101 sats \ 0 replies \ @Signal312 22h \ on: Figuring out how to make Bitcoin user numbers go up 🛠️ bitcoin
I have a suggestion. Make every suggestion skippable. Lots of people with useful answers just don't want to answer some of these questions.
Thanks for this.
I identified a lot with this quote:
But I have seen and felt these problems acutely, and I’ve witnessed others face these problems just the same. I’ve seen my enjoyment of reading and conversations diminish in the temptation to pick up my smartphone. (from https://mereorthodoxy.com/the-rise-of-hyperpleasures)
That's me, right there. I still read more books than almost anyone I know, but the reading is mostly in little snippets of time. I used to read for hours and hours at a time, not just before going to sleep. It really formed me as a person to a large part.
Regarding the Hyperpleasure Hypothesis, as I'll call it - another huge component (in addition to porn, social media, etc) is food. So much food, nowadays, is fine-tuned to exactly hit the "sweet spot" - the perfect combination of salt, sweet, crunch, etc. I used to scoff at the concept of food addiction, but not anymore.
I'm carnivore now 1, but before that I didn't eat any processed foods for many years. No sodas or sweet drinks, no packaged chips or cookies, etc. But at one point, for some reason (I think I was just handed it at a party) I had a glass of this Tropicana Premium Sunset:
And...it was absolutely amazing. It hit all the right flavor notes, the perfect combination of sweet and a little tangy, smooth to drink. I remember being absolutely floored at how good it tasted, after not having that type of food for years. Almost scary.
Hyperpleasure, indeed.
What works for me is just a blanket "nope" to these foods. Moderation is too stressful. People think they can moderate, but in reality most people can't do it well.
Footnotes
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Some previous posts on how carnviore is going for me:Carnivore diet - believe it or not, it healed this oddball disorder for me Can a keto/carnivore diet heal issues like depression, anxiety, OCD, bipolar? Latest steps in my carnivore path - and why you should consider a carnivore diet Carnivore achievements unlocked Taking a temporary break from mostly-carnivore diet during holidays Sugar and Alzheimers Kinda-carnivore diet is leading to WAY more energy Question for carnivores/carnivore-curious folks I'm transitioning ... to a more MEAT centric diet This book is blowing my mind - The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholtz ↩
I like it when it's easy. For instance - something I want (but don't "need to have") on Poshmark. I will almost always offer a much lower price. They will always come back and either say yes, or offer to split the difference. So that's not a problem.
On the other hand, I was in Burma once, and negotiating with an obviously poor roadside seller of...well, I can't really remember.
What I do remember is I tried to negotiate, and then later asked a Burmese friend if I had gotten a good deal.
He said something along the lines of "when they're so poor like this seller was, we don't really negotiate."
Made me feel about 1 inch tall.
Reading about bitcoin multiple times, from around 2011 forward.
And thinking over the course of the years, multiple times, I should learn more about that. I should REALLY look into that.
And then actually not looking into it till much, much later. Thank goodness for the book The Bitcoin Standard.
True, quality is an issue as well but that's a well-understood factor.
The times I notice this is when it's the exact same brand, same type, just a different size. And the large economy size is often quite a bit more expensive, per unit cost, though everyone assumes it's cheaper.
This is a good one to send to young people who may still be idealistic about joining the armed forces.
11 sats \ 1 reply \ @Signal312 8 Jun \ parent \ on: Buy Ben & Jerry's and feel like an activist culture
What is your opinion of the environmental/social work that these companies do?
My expectation is that it's all about matching whatever numbers are required, and nothing useful.
TDS - Trump Derangement Syndrome - it's a real thing. I know quite a few people who have it. Someone very close to me - a sweet, reasonable person, in my experience - apparently went on a rampage, actually knocking over chairs in her own house, when she found that Trump had won the election.
This is not rational. In my experience, it comes from constantly listening to CNN.
Hey, he didn't start a war. Unlike lots of his immediate predecessors. That's absolutely HUGE in my book.
Thanks for this, I'm bookmarking it to look at more carefully once I understand a bit more about coinjoins. And the rest of it, frankly.
Which steps here cost money? I assume step 3, mix my coins? Any others? About what percentage are you paying for this privacy?
When you say "install LND" - I assume it means this? https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd"
If you had to give an overview, would you basically say it is:
- mix your coins
- the mixed UTXO, send to through lightning to another address?
Sounds like a good book.
This is a public service announcement. I'm going to throw another idea in there, for combatting depression, anxiety, and a lot of other disorders that are VERY common now.
A carnivore or low-carb/keto diet
The evidence is really starting to pile up. For me personally, it was great for mental health (as well as physical health and energy, it's been 6 months now). Check out my post:
Here's an excerpt from that post:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Most people go carnivore to lose weight, or to fix an auto-immune disease. But I started listening to a substantial number of podcasts from people who had overcome serious mental issues, just by switching to a carnivore diet.
Then I read the book by Dr. Georgia Ede - Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind. It's an outstanding book, she goes through the science of why the standard diet probably is actually causing the huge increase in mental health issues that we, as a society, have been experiencing. She then goes into the specifics about how a low-carb or keto or carnivore diet can help and in her experience, even cure these issues.
Here's a good quote from the book:
I was genuinely shocked to learn that there is absolutely no science (or logic) behind recommendations to eat plant-based diets, balanced diets, high-fiber diets, low-cholesterol diets, or diets containing whole grains, low-fat dairy products, or rainbows of fruits and vegetables. At best, these ideas represent well-intentioned guesses based on deeply flawed, unscientific food questionnaires; at worst, they are intentional distortions of the facts designed to protect professional reputations or serve political and commercial agendas, not to protect and serve public health.
