Going full-caveman might be a step too far, but we could certainly dial-back a few things--especially in the US. I look at my grandparents from the WWII genera

Going full-caveman might be a step too far, but we could certainly dial-back a few things--especially in the US. I look at my grandparents from the WWII generation, and I think their existences, as modest as they are, have been more agreeable--to both themselves and to the world--than the ones most people endure today. There are many otherwise healthy young people who are morbidly obese who wouldn't have been so 50 years ago. There are so many otherwise intelligent people who cannot deal with other people in a social setting, and everyone's like "oh, it's autism," and maybe in some cases it is, but I have to wonder if some of it is just a case of otherwise ordinary people being raised by television, books, video games instead of other people. I hardly know a person over 30 who isn't already on an assortment of maintenance medications. The doctors had me on two maintenance medications before I was 30, and if I hadn't figured out that hitting the gym and not eating like I was still a teenager works a hell of a lot better, I would still be taking them. Then you look at other parts of the world--where the slaves that make our stuff live--and the rivers are choked with garbage and the smog blots out the daylight. Then there is the nearly unavoidable proliferation of technology. In most tech and sales jobs, regardless of your own preference, you have to have a cell phone and e-mail--unless you want to lose your job. In most marketing and PR jobs, you have to contend with facebook / twitter / etc. "So what?" Neuroplasticity. "The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too strong to break." You are literally burning pathways into your brain for compulsively checking/responding to messages/likes/etc. It's like Pavlov's dog, but with humans, and it is a very hard thing to un-learn. Then there's all the stuff Taleb goes on about like iatrogenics and hormesis.