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seluneon Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

I always used forvo.com for this kind of thing.

Edit: It's a "pronunciation dictionary". Ppl just record how they say words and indicate their geography. Super useful for languages like English where there are a lot of regional varieties. And you can contribute too to the dictionary of your language. :)

I'm no affiliated w/ it btw, just really love this website, have been using it for years.

seluneon Fucking Color Picker

Have been using Pixie since forever on Windows. Neat little tool.

seluneon By the book: reflections on an Indian childhood reading Soviet hardbacks

Comments in this thread are kind of trippy but also so heartwarming to read. I was born in independent Ukraine but, unsurprisingly, I studied math and physics with the help of all of those Soviet handbooks: Perelman, Irodov etc, basically all of them are household names.

It's amazing to realize that somebody from a totally different culture, continent, language, was slouching over the same problems as I was, maybe even at the same time.

seluneon By the book: reflections on an Indian childhood reading Soviet hardbacks

Nabokov is absolutely considered a Russian writer by Russians themselves, both lit critics and casual readers. He wrote 8 novels in Russian and identified himself as both Russian and American and, according to his own words, loved the Russian language most.

seluneon Video games that are tackling mental health issues

I haven't played it too but from what I've read about it, I suspect it might cause a so called Tetris Effect when the game mechanics basically invades people's though patterns.[0] It can be used as a somewhat effective "distraction" for your brain during episodes of anxiety[1] helping to overcome it. So if someone is planning their crops, they're probably just distracting themselves from anxious thoughts. Just my understanding from reading the article and different opinions of players.

Anecdotal: a friend of mine used to play some casual mobile game for quite some time (Candy Crush or something), she told me once that when she was giving birth she involuntarily started to "play" the game in her mind when the stress and pain became too strong, she said it helped her both to distant herself and to focus. :)

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_effect

[1]: https://www.nature.com/articles/mp201723

seluneon Video games that are tackling mental health issues

For someone who might be interested in reading some research on the topic:

Videogames may help with anxiety. They may be used as a healthy alternative to otherwise compulsive behaviors (self-harm etc) and just as a general coping technique battling anxiety episodes[0] and also offer a healthy distraction for people suffering from PTSD[1] but it's not a 100% safe route, sometimes videogames may trigger even more anxiety, sometimes people will fall into compulsive/obsessive territory and develop an addiction (which will basically start a vicious loop of anxiety-compulsive gaming-more anxiety-more compulsive etc). I really like this article - [2], it looks broadly into the issue which is multi variable.

[0]: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292142434_A_Randomi...

[1]: https://www.nature.com/articles/mp201723

[2]: https://slate.com/technology/2015/11/how-video-games-can-tea...

P.s. Regardless of their effectiveness as a psychotherapeutic tool, videogames which are dealing with mental health as their main theme and exposing these issues to wide audiences, are obviously very needed and important.

P.p.s. Hellblade is amazing, breathtaking and everyone should play it. Yes.

seluneon Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

You're not mentally handicapped, you're just in harmony with yourself which is amazing and very rare. :)

I would advise your wife to try volunteering (for whatever cause she finds important) if she hasn't already. I've started volunteering at a local NGO after switching careers and it's easily my favorite time of the month, gives me lots of energy and peace of mind, wish I could do it more often.

seluneon Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

The thing is that burnout among therapists is real, everyone I know who worked in counseling came with lots of, how shall I put it?, infatuation, enchantment and everybody got severely disenchanted at some point.

So until the author has worked for a couple of years in the field, he comes off as a little bit... naive. I don't mean to come off as condescending, I hope he finds happiness in his new profession.

seluneon Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

Yes, of course, there are lots of tech businesses that I would find myself content working for. I just don't really have the luxury of choice atm: started later in life, no solid CS background, immigrant, no real talent (to be honest) etc.

I'm sure it'll work out when I gain more experience. :)

I was a child psychologist (specializing in development and planned to go deeper into social work) and it was/is the biggest passion of my life, so switching to tech feels weird to put it mildly.

IT is fantastic, don't get me wrong, I would not go back.

seluneon Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

Interesting. I quit psychology/counseling and work in tech now and the thought of my work being absolutely meaningless gives me a lot of anxiety, I hope I'll come to terms with it one day. Correction, I'm sure I'll come to terms with it but the transition is far from being smooth and takes longer than I expected.

seluneon Thousands of Russians protest against internet restrictions

And risk ending up in jail, murdered or dying poor? One may love their country but loves their life/family more.

I don't know where you're from but if you're from postsoviet countries you should know how freaking difficult it is to oppose the system and, in case of Russia, also dangerous.

seluneon Thousands of Russians protest against internet restrictions

Huh? Whoever likes oligarchs in Russia?

If you mean the popularity of Putin then propaganda and general low level of education of populace.

seluneon In Estonian parliamentary election, 44% of the votes were cast online

https://estoniaevoting.org/findings/paper/

TL;DR: It's not that good.

seluneon In Estonian parliamentary election, 44% of the votes were cast online

Wasn't it compromised a few years ago?

