Ive been thinking about the addictiveness of information a fair bunch lately. I would be interested in hearing from people about the following few questions
a) Is this just a geek thing ? Many applications we work on utilise existing data, our tools are changing constantly, there are sage geeks sharing their hard earned wisdom. To keep up with all the above we consume a lot of information on a daily basis. A conversation with my dentist and a few doctor friends were mostly replied with - "How do you get time to read on the internet on a daily basis?". My dentist also pointed out that in his field developments are few and far between so once hes out of the office at 5, its no books or reading for him.
b) I would also be interested in hearing from some people who were born post 1995, or from a time when internet connectivity was already pervasive. Do they look at the internet with the same eyes of enchanted addictiveness or do they take it for granted ?
The Acceleration of Addictiveness
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Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness
#22Being addicted to cigarrettes is one thing. They are bad but not as bad as drugs like Marijuana (Maybe, don't know, I don't smoke). It seems that for a lot of people that do Marijuana it eventually becomes too mild for them. Also, once they are using drugs, using more potent ones doesn't seem like a big deal.
This is only an anecdote: I had a friend who started using Marijuana. He said he only used it once in a while and it was no big deal. That it wasn't that bad really because he didn't use any of the more potent stuff like cocaine as other guys did. In his mind I supposed he was convincing himself that the really bad guys are using cocaine. According to him using Marijuana is no big deal. Two years latter I had a conversation with him and he tells me he was arrested for using cocaine while driving. He tells me it is no big deal because he only uses it every once in a while and that he is not like other guys that use more potent drugs. No big deal really.
It seems to me that starting with a mild drug can lead to using more dangerous drugs. And yet every once in a while I read somebody saying that you should use Marijuana or that Marijuana is no big deal.
No point really, just ranting a little. I guess I would like to tell you Marijuana users that if you like it don't try to convince the rest of us into thinking it is no big deal. Go ahead and use your crap if you want but don't advertise it to the rest of us as if it is no big deal.
Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
This confused me as well, seeing how it's both at the same time. :) With regards to the diet itself though: works for me, so I'm happy with it.
I happen to follow a rather different, mostly vegan, diet: Fuhrman. It also works very well for me. But I would like to educate myself about paleo, especially since it provides some compelling arguments while sounding yummy.
I started eating primal/paleo/low carb (I prefer the latter) after reading 'good calories, bad calories' by Gary Taubes. I've been linking people to these notes for a while now: http://higher-thought.net/complete-notes-to-good-calories-ba... you miss some nuances, explainations and a boatload of references from the book, but it's a nice intro.
As far as being vegan goes, check out 'the vegetarian myth' by Leirre Keith, I've been reading parts of it and it's both entertaining and it really gets under your skin.
Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness
#24The iphone is definitely a hip flask for internet addicts.
Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness
#25Just like PG's last article, there is an inherent irony in finding this on Hacker News. PG is right though, the internet is addictive. The question of what to do about it is still left open, though. For now, I'm going to disconnect for a few hours. Hopefully when I get back on I'll have something productive to show for it.
If you don't spread the word about internet addiction on Hacker News, how are the internet addicts going to find it?
Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness
#26The answer is clearly to rely less on social antibodies to specific addictions and more on recognizing and fighting the general pattern of addictiveness, an effort that this essay itself is a part of. The more we learn about the generic properties of addiction, the more we can not only recognize addictive and harmful things earlier, but also deliberately make worthwhile tasks addictive as well, such as exercise as an obvious example.
Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness
#27I think PG makes a good point, but I hesitate to call some of these things addictions, because many typical people get over them. I watched a lot of TV when I was a little kid, but practically none once I was past twelve. I watched my daughter do the same switch, but even more rapidly. I found MMOGs incredibly attractive when they first came out, but much, much less attractive by a few years later (as measured by no subscriptions). A lot of things people call addictive are qualitatively different from an addition to opiates, say.
Still, he's definitely right that the world is getting more addictive.
Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness
#28You can probably take it as a rule of thumb from now on that if people don't think you're weird, you're living badly. i've been surprised by just how true this statement is. i resolved to make some lifestyle changes this year to be healthier (without being overly zealous) and it's been amazing how reactions have made me feel like i'm behaving strangely. especially regarding alcohol at social events.
They probably think you are weird because consciously or sub-consciously you are acting smug.
Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness
#29The "Slow movement" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Movement ) is an interesting example of an attempt to create a mass movement that addresses some of these issues, while not completely cutting off modern conveniences.
(I'm linking it not because I agree, but because it's an interesting example of an attempt to collectively change people's response to modern technology. Examples like the Amish are in a similar vein, but much more extreme.)
Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness
#30The iphone is definitely a hip flask for internet addicts.
I don't know about that. It's more frustrating to use long-term than a full fledged browser, so while it gets the job done for utilitarian fact-finding while on the go, it can't feed an unfocused addiction. At least not in my case.