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What are you passionate about?
I would love to hear about stuff you are interested in. Do you have a hobby you really, really love? Is there a subject you could talk about for hours? Something you tend to rant/rave on about even though you're pretty sure everyone around you has had enough of the subject? Please share it here, and don't worry about going on for too long - I love to hear people talk about stuff they are passionate about and I'm sure others do too!
Education! Everywhere, any kind. I can talk for hours about how to learn, what to learn, and how I do it, and why others are obviously wrong. And I care a lot about it and I pity all the new students who will go to school for the first time, expecting to be learning, and then having their dreams crushed by the education system in basically every country. I hate that, and I hope I can help with revamping the education system, at least in one country, at least in one school.
As a university educator, give up right now on schools, they're beyond saving. Universities aren't likely to be too far behind. Everything is run for profit - directly into the ground.
The future is in things like Khan Academy. The trick will be to not let for-profit trash like Udemy/udacity/coursera take over the space.
The method is raising enough awareness that they save themselves.
Not that it will happen with that attitude.
Awareness? If awareness fixed things breast cancer would only exist in history classes.
There are vested interests with power who do not want a valid education system. Worse, there are many, many more people who are aware the education system is shit, but don't care, because their education was shit and they don't see a problem with the situation as a result.
Here you go, you argued against yourself.
If more people come to know about those 'vested interests with power', there will be an outrage. It mightn't be perfect, but we live in a democracy after all.
And for people who don't care... Show them that you should care! Unlike breast cancer, the only thing that prevents us from solving the problem is ignorance. Which is cured with awareness.
Wow, interesting you would mention Khan Academy, I used to be pretty active on that site. I mostly stayed around the Computing Section as I used to enjoy the community there.
Eventually, most of the more experienced users left, as the community is now mostly overrun with 10-12 year olds obsessed with getting their projects on the "Hotlist."
While KA has some pretty great resources, I don't think a lot of people realize that it's not a perfect site. It has a history of treating volunteers pretty badly, and it's interactions with its community leave a lot to be desired.
They hop from subject to subject due to what is "trendy" at the time. A few years ago this was Computer Programming/Science, but as soon as the hype around these subjects that was so prevalent in around 2015/16 died out, they completely abandoned that part of the site, which desperately needs an update.
Right now, they are in a partnership with College Board™ to create SAT test practice courses. While I can see that this could be useful, there are a few things I dislike about this. First of all, College Board™ says they are a non-profit, and have been classified as such. However, there are multiple different sources that would say otherwise.
The KA/College Board "partnership" just seems to me like a product placement for their product (which is also rising in price steadily), and the SAT test is not a necessary part of anyone's education.
Of course, this information will not matter to the average user. As long as one is just passively browsing the site, this probably won't affect your experience at all.
Not OP or an expert, but there is research into the neuroscience of learning. Off the top of my head, some techniques you might find helpful:
Of course, I wasn't great at putting these into practice when I was at university, so I'm not really one to talk, haha.
In addition to the above, I found myself learning a lot better once I understood the key learning methods, and which style of learning worked for me.
I'm predominantly a mix of Visual/Kinesthetic, which meant that attending lectures was super boring and ineffective for my learning. I had much more success with reading, then following it up with an activity. For mathematics, physically writing on paper was great for solidifying concepts. For computer science, actually typing each character rather than copy pasting code helped me grasp new techniques faster. I also found it easier to grasp abstract concepts when I had a real world scenario to link the concept with.
There are so many great resources online these days. As mentioned elsewhere, Khan academy, free MIT courses, and even YouTube, all have really interesting material.
The other commenter is pretty much right!
Try explaining it to someone, anyone! Especially if they know nothing about the subject, a child is a perfect listener. That way, you can feel how well you know the subject, it's way more effective than any quiz!
Alternatively, you can write essays. Though I'd reccomend writing them while learning so you can identify what you missed. Just make sure the internal logic is consistent and you have arguments for every statement you make. With essays, you can also read them later down the line to remember what you forgot! So try and put effort into those, because you're doing them for yourself.
If you have the choice, don't learn more than one thing at once. It's way faster and more effective.
Think about it and practice it thoughout the day. For instance, if you're learning French, try to nane things while going somewhere: ceci une personne, celà une porte! Or learn and repeat French songs in your head. I reccomend Serge Gainsburg and French songs of Vladimir Vissotsky. Do something until it becomes a reflex!
