i'm a little bit perturbed that the rationalist subculture might be seeing these mental states as desirable. the big problem, apart from the obvious issues wit

i'm a little bit perturbed that the rationalist subculture might be seeing these mental states as desirable. the big problem, apart from the obvious issues with impulsive and reckless decision making, is delusional and bizarre thinking. full-grade mania can have full-grade psychosis, but even the "desirable" hypomania here can come with lesser forms of something obviously related. somebody might be a little too prone to see coincidences, to make unjustified inferences about other people's mental states, to perceive "messages from the universe", to perceive patterns and connections between unrelated things, to believe that they have the ability to somehow influence or foretell the future, etc. like euphoria, these are all pretty much harmless and common things in themselves. it seems to me that hypomania (and drugs, etc.) ramps them up in the same way it does euphoria, and as long as it doesn't go too far, it doesn't outright prevent people from functioning. i wonder whether it's even possible to separate the two -- i find "predictive processing" explanations of mania to be intuitively convincing, so it seems like euphoria and weird thinking might be connected in some way. i don't like the idea of the rationalist crowd, many of whom are smart, driven, and capable, and value clear thinking, getting into states of mind like this, especially since they tend to come with anosognosia. it doesn't seem good. Even if the goal is "wireheading done right" with some future technology such that problems can be avoided, the pattern with this subculture seems to be that some people will try to experiment with whatever closest equivalent is available now seriously underestimating risks. if you're thinking to yourself "how can I become hypomanic to make myself more productive and creative", please don't. (also, if rationalist types do start trying to make themselves hypomanic, one result might be that the AI/singularity/simulation stuff will turn into something that really is a religion.)