Erik @ DelightfullyDivisive @discuss.online

Posts

10

Comments

54

Joined

9 mo. ago

Moderating

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No question that banning guns reduces all of those things. In Germany it also made it easier to round up Jews, homosexuals and other undesirables in the middle of the last century. I don't think that human nature has changed since then. Is civilian gun ownership the only thing preventing similar behavior in the US? Or is it irrelevant as I infer that you believe? I don't think that there is a definitive answer.

There is merit in many of the different points of view on the subject. Unfortunately, most arguments around gun ownership and bans are fear-based. That makes rational discussion very difficult. It also makes it easy to demonize people who don't agree with you.

I noticed that you aren't arguing with the "idiots" part. We have a lot more than a handful of those...

I wish that was the case here (Michigan, USA). We have had two in recent memory.

What are your thoughts on firearms ownership in the US, given what has happened to our government lately? Do you see merit in the idea of civilian ownership of small arms in our current circumstances?

Avi Loeb is a crank. He is not taken seriously by any real scientists. He decided to sell his scientific integrity years ago.

Based on my deep knowledge of the methamphetamine trade (which comes entirely from watching "Breaking Bad" ), I'm sure you're right.

That is an interesting and I think very valid point.

Many people here in the US have absorbed decades of messaging from various war on drugs campaigns that imply anything not manufactured by a drug company his toxic. There's also been a lot of messaging that self-medicating is only for losers. I think there is a large grain of truth around the concept of self-medicating, but the stigma attached to mental health issues makes it difficult for a lot of people to seek out the help they need.

I am quite familiar with the effects as well. 🙂 Nonetheless, it did sound like several people were discussing marijuana in particular and claimed that a low dose would help them focus. That's certainly would not work for me.

That depends on the admins of a particular community, I think. In this case it was just strongly implied by a couple of people making comments that they would be banned if they mentioned whatever the drug was.

Based on all of the comments here, I'm pretty sure they were talking about meth. I never knew that it was actually sold as an ADHD med.

I guess that explains why the Reddit mods ban discussion of it, though. People can be so desperate for a "cure" that they'd risk it. I know what an idiot I was about drugs when I was a teen and early twenty-something.

I don't find caffeine effective for ADHD, but amphetamine (Adderall) is. It is quite likely that the mechanism of action for methamphetamine is much more like other amphetamine formulations.

That said, I'm not even sure if they were talking about meth or something else.

After decades of trying to find the perfect system, I settled on a searchable notes app (I use Joplin) to dump in everything, and a mind mapping app (I use Xmind) as a day to day log. I keep regular journal entries in Joplin, and anything from Xmind that I want to be able to find later I just copy-paste into a Joplin note. (You can copy a Mmap node, then when you paste it will dump a text outline in.)

Why not go in for diagnosis/screening?
Not judging, just curious.

I'm pretty similar. I'm probably more generous with upvotes. I'll also downvote:

• any link without a description
• YouTube links
• Twitter reposts (that's usually on reddit, though)

I have to force myself not to downvote anything with anime. I have a visceral dislike for anime, probably a result of the shitty afternoon TV cartoon lineup in the 70s.

I block a LOT of accounts. Anything that looks like ragebait or just arguing in bad faith.

I think a lot of the crunch in the labor market for programmers is "monkey see monkey do" thinking at the big tech companies. It might even be somewhat calculated, though I hesitate to call something a conspiracy when it could simply be due to stupidity on the part of senior management.

Large tech companies tend to have a lot of flexibility and their total headcount because they have a wide variety of departments and tasks that they can set aside for an extended period before it causes any problems. Those problems will eventually catch up with them, though, as will a code base written by somebody who doesn't understand what they're trying to accomplish.

So I think the pendulum is going to swing back to a labor crunch at some point. My guess is at least another 6 months before we see any hint of that, though. I don't think it will be as bad as it was before the advent of LLMs, though. They really are a productivity enhancing tool, particularly for software developers who know what they're doing.

Saved. Thanks for posting that!

I do. I tried a couple of different tablets with a stylus, but just like paper and a good pen better. I have a collection of metal pens that I favor. Check out jetpens if you want to go down that particular rabbit hole.

That said, I take most of my notes in mind maps on a computer. It's really only when I am traveling or once in awhile when I just really feel like writing again that I use pen and paper.

The premium version has gotten a LOT better in recent months. I just fed it,

"you can't soothe a tree" meaning

And it replied with: This phrase is not a standard idiom with a widely recognized meaning. Its interpretation depends on the context in which it is used. Literally, it means you cannot comfort or calm a tree in the way you would a sentient being, as trees do not possess emotions or consciousness that can be "soothed". Metaphorically, it likely means:

• Some entities (problems, situations, perhaps even certain people) are unresponsive to attempts at emotional comfort or calming.
• Trying to apply emotional solutions or appeals to things that are inherently non-emotional or unchangeable is futile.
• It could describe someone who is extremely stoic, impassive, or emotionally unavailable. The specific meaning depends heavily on the situation where the phrase was encountered.

Thank you!

How old is your friend?!? I'm 58, and I haven't had a landline in over 15 years

I appreciate you keeping content flowing in this community! That said, this study is from 2012, so the conclusions may be somewhat out of date.

I realize that I was complaining without offering anything useful. Here is a more recent article that addresses a similar topic:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11656626/?hl=en-US