sparksbet's recent activity
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Comment on Is there a way to donate or give unused ADHD medication to people in need? in ~health.mental
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Comment on What's a culture shock that you experienced? in ~talk
sparksbet Link ParentJapanese has multiple equivalents of "you" (as well as most other English pronouns, including "I") and how polite or rude it is to use a specific variant varies incredibly heavily based on which...Japanese has multiple equivalents of "you" (as well as most other English pronouns, including "I") and how polite or rude it is to use a specific variant varies incredibly heavily based on which word you're talking about and the context. It's truly a minefield lol
It's also much easier, grammatically, to drop pronouns like that entirely in Japanese (you mentioned this offhandedly but for those who aren't familiar with Japanese that may not be obvious). This often is the most polite/natural way to phrase a given sentence. Even in Chinese, which lacks these kinds of intense pronominal politeness norms in the modern language, overuse of pronouns when you could just drop it is a classic awkward thing you get from non-native speakers of languages like English that can't drop pronouns.
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Comment on Is there a way to donate or give unused ADHD medication to people in need? in ~health.mental
sparksbet (edited )LinkLegally? No. The specifics of how severe the crime would be if you got caught vary depending on your jurisdiction, the specific med in question, and the quantity. But even with a non-controlled...Legally? No. The specifics of how severe the crime would be if you got caught vary depending on your jurisdiction, the specific med in question, and the quantity. But even with a non-controlled substance like Strattera, it's still not legal to share your prescription medication.
I understand the impulse, though. I too have a little stash of older stimulant meds from when I was trying different medications and sorting my dose out. I save them mostly as a last resort if I really need meds but have forgotten to refill my normal ones (which, given that they're for ADHD, is hardly unheard of).
Sharing scheduled meds that way outside the law isn't unheard of, but presumably generally happens through word-of-mouth or encrypted messenger group chats among friends-of-friends or groups of acquaintances with something else in common. I haven't ever 'donated' meds to anyone myself in this way, but I'm sure it happens. Since stopping your ADHD stimulant meds suddenly isn't dangerous the way doing that is for many other medications, it tends to be less of an emergency to not have access for a short period than it would be for other medications, so that presumably affects how likely someone is to reach out looking for said meds in a venue like that. Strattera is a med that shouldn't be stopped cold turkey, but I haven't personally encountered anyone asking for it in this type of situation.
The principle of not posting about how you're gonna do something illegal online ofc applies here. Legally, your options are to dispose of them properly or to save them for your personal use. I'd recommend deleting this topic if you have any other plans.
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Comment on How to practically liquidate lots of little things of moderate value in ~finance
sparksbet LinkAs someone also doing a Move Far Away, this thread is making me very grateful I don't have that much stuff to sell and will probably offload a lot of it onto friends and neighbors for cheap to...As someone also doing a Move Far Away, this thread is making me very grateful I don't have that much stuff to sell and will probably offload a lot of it onto friends and neighbors for cheap to free. Keeping an eye on the suggestions here tho.
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Comment on What are some stories of progressivism gone wrong in implementation? in ~society
sparksbet Link ParentWho gets to decide which trans women are liars and which aren't? There are enough people, especially those in the UK, who think all trans women are liars. We can't base public policy on something...Who gets to decide which trans women are liars and which aren't? There are enough people, especially those in the UK, who think all trans women are liars. We can't base public policy on something so flimsy.
And actually, I don't think there's any difference between trans women and cis women that matters in this context. If I were in a women's prison (which, based on my current legal status, is definitely where I'd end up if I were imprisoned), I would want to be guaranteed safety from cis women around me who had been convicted of sexual crimes just as much as I would any trans women who happened to be there. If anything, I'd be more concerned about the cis women, since I'd be far less likely to be believed reporting sexual assault from them than from a trans woman, due to the biases of people like you. I think there's a pretty obvious reason why you aren't saying in plain language what you think the difference that matters in terms of keeping fellow inmates safe is, and it's because saying your transmisogynistic viewpoints explicitly wouldn't be as readily accepted here.
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Comment on Executive (dys)function flavors? in ~talk
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Comment on Executive (dys)function flavors? in ~talk
sparksbet Link Parentgod I wish this had been how it worked lol... I'll never be the most productive person on earth but at least when I'm medicated I can more easily write an email or do chores without waiting for a...maybe I'm off the scale and they medicate me to hell and back and suddenly I'm the most productive person on earth lol
god I wish this had been how it worked lol...
