Gaywallet's recent activity

  1. Comment on You don't need to document everything in ~tech

    Gaywallet
    Link Parent
    There are actually some fantastic studies out there on the exact experience being described by the author. For example, in a study titled "media usage diminishes memory for experiences", the...

    There are actually some fantastic studies out there on the exact experience being described by the author. For example, in a study titled "media usage diminishes memory for experiences", the researchers found that the very act of recording an experience seems to prevent people from 'fully experiencing' the moment - when tested in a variety of ways about the experience individuals who recorded it for their own use or for sharing all tested lower on scores of memory than people who directly experienced the event and were instructed not to record it. Of note, the times at which memory was tested were both immediately after and only one week post, and the responses might vary if they were to collect/test memory again at a later point in time, notably because those who record it could then review/relive the experience in a more robust way than purely through their own memories, but I would caution against jumping to any conclusions.

    I think it's perfectly reasonable to take small snippets or recordings of an experience as a means to both ensure that you are staying in the moment as much as possible but also to aid as a trigger for those memories if you wish to relive them in the future in a more concrete way than just remembering.

    11 votes
  2. Comment on ADHD productivity fundamentals in ~health.mental

    Gaywallet
    Link Parent
    I know a few ADHD folks who spend a lot of time on bikeshedding. It really doesn't surprise me, given that while I do not have ADHD, I also very much enjoy going way too far in a rabbit hole on...

    I know a few ADHD folks who spend a lot of time on bikeshedding. It really doesn't surprise me, given that while I do not have ADHD, I also very much enjoy going way too far in a rabbit hole on something that's ultimately trivial or not very useful in my life. I knew someone who spent so much time optimizing on their note taking app that they basically failed to utilize it, because they spent all the time optimizing it and eventually switching to a different product and optimizing that because some hiccup on a specific workflow they weren't likely going to utilize anyways.

    I think there's a healthy crossover between ADHD and Autism and a fascination with the inner workings of things that leads to this kind of behavior. I wish I had better advice for folks who really struggle with starting a process and spin their wheels optimizing a process they refuse to use other than "pick anything and just start doing it", because that's approximately as useful as telling someone who's depressed to "stop obsessing over sad things". Ultimately its why I think the notes this author has provided are mostly useless to those struggling the most with ADHD - they probably already know they need lists, the problem is that lists just don't work for them or they struggle with some step of doing the lists (making the lists, knowing where they put the list, learning to reference the list, etc.)

    6 votes
  3. Comment on Jacob’s Dream - MAGA meets the Age of Aquarius in ~humanities

  4. Comment on Deciding whether to continue with chemotherapy and immunotherapy in ~health

    Gaywallet
    Link
    You might want to talk with your doctor about whether there's been any good studies on QALY (quality-adjusted life years) for the various treatment options that have been presented to you. This is...

    You might want to talk with your doctor about whether there's been any good studies on QALY (quality-adjusted life years) for the various treatment options that have been presented to you. This is a way to more objectively quantify things like pain and nausea and other nuisances that can make living life a lot less bearable. This might help you come to a decision for what feels like the right path for you.

    With regards to talking about it with your loved ones, I think the best you can do is to explain whatever your reasoning is for whatever choice you make and to give them space to grieve. Hopefully they have enough emotional intelligence to realize that it's your decision and that you're doing your best to keep everyone you love involved but ultimately if they have issues with your decision they shouldn't be taking it out on you.

    This is an extremely difficult space to be in. The fact that you're reaching out to others on how to proceed shows that you're a really compassionate and caring person and I really hope the people that you love recognize this. I wish you the best of luck on your upcoming trials. 💜

    21 votes
  5. Comment on US judge rules YouTube, Facebook and Reddit must face lawsuits claiming they helped radicalize a mass shooter in ~tech

    Gaywallet
    Link Parent
    First I'd like to say that I think for reasons similar to yours, this wont stand up to scrutiny in court, especially if it makes its way up to higher courts like 5th circuit or supreme. It will...

    First I'd like to say that I think for reasons similar to yours, this wont stand up to scrutiny in court, especially if it makes its way up to higher courts like 5th circuit or supreme. It will ultimately be deduced as an issue of free speech, and therefore will not get ruled on in a way that ends up changing anything.

    But I think it's completely unfair to take a multidimensional issue like this one and simplify it in the way that you are. This is lazy legal interpretation. You could use the same argument to simplify down racially motivated hate crimes to issues of free speech. Yet we have law that makes the discrimination between murdering someone and murdering someone because they are black. We could easily make similar context based deductions or arguments here to draw a distinction between types of engagement, as you rightfully did by discerning between content that is served because it is "similar" rather than just because it keeps eyes on your platform. We can also draw a distinction between engaging content and engaging hateful, divisive, or polarizing content. We also have laws which protect certain individuals on the internet from certain content, requiring people be of a certain age to access content and we have laws restricting what content can be shown based on people's ages- the same reasoning could be applied towards protective rails for end users (although that's more an argument for the creation of law than rendering a judgement on existing law).

    Ultimately the US loves the concept of the text of the law - an attempt to limit laws reach to the precise words on a paper and nothing more. Even abstract concepts such as harassment, incitement, and violence have been defined through countless court rulings to have very specific definitions generated through creative interpretations of the words themselves and the biases of the judges of various courts. The companies at risk of suit here are so massive that there is no way they will allow any other possible ruling than to hold up the protections of 230 and twist this into an issue of free speech.

