2,561 karma · joined September 18, 2018
The truth unfortunately just doesn't matter much these days.
Folks read stuff online by people and just take it as fact without bothering to ask the simple questions that you have.
I found at least found one analysis (by a left leaning think tank, so take it for what you will) https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-failure-of-supp... that seems to show that supply-side economics hasn't panned out.
It seems obvious that there is an optimal tax rate, too much or too little is bad. But I'd definitely say right now we are far far on the too little side of things.
You might be able to avoid it with a panel of AI, similar to how we try to avoid it by using panels of humans, but even that turns out to be contentious and not surefire.
I have feeling with AI it'll be even worse, since folks / companies can pass the buck (similar to how health insurance companies are now using it to deny folks).
I once forgot it on a trip to a different state, and tried to sleep in the hotel but basically just had insomnia, as I could no longer pass out when I woke up from the apneas. Terrifying to think I did so earlier in my life.
Anyways, I lucked out as I went to craigslist and found one during that trip the next day.
But even if I was home, I'm no longer eligible for a CPAP since my last sleep study was roughly 13 years ago. Apparently they think my anatomy is magically improved since then, aka the US medical system wants their cut of my time / money to keep living.
So even my recent new purchases are from folks on craigslist.
It's wild they would rather me go through another sleep study when during my initial one they cut it short because I had such severe apnea (of the sort where I could have a heart attack without it). They hooked me up to a machine within around an hr or so. Now that I'm older, the risk is even worse.
Essentially no one should be working 60 hours a week, the human mind needs breaks to unconsciously work on problems.
I would posit unless someone is doing pure labor, anything involving creativity / problem solving actually has worse returns past 30 hrs a week of intense work.
Anyone in exec positions claiming otherwise likely would hesitate to let someone actually see what they do all day / week. No doubt they "work" all day in some cases, but that day is filled with lots of non work / downtime.
https://www.chicagofed.org/research/content-areas/mobility/i... for instance.
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/4/1179
Anecdotally, I can also attest to it. I know lots of "finally successful" folks who end up spending their wealth keeping their siblings and extended family afloat. There's no real safety net for them in the USA.
So the type of programmers you're talking about, who could solve complex problems, are actually just enhanced by it.
Exercise was how I stayed mildly sane for a good majority of those years, but when I started taking medication it was like the entire world changed. I wish I had started earlier in life. It helped me to become a lot more introspective as well, being able to better examine why I was feeling the way I did.
There are some things that no amount of exercise or "healthy living" can fix, that's unfortunately just the human condition. It's nothing to be ashamed of.
A lot of the successful projects at the original company are now dead.
It's also weird being in IBM, because if your "contract" ends they put you on the bench. Then you basically have to job hunt within IBM, and if you can't find anything within a month or so you are out. It's super weird.
I say this as someone who is extremely fit. I've worked out religiously since high school. While exercise is integral to me feeling somewhat normal and provides a short-term boost, that is just not how it works for everyone. Some of us have 'broken brains' that cardio can't fix.
Exercise manages my baseline, but sertraline is what helped me finally bridge the gap. It allowed me to regulate my emotions and anxiety in a way that no amount of exercise ever did. And the introspection from being on it helped me make lifelong changes.
To be honest, fearmongering from folks online is what stopped me from taking it sooner, but I wish I had. It was fairly life-changing.
Speaking for myself, I took sertraline for years and it did wonders for my mental health. It didn't ruin my life or numb me, it gave me the ability to regulate my emotions when I previously struggled immensely with anger and crippling anxiety.
It’s possible for these drugs to be handed out too easily in some contexts and simultaneously be life-saving, effective treatments for those who genuinely need them. Suggesting they violate 'do no harm' ignores the massive harm caused by leaving severe mental health struggles untreated.
It also helped do wonders for my anxiety, which I previously treated with sertaline.
I'm not the hyperactive sort of individual who has ADHD so I didn't get diagnosed until late in life, around a year or so ago, I'm just the "Inattentive" type.
But finally I can take my meds, and do things that other people do without feeling like it's mental torture. And I can also remember to do important things, like my taxes, on time!
It's so weird comparing my days on it to off it, when I happen to run out. I start getting a backlog of little things that my brain decided it couldn't take one minute to knock out.
Checked on it recently, so many comments of folks asking for shipping details / anything. Hundreds of thousands of dollars just scammed from folks. And they're still raising / stringing folks along.
It's wild.
"Always avoid the hospital" isn't a choice either. You don't "negotiate" with a surgery center for a heart attack, a stroke, or a major car accident, which are some of the common events that cause this. And the claim that "medical debt will never lead to collections" is factually incorrect.
It is the number one cause of collections in the United States. The idea that every citizen can just "hire a decent lawyer" or "run a good PR push" to settle debt isn't a functional or scalable mechanism, nor is it reality.
More importantly, it doesn't solve the real problem. You're still subject to the same system. Fighting for prior authorizations, staying in-network, and navigating all the other administrative friction.
More than likely they'd find a way to make you go bankrupt rather than pay up. That or deny till you die.
You can be fine for years, but a single, major medical event can zero out those salary gains and lead directly to bankruptcy. It's a systemic flaw that isn't obvious until it's your turn to deal with it.
When I need something to work that hasn't been done before, I absolutely have to craft most of the solution myself, with some minor prompts for more boilerplate things.
I see it as a tool similar to a library. It solves things that are already well known, so I can focus on the interesting new bits.
Ultimately, society only works on a foundation of trust. We trust that our food is safe, our medicine is effective, and our products won't explode. When folks have that trust broken, I view it as a systemic failure, not a personal one.