Dopamine Fracking • Hacker News Board

Re: Dopamine Fracking

#421

Post by spwa4 » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 8:33 AM UTC

regexorcist wrote: post #322

spwa4 wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also live in a small European town and there is a convenience store and a hairdresser. Oh and restaurants. That's it. Doesn't matter if you go to neighboring towns, they're the same. One of the neighboring towns has a supermarket, an Aldi. I am also old enough to remember what it looked like in 1985.

Sounds like a very small town? In general most places are filled with shops you can walk to. In southern Europe in particular it's almost overwhelming the amount of options you have.

Depends what you mean by very small town. It's about 30k people. So are the neighboring towns.

The nearest bigger town (~120k I believe) is about 25km away. Not quite walking or biking distance, but a short drive.

Re: Dopamine Fracking

#422

Post by wolvesechoes » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 8:38 AM UTC

fssys wrote: post #117

raumgeist wrote: post #61

Reminds me of Adornos "Dialektik der Aufklärung" and its take on what he calls the "Kulturindustrie". Almost 100 years ago he foresaw how the cultural offerings of society get commodified and chopped into bite sized chunks for each individual to receive theirs. He did not forsee us taking it this far, nor the addictive nature of the consumption though. An additional danger is how this pulls all of us down. Staying wi…

every time someone coins a new term for these phenomena i think of how Adorno already explained it all. "enshittification" SHUT UP

Well, people don't read Adorno or others, maybe have their favorite sci-fi book, and then go and describe, sometimes centuries old, ideas as some novel insight.

Re: Dopamine Fracking

#423

Post by tpm » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 9:07 AM UTC

foldr wrote: post #395

SauntSolaire wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The advent of communism was sufficiently long ago that it I'm not sure your critique applies.

I'm not sure why that's relevant. My point is that it's never really possible to provide a detailed plan for a complete changing of the social order. While it might be nice in theory to have such a thing, it's not clear that it's really a reasonable thing to ask for.

> My point is that it's never really possible to provide a detailed plan for a complete changing of the social order.

That's correct, but if the communist avantguarde says (as they did) "we have to completely change the social order by force, uproot everything, to build communism", there might be questions if it's at least going to be directionally good or bad. And if the answers can't be provided, then perhaps they shouldn't be doing it at all?

Re: Dopamine Fracking

#424

Post by foldr » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 9:57 AM UTC

tpm wrote: post #423

foldr wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why that's relevant. My point is that it's never really possible to provide a detailed plan for a complete changing of the social order. While it might be nice in theory to have such a thing, it's not clear that it's really a reasonable thing to ask for.

> My point is that it's never really possible to provide a detailed plan for a complete changing of the social order. That's correct, but if the communist avantguarde says (as they did) "we have to completely change the social order by force, uproot everything, to build communism", there might be questions if it's at least going to be directionally good or bad. And if the answers can't be provided, then perhaps they…

Yep, that’s the classic small ‘c’ conservative argument against revolutions or sudden changes. It’s a fine argument, but it’s not specific to communism.

Re: Dopamine Fracking

#425

Post by short_sells_poo » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 10:27 AM UTC

gyanchawdhary wrote: post #367

short_sells_poo wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to be joking, right? So you are saying that it's all fine, because we can just go to Harrods to get quality food? Nevermind that I hate Harrods and that entire area with a passion. It's a tasteless, glitzy tourist trap. My post was all about the fact that barring a tiny percentile of people who a) live in an affluent area and b) are willing to pay 2-3x the regular supermarket prices, you cannot get good qual…

[flagged]

I think we are being got at, but I'll bite :D

To be clear: my objection is not at all about enjoying the finer side of life, there's nothing wrong with that. Harrods and a lot of the surrounding areas are not about that. By and large, the crowd who likes that area (and I'm not placing you among them) are there because they want to appear among the rich and flash their shitty LV or Gucci bag which they probably picked up somewhere at a discount.

There are two kinds of drivers of expensive cars:

1. Those who drive their Bentley Continental GT because they appreciate the craftsmanship and the smooth ride

2. Those who are inching along in traffic in Kensington because they want the world to see they have a Bentley.

One of these groups is genuinely wealthy and have class will be driving their grand tourer somewhere in France or Italy on nice roads to their villa, or if they don't like driving, they'll be driven by staff. If they aren't nepo babies, they'll be just as dismayed about the difficulties that 99% of the population lives under, because ultimately we are all in the same boat. If 99% of the crew are unhappy, eventually the captain and the officers will be thrown overboard to the sharks. If the captain wants to have a good time, they have to make sure the crew aren't unhappy at least.