    But I wish people wouldn't make so many slippery slope arguments against legal hypotheticals. It's not like Facebook isn't one of the most massive companies on the internet. It's not like monoliths on this level "will probably shut down". Apple is facing billions of dollars in fines by the EU and they're basically scoffing at it, still refusing to change their practices because these fines don't meaningfully hurt them. Even if Facebook or any of these companies were held liable, I bet the judgement would hardly be noticed. I wish instead of framing this as an "everyone loses" scenario, or a slippery slope into an internet where no one operates, we gave these legal issues more time of day so that we could envision a world that's a bit less dystopian. A world where we might have some actual regulation on the companies which have already cost us so much on their endless need to maximize profits at the expense of human life.

    11 votes
  6. Comment on Is anyone else at GDC? in ~games

    Gaywallet
    Link
    Judging by the influx of new people on all of my dating apps, quite a few people are in town for this conference 😂

    Judging by the influx of new people on all of my dating apps, quite a few people are in town for this conference 😂

    3 votes
  7. Comment on Is a NAS for me? in ~tech

    Gaywallet
    Link Parent
    An important note for @skybrian and anyone else considering this solution, if you're not particularly technologically inclined or aren't super familiar with Linux, one of the pros of docker...

    An important note for @skybrian and anyone else considering this solution, if you're not particularly technologically inclined or aren't super familiar with Linux, one of the pros of docker containers is that you need to learn a lot less to get them working. Ultimately someone else did the heavy lifting of figuring out how to containerize it and make it run with very little setup and technological know-how from the end-user.

    5 votes
  8. Comment on Elon Musk on racism, bailing out Donald Trump, hate speech, and more - The Don Lemon Show (full interview) in ~tech

    Gaywallet
    Link Parent
    I don't think he views these places as abysmal like you do. Most of the folks online who advocate for free speech come from or have visited some of the worst places on the internet when it comes...

    its extremely apparent he doesn't understand how abysmal unmoderated spaces can become.

    I don't think he views these places as abysmal like you do. Most of the folks online who advocate for free speech come from or have visited some of the worst places on the internet when it comes to hate speech. In many cases they view the hateful speech as perfectly fine, or just an opinion someone is sharing, because they do not directly experience the negative social and mental effects it has. Some of the content which is hate speech wrapped up into a meme or a joke with a punchline practically indistinguishable from just overt bigotry makes them laugh or isn't even considered a threat at all.

    The reason he's seesawing back and forth on forbidding hate speech and being against all forms of censorship is that he recognizes that saying just the latter is now in vogue. The social acceptance of hate speech has gone down in recent years and there's been a huge focus on hateful speech on online platforms, because these platforms lack strong mechanisms to push back against hate speech. Showing up to a hate rally in person means that you are declaring your hate in a way that can be traced back to you. You could encounter protestors who may hurl insults or even throw fists your direction. There's direct consequences to your actions. On an online platform, however, there's a level of distance - you're isolated from nearly all direct action unless you decide to stake your claim in the bigotry and post it somewhere it's tied to your identity or you make hateful enough claims that people sleuth it out.

    11 votes
  9. Comment on Psilocybin therapy alters prefrontal and limbic brain circuitry in alcohol use disorder in ~science

    Gaywallet
    Link Parent
    This is, unfortunately, super common in studies on psychedelic substances. It's a common practice with any medication going through human trials, especially during phase 2. The goal is to control...

    One thing that stood out to me is that the study only recruited participants that had never used hallucinogens before. I understand from a scientific perspective why you wouldn't want that confound influencing any results, but it makes me wonder if psychedelic therapy is as effective for someone that has used hallucinogens.

    This is, unfortunately, super common in studies on psychedelic substances. It's a common practice with any medication going through human trials, especially during phase 2. The goal is to control for external variables as much as is possible, to be sure that you understand as best as you can how the drugs interacts with a very small set of humans. Phase 3 is where diversity of patients becomes a factor and members which do not resemble your phase 2 patients are actively recruited. This idea, specifically attempting to recruit a diverse set of patients is a rather new one, pushed onto the FDA in recent history, due to longstanding issues with healthcare development in the US and in the world primarily recruiting college aged white men and some of the issues that's lead to.

    Some of these hallucinogens are already entering phase 3 trials and are seeing a much more diverse recruitment of individuals and I expect we'll start seeing more papers published with non-naive hallucinogen participants within the next few years. Of particular note with respect to substance use disorders, a study on ibogaine was recently published. If you're unfamiliar with ibogaine, it's been used in plant, naturopathic, and alternative medicine for quite some time specifically for substance abuse. It's basically never been studied in medicine, however, because of it's unusual propensity to cause atrial fibrillation (a heart attack) in a small number of individuals. The very real risk of death makes it a substance of last resort for most individuals, but this innovative study ended up co-administering ibogaine with magnesium as a way to offset the risk of afib (theorized with respect to the mechanism of action). I'm hoping that we'll see a lot more headway into theorized mechanisms of action for certain hallucinogens (notably mushrooms, LSD, and ibogaine) and their effect on substance use disorders as anecdotally these have been used to reframe the brain with regards to substance abuse for quite some time in alternative medicine communities.

    7 votes
  10. Comment on Nearly 30% of Gen Z women identify as LGBTQ, Gallup survey finds in ~lgbt

    Gaywallet
    Link Parent
    Yes, that's why I highlighted sex differences that exist within a single species (the macaque monkey example) that vary by location (culture of the troop), such as child rearing behavior. While I...

    I guess you could argue that some species have cultural reasons that males or females engage in more same-sex relationships.

    Yes, that's why I highlighted sex differences that exist within a single species (the macaque monkey example) that vary by location (culture of the troop), such as child rearing behavior. While I am not aware of specific cultural influences on sexual behavior within a single species of animal outside of humans, I would be really surprised if this wasn't true because of how much evidence we have of culture vastly modifying animal behavior within a single species. Unfortunately, however, female-female sexual behavior is often minimized not just in humans, but also in the animal kingdom, so recording inter-cultural differences in homosexuality based on the animal's sex is difficult.

    3 votes