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Thin desires are eating life

joanwestenberg.com

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Re: Thin desires are eating life

#61

Post by throwaway_2494 »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #48
ianstormtaylor wrote: post #47

I can't help but feel that this article was written in a format that is the textual equivalent of thin desires… Every sentence is separated into its own paragraph, like each one is supposed to be revelatory (or maybe tweet-worthy). It's pretty common design knowledge that if you try to emphasize everything, you end up emphasizing nothing. The result is that reading the article feels choppy, and weirdly unsatisfying,…

It's basically the sort of rot writing that proliferates on linkedin

I disagree. I feel there is a genuine insight at the core of it.

Re: Thin desires are eating life

#62

Post by wagwang »

ianstormtaylor wrote: post #47

I can't help but feel that this article was written in a format that is the textual equivalent of thin desires… Every sentence is separated into its own paragraph, like each one is supposed to be revelatory (or maybe tweet-worthy). It's pretty common design knowledge that if you try to emphasize everything, you end up emphasizing nothing. The result is that reading the article feels choppy, and weirdly unsatisfying,…

Also the ideas are just reframing the old maxim of "its not the destination, its the journey".

Re: Thin desires are eating life

#63

Post by moultano »

I wrote this following a similar line of thought, but with the root problem being a collective action problem around community rather than an internal psychological tradeoff between short and long term. https://moultano.wordpress.com/2025/12/09/the-dead-weight-lo...

I certainly think hijacking our short term rewards is a big part of it, but in addition, that hijacking prevents people from putting in the effort that make collective alternatives competitive.

Re: Thin desires are eating life

#64

Post by nrhrjrjrjtntbt »

wagwang wrote: post #62
ianstormtaylor wrote: post #47

I can't help but feel that this article was written in a format that is the textual equivalent of thin desires… Every sentence is separated into its own paragraph, like each one is supposed to be revelatory (or maybe tweet-worthy). It's pretty common design knowledge that if you try to emphasize everything, you end up emphasizing nothing. The result is that reading the article feels choppy, and weirdly unsatisfying,…

Also the ideas are just reframing the old maxim of "its not the destination, its the journey".

It is that but more than that. There are companies trying to profit by selling instant gratificaton.

Re: Thin desires are eating life

#65

Post by levocardia »

ianstormtaylor wrote: post #47

I can't help but feel that this article was written in a format that is the textual equivalent of thin desires… Every sentence is separated into its own paragraph, like each one is supposed to be revelatory (or maybe tweet-worthy). It's pretty common design knowledge that if you try to emphasize everything, you end up emphasizing nothing. The result is that reading the article feels choppy, and weirdly unsatisfying,…

Same reaction - I could immediately tell this person had learned to write on Twitter (or Linkedin), not real meaty writing. I had an English professor who wrote "FORM = CONTENT" on the chalkboard; this article would send him into a fury.

Re: Thin desires are eating life

#66

Post by snarf21 »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #40
snarf21 wrote: post #19

I find it ironic that this perspective is being shared in such a "thin" way. There are some insightful observations but the whole thick/thin perspective just doesn't resonate with me. As an old man ( shakes fist at clouds ), we have stopped prioritizing people. It is all about building and maintaining relationships and we've gotten lazy. And maintaining relationships is a lot of work and without it we do feel more is…

>> And maintaining relationships is a lot of work this is really true, and I'm hopeful that people will prioritize fewer, deeper relationships because it's so much work. I feels like networking in all the superficial ways has allowed people to (believe they) have way more relationships than is healthy or even possible. I don't know what the upper limit is (likely different for every individual) but it's way less than…

In my experience, it is mostly like 3-5 very close friends and about a dozen "good" friends. One thing I hear from so many people is the mindset of "well, they didn't call me back" and turn it into score keeping. Not all relationships are going to be equitable but they all require investment or they wither.

Re: Thin desires are eating life

#67

Post by nrhrjrjrjtntbt »

assemblyman wrote: post #42

Even with thick desires, I sometimes find myself day-dreaming about the state when I have mastered a skill or understood a topic deeply. At the same time, I know from experience that the process never ends. Even when one does master a skill, one is deeply aware of what one doesn't know or understand or what one is not good at within that domain. What helps me is to focus on today. If I can spend even an hour on a top…

Oh yeah decades in I still feel I know f-all about programming. Doesn't help the field keeps expanding expintentially. E.g. I look most things up. I am basicially a slow LLM!

Re: Thin desires are eating life

#69

Post by teekert »

throwaway_2494 wrote: post #61
micromacrofoot wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's basically the sort of rot writing that proliferates on linkedin

I disagree. I feel there is a genuine insight at the core of it.

Yeah me too. Lately LI is like:

CMSs are done!

Let that sink in!

Some dude trew away his CMS and vibe coded some markdown based static stuff that does the same.

No harddrive was wiped this particular time.

The world is different now, reply in comments if you agree. Reply “airhead” for my 3 slides which are even more insightful than this post.

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