On AI: at an embarrassing age I learned that almost everyone hates reading.
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@bert_hubert I think about this a lot too! Could a problem be that sharing of the thinking is a bit of a risk? As in will people believe me, will I look stupid, etc. (imposter syndrome) And as discussion (social interaction) drives thinking, the thinking diminishes because of lack of practice, because we prefer to be liked (social success) over being really good thinkers?
@bert_hubert Having said that: I know a lot of really fun people who love to think and share and discuss their thoughts. But they seem to be huddled together in one little corner.
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Lately, I've been wondering if I was not only wrong about reading, but also about thinking. Like most of my friends, I enjoy thinking. I love to do research. It is one of my big hobbies. But perhaps I'm like my runner friends who also struggle to believe that not everyone likes running. Might *thinking* be painful for people? Something to be avoided? This would explain lots of stuff. Like the rampant AI enthusiasm. Thoughts? 2/2
@bert_hubert
I started thinking about fascism in terms of accessibility when I read that among those arrested for the 1/6 insurrection, 68% have a history of trauma or serious mental illness versus 19% in the general population
Many QAnon followers report mental health diagnoses - UPI.com
QAnon is often viewed as a group associated with conspiracy, terrorism and radical action, such as the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. But radical extremism and terror may not be the real concern from this group.
UPI (www.upi.com)
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Lately, I've been wondering if I was not only wrong about reading, but also about thinking. Like most of my friends, I enjoy thinking. I love to do research. It is one of my big hobbies. But perhaps I'm like my runner friends who also struggle to believe that not everyone likes running. Might *thinking* be painful for people? Something to be avoided? This would explain lots of stuff. Like the rampant AI enthusiasm. Thoughts? 2/2
@bert_hubert I think you are spot on.
Because I recognize both in myself. My love for reading, thinking, questioning or reasoning, fluctuates strongly over time. Part of it a trait of my ADHD.
Sometimes I can't be bothered to reason through some problem or to read more than two sentences. Sometimes I can't help but spend hours, days, deepdiving that same thing.
I therefore can relate to both state of minds. And can understand how many people are in one of my "extremes" most of their lives (rather than oscillating between them like me).
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@bert_hubert More and more people are struggling with a lot of more existential stuff, like food, rent, mobility, etc. I'm sure a lot of people would like to read more. They just don't have the time anymore.
@atarifrosch note that at no point did I blame people for not wanting to read things. In fact, I urge to accommodate them.
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@atarifrosch note that at no point did I blame people for not wanting to read things. In fact, I urge to accommodate them.
@bert_hubert I didn't read that as blaming, but I saw that as pointing into the wrong direction.
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Lately, I've been wondering if I was not only wrong about reading, but also about thinking. Like most of my friends, I enjoy thinking. I love to do research. It is one of my big hobbies. But perhaps I'm like my runner friends who also struggle to believe that not everyone likes running. Might *thinking* be painful for people? Something to be avoided? This would explain lots of stuff. Like the rampant AI enthusiasm. Thoughts? 2/2
@bert_hubert I am reminded of this:
It's quite a confronting video! But I do think people don't know how to stop entertaining themselves, and let their brains just think. I include myself in this.
People are also scared of getting things wrong. If they live in a fire-at-will place in the USA for example, AI use may make them feel more secure in their jobs. If something big and sad has happened to a friend, they might turn to AI to help them not say the wrong thing.
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Lately, I've been wondering if I was not only wrong about reading, but also about thinking. Like most of my friends, I enjoy thinking. I love to do research. It is one of my big hobbies. But perhaps I'm like my runner friends who also struggle to believe that not everyone likes running. Might *thinking* be painful for people? Something to be avoided? This would explain lots of stuff. Like the rampant AI enthusiasm. Thoughts? 2/2
@bert_hubert We’re biased towards conservation of energy, so we’ll outsource whatever we can. Not everyone goes to the gym or otherwise exercises, not everyone reads, thinks, or does something kind of intellectual activity.