I'll never be the most productive person on earth but at least when I'm medicated I can more easily write an email or do chores without waiting for a good day
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Comment on Executive (dys)function flavors? in ~talk
sparksbet Link Parentfwiw, your description very much resonates with me (I am diagnosed). Different people with ADHD struggle with different symptoms more or less than others, and motivation/starting tasks as well as...fwiw, your description very much resonates with me (I am diagnosed). Different people with ADHD struggle with different symptoms more or less than others, and motivation/starting tasks as well as planning/finishing tasks have always been the biggest hurdle for me. I think you shouldn't be put off looking into diagnosis (or at least into resources for people with ADHD of some kind) by not having every symptom at the strength described. There are 18 symptoms of ADHD listed in the DSM-V diagnostic criteria, and as an adult you only need 5 of them to qualify for a diagnosis as long as you meet the other requirements (which are things like experiencing them from a young age and not having something else that better explains them like a TBI, for instance). Being sidetracked by distractions is a common ADHD symptom, but you could still easily get a full-fledged diagnosis even without ever exhibiting that symptom.
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Comment on Executive (dys)function flavors? in ~talk
sparksbet Link Parentngl, your description of ND thinking is wildly different from my own experiences to the point of being unrelatable -- and I have both an ADHD and an autism diagnosis. I think it's important to...ngl, your description of ND thinking is wildly different from my own experiences to the point of being unrelatable -- and I have both an ADHD and an autism diagnosis. I think it's important to note that even among ND people there is a lot of variation and not to insist that every internal experience you have must be universal to all NDs. Even within autism specifically, (which I don't agree is remotely likely to be the same "thing" as ADHD even though they're obviously very related; my autism and ADHD are very often at odds with each other in terms of their symptoms, and not all of the ADHD symptoms are trivially treatable the way you seem to think) there is so much variability in experiences. The quote "When you meet one person with autism, you've met one person with autism" exists for a reason.
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Comment on Executive (dys)function flavors? in ~talk
sparksbet Link Parentoh yeah no hard feelings, I get where you're coming from. It's just important imo to counterbalance any perspective, I think, that dissuades someone from looking into an ADHD diagnosis, because...oh yeah no hard feelings, I get where you're coming from. It's just important imo to counterbalance any perspective, I think, that dissuades someone from looking into an ADHD diagnosis, because there are already a lot of voices very loudly discouraging even people with diagnoses from getting treated and a lot of people dismissing or downplaying even people with very real, obvious symptoms. I don't think that's your intention here, but nudges to look into other options can often be how people who do genuinely fearmonger about ADHD diagnoses also accomplish that, so it can end up making people like me a bit touchy when we see that bc it's impossible to tell that it's actually well-intentioned.
Even if it's not ADHD for OP, looking into that possibility is very important imo (and many of the behavioral interventions are just generally helpful for executive function difficulties, so even if that ultimately isn't OP's issue they can hopefully still gain something useful from looking deeper into ADHD).
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Comment on Debunking the AI food delivery hoax that fooled Reddit in ~tech
sparksbet Link ParentI think news has an urgency that definitely far outstrips most other fields. And I think you're really underestimating the number of situations where having the news as soon as possible can be...I think news has an urgency that definitely far outstrips most other fields. And I think you're really underestimating the number of situations where having the news as soon as possible can be really, really important. One of my best friends in the US has family in Venezuela, and they were only able to find out about the initial attacks through him, because the news in Venezuela got locked tf down during that. Similarly, several US newspapers knew in advance of the attack that led to the kidnapping of Maduro and chose not to report it until afterwards, ostensibly for the safety of the soldiers involved -- and whether you believe them or not, I think it's pretty safe to say that having that news earlier would have had some big effects.
Now, this obviously doesn't apply to reporting on reddit threads about poor working conditions at a company. But it does mean that the way news media is incentivized to get stories out as quickly as possible isn't entirely detached from reality.
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Comment on Executive (dys)function flavors? in ~talk
sparksbet Link ParentPeople always seem to insist that "exploring further" should entail investigating anything except for "exploring" getting an ADHD diagnosis. There were many other forces at play in my life when I...Perhaps you do have some flavor of an attention disorder, I couldn't say for sure, but perhaps there are other forces at play in your life which should be explored.
People always seem to insist that "exploring further" should entail investigating anything except for "exploring" getting an ADHD diagnosis. There were many other forces at play in my life when I got my ADHD diagnosis. Getting my ADHD treated made literally all of them easier to even consider tackling.
I think your fish metaphor actually does work well for things like depression, where we do label what pretty much everyone knows much be different causes that result in similar symptoms as the same thing because we don't actually know a ton about what those different causes are. But I've heard too much "you need to explore other options" from people insisting that it must be anything other than ADHD for it to not rub me the wrong way. I spent years exploring other options myself before I got my ADHD diagnosis. The option I most thoroughly explored was that I was a lazy failure who couldn't cope as well as my peers because I wasn't trying hard enough.
Even setting aside the huge benefits stimulant medication has had on my life -- including helping things that aren't even obviously direct symptoms of my ADHD -- just the ability to understand my symptoms within a framework that has been discussed by experts about people with highly overlapping struggles with mine was hugely beneficial after I got diagnosed. Maybe this is part of "digging deeper" the way you describe it, but some sort of label is often necessary to find those with remotely similar experiences on this front in order to actually explore things like that.
