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Comment by wiseowise | Hacker News Reader

> I know many people with a lot of free time. In the vast majority of cases, people spend their free time in almost exactly the same way they spent their free time when they had less of it. Binging on social media, television, or games? Now they just do more of it for longer. The people that volunteer more were already doing it, and they are in the small minority.

You lock people for decades in the madhouse which leaves only escapism as a coping mechanism and then act surprised when they continue to escape. Make the experiment with a clean slate: a group of children raised to be empowered by creation and creativity, having generous allowances to experiment and not burdened with work or brain rot. Did I just describe rich kids? Anyway.

And what’s “a lot of free time” anyway?

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Cease this wild extrapolation, which starts at dementia, passes through a casual myth called "brain rot", and ends at games. I like games and I like being idle. I don't like the judgmental concept of "productive activity" and I don't think that arbitrarily occupying yourself, even if you produce something, is inherently worthy and good. I produce certain things with my ass, gimme a medal.

> You lock people for decades in the madhouse which leaves only escapism as a coping mechanism and then act surprised when they continue to escape.

This is so good I feel the need of framing it!

More than 10% of 18-25 year olds are considered NEETs. They haven't experienced anything but sitting at school for 25 hours a week with zero responsibilities. Yet none of them do anything useful with their free time. Funnily, this affects both poor and rich kids equally

> More than 10% of 18-25 year olds are considered NEETs. They haven't experienced anything but sitting at school for 25 hours a week with zero responsibilities.

Being dumped by absent parents and having lack of pointers/goals in life is not

> raised to be empowered by creation and creativity, having generous allowances to experiment and not burdened with work or brain rot.

in my book.

So which is it?

Do people need structure to occupy their time or will they provide it themselves?

Does school not count as "generous allowances to experiment"? Why not?

Under your definition, what does? Can you actually point to something that satisfies your definition?

> sitting at school for 25 hours a week

School is closer to a prison than to a place where one can be creative and build things.

There is historical context why schools are designed and operated in this way: it creates factory workers that follow instructions, not critical thinkers.

Of course, there are schools that use more humane pedagogical methods, but they are the exception.

So many pointed jabs.

> Did I just described rich kids?

You just described Lord Of The Flies.

Be mindful of fundamental human nature and how it shapes everything we do, including all our social constructs. Few people are, which make mindlessness the dominant modus operandi.

Lord of the Flies was a fictional novel, it never happened, it’s not real and shouldn’t be used to inform your thinking.

Especially when real life instances of groups of young children being stranded without adult help exist and play out in ways directly opposite of the novel’s central thesis.

You can make any society work if you're writing fiction.

For example, Star Trek is Roddenberry's idea of a utopia. A benevolent dictator with his happy ship of comrades all rowing together. (But hey, I enjoyed watching it!)

STTNG amps that up even further. It got so heavy-handed with it I lost interest in it.

I'm not understanding how you're extrapolating Lord of the Flies from what they're saying. A key part of "raised to be empowered by creation and creativity" would involve parents and other adults to do that. I haven't read the book in a while, were they stranded on the island with their parents?

> Be mindful of fundamental human nature and how it shapes everything we do, including all our social constructs. Few people are, which make mindlessness the dominant modus operandi.

What is the fundamental human nature in your opinion?

Adapation

True mindfulness is to know when the machine breaks, why it breaks and to recognize known flaws of the machine, for example to assume that all others are automatons running on low-energy heuristics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Mistook_His_Wife_f...

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