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Lately, I've been wondering if I was not only wrong about reading, but also about thinking. Like most of my friends, I enjoy thinking. I love to do research. It is one of my big hobbies. But perhaps I'm like my runner friends who also struggle to believe that not everyone likes running. Might *thinking* be painful for people? Something to be avoided? This would explain lots of stuff. Like the rampant AI enthusiasm. Thoughts? 2/2
@bert_hubert tl;dr
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@bert_hubert We’re biased towards conservation of energy, so we’ll outsource whatever we can. Not everyone goes to the gym or otherwise exercises, not everyone reads, thinks, or does something kind of intellectual activity.
@duarte the problem with this theory is that it appears thinking does not use more calories. I'd be thin by now otherwise also! The brain uses a depressingly constant 25W of power. There are some anecdotes about chess grandmasters burning through more energy, but it appears this happens through fretting and not through the brain.
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Lately, I've been wondering if I was not only wrong about reading, but also about thinking. Like most of my friends, I enjoy thinking. I love to do research. It is one of my big hobbies. But perhaps I'm like my runner friends who also struggle to believe that not everyone likes running. Might *thinking* be painful for people? Something to be avoided? This would explain lots of stuff. Like the rampant AI enthusiasm. Thoughts? 2/2
@bert_hubert Thinking is hard. I often outsource thinking about details – I ask people I know, when I know that they probably will have the answer in their head and this won't be an effort for them. But I do a lot of thinking before asking and it's fun
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Lately, I've been wondering if I was not only wrong about reading, but also about thinking. Like most of my friends, I enjoy thinking. I love to do research. It is one of my big hobbies. But perhaps I'm like my runner friends who also struggle to believe that not everyone likes running. Might *thinking* be painful for people? Something to be avoided? This would explain lots of stuff. Like the rampant AI enthusiasm. Thoughts? 2/2
@bert_hubert people think in vastly different ways (complex combinations). Some of it is described in this article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descriptive_Experience_Sampling There is a lot of content on this in general for further investigation.
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On AI: at an embarrassing age I learned that almost everyone hates reading. Most writers are also avid readers, and are often not aware that 20% of the population is (almost) illiterate. Reading is a chore for the majority of people. For a typical author this is an unpleasant and hard to grasp truth. But once you believe it, you can change your writing for the better. By for example never "burying the lede". Just start your letter/advert/post/whatever with your main message. 1/2
@bert_hubert Gollum fell into Mount Doom with the ring, saving Middle Earth. The End.
So much faster!
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Lately, I've been wondering if I was not only wrong about reading, but also about thinking. Like most of my friends, I enjoy thinking. I love to do research. It is one of my big hobbies. But perhaps I'm like my runner friends who also struggle to believe that not everyone likes running. Might *thinking* be painful for people? Something to be avoided? This would explain lots of stuff. Like the rampant AI enthusiasm. Thoughts? 2/2
@bert_hubert this is why populists gain power, right? Don’t bother with critical thinking, nuance, data or research; just listen to the strong man who will tell you which evil people you should hate because they’re secretly plotting to burn down everything you love — but luckily the strong man is onto them and will protect you!
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Lately, I've been wondering if I was not only wrong about reading, but also about thinking. Like most of my friends, I enjoy thinking. I love to do research. It is one of my big hobbies. But perhaps I'm like my runner friends who also struggle to believe that not everyone likes running. Might *thinking* be painful for people? Something to be avoided? This would explain lots of stuff. Like the rampant AI enthusiasm. Thoughts? 2/2
@bert_hubert most folks regress to mediocrity b/c it's "just/good enough" and requires little to no effort. The modern "west" has been programmed to want mediocrity, and — at least in the U.S. — folks haven't been taught the various ways to interrogate the world, challenge assumptions, develop deep curiosity, etc. b/c schools just teach students how to pass tests to get to the next mediocre stage. It's hard to break folks out of it.
