I once overheard a pair of utility workers talking, and as I walked past I only overheard a snippet of conversation. The older one yelled up the cherrypicker to the younger one and said, in a heavy Boston accent:
“If only you could use your powers for good, instead of for useless…”
I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.
There is only one way to make people talk more than they care to. Listen. Listen with hungry earnest attention to every word. In the intensity of your attention, make little nods of agreement, little sounds of approval. You can’t fake it. You have to really listen. In a posture of gratitude. And it is such a rare and startling experience for them, such a boon to ego, such a gratification of self, to find a genuine listener, that they want to prolong the experience. And the only way to do that is to keep talking. A good listener is far more rare than an adequate lover.
-Travis McGee
from Nightmare in Pink
by John D. McDonald
It’s just something I need to get much better at. I’ve come pretty far from where I used to be, but being a good listener is something I still struggle with sometimes.
Well, the only thing you can really do is identify the behavior and self-correct. As for whether or not people have mentioned it…yeah, they have in the past.
Next, that I can buy and program a computer for 0.30 USD that’s half the size of a grain of rice (ATtiny10). There are cheaper too, but that’s the one I like.
Finally, on to the horrifying: Boltzmann brains. The idea that given a reasonable interpretation of the laws of thermodynamics, and long spans of time, the most common form of brain in the universe ought to be one that forms due to random fluctuations. It exists for long enough to have exactly one thought (e.g. recall a false memory), then dissipates.
This ought to be by far the most common form of conscious mind in the Universe. In a sense, you could say it ‘blows’ the general case of minds.
Since you are a mind, statistically, you ought to be a Boltzmann brain. You may not be, but are unable to prove otherwise, even to yourself. So either we have some things left to learn about thermodynamics, or the most probable outcome at all times is that you cease to exist immediately after having your current thought (although I hope you don’t). Sleep tight!
thermodynamics. it sets hard physical boundary to what happens spontaneously and what can’t, how much energy you need to pump in or can recover from process, but not only that - it’s very broadly applicable, including large parts of chemistry, biology, information theory and more, like this en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissipative_system
ADHD Brains are different - so some advice that works for non-ADHD brains may or may not work.
In general, being present and meditation (in whatever way that works for you, but, generally the practice of observing your thoughts as they go by but not reacting to them) are helpful for ‘strengthening’ your thought patterns. Becoming aware of things and building up that muscle is how you can have more of that willpower.
Habits can be very difficult to build, don’t get discouraged. Find things that work for you and ways to incentivize or motivate yourself.
Oh yes I’ve come across her channel before. This is unrelated but have you found any good ways to deal with the ‘wall of awful’ that she describes in one of her videos?
I have ADHD and meditation has been a great help. I used the Waking Up app to learn to meditate, which removes all sorts of mysticism from the equation. The introductory course is great, it starts out simple enough but begins to become very interesting by about day 20 or so.
Look at posts and comments from the instance admin. Does this person seem to know anything about running a server or managing software? Do you like the admin’s tone and attitude? Does it seem like the instance will be around for the long-term, or is it someone’s hobby that they may abandon on a whim?
Look at the instance’s ban list. Do you agree with the choices? Maybe you want your All feed to include exploding-heads and lemmygrad, or maybe you don’t.
Does the instance seem to have a community theme that you want to be associated with? Some emphasize LGBTQ+ communities, or NSFW content, or particular political views.
How annoying. I thought the point of being federated was that i had 1 account for everywhere. Now the douchebag running my instance is going to ban certain communities (defederate) on my behalf? The fuck. Do i need an account on every server if i want to see everything? It’s removed. Give me a ban button and open everything up.
IMO the point of a distributed network isn’t convenience or unbridled free speech, but freedom of choice. Not only are there hundreds of instances to choose from, but anyone can run their own instance however they like, including you. If you host your own then you alone hold the ban button.
Algorithms. It’s why I use newpipe on mobile and freetube on desktop. Both allow me to import and export my subscription list, and block ads and have sponsorblock support.
But, most importantly it doesn’t make use of the Google algorithm to try and recommend me videos that might be of the radical nature on misinterpretation of past viewing history.
While it’s true that (at least for some years) more people are killed by vending machine accidents than shark attacks, your personal risk depends on what you do. If you’re a vending machine factory worker who never goes into the ocean, you’re far more likely to be killed by a vending machine than a shark. But if you live in a part of the world that doesn’t have vending machines and you swim in the ocean every day, the reverse is true.
asklemmy
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