sparksbet's recent activity

  1. Comment on The cure for scurvy, forgotten in ~humanities.history

    sparksbet
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    For me it was less that I needed advice to do it and more that I needed to start consciously ignoring advice from my psych and convince him it was better this way. He was relatively easy to...

    For me it was less that I needed advice to do it and more that I needed to start consciously ignoring advice from my psych and convince him it was better this way. He was relatively easy to convince once I pushed, but that was a big barrier for me.

    1 vote

  2. Comment on Most AI struggles to read clocks and calendars in ~comp

    sparksbet
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    Multimodal models are already a big deal, but they generally don't use highly specific models as described upthread -- the underlying image model is highly generalized much like how the underlying...

    Multimodal models are already a big deal, but they generally don't use highly specific models as described upthread -- the underlying image model is highly generalized much like how the underlying language model is in an LLM. There may well be layers in the model that specifically look for the features described to identify clocks and tell time, for instance, but they are generally not added manually but instead learned as part of training.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on The cure for scurvy, forgotten in ~humanities.history

    sparksbet
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    I think you're right to point at the fact that diagnoses do at least ostensibly require whatever deviation from the norm you have to be distressing or otherwise interfere with your life in a...

    I think you're right to point at the fact that diagnoses do at least ostensibly require whatever deviation from the norm you have to be distressing or otherwise interfere with your life in a negative way, and that capitalism almost always exacerbates these existing problems. But I think mental healthcare can often counterintuitively focus too much on whether these things interfere with work specifically rather than looking at how they interfere with one's life more broadly. I was initially told to only take my ADHD medication on workdays, for instance, and that fucked me up because I couldn't get anything done outside of work without it and really needed its effects day-to-day outside of the workplace.

    3 votes

  4. Comment on After quitting antidepressants, some people suffer surprising, lingering symptoms in ~health.mental

    sparksbet
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    This is not what the nocebo effect is. The nocebo effect is when patient expectations lead to worsened symptoms or increased side effects. I am not aware of its being widely used for meds becoming...

    Also someone recently pointed out to me there is also a “no-cebo” effect, where disbelief inhibits a med’s efficacy.

    This is not what the nocebo effect is. The nocebo effect is when patient expectations lead to worsened symptoms or increased side effects. I am not aware of its being widely used for meds becoming less effective than otherwise due to patient expectations, at least not outside the degree to which worsened symptoms would count as less effective. Tbqh, I have never read anything about that phenomenon existing -- if it does, I suspect it has a different name than the nocebo effect.

    3 votes

  5. Comment on Stardew Valley just became the highest rated Steam game of all time in ~games

    sparksbet
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    I think the question, particularly the comparison to SimCity, indicates such a low level of knowledge about the game that it functionally amounts to a question of "what is this game like?"

    I think the question, particularly the comparison to SimCity, indicates such a low level of knowledge about the game that it functionally amounts to a question of "what is this game like?"

    1 vote

  6. Comment on What dashcam do you use? in ~tech

    sparksbet
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    This is extremely country-dependent within Europe. I'm pretty sure dashcams are straight-up illegal here in Germany.

    This is extremely country-dependent within Europe. I'm pretty sure dashcams are straight-up illegal here in Germany.

    1 vote

  7. Comment on Stardew Valley just became the highest rated Steam game of all time in ~games

    sparksbet
    Link Parent
    I think what you describe is indeed a problem for a particular kind of player, with a certain way of approaching games and a particular playstyle. Different people fall in different places on that...

    I think what you describe is indeed a problem for a particular kind of player, with a certain way of approaching games and a particular playstyle. Different people fall in different places on that spectrum, so I can recognize the problems you point out, but they simply do not matter as much to my enjoyment of the game as they do to you. I think a large swath of Stardew players are even more "casual" in terms of their approach than me, and I think the issues you describe don't affect that portion of the playerbase much at all. Ultimately if there's a place where I think your specific criticisms are relevant, it's in a discussion around how Stardew balances (or in places fails to balance) the needs of different types of players.

    But my main issue wasn't anything to do with the specific criticisms you had, but rather that if someone asks about what a game is like the way the comment you initially replied to did, a mini essay about your criticisms simply doesn't actually answer that question when the person acting doesn't even understand what the basic gameplay loop is or even, based on their comment, the genre of the game. Even when your criticisms are 100% correct, at least preface your soapbox with the basic context that the person needs to comprehend what you're criticizing.

    1 vote

  8. Comment on After quitting antidepressants, some people suffer surprising, lingering symptoms in ~health.mental

    sparksbet
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    An increased number of people being on antidepressants definitely doesn't entail that they aren't still stigmatized (even though they definitely are less than they once were and less than other...

    An increased number of people being on antidepressants definitely doesn't entail that they aren't still stigmatized (even though they definitely are less than they once were and less than other medications for mental health).

    4 votes

  9. Comment on How did you ruin a game for yourself? in ~games

    sparksbet
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    If you miss how ticket to ride felt when it was new to you or are just looking for something else that does what it did (or something similar) but better, I recommend checking out this video...

    If you miss how ticket to ride felt when it was new to you or are just looking for something else that does what it did (or something similar) but better, I recommend checking out this video recommending games to replace it with

    1 vote

  10. Comment on After quitting antidepressants, some people suffer surprising, lingering symptoms in ~health.mental

    sparksbet
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    I was just under the impression that brain zaps were only associated with certain antidepressants and didn't know escitalopram was one of them.

    I was just under the impression that brain zaps were only associated with certain antidepressants and didn't know escitalopram was one of them.