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Lately, I've been wondering if I was not only wrong about reading, but also about thinking. Like most of my friends, I enjoy thinking. I love to do research. It is one of my big hobbies. But perhaps I'm like my runner friends who also struggle to believe that not everyone likes running. Might *thinking* be painful for people? Something to be avoided? This would explain lots of stuff. Like the rampant AI enthusiasm. Thoughts? 2/2
@bert_hubert I stand on your side , I love reading but have lacked the energy to do so recently because #life . Once I got better , I got back to books/documentation/papers and always have pleasure with it . One thing I was discussing aroud the use of LLM to 'read for you' throw me back to a form of laziness : I , most of the time , enjoy the pleasure of learning/understanding by myself, as it's quite rewarding. Maybe it's not the case for everyone. 1/2
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@bert_hubert I stand on your side , I love reading but have lacked the energy to do so recently because #life . Once I got better , I got back to books/documentation/papers and always have pleasure with it . One thing I was discussing aroud the use of LLM to 'read for you' throw me back to a form of laziness : I , most of the time , enjoy the pleasure of learning/understanding by myself, as it's quite rewarding. Maybe it's not the case for everyone. 1/2
@bert_hubert Also , my circle (social and parasocial) is usally thinkers, readers, curious people, therefor I'm not aware of someone who suffers of the learning (etc) process. Finding the purpose to do so isn't always easy, and some prefer to stay at a more ' simple ' level , but once you found something you wan't to explore , using the traditional means (no ai), feels rewarding from what i exchanged. Amazing and so current topic, thanks for raising it here.
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Lately, I've been wondering if I was not only wrong about reading, but also about thinking. Like most of my friends, I enjoy thinking. I love to do research. It is one of my big hobbies. But perhaps I'm like my runner friends who also struggle to believe that not everyone likes running. Might *thinking* be painful for people? Something to be avoided? This would explain lots of stuff. Like the rampant AI enthusiasm. Thoughts? 2/2
@bert_hubert Yes thinking is 100% painful/unpleasant for many people. If you ask me it's not much different from sports wrt to training and rewards.
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On AI: at an embarrassing age I learned that almost everyone hates reading. Most writers are also avid readers, and are often not aware that 20% of the population is (almost) illiterate. Reading is a chore for the majority of people. For a typical author this is an unpleasant and hard to grasp truth. But once you believe it, you can change your writing for the better. By for example never "burying the lede". Just start your letter/advert/post/whatever with your main message. 1/2
@bert_hubert I just ordered some new meds at the pharmacy by mail. I didn't think it was a good idea to also give them my new email address in the same email. It probably won't be read.
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Lately, I've been wondering if I was not only wrong about reading, but also about thinking. Like most of my friends, I enjoy thinking. I love to do research. It is one of my big hobbies. But perhaps I'm like my runner friends who also struggle to believe that not everyone likes running. Might *thinking* be painful for people? Something to be avoided? This would explain lots of stuff. Like the rampant AI enthusiasm. Thoughts? 2/2
@bert_hubert Reminds me of Kahneman's work. Super short summary from fallible wetware memory: System 2 (the deliberate, reflective, reasoning, uniquely human part of the brain) is lazy by default, and tends to not kick into action unless triggered in the right way. System 1 is faster and more efficient for almost all inputs.
Maybe it's a matter of training, exercise, habit, call it what you will, that makes System 2 pay attention sooner in some people than in others.
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Lately, I've been wondering if I was not only wrong about reading, but also about thinking. Like most of my friends, I enjoy thinking. I love to do research. It is one of my big hobbies. But perhaps I'm like my runner friends who also struggle to believe that not everyone likes running. Might *thinking* be painful for people? Something to be avoided? This would explain lots of stuff. Like the rampant AI enthusiasm. Thoughts? 2/2
One of the more interesting thinking endeavors is math and similarly abstract gymnastics. And seeing how many (a majority of people) get a headache with math, you are probably right: thinking huts many people.
