somadaj's recent activity

  1. Comment on How to make friends as an adult in ~life

    somadaj
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    From direct experience, this works incredibly well in American society, especially because they're used to people moving a lot within their country; so the concept of starting over is profoundly...

    From direct experience, this works incredibly well in American society, especially because they're used to people moving a lot within their country; so the concept of starting over is profoundly ingrained by now.

    Some of it still applies to my native, Southern European country, but it's orders of magnitude harder.

    4 votes

  2. Comment on How to pass the time when you have nothing to do at work and just your phone? in ~talk

    somadaj
    Link
    I'm only posting this as I didn't see it mentioned: I keep a long curated list of RSS feeds; it's just so much better than bookmarking a bunch of news sites. I have nearly no chance of keeping up...

    I'm only posting this as I didn't see it mentioned: I keep a long curated list of RSS feeds; it's just so much better than bookmarking a bunch of news sites. I have nearly no chance of keeping up with all of them on a daily basis, but on the flip side this means that I can let myself become occupied with it for hours on end, if need be—e.g. long airport layover, etc.

    What I like to do most is taking pen and paper notes of what I read. It's not like I'm archiving them, as in doing a second brain thing, or even going back and reading them later, most of the time at least—but I enjoy taking them nonetheless, as a way to process the information if nothing else.

  3. Comment on You make friends *HERE*?! in ~tildes

    somadaj
    Link Parent
    I find this to be an inherent problem of nested comment sections, as opposed to chronological threads like those on traditional web forums.

    There is a deeply entrenched culture of frontloading the whole thing, which results in really good long posts

    I find this to be an inherent problem of nested comment sections, as opposed to chronological threads like those on traditional web forums.

    8 votes

  4. Comment on You make friends *HERE*?! in ~tildes

    somadaj
    Link
    I mostly lurk here and have been doing so for a couple of years. Over time, I’ve developed the impression that this community is fantastic and refreshing. I can’t say how much moderative effort...

    I mostly lurk here and have been doing so for a couple of years. Over time, I’ve developed the impression that this community is fantastic and refreshing. I can’t say how much moderative effort goes into it, but what I frequently see is kindness, tolerance, and a sufficiently diverse range of opinions that I never feel echo-chambered.

    I really miss the forum communities from my late teens and early adulthood. I’m 33 now, and as I’ve shifted toward working more and building leisure activities away from technology, I often find myself dissatisfied with how little I do at my PC these days—aside from checking investments and reading a few blog posts.

    I used to be a *nix geek and tinkerer, as well as an avid MUD player. Through those hobbies, especially the latter, I formed many ephemeral friendships over the years. Yet somehow, I’ve become a lizard-brained “net-life recluse.” I rarely go out of my way to interact with people online, refrain from posting or participating in discussions here or elsewhere, and when I do, I often end up deleting my posts.

    I suppose my point is: be less like my late self. Open up a little, as the rewards might be more enriching than you expect, and there is ultimetely nothing to lose much more often than not.

    12 votes

  5. Comment on Russian court fines Google $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 in ~society

    somadaj
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    This is emblematic of the kind of untethered stupidity that only dictatorships can muster.

    This is emblematic of the kind of untethered stupidity that only dictatorships can muster.

    2 votes