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Comment by humanrebar | Hacker News Reader

I don't know. We can blame technology. Or we can actually go out and join something.

Maybe serve at a local food bank. Worst case, you're still lonely but some hungry people get fed.

Incidentally, how are you going to find a good food bank to help out at? I bet it looks like "technology": search engines, smart phone apps, web pages, email, digital calendars, navigation instructions, and signup forms.

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Of course this is great advice for an individual. It's always possible to effect change at the margins. But this sort of advice at a population-level feels meaningless. It's entirely fair to search for root causes to large-scale dysfunction. Otherwise the trend will just grow worse

I like to point out that the English language has a beautiful way to describe it by having two distinct words ("anyone", "everyone") instead of just one, unlike my native German ("jeder"):

If something somebody proposes in response to a population-wide problem works for anyone it should also be tested if it works for everyone. A lot of "how to get ahead and gain wealth" suggestions come to mind too that fail the second test.

Or maybe the way technological or even knowledge work in general is structured runs counter to human biology and chemistry in more than one way, or in compounding ways, more than most other professions where social elements are part of the inevitable toolset?

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