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The Acceleration of Addictiveness

paulgraham.com

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Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness

#71

Post by mortenjorck »

jimbokun wrote: post #20
sharpn wrote: post #12

I agree with the main thrust of this essay, but there are nuances & counter-examples that make me more optimistic: For example, a nuance: More people are giving up television, magazines & newspapers than ever before - perhaps we (as humans) have a finite need of/tolerance for distractions, and are satisfying this need/reaching this tolerance more efficiently via the internet now? A counter-example (on the increase in…

"More people are giving up television, magazines & newspapers than ever before" In many of the discussions about people giving up "TV," it turned out that many just turned off their cable and consumed video through Hulu, Netflix and other online sources. So, put another way, do you think even people who have given up TV, etc. have, on average, actually reduced their total amount of time consuming content of one form…

Well, in going from cable to Netflix, I probably reduced my time spent watching moving pictures by 75% (not that it was very high to begin with). In addition to the rationing involved (at least at the beginning, before the proliferation of Instant Watch), there was perhaps the decreased sense of "must get my money's worth." Paying $60/month for cable to watch two hours a week feels more wasteful than paying $10/month for the same.

Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness

#72

Post by tremendo »

nickpp wrote: post #6

Didn't quite get the Paleo diet reference: are you viewing it as a new (and thus suspicious) fad or as an old, safe and proven way of eating?

To me it makes sense in the context:

> we'll have to figure out for ourselves what to avoid and how

At its most basic Paleo Nutrition is mostly about avoiding or minimizing so-called neolithic agents of disease: refined carbohydrates, grains, processed oils.

> It will actually become a reasonable strategy… to suspect everything new

It may be that thinking of it as a "modern" approach to nutrition (ironic in that it's supposed to be the "ancestral" way of eating, but the linked Wikipedia article does call it modern) can help the adoption of the Paleo diet, because "it's new" and because it's new, "addictive".

Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness

#73

Post by Tichy »

Great essay, but the responses here make me want to say: let's not forget that some of these bad addictive things also have their good sides.

A lot of the articles on HN are inspiring.

Sometimes it is good to switch off and relax with a movie or a computer game.

And so on...

Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness

#74

Post by DenisM »

It will actually become a reasonable strategy (or a more reasonable strategy) to suspect everything new.

No. The reasonable strategy is, and has always been, defining the positive outcomes you want to reach rather than negative ones you want to avoid. The opposite of "drunk" is not "he avoids drinking", it's "he lives a fulfilled life without allowing alcohol to consume his existence".

The opposite of internet addict is not someone who abstains from internet, it is someone who lives a balanced life with work and play in equal measures, and play being divided amongst all the nature requires from us - exercise, family, friends, sex, artistic self-expression, fooling around with no purpose etc.

The same is true for any other addiction.

Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness

#75

Post by robryan »

cageface wrote: post #46

It's hard to escape the irony of the situation of the typical programmer. Programming requires extended periods of focus and deep concentration but the very medium in which most of us work is a firestorm of distractions. How can you be an effective mobile app developer if you don't immerse yourself in the experience of mobile media? We're like the crack dealer that has to constantly sample his wares. Like PG and othe…

True, to be most efficient at web development I need an internet connection. To check docs and Google solutions so I don't have to reinvent the wheel, as well as communicate quickly with others working on the same projects plus monitoring and testing quickly in production.

Removing the internet connection may improve efficiencies in some areas but I'll be a whole lot more efficient if I can have the connection and manage to not be distracted.

Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness

#76

Post by sesqu »

jimbokun wrote: post #15
tmsh wrote: post #4

The link to the Paleolithic diet made me think that one strategy against increasing addition is to normalize for evolutionary time. Still requires a lot of learned, subjective insight. But basically, anything that has proved itself via evolution is more sturdy and is worth congregating around (these include immediate things that affect the body, but also the evolution of societies, etc.). Bravo on another great essay…

"(these include immediate things that affect the body, but also the evolution of societies, etc.)" This is really much of the appeal of Christianity, and other forms of culture that have survived some test of time. I say this in response to pg's foot note: "Unless we mass produce social customs. I suspect the recent resurgence of evangelical Christianity in the US is partly a reaction to drugs." Not just drugs, but a…

Possibly related: Apparently, India is somewhat perplexed by a resurgence of spirituality among the highly educated. No real effect in rural areas, but the heavy earners are becoming uncharacteristically religious.

Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness

#77

Post by dejb »

fmora wrote: post #43
natrius wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think that explanation is particularly probable out of all of the other possibilities? It seems more likely that society would consider actions strange if the actions have justifications that most people don't understand or agree with, and they don't succeed in masking their judgement.

I think this because there are plenty of vegetarians and non-smokers, and non-drinkers around that people overall don't really find it weird. I myself do eat meat and drink alcohol but it is so little overall in a year that you could almost count me as a vegetarian and as a non-alcohol drinker. I do not smoke at all. Also, I've noticed that people that claim to be vegetarians do it in such a way that they come off sm…

> I've noticed that people that claim to be vegetarians do it in such a way that they come off smug.

Unfortunately the act of unapologetically refusing to participate in something that most other people do is often considered smug. This is rather similar to the way atheists are considered smug by many religious people where as agnostics are not.

Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness

#78

Post by mechanical_fish »

kirse wrote: post #55

Maybe PG and I would agree on this, because I do think things are becoming more "addictive", but I don't believe he's addressed the root cause of the problem. I think with new technological advances, etc, things are becoming better at being "false substitutes" -- i.e. masquerading themselves as the authentic ways in which we should best satisfy the natural human desires and instincts we all have within us. Addiction…

Even if we accept your frame, it's not a simple thing. Consider these "false" substitutes:

Large quantities of mass-produced food instead of meager quantities of undependable crops that you spend 90% of your working life growing;

Facebook instead of being lonely and isolated in your suburban home, miles from any of your friends;

HD porn instead of unhealthy sexual relationships;

Online dating instead of avoiding social situations because you never meet anyone you actually want to talk to, and when you do they're always seeing someone else;

Chess and WoW instead of mortal combat and intertribal warfare;

Football fandom instead of burning the fields of rival clans and kidnapping their women and children.

Inventiveness taketh away, but it also giveth.

Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness

#79

Post by dman »

drewcrawford wrote: post #54
dman wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with the fact that people currently have more free time as compared to 50-100 years ago.

According to http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/whaples.work.hours.us there is a clear trend in a shortening workweek each decade across industries.

I stand corrected. Thanks for pointing the data out.

Re: The Acceleration of Addictiveness

#80

Post by jleader »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #67

This is a nitpick and an aside, but this sentence: When cigarettes first appeared, they spread the way an infectious disease spreads through a previously isolated population. ...is not literally true. Cigarettes are hundreds of years old. They were apparently being manufactured in Europe in the 1830s. Of course, this doesn't affect PG's point in the slightest; he's remarking on how the smoking boom stopped , not how…

Better (more efficient/effective) manufacturing techniques? Or more efficient/effective marketing techniques?

(I had a little trouble there with the adjective "better" applied to Madison Avenue's promotion of cigarettes).

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