Everything that makes us feel good is neurochemical in nature, including exercise. Exercise can lead to a withdrawal period of feeling shitty and unproductive, and it can be quite addictive.
Really important not to confuse "feeling good" with being good for you. Have seen a lot of people overdo it and lose their lives to pointless exercise while accomplishing very little else. Also important to realize that most things in life that give you a boost in life also give you a debt to pay back at a later time/date.
It's pointless because of the hedonic treadmill. Any feel good feeling is neurochemical in nature, and any moment of feeling good will be counterbalanced at one point or another.
Where I live in Atlantic Canada you can rent the same for $550 USD, or just buy a brand new modern home for $180k USD. People here work remotely for companies like Google. The government will also help fund your startup’s product development through various programs (hundreds of thousands of dollars).
Always wanted to move to San Fran but starting to feel pretty grateful about being here.
“Remember when we looked forward to every advance?”
No. Humans have always been afraid of change and skeptical of technology. Books and the printing press were considered destructive inventions that would prevent people from thinking for themselves. There were also extremely negative perceptions of television and the internet.
I think that's unfair regarding the last decades. Post war people were pretty enthusiastic about tech. There are always people resisting. As a kid I wasn't obviously. But even adults were running after kitchen appliances, electronics and computers. It was a given.
Encouragement is not a bad idea, and there’s nothing stopping doctors from doing that today.
But the idea of “prescribing” an activity that is meant to be intrinsically motivated seems misguided.
It reminds me of those kids growing up who’s parents forced them to do every extra-curricular activity. They ended up -hating- everything they were made to do. And from my anecdotal evidence, kind of miserable.
Creative activities require a real intrinsic desire to participate in them in order to be joyful. Forcing them spoils them, and can make the participant feel even more down on themselves (I’m practicing, why don’t I like it?).
I think the better alternative is for the dr to flesh out what things the person really wants to do already, and continuously encourage them to go for it.
Maybe what I’m missing is that by making it a prescription, medical insurance will cover it? I guess that would be pretty great, as long as the person has an intrinsic desire to do the thing.
> But the idea of “prescribing” an activity that is meant to be intrinsically motivated seems misguided.
Social prescribing doesn't mean the patient is forced to do something they don't want to do, it means the patient who may struggle (because motivation, health, money) to access something gets some support to access an activity.
The thing about illness is, when you feel crappy you don't want to do anything. Which of course leads to less activity, to exacerbation of associated health problems and then back to not wanting to do zilch.
You can only break that circle by getting your body and brain busy with anything at all.
And with any creative activity, you figure out as you go whether you're any good at it or you prefer to switch to something else. Only you need motivation to do that.
It may work better in helping to get people to start doing something, rather than keeping their routine.
There's nothing that says people may not start liking the activity that is good for them later, and keep doing it regardless of whether they started doing it on prescription or with encouragement/friend recommendation. But there's usually some initial hurdle to get over, and anything that helps is probably good.
The proposed better alternative is more the role of a counselor than a doctor IMO which makes me think they should be encouraging the use of counselors instead. That being said, many people find things like counseling as superfluous or taboo so maybe it is in our best interest to delegate this responsibility more towards general practitioners.
Part of the GPs job is to be a general counciler on their health and lifestyle habits. They certainly shouldnt be diagnosing mental health issues if they don't have the expertise but encouraging to have good habits before referring them to an actual therapist is definitely warented in most cases.
We value 3 swimming pools of an arbitrary substance at 7 trillion dollars. Any utility for it is irrelevant at this valuation - it does not produce dividends. Gold is a brand, and the value of gold is a shared illusion. Bitcoin is much newer brand but it's not inconceivable that it could maintain a similar shared illusion.
Well, the gold bubble has yet to "permanently" pop, and has been through multiple phases of mania - an arbitrary substance worth trillions of dollars which our entire supply of fits in 3 olympic swimming pools. Socially agreed upon value can potentially last for generations without any fundamental sense.
Gold is very different. There's a lot of ornamental uses(some industrial) and also historical and cultural value. Owning and hoarding gold is a status symbol in some cultures(2.5 billion plus with just China+India) way beyond owning the latest and most expensive iPhones.
Throughout most of modern history, you could buy things with gold and that's unlikely to change. Barring alchemy or some extreme globalwide natural disasters, there's a value floor on gold that's missing with bitcoin.