Finally use what you learn. If you speak French, there is no use if you don't have anyone to speak to. Make sure you're passionate about the subject before you try and learn it. Believe me, when you learn all the things you want to learn now, you will want to learn so much new stuff, it won't matter. God speed!
I'm going to shamelessly promote my free, open-source project for learning resources. I think it'll be genuinely amazing if we can get more resources in different fields, but I don't know enough about things like biology or music to measure the quality of existing resources. We could always use more contributors :)
The power for technology to do good. It frustrates the hell out of me how technology is used for negative purposes a lot of the time, when there is so much good it could be doing.
Maybe you can help me see things in another light: I feel like most of the advancements in technology have minimal benefits or that the benefits that have come about are too expensive and widen the gap between rich and poor. Newer and newer technology makes me feel like a commodity to corporations, rather than something to advance the general welfare of society.
Probably the environment for me, I used to live a country where coal furnaces were common and in winter, your snot would turn black. There was no improvement in short term considering the respiratory risk or the long term considering climate change. I overall like to talk and promote more greener tech, whether it is ways to reduce our consumption, to make items last longer, repairable or recyclable. I plan to convert my old buzzbox of a car to electric some time in the future and hopefully re-use components from an electric forklift.
Came here to say the same. I've always been passionate about the environment since growing up participating in boy scouts. I'm actually going to grad school to study ways to help incorporate renewable into my cou tries electric grid as quickly as possible.
That electric car project sounds really cool. I didn't know you could convert gas cars into EVs. How long would it take you to do that?
I got inspiration for the EV conversion project from the ForkenSwift, and IIRC that took about a year for them. If you went the salvage route, it is mostly time spent on finding the parts or getting the car certified but, I have no direct experience with conversions other than small RC car modifications such as switching NiCd to Lithium batteries or changing motors.
I was also told that if you area has salvage/write-off EVs such as Leafs, it is better to take components from that than a forklift. Which make sense as it is more purpose built.
Yeah I would bet using components to from already built EVs would be easier if they are available. I'd be curious to hear how the process is going along the way. That would be a good way to bring OC to ~ as well.
Good for you for using your voice and skills to advocate for greener tech. It's really the industries that are the worst offenders, but as consumers we can make our own choices, and can push for greener options.
It's only one small thing, but I haven't used a plastic water bottle in almost a year, and in 2017 I used a total of 2. I have a couple reusable cups & bottles that I keep around in case I need them. It's just one small thing, but it becomes habit. And if everyone did one small thing (or two!) it would make a big difference!
Probably not a unique opinion, but video games. I’ve loved video games since I was little and I deeply care about where the industry is going and what kind of games are coming out and why. I’m passionate about good consumer practices and indie developers exploring cool new ideas. I’m passionate about one guy sitting in his room making a video game for eight years to then release a masterpiece that’s going to be remembered for generations. It’s an awesome medium which people will keep finding new ways to approach. It’s sort of become the artform of my generation and I’m absolutely loving it.
I'm just obsessed with XCOM :-D
Who?
Toby Fox’s “Undertale” is what I was refering to. A bit of an overexaggeration though tbh it was closer to three years now that I read the wiki entry, sorry.
If you like that sort of thing, please, please go check out Dwarf Fortress! It started in 2002 and was released into alpha in 2006, and development hasn't slowed down at all. It's free, and the community is amazing. It is rather hard to get into, but once you figure out what's going on it's one of the best games out there.
art! art is something that touches all of us intimately, wether we seek it out or not. I love how it’s able to connect people, I love how it’s able to move me to so many different states of mind, able to make me feel like i’m somewhere else entirely. I love making art, the feeling of creation is irreplaceable for me. I think that art is becoming more and more relevant as the world progresses, and I really want people to know more about how their art is made. I can talk at length about how we can get more people to further appreciate ‘fine arts’ and how we can engage communities on a smaller more local level with the arts. I love how art is seen different by each person and I love how when you go to a different country, encounter an artist with a different background and training how differently the can approach art and how different what they think art is for and how they can experience art so differently.
Arts, man.
Have you heard that, in México, artists can pay their taxes by making some or their art free to the public? I think thats a really cool idea personally.
I would love it if we did this in the states!