The truth about nutrition is this: Meat is not dangerous, vegan diets are not healthier, and antioxidants are not the answer. So, where can we look for answers?
The good news is that hiding underneath that mountain of biased, confusing guesswork are clear, elegant, compelling scientific principles about nutrition that make intuitive sense, work in clinical practice, and stand the test of time.
Do we know everything we wish we knew? No. Do we know more than enough for you to substantially improve your brain health starting today? Absolutely.
I understand completely. I don't have any real answers. But the life poisoning thing sounds bad.
Here's what worked for me:
- I moved to a much less insane area
- I spend time with people and call some of them friends, who were NOT necessarily completely based in the covid era. Who may have gotten vaxxed. I judge them somewhat, in my head. But I realize that people who can withstand that kind of social pressure are few and far between. I appreciate my independent-minded friends more than ever. I did lose some previously good friends who were completely into the propaganda. Just don't want to talk to them anymore.
- Even in the covid era, I worked hard to get out there and join the protesters, the people holding rallies (tiny, maybe) about unmasking kids. I'm very glad for that.
Hell no. And I used to be someone who had a yearly recurring reminder in my calendar, for my flu shot. Never again that shot either. Any trust I once had in medical systems is completely, utterly gone.
It was not easy. I used to live in one of those hellholes that banned the unjabbed from cafes, restaurants, gyms, etc. Starbucks kicked me out for being unjabbed, the first day of the mandate. I will never again spend a penny at any Starbucks in my entire life.
I carry a lot of resentment from that time period. And the knowledge that friends and family went so crazy with their support of these measures - well, that's unsettling to say the least.
But I did find some people even in my old location who were against it. Thank goodness for that.
150 sats \ 0 replies \ @Signal312 5 Jun \ parent \ on: Be the Change you want to Be and See alter_native
Even so - maybe I'm too much of a skeptic - I don't think they're always doing good, or even frequently.
For instance, I once volunteered at a soup kitchen, with a friend who organized the whole meal, once a month. It was "fried chicken" day, they got fried chicken and sides from a local restaurant.
Some of my problems with it were:
- The majority of the people that came for this free fried chicken dinner were obese, some very much so. They often went through the line 2 or 3 times.
- None of the patrons was learning to cook, or to take care of anything themselves. Nobody had to do any work or contribute in any way to the dinner. It was all "sit down and be fed".
- The food was, of course, really unhealthy. And afterwards as many cookies or whatever sweet dessert they offered.
Most of the time, it seems that the charities are run so that the volunteers feel good about themselves. There's a really good book called Toxic Charity by Robert Lupton that fleshes out some of these ideas. Here's a quote:
Almsgiving is Mammon’s perversion of giving. It affirms the superiority of the giver, who thus gains a point on the recipient, binds him, demands gratitude, humiliates him and reduces him to a lower state than he had before.
Charity a perversion? Toxic? That thought clung to me for weeks. Every interaction with low-income neighbors became suspect. I began studying the facial expressions of those I ushered into our church clothes closet. I noticed how seldom recipients gave me direct eye contact. I watched body language as I handed out boxes of groceries from our food pantry—head and shoulders bent slightly forward, self-effacing smiles, meek “thank-yous.” I observed, too, how quickly recipients’ response to charity devolved from gratitude to expectation to entitlement.
In moments of silent introspection, I observed my part in the anatomy of giving: I expected gratitude in exchange for my free gifts. I actually enjoyed occupying the superior position of giver (though I covered it carefully with a facade of humility). I noted a hidden irritation at those who voiced their annoyance when free food stocks ran low. I grew weary of filtering through half-truths and manipulative ploys as I sought to equitably dispense resources. This thorough look at the anatomy of my charity eventually exposed an unhealthy culture of dependency.
With the research intensity of a Louis Pasteur searching for a causal relationship between germs and disease, I examined broader aspects of charity under the microscope of my new awareness. I discovered that the toxins deforming relationships were not confined to our organization or the neighborhood I served. Everywhere I looked, I observed the same patterns, from overseas church mission trips to the inner-city service projects of campus organizations. Wherever there was sustained one-way giving, unwholesome dynamics and pathologies festered under the cover of kindheartedness.
Since that 1981 Christmas Eve, it has baffled me that in a global communication era no watchdog organization warns of the dangers of charity, especially given the growth and popularity of this industry. Now, everyone is getting in on the charity train, from rock groups to youth groups, from TV celebrities to elementary-school children, from Fortune 500 corporations to campus fraternities. And across the board the benevolence business is almost entirely unexamined.
Doing for rather than doing with those in need is the norm. Add to it the combination of patronizing pity and unintended superiority, and charity becomes toxic.
It never fails - on the surface, so many charities have a good spiel. But whenever you dig down, you uncover all kinds of crap.
I prefer individuals and organizations that are EXPLICITLY pursuing their own interest, as opposed to setting themselves up to be saints. There's less disappointment that way.
I think some organized charities are okay for a while, a couple years maybe. But then they seem to inevitably devolve into either a bureaucratic boondoggle, or start taking government money, or something else happens.
I volunteered many years ago with an organization called the Student Conservation Association, and did some outdoor oriented internships that were really amazing. I looked them up again recently, and they have gone completely, 100% woke. Also of course mandatory covid vaccinations for anyone that has anything to do with them. Very, very disappointing.