There are no current killer applications for bitcoin beyond some semi-legal trade of illicit drugs and ransomware which doesn't even need or cause the currency price to go up since it's usually converted back and forth to fiat. Perhaps this will change if countries currencies go belly up and die (think Venezuela, Argentina and Zimbabwe).
While gold has a much later stage "shared illusion of value" that comes from its brand and emotional associations, I'd argue that Bitcoin is extremely similar, just much earlier stage.
The purported uses of gold have no relevance, they're just part of the illusion of gold having value. We value 3 swimming pools of an arbitrary substance at 7 trillion dollars. There is no utility that even justifies 1% of this valuation. It does not produce dividends.
Would you rather speculate on a "shared illusion of value" that has massive room to grow into the digital age, or one that is potentially reaching peak levels of absurdity?
Both assets are illusory bullshit - but you can make a lot of money trading bullshit.
In life, we will always find “shining cities” to chase. The perfect house, the perfect job, the perfect romantic partner, the perfect software team.
But, like a mirage, when we reach these goals it seems that the thing we thought was perfect is actually riddled with flaws.
“The shining city” is purely a mental construct, one that gives us structure and purpose, staving off “existential nausea” - the anxiety that comes from living a directionless existence.
The way to everlasting peace is to be able to acknowledge: “we live in the shining city right now. Everything is operating according to the laws of physics, humans follow human nature and their genetics. Everything is exactly how it should be.”
But this isn’t “giving up”. It’s ok for us to have “shining city goals”. It’s human nature. It’s fun and allows us to experience a journey.
But at the end of the day when you see the mirage fade, smile about the journey and the experiences you had along the way.
The way to everlasting peace is to be able to acknowledge: “we live in the shining city right now. Everything is operating according to the laws of physics, humans follow human nature and their genetics. Everything is exactly how it should be.”
This is not wisdom, it’s nonsense.
If we followed this advice 2000 years ago we would still be practicing open defecation and dying at the age of 30.
I bet if you measured contentment levels then and now you would not find much of a difference! In fact you might find people are less content now than shitting in a ditch 2000 years ago.
But I did not mean this as an excuse for “non-progress”. Humans will “progress”, it’s their natural instinct and drive. It makes more sense to make our lives easier than to make it harder.
But the shining city doesn’t exist, and there’s nothing that will significantly increase our internal contentment but winning the internal battle of acceptance.
It is much more nuanced. Peace is about: accepting and appreciating what you have, and don't have (i.e appreciate the actual reality). Progress is making it better.
You will need both, change and the ability to see what is good and works in the current reality.
Yes 2000 years ago, when people were defecating in the open and dying at 30, things were just as they should be, since it brought us to our current state where we have sanitation and live to 100.
On top of this, not everyone's "shining city" is the same. At a minimum, the "shining city" mentioned by the author was apparently incompatible with management's "shining city".
The concept of “the library” is one that holds deep emotional attachment for many people. The nostalgia of book smells, the exhibitionism of reading “cool” physical books in public, the idea of being physically connected to “the community”.
The core function of a library, storing physical books, makes little sense anymore. Digital books are far superior in cost and functionality. But those emotionally attached will claim “they’re not the same”.
Our province in Canada has a population of 500,000 and has over 100 libraries. Each of those libraries needs to carry multiple copies of important literature. Many of these libraries go unused. It’s a big waste of money yet people can’t move on because of emotional attachment and emotional reasoning.
I do believe in the reinvisioning of libraries as a more digital space, a place to work, and a place for the public to learn.
But let’s stop the emotional reasoning and use pure logic. “Civil society” is more alive than ever, on the internet.
I’m unsure how you got the idea that libraries are only places to read books. Every library I’ve ever been to also provided a variety of other services: access to computers, various workshops and free classes, a place to host clubs and other community meetings, and also a workspace for students and adults. Even in the most rural libraries I’ve been to I’ve been able to grab a flyer or brochure of multiple events occurring that month in the library- everything from the local crochet club to child-oriented book clubs to free classes on basic internet research.
I understand the argument and I agree that digital books are the future, however, they are so inferior in discoverability that if my library ever moves all-digital I will replace it with one of my 10 local used bookstores. I need to browse books to find some I like and am not interested in letting algorithms or Internet echo chambers do so for me.