I am highly passionate about veganism. I do some activism when my anxiety allows. I have been vegan for a couple years now
Right on, animal rights are one of the few topics I am truly fanatical about, at least inwardly. Environmentalism and national health are my other two big causes and they get nicely packaged into veganism. I personally haven't gone out and done any activism for it but I've been vegan for about 7 years now and haven't looked back. It's an interesting cause because once you start to get into it, it's hard to not see horror all around you in our society.
If you're interested at all in activism, the groups I go to are called Anonymous for the Voiceless, and The Save Movement
They are both world-wide groups, so they are likely to have a group in your area. If not, you are able to start your own group if you are so inclined.
I'm really impressed with you (and everyone else) who does this. I've been vegan going on 2 years now and haven't been to anything. I have started looking into Anonymous for the Voiceless, but haven't had the courage to go along to one of their demonstrations.
I also struggle with demonstrations that happen during the week because I need to be in the office :/
Are you a vegan for dietary reasons or for animal rights?
It's worth pointing out that some people are vegetarian or vegan for environmental reasons as well, given the generally lower resource usage needed for production of plant-based foods.
Good point. I love the environment, but I love meat too, so I'm trying to adopt a "reductarian" diet, where you simply try to eat less meat.
That pretty well sums up my feelings too. I've found that as I get older, and my tastes change, doing exactly that is becoming easier and easier. Hopefully, combined with an effort to eat more locally, my impact continues to fall.
Both, but more for animal rights. I hate the way we treat animals. There's no need for it :/
I was thinking of asking a similar question. Mine are pretty well honed:
Discovering/curating/listening to music - started a niche genre subreddit then got into moderating L2T and /r/music.
Playing/watching soccer - I follow Manchester United very closely but am also a season ticket holder for my local club.
Playing/watching golf - I try to get out once a week and just played a few times on vacation.
Food/drink - I love most kinds of ethnic food, drinking craft beer, etc.
Traveling - most recently went to 8 countries in Europe (UK, France, Belgium, Monaco, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium)
French language and culture - speak it as a second language and have traveled there a lot.
Retro gaming - if it can be played online, I’ve probably never played it. I have an SNES, N64, PS1, PS2, and Sega Genesis. Fun to play games from my childhood and collecting others I didn't have back in the day.
High quality television - I keep up with Netflix, HBO, Showtime, Amazon Video, Hulu, etc. and am much more into great TV shows than movies. My faves are The Wire, Fargo, Summer Heights High, or Westworld. Also recently enjoyed The Deuce on HBO (by the creator of The Wire).
I honestly believe some form of communism is the only solution for a post-scarcety economy where the super rich don't possess everything, leaving the poor behind.
I have yet to find an utopian description of a capitalist society.
The problem being that communism, or the idea thereof, was tainted by the ones who implemented it in the past. It was horrible, no denying that, but it wasn't communism - it was ripe with bribes and corruption.
But in today's world saying "communism", even in the EU, gets you really, REALLY bad reactions.
I think people have a 'bug' in their software that keeps them from critically evaluating things once they have been negatively stereotyped, it has happened with gender, sexuality, and ideology. I think that the word communism does its premise a disservice because it is such a far reaching paradigm , with many obvious truths, but its implementation has many unexplored possibilities that are held back by people's negative preconceptions.
I really don't think that we're ever going to really reach a post-scarcety economy, and I don't think that human nature allows for communism to work. Utopian models of pretty much everything don't work, and we've had 100 years of people trying various types of communism and socialism, with virtually all failing and, in the process, killing at least 100 million people. Capitalism isn't utopian, but utopian societies can't exist, and capitalism gives us the most benefit for the greatest number of people.
Are you suggesting that capitalists haven't killed hundreds of millions of people? Because if so, the Native Americans would like a word with you.
Even after the colonization of North America, capitalists murdered innocent families in cases like the Ludlow Masacre in Colorado, just for trying to unionize. There are countless cases of capitslists murdering their own (or other countries'... remember Vietnam?) people for capitalist ideals and it's disingenuous to suggest otherwise.
I agree. I think the arguments against capitalism are numerous and the argument that communism 'only works on paper' is disingenuous. To some extent, both have their flaws, but we live in a highly inequitable society that is slowly turning the world into an oligarchy for the rich at exponential rates. There was a picturesque comment on Reddit several months ago saying that Karl Marx would be spinning so much in his grave that someone would hook him up to a generator and sell that electricity off, only making him spin more.
I'm a firm believer that no system is perfect, but the glaring problem is that we need SOME KIND of more egalitarian system than capitalism.