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Comment on Strange Pop! OS 24.04 behavior in ~tech
sparksbet Link ParentMy comment was comparing my experience with a less mainstream flavor of Ubuntu with a different DE (not one of the mainstream ones like normal Ubuntu with Gnome or Kunbuntu with KDE) as having...My comment was comparing my experience with a less mainstream flavor of Ubuntu with a different DE (not one of the mainstream ones like normal Ubuntu with Gnome or Kunbuntu with KDE) as having been worse with annoying bugs than Pop!OS has been, while agreeing that Pop! does have its weird bugs still and that the mainstream Ubuntu flavors with Nvidia drivers are probably at worst equally stable as Pop!OS (if not more stable tbqh). I also commented that aside from coming packaged with Nvidia drivers, the other reason one might choose Pop!OS is for the DE (either the new Cosmic or old Cosmic aka Gnome with some nice tweaks), more as an aside on why else someone would pick it instead of just installing Nvidia drivers with a different Ubuntu flavor.
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Comment on Strange Pop! OS 24.04 behavior in ~tech
sparksbet Link ParentI definitely had a worse experience weird-bugs-wise when on a small Ubuntu flavor with a non-default DE than I have with Pop!OS, but it's not without its quirks bug-wise. I'm also still using...I definitely had a worse experience weird-bugs-wise when on a small Ubuntu flavor with a non-default DE than I have with Pop!OS, but it's not without its quirks bug-wise. I'm also still using 22.04, which uses their Gnome-with-changes DE, which I assume was another reason to use it over other Ubuntu flavors for people (and while I haven't tried their new Cosmic DE yet, I assume it is similarly intended to be a draw). I think using one of the main Ubuntu flavors with Nvidia drivers would get you a similar experience.
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Comment on Debunking the AI food delivery hoax that fooled Reddit in ~tech
sparksbet Link Parentooh I can see why you got traction with that, it sounds extremely Podcastable.ooh I can see why you got traction with that, it sounds extremely Podcastable.
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Comment on Debunking the AI food delivery hoax that fooled Reddit in ~tech
sparksbet Link ParentThis is a classic strategy by almost any variety of scammer, so I suppose it's not a surprise to see it being deployed here.There is a time crunch
This is a classic strategy by almost any variety of scammer, so I suppose it's not a surprise to see it being deployed here.
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Comment on Debunking the AI food delivery hoax that fooled Reddit in ~tech
sparksbet Link ParentWhen I first saw the post, I was suspicious (but didn't wholly dismiss it as fake) mostly bc they claimed to know too many things from unrelated parts of the company. Some of the dynamic pricing...When I first saw the post, I was suspicious (but didn't wholly dismiss it as fake) mostly bc they claimed to know too many things from unrelated parts of the company. Some of the dynamic pricing stuff they mentioned was weird even from the perspective of someone who worked in unrelated ML fields and has friends-of-friends in this industry, and a lot of what they described would be questionably legal at best, but companies like this have done plenty of questionably legal stuff that we do know for sure happened and the ML stuff they described was still possible even if weird af. I was willing to dismiss a lot of red flags that would be sketchy or illegal as US companies being uniquely awful. But the red flag that most stood out in retrospect (that is, knowing it's fake) is that the writer claims knowledge over stuff that someone on the software engineering side just would not know about in a big company like this. But this wasn't really enough for me to dismiss the post as a sure fake when I first saw it, I'll freely admit.
But ultimately I shrugged and scrolled on and didn't consciously think more about it until I saw that it was confirmed fake. I suspect a lot of people did that.
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Comment on Debunking the AI food delivery hoax that fooled Reddit in ~tech
sparksbet Link ParentI'm deeply curious what story it was nowI'm deeply curious what story it was now
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Comment on Deleting topics in ~tildes
sparksbet Link Parentultimately even if leaving a comment explaining why were the best move (which is very debatable anyway), it's entitled to demand it from someone who's spending so much of his time and probably...ultimately even if leaving a comment explaining why were the best move (which is very debatable anyway), it's entitled to demand it from someone who's spending so much of his time and probably still also his money keeping this site running.
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Comment on Executive (dys)function flavors? in ~talk
sparksbet Link ParentI already had my ADHD diagnosis when my therapist recommended those books, but yeah, they're some of the ones that were the most informative/helpful to meI already had my ADHD diagnosis when my therapist recommended those books, but yeah, they're some of the ones that were the most informative/helpful to me
The heart condition thing is a real concern -- they made me take an EKG once I was diagnosed before they started prescribing me medication, and they had me monitor my heart rate and blood pressure during the initial process of starting the medication to ensure nothing went wrong.