My own library also has copies of e.g. sheet music... I agree that those could be digital but it's more practical to stick a giant piece of paper on my keyboard vs a tablet (would be afraid the tablet could fall, also don't own a tablet). And the library is often one of few places these days that young children see physical books in large numbers... won't it be bad for their eyes to do all that reading digitally?
Agreed, the UX of paper is still so much better than kindle. Nicer to read, no lag, easier to organize and share, nicer taking notes in margins. I bought a kindle and went back to paper.
One of the main benefits of ebooks is cost of production, surely. There is a massive cost saving (and impact on jobs etc.) but it seems the producers have managed to keep all of that benefit to themselves?
It's more than just production, let me highlight storage and transport costs too (having just moved house with tonnes of books it's very much on my mind).
There's also longevity, which ties in with search-ability. Modern paper even under the best of conditions only has a century of shelf-life, where as digital data should persist for forever. Also as it's digital we get the benefits of flowing text, searching/indexing and easily converting to new formats and even languages - and the ability to easily update these conversions as technology progresses.
Theoretically (on paper?) digital books have all the benefits in the world. As a book lover I still can't quite get on with them in all but the trashiest of uses.
Exactly. An eBook costs nothing to churn out an incremental copy, but often ends up being as expensive as a hardback by the time the publisher and distributor and platform get a crack at the profits.
What method do you use to browse books? Library sorting is already basically an algorithm that seems fairly easy to set up digitally. The only obvious difference I see is a larger pool of books to draw from.
Our local library has “displays”, somewhat like the endcaps at a book store. Sometimes they are seasonal or on a particular theme. Other times they say, “If you liked A, you might also like B, C, D, or ....” The librarians sometimes have good suggestions too.
Beyond that, I love walking through the stacks and looking to see what catches my eye. This is literally my favorite thing about working at a university. Paging through Amazons recommendations (new editions of a text book you bought in 2008, books 2 and 4 of some series, and a few best-sellers) is not even close.
It's not the method (my method is pick a shelf and look at titles, and yes, it's doable online), it's that:
1) online there's just too much stuff. Libraries culling a ton of inventory serves the purpose of the really bad books being off the (real) shelf in relatively short order. Dig through Amazon's Kindle ebooks store to have an idea how much all-digital suffers from lack of this. As well as
2) I have developed, from years of reading, the ability to look at a shelf with the full aperture of my vision, and in that single glance, pick patterns of letters on the book spines such that I can identify interesting titles at a rate of maybe 200 books per minute. I understand non-readers and people who buy books off of somebody else's review list don't have that ability, but I don't see why I should be deprived of something that literally saves me 30 minutes a week to cater to, well, people who don't actually like books.
3) Some of the best books I have read at used bookstores and librairies simply don't have a digital form. They're locally published books from decades past that probably sold in the 1000 to 10000 copies range. Newer books in that space always have a digital edition, but there is a ton to learn from the past, and I often read because I am tired of existing within my own time/space bound, hearing about the same concerns. If I want to know what my contemporaries think, I can have a conversation. To learn how people I will never have the chance to meet think, I read books. (To learn how people I will never have the chance to meet really think, I read novels.)
Now 1) could be solved by an algorithm, but I write algorithms for a living and I don't trust them. 2) is trickier. 3) is definitely solvable but the economic incentives don't align, and I trust the markets even less than the algorithms.
> Libraries culling a ton of inventory serves the purpose of the really bad books being off the (real) shelf in relatively short order. Dig through Amazon's Kindle ebooks store to have an idea how much all-digital suffers from lack of this.
Sounds like an unintended but desirable effect. Why not make it intended, and design for it directly? Libraries could have a curated collection that they promote, and archives of all the other stuff.
> I have developed, from years of reading, the ability to look at a shelf with the full aperture of my vision, and in that single glance, pick patterns of letters on the book spines such that I can identify interesting titles at a rate of maybe 200 books per minute. I understand non-readers and people who buy books off of somebody else's review list don't have that ability, but I don't see why I should be deprived of something that literally saves me 30 minutes a week to cater to, well, people who don't actually like books.
For starters, that's a very offensive assumption you're making here - that people who don't have that skill "don't actually like books". Have you considered that they might be reading several books every month, just not paper books like you?
But also, that skill you describe is equally applicable to all kinds of lists. If you can do that with books on the shelf, you can learn to do that with a screen. I mean, do we really need to subsidize shelves full of paper books solely to avoid making a few people's skills obsolete and require them to relearn if they want to remain as efficient as they were before?