Capitalist governments haven't killed hundreds of millions of their own citizens outside of war, no, and communist governments have done so in the last 100 years on a scale that has never been seen before. And the reason that communism doesn't work is simple, it's the calculation problem (it's the same reason any command economy performs poorly). Capitalism crowdsources it's economic signals, and capitalist systems boil down to "people can freely make agreements to trade amongst themselves", communism, in practice, puts economic decisions in the hands of bureaucrats that have generally done a poor job of making them (and, like any other command economy, is heavily subject to corruption).
It comes down to people are going to be people. You can't have a utopia and humans being humans at the same time. Capitalism does have problems, but it provides the most benefit to the most people, as opposed to communism, which generally just makes everyone poor and miserable, except for those bureaucrats that run things.
I appreciate your reply but I'm simply not sold. What you're illustrating is the philosophical lens of consequentialism which goes by the rule "the greatest good for the greatest number of people". I don't buy it- I consider myself a deontologist: "act as though your actions would be a universal law" so the notion that a political system 'benefits the greatest number of people' might sound good, but it simply doesn't compute to me if people are being unethically treated.
What I give much greater weight to is the ethics and morality of the system, and it's pretty clear by the growing economic, social, and political inequalities in society that we are getting worse by the day. The poor stay poor or have modest gains, while the rich get exponentially richer and gain more power in the political economy, which then makes the rules of the system to keep it that way.
In the same way you attack Communism as a utopian notion; I don't believe Capitalism is doing society and the world much better. You say that Communism is subject to corruption like it absolves the plutocracy that we live in today. The idea of a free and unregulated market is an oxymoron to me, as capitalism uses people and society as commodities. The argument for an economic system shouldn't only look at the flow of capital, but needs to consider society, culture, and, particularly, minorities that are disenfranchised or ignored.
I also want to be clear that I'm not advocating directly for Communism. I'm advocating for a more egalitarian sociopolitical economic system. Whether we stick with Capitalism but shift to a democratic socialist, welfare-based state, I'm cool with that. If we move to Communism, I'd fight against the same kind of elitist mentality that would create inequalities.
I don't find anything unethical about people being unequal - that's a fundamental of human existence. My concern is that the most people have the best lives possible, and that their individual rights are respected and protected. Capitalist governments generally do both. I'm not concerned in the slightest that there are huge inequalities in what people have - if even the poorer people have a much better standard of living than they do in other systems. And this has been proven to be the case over and over again in Capitalist countries vs. Communist countries - the poorest in capitalist countries have a far better standard of living than the average person in a communist country. As for individual rights, while capitalist countries in many ways can do better at protecting individual rights, they are vastly better at protecting the individual rights of their citizens, communist countries, as a rule, are the greatest human rights abusers in history.
Capitalist countries don't have completely free and unregulated markets, they have plenty of regulations designed to protect the individual rights of their citizens, and protect them from force and fraud. Do they do so perfectly? No, because we're all human beings and perfect systems only exist in fantasy. But do they do a far better job than communist countries, that have a record of mass murder of those citizens that disagree with the state? Yes, vastly.
"I don't find anything unethical about people being unequal - that's a fundamental of human existence."
That's all I needed to see then for me to not read any of your arguments afterwards. Let's go back to slavery while we're at it, because that benefits capitalism, right? Who cares if we have a few slaves here and there, if we don't let native tribes of the US vote, if we deny services based on sexual orientation, or if we use chemical weapons in warfare because, we're benefiting a majority, right? Let's sweep all the bad examples of Capitalist countries countless war crimes, torture, and genocides all under the rug while we call out Communism and pat ourselves on the back for being better then them! All the same logic. But yay capitalism!
From an ethics point of view, you have your belief system and it's very clear that it is different than mine. I don't see any way in which there can be reconciliation on our fundamental world views in this conversation so this will, respectfully, be my last comment on the matter.
I was very clear about capitalism requiring a respect for and protection of individual rights to be a worthwhile and workable system - the same protections for individual rights that make slavery illegal. And that included equal protection under the law. But that is the problem with communism - there is no respect for, nor protection of, individual rights. The "collective" is the only thing that is respected or protected, and if you disagree with the collective, you can and will be murdered for expressing yourself. This is a common feature of communist governments (USSR, China, North Korea, etc.).
