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30 minutes with a stranger

pudding.cool

171–180 of 406 posts

Re: 30 minutes with a stranger

#171

It's the internet. When you talk to people online, it often descends into pettiness. When you talk to people in the real world, that rarely happens. But it's much easier to talk online, so people get the wrong impression. You should talk to strangers. It's never gone wrong for me. Most people have a warmth and agreeableness that comes out when you are there with them, talking about stuff. There's also the interesting…

> it often descends into pettiness. When you talk to people in the real world, that rarely happens

If you are talking about one on one with a stranger, then I can see that, yeah, but if you have worked with people, then you know it is a huge mess, creation of cliques, gossip, and all sorts of crap, including heavy pettiness, greed, jealousy / envy, and so on.

Re: 30 minutes with a stranger

#172

It's the internet. When you talk to people online, it often descends into pettiness. When you talk to people in the real world, that rarely happens. But it's much easier to talk online, so people get the wrong impression. You should talk to strangers. It's never gone wrong for me. Most people have a warmth and agreeableness that comes out when you are there with them, talking about stuff. There's also the interesting…

> I actually met a serial killer who did this

I don’t think this is the fun anecdote you make it out to be

Re: 30 minutes with a stranger

#173
post #164

It's the internet. When you talk to people online, it often descends into pettiness. When you talk to people in the real world, that rarely happens. But it's much easier to talk online, so people get the wrong impression. You should talk to strangers. It's never gone wrong for me. Most people have a warmth and agreeableness that comes out when you are there with them, talking about stuff. There's also the interesting…

Talk to strangers it has never gone wrong for me and I even met a serial killer who killed a lot of women who asked how I would dispose of a body. So much to unpack. You got lucky if you were a woman you probably would have had a poor outcome. I would prefer a rude online person who is petty vs a serial killer wanting advice on how to get rid of the body.

[dead]

Re: 30 minutes with a stranger

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I accidentally ended up at a job in the ad-serving business for two years and this is so accurate. (Who knew "analytics" really meant "ad conversions"?) If there are entire product lines dedicated to blocking the thing you do, it's very demoralizing.

It's demoralizing because people block you?! That's why you found it demoralizing?! Not for commodifying people's attention?

It's demoralizing because ads are so detrimental to society that blocking them is widespread

Re: 30 minutes with a stranger

#175
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had a chat about this with a friend yesterday. In richer societies you can afford to be alone. This isn't good for tribal beings, humans didn't evolve as lone wolves. Even something as cooking for more than one person involves so much interaction. At the lower end of the global income scale , you can't afford to be alone in your giant house. You might need to share communal goods. Not everyone, but just having a role…

You can't afford to be alone in any society. Not in the monetary sense, but in the sense that it will make you depressed. The fact that many people don't realize this is troubling.

While very true, highly communal societies can be extremely toxic too.

Imagine not being able to get a job and having everyone actually gossiping about you. Pretty much middle school fears realized.

Re: 30 minutes with a stranger

#176
Such a minor thing but I absolutely love the way the faces / avatars are rendered here. Just characters in a PRE tag. Gives me Commodore 64 vibes. I'd love to know how they came up with those and put it all together.

Re: 30 minutes with a stranger

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the best examples of your second point is that tweet that went something like "I bought a toilet seat and now I'm getting ads for toilet seats everywhere I go". It's annoying and not even productive for the advertiser.

Apparently some of the very best-converting ads are repeat sales. Of course it helps if the product is obviously consumable, but I'm told that this counterintuitive strategy actually works well. Maybe it's because they can track conversions but not product returns, so maybe you're searching for a better one after returning the first purchase.

Watch people buy watches.

Camera people buy cameras. Particularly if your talking about lenses, I might buy 3 in a month.

Re: 30 minutes with a stranger

#178

It's the internet. When you talk to people online, it often descends into pettiness. When you talk to people in the real world, that rarely happens. But it's much easier to talk online, so people get the wrong impression. You should talk to strangers. It's never gone wrong for me. Most people have a warmth and agreeableness that comes out when you are there with them, talking about stuff. There's also the interesting…

I agree, but another aspect is what’s lost in text. Even when I don’t have negative intentions, my messages can come across as rude or brash. I feel like I get more negative responses from my friends in the group chat compared to in person, where I’ve never had a single argument with them. In person, the recipient can see my smile and body language, which makes it clear that I don’t mean anything negative by my words.

Re: 30 minutes with a stranger

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not disagree with you entirely, but I feel this almost borders on self-delusion. The sole purpose of ads is to (probabilistically) shift the targets spending behavior in favor of the one buying the ads, nothing more, nothing less. While ads can have utility from the victims point of view (contain relevant information), this is entirely incidental. If you want product updates or information, getting that from ded…

When I read ads in the old, old National geographic magazines at my grandparents what startles me is the entire paragraphs of text laying out the case for their product. I miss that even if it was BS.

Even TV ads used to be a bit closer to that.

Likely false but always felt likely there was a bit of respect being paid toward the reader/viewer in terms of recognizing them as an intelligent individual.

Nowadays advertisements aimed at adults are too different than ones for kids stuff. All vulgar (not sexual) fluff and eye candy.

Re: 30 minutes with a stranger

#180

It's the internet. When you talk to people online, it often descends into pettiness. When you talk to people in the real world, that rarely happens. But it's much easier to talk online, so people get the wrong impression. You should talk to strangers. It's never gone wrong for me. Most people have a warmth and agreeableness that comes out when you are there with them, talking about stuff. There's also the interesting…

There's definitely an aspect of "dehumanization," when it comes to remote communication (not just the Internet, but I think store-and-forward leaches the most humanity, compared to realtime).

It's the having time to consider responses, that I think actually makes it more difficult to accept the person on the other end as "human," more than the physical separation. You can see this in formal debates, where the emotional feedback is strictly regulated.

I've actually met a number of killers (long story for another venue), and will probably continue to do so, for the remainder of my life. I even call some of them friends. I enjoy the story, and accept it as true, because I have heard much more unbelievable true stories.

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