Of course, digital makes things fundamentally different, anyway. Why browse long shelves, when you can do fuzzy contextual search?
> 1) could be solved by an algorithm, but I write algorithms for a living and I don't trust them.
Seems like one that needs a largely random algorithm with some additional weight for recent and popular works. Amazon has a separate goal to a library, using their stores isn't a fair comparison.
2 requires pictures or facsimiles of book spines, not particularly tricky. This entire process is ridiculous though. The only way you can spot anywhere near 200 interesting books in a minute is if every book is interesting, what you're actually judging is likely a marketing decision, and you have no reason to expect your picks were particularly good.
3 is a copyright issue. Google books already has a surprising number of those books archived, and your chance of reading them would be far greater if they just required one random person to find the book and upload it. Even still, in 20 years the digital libraries will be overflowing with people you can't meet talking about experiences you can't encounter.
Yes, I think all three issues won't be issues in 20 or 30 years. I fully expect my children to grow up being able to "spot" digital titles the way I do with spines, and looking at the physical books roughly the way I looked at my grandma's physical ledger-book. (Edited: Although I think you misunderstood me on 3. I am willing to pay for those books, provided the price is sustainable considering the quantity I am consuming, and they are not in English, which may qualify what I meant when I say they largely don't exist digitally currently.)
I meant I can classify 200 books as interesting or not in a minute, obviously not find 200 interesting ones. It takes me 15 minutes to find 4 or 5 books I actually want to read.
One unfortunate side effects of books moving to digital (although, to be clear, books moving to digital is not remotely a bad thing in itself) is that they are getting longer. There is fewer and fewer pressure on authors to limit the length of newer books that are unproven, with the result that people who don't know how to speed read are seeing reading novels as more and more of a daunting thing, which I think is sad.
In my part of the US (Northeast Massachusetts) libraries address the cost of duplicate items by joining into consortia. I can, from the online catalog, "place a hold" on any book in any member library. A daily courier makes the rounds and picks up the held books from the owning library and brings them to my library. They then send me a text saying "pick up your book."
The post office also transports books library-to-llibrary at a very favorable rate if need be.
It's a great way to measure demand for books, and buy what's needed where needed. It also allows library patrons access to a much larger collection than an individual town library could.
I prefer paper books to digital books due to the way digital books are administered. When the library only has 2 Harry Potter and the Sorcerers' Stone digital books and they are DRM'd, it kills the experience.
As a child, I used the library quite often - I had no other choice, but I would often find the books I wanted to read on loan to others, and it was particularly bad if you wanted to read a series of books, inevitably one of them would be on loan to someone who had forgotten about them for months.
I was so happy when I got a job and could just go to Borders to buy the books I wanted.
And now I have a Kindle and can get books at a moments notice.
But without disposable income, the library is the only real option. But I guess these days I would have probably been more interested in my phone than books, so maybe the times really have moved on.
> Digital books are far superior in cost and functionality.
Paper books can't be deleted, don't need power, and have no DRM. Once you get beyond just text and start including diagrams, illustrations, or photos, e-ink doesn't hold up.
Paper books are fairly easy to spoil even inadvertently (just spill some crap on it - a cup of coffee that a laptop or a tablet will likely survive fine can easily ruin a paperback).
You can get digital books without DRM. And if we don't pass laws like DMCA that conscript the entire power of the state to enforce that DRM, it wouldn't be viable anyway. Indeed, anyone who has seen #bookz knows that technical viability is lacking already, and it's only the legal regime that keeps things the way they are
e-ink is just one technology among many available options for reading digital books. The beauty of a digital book is that it's not tied to any particular device, so you can pick whatever tool is most comfortable for you to read that particular book in the appropriate context.
And we have so many other things that need power already (including, say, lighting, so that you could read those paper books whenever you want) that it's kinda strange for that to be more than a very minor point.
Everything that makes us feel good is neurochemical in nature, including exercise. Exercise can lead to a withdrawal period of feeling shitty and unproductive, and it can be quite addictive.
Really important not to confuse "feeling good" with being good for you. Have seen a lot of people overdo it and lose their lives to pointless exercise while accomplishing very little else. Also important to realize that most things in life that give you a boost in life also give you a debt to pay back at a later time/date.