I'm not sweeping anything under the rug, I'm not a fan of any government that doesn't protect the rights of the individual, and doesn't equally protect all individual's rights. But that is not the same as trying to make everyone's outcomes equal. That only results in misery, suffering, and wholesale murder, hence the (minimum) of 100 million of their own citizens killed under Communist governments. It's the 39th anniversary of the Tienanmen Square Massacre, where a Communist government murdered at least 10,000 of it's own citizens - and that same government is doing it's best to wipe any information about, or memory of, that event out. Because expressing opinions that differ from the Party is generally a death sentence under Communism.
Automation. We've been doing it for 10s of thousands of years (domestication, irrigation, planting crops) and we're finally at a point where the majority of people in many countries don't play a direct role in providing fundamental needs for themselves or others (hunting, finding shelter etc).
I believe that it's within our power that no one would need to work to live comfortably and persue a good life. This should lead to an explosion of arts, culture and more science driven by passion rather than strange economic forces. I would like to see where that takes us.
I strongly agree! I am however very scared of the role that capitalism will play in such a transition, if people are still expected to 'demonstrate their worth' via labor in exchange for capital we will probably continue to see automation as a threat to our wellbeing and not a tool for freedom, as it could be. What factors do you think will be at play in such a world I'm curious to hear your opinions.
I could imagine some sort of UBI being established, and jobs existing to support the system's maintenance, rewarding those involved in its development and ongoing improvements.
Maybe society would shift further into a software, and media economy. That seems to be the road we're well down already.
One challenge is centralization. Right now most economic systems are very decentralized (at least in how they are organized, recent financial crises question how decoupled they actually are). There is clearly efficiency to be gained by centralizing production of basic needs, but it's not clear how to do that without running into all of the problems that the USSR and China had when they tried. Maybe it would work better if the system was designed from the ground up to support redundancy and individuality, but I don't know of any successful experiments towards this end. Clearly it can work at a Family scale (my family has one pooled income, one budget, does one weekly meal plan etc.), but the complexity of scaling society up might be very exponential.
Maybe our best bet is just to graft on UBI using taxes. That might distribute the financial load across the system without being too much change all at once. It could be gradually phased in as automation increases.
Wow I never thought about a family having a shared income and budget, That sounds like a good way to teach your kids how to respect income and to plan their finances.
I'm passionate about story telling, words, and language (or languages, since I do know a couple). I majored in literature and apply the knowledge to not only books, but to television, films, even to real life narratives. I like to pick apart the words that people choose, and see how they expose how they feel about certain things or what they really think behind their own rhetoric.
Same here! Have you read The Hero and the Outlaw by Margaret Mark? A really fascinating look into how narratives and archetypes continue to manifest in brand stories and marketing
I think I've seen it referenced before but haven't read it myself. I might look into it, sounds like some good light summer reading!
What am I passionate about?
Politics. I'm quite a political animal. I devour all political news - mostly Australian, but some overseas stuff as well. I even used to work with a local political party (and I'm still a paid-up member). The irony is that, because of my moderation history on Reddit, I've learned to keep my political opinions to myself online, to avoid perceptions and accusations of bias in my moderating.
As well as being politically opinionated, I'm also fascinated by the machinery of our Australian government. I've read dozens of books about how six British colonies wrote a constitution, federated as states, and became the Commonwealth of Australia. I love understanding how our government works. (Which might explain why 'Yes, Minister' is my favourite TV show!)
I'm also passionate about science fiction - mostly old stuff, though. As you can tell from my username, I'm really into Isaac Asimov's writings, and other science fiction writings from the Golden Age (for various reasons, I'm finding it hard to keep up with modern sci-fi).
I'm also very passionate about Star Trek, especially Star Trek TNG (which combines my liking for science fiction and my moral code).
I used to be passionate about acting and theatre until I had to give it up... :'(
Can you suggest any newsletters or sources for someone in the US to brush up on Australian politics?
Newsletters? No. I don't know about any political newsletters. I just read and watch the news. My preferred outlets are the ABC (public broadcaster) and Fairfax Media (owner of a few respected mastheads in some major cities: The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Canberra Times).
Reading.
I breath bodies of writing. I read a ridiculous amount of articles, novels, textbooks, car and air conditioning manuals, calendars, and shampoo bottles. It's head-splitting. I love it, but it's made me none the wiser. I don't necessarily learn everything that I read.
Access to surgery around the world. 5 billion people can't actually get surgery if they need it, and that's a travesty.
