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More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

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Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#271

Post by hipadev23 »

jondwillis wrote: post #205

At this point I’m just watching a slightly younger cohort of men repeat all of my worst digital addiction mistakes like getting inserted into the online video game -> toxic online behavior pipeline (or worse, fascism), ideologies (Musk), crypto and options gambling (thanks Reddit a la 2013 for all of the crypto communities and WSB) too much computer (ouch, my neck, arms and back.) I’m not doing particularly well, esp…

online games aren’t the problem imo, it’s disposable identities and ~zero repercussions for bad actors.

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#272

Post by swamp_donkey »

tokioyoyo wrote: post #268
CoryAlexMartin wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a pushback against the emphasis on individualism in our culture, which many find does not lead to real fulfillment. When you start a family, you're giving up your own glory, but in doing so you become deeply integrated into something greater than yourself, which makes you greater by extension. And I say this as someone who doesn't have kids either, and as someone who used to not be so excited by the pros…

But why now, and not like 5 years ago? That’s the weirdness I don’t understand. Is it just very loud people had a bunch of kids and trying to push the same on others? Trying to change the culture from the start? “Meaning of life” is like the oldest question that has ever existed. Both people with and without children have pondered about it for eternity. It just looks funny when you see a sudden shift in the discourse…

Maybe the demographics of HN are such that a bunch of people just had kids.

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#274

Post by ANewFormation »

tokioyoyo wrote: post #256
ANewFormation wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's not only extremely fulfilling (well beyond what one might expect) on a personal level but also required on a social level for a culture to persist. And this is in the context of ever more people complaining of loneliness, lack of fulfillment/meaning, and more. These issues are almost certainly causally related. Help yourself, help society, and even have a voice (of sorts) in the future of humanity.

There are literal hundreds (thousands?) of philosophical schools for “meaning of life”. It’s really not a new question, and there won’t be a right answer, ever. Trying to convince someone that it is the only route to find a meaning just sounds a bit funny for anyone who watches it from the sidelines. My question, once again, is why tech circles started focusing on this and pushing it as ideology just recently? Wasn’t…

Interesting point in the timing. In general I think it's probably just growing awareness of the issue, also combined with a growing number of people in tech starting families (often quite late) and being like 'zomg why didn't I do this earlier.' Many people in tech are also fascinated with countries like Japan which are acting like a living warning to the rest of the world about fertility.

In general though I think cultural shifts often lack any clear reason. People like Musk or Gates chiming in on the issue are almost certainly effects rather than causes.

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#275

Post by mancerayder »

jaco6 wrote: post #37
jshpool wrote: post #5

Lot of people are becoming more knowledgable and skillful. But purpose is the missing ingredient. Without purpose or a motivator in life people end up getting trapped in mindless rituals. It keeps the reward circuitry in the brain from decaying.

Child rearing is a possible solution—it is our evolutionary “purpose” to reproduce, after all, and most people in the developed world today aren’t doing it.

The replies are bit harsh. It is a solution to meaningless of life. I am reminded constantly by some of my friends.

But it's also a problem for some. For example, it means moving out of expensive cities, it means worrying about making lots of money (if you live in the U.S.), it means child care is thousands a month, it means health care is thousands a month. It means you have to be responsible and not drink every day. It means potentially not sleeping for a year.

Personally, seeing the stress of my workmates, and how they became more dependent on their jobs, on the shit of the jobs, and how now they're more competitive on the job, and worried... I'd personally choose to write that off.

But I know people who found meaning through child-rearing, as you say!

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#276

Post by tokioyoyo »

ANewFormation wrote: post #274
tokioyoyo wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are literal hundreds (thousands?) of philosophical schools for “meaning of life”. It’s really not a new question, and there won’t be a right answer, ever. Trying to convince someone that it is the only route to find a meaning just sounds a bit funny for anyone who watches it from the sidelines. My question, once again, is why tech circles started focusing on this and pushing it as ideology just recently? Wasn’t…

Interesting point in the timing. In general I think it's probably just growing awareness of the issue, also combined with a growing number of people in tech starting families (often quite late) and being like 'zomg why didn't I do this earlier.' Many people in tech are also fascinated with countries like Japan which are acting like a living warning to the rest of the world about fertility. In general though I think c…

I guess that makes sense. Someone else commented how “maybe HN demographics just happened to be people who just had kids, thus the echo-chamber”. Which, would explain a lot.

Re: Musk — no real opinions about him wrt other ventures, but surely no sane person can look at him as a decent father figure, no? It just sounds like a “populate Earth for populating reasons!” completely disregarding the well being of the kids part. Which, I find, fairly sad.

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#277

Post by [deleted] »

mancerayder wrote: post #264
habosa wrote: post #247

Many criticize the retail investor for treating the stock market like gambling, but I think it really does resemble gambling more than investing these days. How many times have we seen a companies value jump or fall by billions based on a tweet? How many meme stocks have we seen? How many pump and dump SPACs have there been? How many companies have never (and likely will never) made a dime in profit but see their mar…

I agree. I think the reality is the "don't try to be smart, do these low-risk things because statistically you're too stupid to beat the market" has logic to it, and stats to back it up. But the unspoken part is, "let the rich do that stuff, and their wealth advisors and folks on the golf courses". So there's an elitist aspect to telling people to back off. We all know people who made a killing on individual stocks,…

[deleted]

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#278

Post by nntwozz »

iknowSFR wrote: post #224
siltcakes wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they also drinking tons of soda? I can’t believe how much I used to drink. I don’t touch any drink with sugar (other than lactose/latte) nowadays. It’s so disgusting, don’t know how I ever did it in the first place.

Broad brushstrokes incoming and pure speculation but I wrote it out anyway… Today’s youth are more proactive with their identities these days than we were. We were and remain reactive with our identities. That preference influences what triggers the dopamine hits needed for life. The drugs of a reactive identity culture are sugar, alcohol, narcotics, work, anything that’s a trope in movies made by boomers. These drug…

"Our youth now love luxury, they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders, and they love to chatter instead of exercise. Children are now tyrants not servants of their household. They no longer rise when elders enter the room."

— Socrates

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#279

Post by bluGill »

ta988 wrote: post #257
bluGill wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

most rapes are not stranges in dark allies they are people who know each other. Thus a not choosing better friends can be argued to do it to yourself.

Horrible example of victim blaming here.

like I said this logic is victum blaming. Doesn't matter if it is stocks or rape there is a victum that some are not acknoweleging

Re: More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market

#280

Post by mckirk »

iknowSFR wrote: post #224
siltcakes wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they also drinking tons of soda? I can’t believe how much I used to drink. I don’t touch any drink with sugar (other than lactose/latte) nowadays. It’s so disgusting, don’t know how I ever did it in the first place.

Broad brushstrokes incoming and pure speculation but I wrote it out anyway… Today’s youth are more proactive with their identities these days than we were. We were and remain reactive with our identities. That preference influences what triggers the dopamine hits needed for life. The drugs of a reactive identity culture are sugar, alcohol, narcotics, work, anything that’s a trope in movies made by boomers. These drug…

A very interesting observation. I wonder though if the difference is genuinely a different kind of self-understanding between the generations, or more a question of the prevalence of these two approaches to identity. I think in my generation there were also plenty of people that at least tried to be 'proactive' about their identity building (and greatly valued status symbols etc), but I believe it was not as common, because this meme of 'seeing yourself as your own brand and wanting/needing to market yourself' was not as prominent. Maybe there even were, relatively speaking, more people back then that actively tried to avoid the 'status games', because they were still easier to escape then -- but that's just speculation, and certainly influenced by my own aversion to these games and hence my own youth.
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