    5 votes

  11. Comment on After quitting antidepressants, some people suffer surprising, lingering symptoms in ~health.mental

    sparksbet
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    huh I didn't know escitalopram caused brain zaps! I must've lucked out not getting that symptom with it (either when I took it regularly or when I weaned myself off it)

    huh I didn't know escitalopram caused brain zaps! I must've lucked out not getting that symptom with it (either when I took it regularly or when I weaned myself off it)

    7 votes

  12. Comment on Stardew Valley just became the highest rated Steam game of all time in ~games

  13. Comment on Stardew Valley just became the highest rated Steam game of all time in ~games

    sparksbet
    Link Parent
    Yeah, I'm a big fan of city-builders (though SimCity itself is really before my time) and I've put plenty of hours into Stardew, but they really are quite different beasts and it's hard to compare...

    Yeah, I'm a big fan of city-builders (though SimCity itself is really before my time) and I've put plenty of hours into Stardew, but they really are quite different beasts and it's hard to compare them to each other! I find Stardew a bit more relaxing in general, but I also tend to play more punishing/complex city-builders, so ymmv. Stardew doesn't really have a failure state the way those games do.

    I think Stardew's design has pretty broad appeal and that you'd get a good sense of whether it's something you might like from watching someone else play a bit of it. Or just waiting for it to go on sale and trying it out then -- Steam still has those generous refund windows.

    3 votes

  14. Comment on Stardew Valley just became the highest rated Steam game of all time in ~games

    sparksbet
    Link Parent
    I mean, whether you play the game is your prerogative. But it seems hasty to make that decision based solely off the information you get from this thread. The degree to which the flaws they...

    I mean, whether you play the game is your prerogative. But it seems hasty to make that decision based solely off the information you get from this thread. The degree to which the flaws they criticize impact your enjoyment of the game is gonna vary a lot on a person-to-person basis depending on your personality, your taste in games, and just what annoys you most. An actual picture of what the game is like and whether it might be the kind of game you'd enjoy would have to be acquired elsewhere.

    1 vote

  15. Comment on Stardew Valley just became the highest rated Steam game of all time in ~games

    sparksbet
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    This comment seems to be completely missing the point of what I said in my comment -- I said I don't necessarily disagree with the criticisms, but that a comment criticising those specifics does...

    This comment seems to be completely missing the point of what I said in my comment -- I said I don't necessarily disagree with the criticisms, but that a comment criticising those specifics does absolutely nothing to communicate to someone who hasn't played the game what type of game it is, what the gameplay loop is even like, or why it's so popular, much less whether the specific criticisms you have are things that will bother them and to what degree.

    2 votes

  16. Comment on Stardew Valley just became the highest rated Steam game of all time in ~games

    sparksbet
    Link Parent
    I don't necessarily disagree with your criticisms here (even as a big fan of the game, it's not perfect), but I think they're misplaced in this response given the question being asked. It doesn't...

    I don't necessarily disagree with your criticisms here (even as a big fan of the game, it's not perfect), but I think they're misplaced in this response given the question being asked. It doesn't really help someone paint a picture of what type of game this is for someone who hasn't played it and thus lacks the context to understand what your criticisms even apply to.

    6 votes

  17. Comment on Stardew Valley just became the highest rated Steam game of all time in ~games

    sparksbet
    Link Parent
    SimCity isn't all that similar to Stardew Valley in terms of genre, which makes it hard to really compare them in terms of complexity. Harvest Moon is the usual comparison if you ever used to play...

    SimCity isn't all that similar to Stardew Valley in terms of genre, which makes it hard to really compare them in terms of complexity. Harvest Moon is the usual comparison if you ever used to play those. You control a character who can build/tend a farm, get to know the locals, explore and combat monsters in the mines, catch fish and forage for items, and more. Since its release Stardew Valley has had such an effect on the industry that it revived this genre when it had previously been more or less dead, and it serves as the benchmark that pretty much any game in this or a related genre will be compared to.

    5 votes

  18. Comment on Scientists estimate European heatwave caused 2,300 deaths last week in ~enviro

    sparksbet
    Link Parent
    A misdirect from what?

    A misdirect from what?

    5 votes

  19. Comment on ITA was a 1960s schools experiment that created a whole new alphabet – and left thousands of UK children unable to spell in ~humanities.languages

    sparksbet
    Link Parent
    I completely get how it would be frustrating without being able to read IPA, but my purpose in sharing the chart was not to look at the individual sounds those symbols are representing, but...

    I completely get how it would be frustrating without being able to read IPA, but my purpose in sharing the chart was not to look at the individual sounds those symbols are representing, but instead to pay attention to the differences in the boundaries between cells across dialects. Those dividing lines indicate where two vowels differ in a way that matters for the meaning of the word, and how often they don't line up is the part that's most relevant to this discussion.

    If you ever want me to infodump about how to read IPA, feel free to ask because I love that shit, but for this example it should hopefully not be necessary.

    3 votes

  20. Comment on Transit passes are better but free fares are good too in ~transport

    sparksbet
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    I'm from the US myself (I moved to Germany in 2018), so I absolutely get you when it comes to how fundamentally broken US transit infrastructure is! I just think a lot of Americans really struggle...

    I'm from the US myself (I moved to Germany in 2018), so I absolutely get you when it comes to how fundamentally broken US transit infrastructure is! I just think a lot of Americans really struggle to picture what a functional system looks like and what's possible when they haven't had firsthand experience with it. Here they don't have school buses and kids who don't live within walking distance of their schools usually go to and from school via public transport -- without parental accompaniment in most cases! It really is wildly different, and I think Americans too often have no idea how much better it could be with the right investment in the infrastructure.

    7 votes