And then, secondarily, American Ninja Warrior. It's my hobby and my non-work passion
How did you get into American Ninja Warrior? What does it actually consist of outside the show, just similar training as on the show?
I got into it very randomly just watching the show one day and thinking (stupidly) that I could do what the athletes were doing. Well, I tried, and I failed miserably, but it lit a fire under me. I wasn't ever athletic growing up, so I feel like I'm making up for lost time.
Yes, it's become an entire sport. There are gyms all over the US, a couple of national leagues, and big local / national competitions. The show will eventually be canceled, like all shows are (though the Japanese version is well over 30 seasons strong now!), but I have a feeling this sport isn't going anywhere any time soon.
I'm going to be "that guy" but cryptocurrency! I love the technology and the future it has is so bright. Hopefully people don't hate me for this.
I'm there with you. I definitely see the need for crypto, especially in a world where people are starting to consider access to the internet a human right. Bringing financial sovereignty to everyone, hopefully starting with the people who need it the most, Zimbabwe and Venezuela come to mind.
What got you interested?
For me, i was a punk rock kid and after art school, i moved to europe, lived in squats with anarchists, got shot at while in the middle east on several occasions, and met the most beautiful people there too. Then got in with a group of digital nomads in 08'. When my sons godfather was evangelising Bitcoin in '14, it was my second time hearing about it, i bought as much as i could. which wasn't much, but enough to make me curious and a proponent.
I have to say that the more i read, the more i become a bitcoin maximalist.
I also appreciate moon memes.
Besides what's in my username, I'd have to say vintage computing.
I have a huge respect for pre-2000 computers. It was like the Wild West of technology - hardly anything was standardised and everyone had their own creative solutions to problems. Everything we take for granted today was a marvel and feat of engineering back then.
I'm younger that most of the computers I'm passionate about, so there's definitely just something satisfying to hear - for example - a 5150 booting up beyond nostalgia. If I had the space and money, there would be vintage hardware lining my walls.
mountain biking. living in Wales i have access to a plethora of trail centres and it's pretty much what i spend all my spare time and money on. difficulty is finding a group of people who have similar time off and a passion for the sport, because almost all my friends have very different hobbies and the twitter folk i know all work very different hours...
I'm passionate about figure skating and chronic pain. They're super different of course but I could go on for hours about people's misconceptions about chronic pain and figure skating judging. One of these passions has caused me to end my volunteering in the other but I'm no less passionate about them.
Can you tell me a bit about peoples misconceptions of chronic pain?
Absolutely, sorry I that it took a little while for the answer!
The first big problem with people's understanding of chronic pain is that they have no real way to imagine what it's like, there isn't a real analog for people to use as a framework. Because of how people are built, it seems like the brain doesn't have a particularly good way of "recalling" pain sensations, it's often easy to recall what you thought or the actions that were taken during a painful event but not the pain itself. This leads us to minimize the effect often in our memories. I believe that in some part this leads to the cultural idea that seeking to minimize or avoid pain is weak. There are many that believe that enduring pain strengthens us, that there's a honorable or heroic quality to enduring pain and that those who seek relief are weak and craven. While people are in pain, people rightfully look for relief and to fix the problem as pain is generally a signal that your body sets off to notify you that something isn't right but in the aftermath, after time has passed our ability to understand seems to diminish.
This effect is only amplified with chronic pain because, as I said, we don't have a very good framework to empathize and the effects of chronic pain are often dismissed or looked down upon. People often believe that the pain is psychosomatic, which may be a significant part of some people's pain, but regardless of the degree of this effect the sensation is very real. The pain and the signals being sent by feel pain just like you feel pain if you cut yourself or have a headache. The cause of the pain should inform decisions about treatment but not the validity of the experience.
Of importance due to the ongoing problem of opioid addiction that has been significant in the media and of government concern is how doctors are able to treat their pain patients. The limits being set by governments are affecting chronic pain users. Doctors are concerned or afraid to prescribe pain medication because of the strict oversight and possible effects on their careers. To reach the goals set by the government actions, chronic pain users are afraid of, or are being taken off meds/having their doses cut significantly. The effects of this are numerous, not the least of which is the very real concern about suicide among sufferers. To be very clear, addiction is a big health problem and absolutely needs to be dealt with. Unfortunately fear and the uncertainty because of all the changes also gives rise to pseudo-addiction. In either case, patients are very often treated poorly by people in the medical field when they're looking for answers. The stigma of possible addiction colors the way that healthcare workers and the everyday public deals with chronic pain patients. This leads to situations for the pain sufferers where they are faced with hard decisions and can often lead to mistrust of others especially healthcare professionals. For the most part, sufferers are looking for help and it's becoming increasingly difficult to get. We may end up seeing overuse of over the counter pain relief which leaves the concern for long term possible side effects like kidney or liver damage but it isn't something we talk about because we often don't connect these pain relievers as having significant side effects.