Re: Dopamine Fracking

#426

Post by tpm » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 11:16 AM UTC

foldr wrote: post #424

tpm wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My point is that it's never really possible to provide a detailed plan for a complete changing of the social order. That's correct, but if the communist avantguarde says (as they did) "we have to completely change the social order by force, uproot everything, to build communism", there might be questions if it's at least going to be directionally good or bad. And if the answers can't be provided, then perhaps they…

Yep, that’s the classic small ‘c’ conservative argument against revolutions or sudden changes. It’s a fine argument, but it’s not specific to communism.

Pretty sure I've already used it 20 years ago.

Yeah it's not specific to communism, one just needs to look at the sudden changes the US admin is implementing to see it's broadly applicable, only they don't even pretend to be interested in societally good outcomes.

Re: Dopamine Fracking

#427

Post by JohnBooty » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 11:31 AM UTC

senordevnyc wrote: post #341

JohnBooty wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people are not fine with bad strawberries but they don't know good strawberries You most definitely get this phenomenon with tomatoes. There’s little demand for actually good tomatoes, because most people don’t even know what a good tomato tastes like at this point. This applies to countless things, but tomatoes are a prime example because they deteriorate so quickly once picked relative to other fruits I guess.…

I see people constantly make this argument, and honestly I think it’s BS. I grew up eating tomatoes from my grandparents garden, and I’ve lived and traveled all over the world. I’ve grown tomatoes, bought them from roadside farmer stands, bought them at grocery stores, and had them in everything from hole in the wall restaurants in developing countries to Michelin three star restaurants on multiple different continen…

I’ll grant that most non-local tomatoes have always been bad by definition, because they’re picked while green so they don’t rot before reaching the store.

Plum tomatoes absolutely did not used to be this bad, though. They are SO mealy now. Horrible. Beefsteaks are mealier as well. Those Campari tomatoes are pretty good year-round, though, I have to admit.

This is all in the NE USA, FWIW. I don’t know the tomato situation elsewhere.

    I doubt most people could even tell the difference 
    between two tomatoes of the same type and ripeness 
    if one came from the grocery store and the other from 
    a backyard garden.

Yeah, and I would run as fast as Usain Bolt if we woke up with the same body one day.

But that kind of the thing. They would almost never be the same ripeness because outside of local tomato season the tomatoes are picked while unripe, and then they “shelf-ripen” in transit because ethylene gas etc. That’s always been an issue, of course, and hasn’t changed over time.

The other issue is breeding - the continual breeding for appearance rather than flavor. Maybe we’re all imagining that one.

Re: Dopamine Fracking

#428

Post by lII1lIlI11ll » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 11:52 AM UTC

zimpenfish wrote: post #73

raverbashing wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure it's a millenial thing, but yes And to be honest choice fatigue also plays a part. (Also millenials seem to sell some places as "gritty and authentic" when in reality a lot of them just suck) I'm all for trying new things, but in the end you realize that a lot of those are just not for you and you go for the bland and tested thing

For me (considerably older than millenials) it's not choice fatigue or "default to bland and tested", it's "if I'm paying a small fortune for coffee / food[0], I do not want a crappy serving just because the barista/cook stubbed their toe / broke up / got bad news / etc. this morning and they're wildly off their game." Starbucks, McDonalds, Papa Johns, etc. do not make "great" refreshments but they make them of a con…

Is this a US thing? Coffee in Starbucks is so mediocre that it is hard to imagine a proper coffee place ever "matching" it, even on a bad day.

Re: Dopamine Fracking

#429

Post by gyanchawdhary » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 12:40 PM UTC

short_sells_poo wrote: post #425

gyanchawdhary wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I think we are being got at, but I'll bite :D To be clear: my objection is not at all about enjoying the finer side of life, there's nothing wrong with that. Harrods and a lot of the surrounding areas are not about that. By and large, the crowd who likes that area (and I'm not placing you among them) are there because they want to appear among the rich and flash their shitty LV or Gucci bag which they probably picked…

[flagged]

Re: Dopamine Fracking

#430

Post by gacgacgac » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 1:42 PM UTC

devilbunny wrote: post #407

gacgacgac wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I make eggs benedict probably once a month or two. It's really fairly simple with an immersion blender. Comes together in like a minute. Timing the poached eggs and the sandwich elements is a little tricky, but not materially more difficult than, eg, cinnamon rolls from scratch.

If you’re making for family, poach the eggs in the shell with an immersion circulator as used for sous vide. The whites will not be quite as perfect, but the taste and texture are there, and you can store the cooked eggs (I forget the temp I used, but look around, there are examples) and the prepared hollandaise in a Ziploc at 130 F/55 C for quite a while.

I strain off the loose white and poach, poached eggs can be made in advance and rewarmed too, but I prefer to do them while the sauce is coming together.