I am not Japanese but I am a recluse and I strongly believe that this type of thing is not even slightly limited to Japan. For the last ten years or so I gener

I am not Japanese but I am a recluse and I strongly believe that this type of thing is not even slightly limited to Japan. For the last ten years or so I generally avoid going out and rarely attempt socialization. Not even online. But I think that it is very stupid if people think that someone is a recluse to the same degree if they do a lot of online socializing but don't go out. The online world is part of this equation. I think that this is wrongly painted as a psychological problem. I think it is an economic problem first with a psychological component that it probably a lot smaller than people realize. I have been doing freelance programming contracts for most of my adult life and/or bootstrapped startups (my own or individual's). Contrary to the false information that may be spread by privileged people on HN, the vast majority of such contracts available have relatively modest budgets. And it is vastly easier to get this kind of work online than projects that are well-funded. So it comes down to a few factors for me. I have always had some socialization problems. I am usually pretty broke. Going anywhere is going to end up costing easily $20-30. On the weekend it could be closer to $40 just for the Lyft rides (I work remotely and sold my car in 2013). When I am broke it doesn't make sense to go out. It's very unwise in fact. But beyond that, even online I am tired of saying something to the affect of "I have a lot of hope for the income from this latest startup". So telling people honestly how it's going is kind of a bummer for them unless I lie. Now I am trying hard to get my GPT4 powered VMs out. But even though I have plans for a lot of controls and screening, I believe that people will try to cancel this effort due to supposed safety concerns (again mediated by prompts and screening). And then others with better connections and funding will replicate the effort with inferior safety controls but better marketing for them. HN is the closest thing I get to a real social effort. Most of my comments aren't appreciated much. But I am authentic if nothing else.