alecbz

11 ms·

121.
by alecbz 4y ago
We're inherently very social creatures. I'm sure a lot's been written on this, but I like "The Social Leap"'s telling of it: we basically evolved from our primate ancestors by being pushed out of the rainforest
122.
by alecbz 4y ago
I think effective altruism and the kind of altruism that can give someone deeper meaning and connection (and thus avert things like midlife crises) are not the same, sometimes maybe mutually exclusive. Going out to a remote country and help
123.
by alecbz 4y ago
Adding on to the other reply, the first place I heard of this general idea was from a survivor of a POW camp in Vietnam, who said that the people who thought they’d never get out didn’t fare well, but that the people that fared the worst we
124.
by alecbz 4y ago
Stripe had a few “official” principles that I really liked along these lines: “We haven’t won yet”, “macro-optimism but micro-pessimism”. They’re no longer official principles though, and I’m not 100% sure how much they were actually acted
125.
by alecbz 4y ago
> This is what happens when your work is your identity Sorry, is that just your commentary, or is there something in that article linking work as identity to loneliness? I agree that using work, or any other one thing as your sole source
126.
by alecbz 4y ago
While there might be some benefits of an office just as a separate physical space for doing work, I think the vast majority of benefit people are referring to when talking about “the office” is being physically with the people they’re worki
127.
by alecbz 4y ago
“Hostage” doesn’t seem like the right model there, any more than being forced to work at all for a living counts as being held hostage.
128.
by alecbz 4y ago
I only have a couple of years of data for remote/semi-remote work, but personally I’ve found physical presence is an important factor in how connected I feel to others. And how connected I feel to others definitely has a strong effect
129.
by alecbz 4y ago
I don't think anyone's holding anyone hostage, but it is true that these kinds of things require a relatively consistent corporate culture, because it's fundamentally about how you're relating to the other people you&#x2
130.
by alecbz 4y ago
FWIW Gladwell's comments really resonate with me. I do think it's okay if you decide you don't want anything out of your job besides a paycheck, and are happy to find meaning, belonging, etc. in other parts of your life. But
131.
by alecbz 4y ago
> And employees were not more engaged prior to the pandemic. People quit just as often. Is that actually true about the quitting? But regardless, I don't think that really captures engagement all that well. You can be barely engaged
132.
by alecbz 4y ago
> Not even "discipline", but what is "nature". So… not what Jocko is talking about?
133.
by alecbz 4y ago
Musing some more while I'm here (a bunch of armchair psychology to follow): Everything in your brain is chemicals, but beyond that, external influences can I think cause very deep, "low-level" changes in your brain, that end
134.
by alecbz 4y ago
Reposting from another comment: I think https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/07/ssris-much-more-than-y... is a good summary. One quote: > The guy who invented effect size suggested that 0.2 be called “small”
135.
by alecbz 4y ago
I definitely think there are broad societal trends contributing a lot to mental health issues, but I'm less convinced it's capitalism exactly (depending on what you mean by "capitalism" of course[0]). Two societal trends
136.
by alecbz 4y ago
I’m pretty sure other studies do find differences between SSRIs and placebo. I trust Scott Alexander’s take on this: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/07/ssris-much-more-than-y... but the one-sentence answer
137.
by alecbz 4y ago
Everything in your brain is made up of chemicals though. Even if one’s depression is caused by external factors (as opposed to some kind of inherent or congenital chemical imbalance), modifying the chemical state of your brain can still pos
138.
by alecbz 4y ago
> somehow is a generic query language for data. In what sense is GraphQL not a generic query language for data?
139.
by alecbz 4y ago
Would you say the same about working from home generally, which seems to have more staying power (even if we are seeing some return to office)? It seems not-crazy to me that someone would have thought that WFH was going to stick around post
140.
by alecbz 4y ago
Even if you know something exists, you might just have never tried it for some reason until something causes you to, at which point you might realize you enjoy it. E.g., I got a bike over COVID, found I liked biking a lot, and have been doi
141.
by alecbz 4y ago
Hindsight's 20/20? Why would we feel sure that people wouldn't keep up with habits they picked up during COVID? That seems like it could have been similarly likely to me -- someone picks up day trading, gets hooked, and now i
142.
by alecbz 4y ago
> For Marx, these crises ultimately culminate in the unavoidable collapse of capitalism. But I mean that's exactly the whole difference, right? Both Marx and others identified this pattern, Marx believes this ultimately will explode
143.
by alecbz 4y ago
Ok sure, I don't think I quite got that from what GP wrote, but I can see that as a valid argument: "There are actually valid uses for leap seconds, but just not within astronomy. Meta's claiming that leap seconds were made
144.
by alecbz 4y ago
It's not really a straw man because Meta's not really attacking that position, they're ceding that point. Like a straw man would be Meta saying "astronomers think that leap seconds are helpful but in fact they're no
145.
by alecbz 4y ago
In that case I don't think I understand what you mean by: > Meta is just trying to make their problem someone else's problem. It sounds like you agree that leap seconds themselves are a problem for people besides Meta?
146.
by alecbz 4y ago
> the actual problem exists I mean this is the whole contention. Meta's claiming this isn't actually a problem worth solving.
147.
by alecbz 4y ago
You also said: > It sounds like Meta wants to change the definition of time for everyone just to make their programming a little easier. I find the very premise just out right ridiculous. ... Meta is just trying to make their problem som
148.
by alecbz 4y ago
A pretty big part of being good at software is deciding if a problem is worth solving.
149.
by alecbz 4y ago
What do you mean by "time in the real world"? The relative position of the sun to someone on Earth? _Some_ legal uses of time are probably concerned with this, but I'd think it's a pretty small minority.
150.
by alecbz 4y ago
Right, that's what I meant. I don't think the average Googler is self-aggrandizing, but if you don't work at Google or have a big friend circle that works there, then there's a selection bias for the Googlers you do know

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