Chronic pain can strike anyone but because of it not being visible many people with chronic pain end up mistreated. I've heard countless stories of younger sufferers who have been harassed in public for parking in disabled parking spots (with their permits) because it was believed that it couldn't be them with the disability. Similarly I've heard of people being harassed for using motorized scooters in large stores because they don't look like they need it or the harasser assumes they're simply lazy/overweight. I know personally that I've had people question repeatedly why I don't work outside the home because I look fine to them. Friendships can be lost, relationships ended while sufferers aren't able to do anything to change their pain. I have every sympathy for the people close to those suffering chronic pain, it's an exceptionally hard road to walk at the best of times. The extra dimension of challenge that chronic pain adds to the normal stresses on a relationship makes for trying situations, for the pain sufferer this is something that can end up repeated over and over. Trying to get through days when people can't understand what you're going through but still feel they have a right to judgement (and to voice that judgement) can make it all the harder to deal with.
The best example that I can give, and it's not even very good is to ask people to think of a buzzing alarm clock (eg.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM-KxbANpK8) and imagine that when you heard this you understood that something was wrong with your body and needed fixing. Now most of the time you can get that alarm to stop going off by attending to whatever the situation is and go on with the rest of your day. Imagine though that something in that alarm wasn't working right so it was being set off constantly, you try to deal with it and nothing works. You try to go about your day with it just constantly going off and hope that you acclimate. After it going off like this incessantly, you might become irritable, you might become angry, frustrated, depressed but no one else can hear the alarm so for them, your behavior is at best a minor annoyance, after a while they may try to avoid dealing with you and at worst when you try to explain to them but they don't understand they look at your behavior and attempts to deal with the situation with contempt. Then imagine that same alarm going off for weeks, months, years, decades.
Sorry if I jumped around a little, I was trying to cram a lot in. If you have questions, feel free to ask away.
I'm oddly passionate about lighthouses. There's something romantically fascinating about them, where they serve as a sort of gateway between two worlds, the land and the sea. I live on the coast, and there's something strangely hypnotizing about how the sea is always there, be it bright and calm as it is now or dark and stormy. Lighthouses are a kind of liminal space, where one crosses over from the normal world of land to the mystery and danger of the sea. I love that.
I used to be passionate about programming. But after 15 years of it as my profession I'm burnt out. I used to do a full days work and then go home and do another 4-8 hours on my own. Now I can barely look at an editor after I clock out. The only thing keeping me going at work is that I'm really behind the product we're building, Medical imaging with AI/ML assistance. If I lose this job I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do short of taking on a job I have no interest in simply to make sure that my daughter is taken care of. My wife works and we could probably afford to be on a single salary for a while if we really cut back and budgeted hard and I could get trained/education for some other vocation but I really don't know what that would be.
I have an usual high interest and knowledge of everything related to Tetris. There's actually a fair amount of trivia surrounding this game, would it be regarding its inception, its game mechanics or the way it evolved and is managed nowadays.
I'm passionate about whatever is unconventional that jolts us out of our perceptual box, tunnel, parallelogram, into what we don't know, didn't even suspect existed, such as granular numbers, R.A. Lafferty, the Yellow Lounge, induced loss of equilibrium, Sudoku Codes, Marian Hill, Amazon Smiles, Buddy Bolden, pyrogens, the Hindu Shuffle, and Scale Perception Bias . Art can do this, but so can randomly browsing wikipedia. So can listening to a musical composition for the 463rd time. So can great works of scholarship, like The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn. So can looking at the world upside down. So can listening, really listening to children.
What I try to avoid, sometimes to my detriment, are current trends, mainstream opinions, groups that think alike, confrontation for the sake of winning, labels, and insistence on thinking a certain way.
Well, I'm passionate about a lot of things, most I have talked about in other discussions. One thing I have failed to mention is Hanna-Barbera cartoons. I just really like the cheesiness of them.