grind in real-life might seem so marginal such that some people feel as if they have made no effective progress.

Yes, it's definitely a slower grind than a video game, where it feels like a slog but you make progress in days or even hours. I have now run many hundreds of miles over the course of years to reap gains I can feel really good about.

That might have been easier for me to sign up for now that I am older, and more comfortable thinking about multi-year horizons.

Re: Solving Tech Addiction Is an Underappreciated Market Opportunity

#169

Post by manigandham »

loceng wrote: post #149
yashap wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotal evidence, but I personally know quite a few people with mental health issues who’ve found psychiatrists very helpful. I don’t know anyone who has received significant help with mental health from a tech startup. Startups are great, but they aren’t the answer to everything.

Many of the tech startups currently are platforms to connect people to services - like psychiatrists.

So directory services? Great, but then they have nothing to do with the actual healthcare, so your original comment on private market care doesn't apply.

Re: Solving Tech Addiction Is an Underappreciated Market Opportunity

#170

Post by dawhizkid »

More broadly, I think we need an analogy to the "Primary Care Physician" for mental health (would include addiction treatment here). I'm in SF, and 1) having a hard time finding therapists that my insurance covers and 2) when I do find one many are completely booked and not accepting new patients.
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