604 karma · joined April 12, 2022
As for "we're all not doing both those things" I am sorry to contradict you. No one is perfect, but adopting simple strategies can help a lot. I know because it has been almost a year since I have done the following:
1) I deleted all my social media, except for Mastodon which I use very rarely since it's not that interesting, and it is ok to be so: no mind engineering on their side, even though I don't like the concept of social media in general and am still undecided whether to keep it or not.
2) I try not to eat junk food, or keep it at a minimum. What helps a lot is not buying food from restaurants, even good ones use an impressive amount of oil and fats that is not good for our system. Cooking for double what you cook and freezing is a good thing. Cook simple things and don't do complex recipes, they can taste mild at first, but with habit our mouth adapts and even a simple bowl of rice with vegetables tastes good.
3) I try to incorporate exercises into my daily routine. Some weightlifting at home, because I have 30 minutes every 2 or 3 days to do it, and since I work at home most of the times I cut transport time; if I were to work outside I'd pay a gym near my work, or go to a gym near my house to again cut transport time; I cycle to work (1:30h). The point is minimizing barriers between you and exercises. I read some of the atomic habits book a while ago and I think I am using some ideas from there, but I really can't remember.
4) I cut all TVs if not for movies; sometimes I watch TV series because my girlfriend like those, but they are a waste of time too.
Less is more.
It being different is a fair point, and when designing a system you always make tradeoffs; what I feel is that Apple tradeoffs and design goals are slowly turning more toward additional monetization after you buy the product than focusing on the product per se.
Recently I am starting to question some of the design decisions. Most native apps are bloated with functionalities, most of the time useless. Ads pop up everywhere, even before persistence; iCloud and backups are clearly designed to make you pay, the free space is useless.
I am not that sure my next phone will be an iPhone.
I have tried a recent Mac, and the system isn't intuitive at all. The first time I used GNOME, it was a breeze. Not the same with the MacBook system.
I'm against this idea of indoctrination of the population by a public entity, no matter which is the habit. I'm also against private companies doing this, which governments should focus on regulating instead of copying them.
If reading books is valuable, just as I think it is, people will find its value by trying.
The real value of MCPs lays in providing a controlled interface to models.
The benefits of control are multiple; models getting better means that, if necessary, they can go around the limitations, but generally their adherence to it is desired.
This explains why the UN is making such an otherwise stupid resolution from a mathematical point of view.
We are too much used to copyright that fail to see how we would be better without.
Software doesn't need any protection. People want protection.