Asking people to change their ways is pointless. When something is systemic, only a systemic solution can work.
I have become intimately convinced that engagement-based feeds are the root of many evils of our time, loneliness included.
Here are some of the perverse effects (if ever they needed be told), and how they relate to the loneliness epidemic
- they incentivize individuals from a young age to find stimulation from scrolling mindless content through short dopamine loops instead of seeking satisfaction through longer-term endeavors (e.g. projects, board games, bands, sports teams, etc.) which tend to foster connections with friends, neighbors, family, strangers
- they radicalize and polarize into extreme niche communities (political extremes, conspiracy theories, manosphere, etc) so that it's more difficult to find common ground with a random average person, giving you the impression that everyone is your enemy
- they reflect a skewed version of reality where societal standards (beauty, intelligence, success, wealth, etc) are distorted and artificial, which drives people to believe they are insufficient and ostracized
I firmly believe that engagement-based feeds should be heavily regulated, the same way that other addictive behaviors have (e.g. tobacco, gambling, etc.).
It seems to me Rails has been doing this but better for years.
It definitely keeps atomic and historical migrations, but also maintains a schema.sql file that can be loaded as a one-off (e.g. for mock DBs in tests).
We debated doing 2D vs 3D and 3D brought a bunch of usability issues. We also noticed most SOTA embedding visualizations were 2D and already yielded good insights.
The original dataset is located at [1] (not our HF account). HN data is directly available via the HN API [2]. The privacy policy you point to does not cover HN posts.
> Hacker News Information: If you create a Hacker News account (ID and profile), we do not collect any Personal Information unless you choose to provide your email address and/or information in the "about" field (“HN Information”). Your submissions to, and comments you make on, the Hacker News site are not Personal Information and are not "HN Information" as defined in this Privacy Policy.
I'm a little surprised people don't know the ownership story on HN. Didn't it raise questions when they realized they can't delete their posts without mother-may-I'ing the mods?
HN is pretty up-front that when you post here you are providing them content for free to more-or-less consume as they please.
I found something that works for me. Hold my breath for a short while, then start breathing slowly and continue breathing slowly. Then I might start breathing normally and if it comes back repeat the process. Usually I can make them stop in a few minutes (or sometimes 5+ mins). On certain occasions I can't control them, e.g. eating very spicy food without realizing I was doing so or exceeding my max limit for spicy-ness (which used to be very high but I don't partake as much).
I have become intimately convinced that engagement-based feeds are the root of many evils of our time, loneliness included.
Here are some of the perverse effects (if ever they needed be told), and how they relate to the loneliness epidemic
- they incentivize individuals from a young age to find stimulation from scrolling mindless content through short dopamine loops instead of seeking satisfaction through longer-term endeavors (e.g. projects, board games, bands, sports teams, etc.) which tend to foster connections with friends, neighbors, family, strangers
- they radicalize and polarize into extreme niche communities (political extremes, conspiracy theories, manosphere, etc) so that it's more difficult to find common ground with a random average person, giving you the impression that everyone is your enemy
- they reflect a skewed version of reality where societal standards (beauty, intelligence, success, wealth, etc) are distorted and artificial, which drives people to believe they are insufficient and ostracized
I firmly believe that engagement-based feeds should be heavily regulated, the same way that other addictive behaviors have (e.g. tobacco, gambling, etc.).