[1] https://edri.org/estonian-eid-cryptography-mess-750000-cards...

seluneon Thousands of Russians protest against internet restrictions

I might be pessimistic because I am in close contact with that demographic (lots of my friends are young, educated, comparatively well-off guys from Moscow working in tech) and, pardon my French, they decide shit. Oligarchs decide the fate of Russia.

seluneon Thousands of Russians protest against internet restrictions

You overestimate tech literacy of the majority of Russian population. Very small percentage is engaged with playing videogames or knows how to use torrents.

People are given lots of distractions though - so many controversial, absolutely absurd laws have been introduced in the past few years everybody talks about (about fighting homosexual propaganda, forbidding adoption for foreigners, blasphemy laws and so on). Internet restrictions are like a drop in the sea of craziness and not even the most relevant one for the majority, or controversial, or loud.

seluneon Thousands of Russians protest against internet restrictions

I've been following Russian news on the matter pretty closely for the last couple of years (I do speak Russian). Most of these laws are absurdly nonsensical, people who are responsible for them (Yarovaya and co) have very vague understanding of technology and I don't think it's about technology in the end.

seluneon The head of luxury at Facebook and Instagram

It's not like all wealthy people are some homogeneous entity where everybody dresses the same, looks the same, does the same business, spends their time in the same way and shares the same lifestyle, values and ambitions. Granted, I know a lot more about women's high fashion and the culture that surrounds it than about men's fashion and business culture but as a crude example: someone who's wearing stuff like D&G and Versace and someone who's wearing Yohji Yamamoto and Comme des Garçons are probably people with drastically different interests, professions, circles, values etc. Think conventionally glamorous vs avant-garde artsy crowd.

Everything largely depends on a particular circle, industry, level of income. Arab Sheikhs don't party with CEOs from Valley, Russian oligarchs or Hollywood producers. I believe how you're expected to dress for 300k position in Facebook would differ from the expected look for 300k position on Wall Street.

seluneon The head of luxury at Facebook and Instagram

But is CEO going to live in a cheap apartment in a bad hood or entertain themselves via playing rocks they found on a street?

I'm all for controlling our inner consumerism but I often find tremendous lack of self-awareness in the discourse. Nobody says MTG fans are "not clever" or shallow or manipulated by the system because they have an expensive hobby. Tourism, cars, good houses, good furniture, art, videogames, eating out, going to concerts, collecting vinyls, having pets - are all absolutely unnecessary for humans and can be considered as luxury from point of view of those who cannot afford these things.

People buy and do stuff because they like it and can afford it and that's it. You're not more enlightened or clever for not doing one unnecessary thing but doing some other.

I don't ever eat in restaurants/cafes and don't have a car. I'm not smarter than majority of Americans, I'm just really shy and don't mind using public transport, so these things are inefficient for me, but they might be efficient in providing some entertainment, comfort, novelty experience, social signalling for those with different preferences.

seluneon The head of luxury at Facebook and Instagram

Clothes have aesthetics function. I love my Chloe dresses, how they made, how they look and feel aka they make me happy. I'm yet to find similar dresses in mass market or even just in other brands.

Most people who buy expensive clothing are actually doing it as a hobby, esp those that are being talked about in the article - people who are heavily invested in influences and celebrity culture, they find luxury to be fun and it allows them to hang out in circles of people with similar interests. So it does fulfill functions: aesthetic, social, entertainment etc.

seluneon Animals are no less emotional than we are

I've read about wolves that they eat only the meat they are taught to eat (and different pack of wolves in different places hunt different animals.) So a wolf may literally starve to death while sitting near a corpse of some animal if it doesn't know it can eat it. May happen to pups if their pack dies or to wolves who were brought up in captivity.

The source is in Russian from a zoologist who studied wolves: https://sovet.blocknote.info/articles/443/serdtse-volka-semy...

Some behaviors are instinctive, some are taught, some are the result of emotional conditioning (hence people taming and domesticating animals).

seluneon The head of luxury at Facebook and Instagram

Everyone above some margin of income indulges in a consumption of luxury goods. I don't see how wearing a cheap t-shirt but driving a good car or playing Playstation sitting on a comfy expensive couch is smarter than buying a pair of expensive sneakers.

It's just signalling to your crowd.

seluneon The head of luxury at Facebook and Instagram

To be able to easily recognize people you want to hang out with? People do tend to gravitate toward people of the same economic class.

seluneon Speedrunning Windows 95

Reminded me of this https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/7xakd9/windows-31-is-sti...

seluneon Animals are no less emotional than we are

Lots of animals pass mirror test, so we can safely assume that they are self-aware to some extent.

This method is believed to be highly imperfect though as not all animals rely on visual perception as their main info channel. So some animals that do not pass the test may be self-aware, we just don't know how to research it properly.

seluneon Ask HN: Are documentaries becoming more destructive than informative?

Can you give examples? I'm a huge doc nerd and in my opinion we're in golden age of documentaries right now in terms of film-making. Documentaries have always been a way to express opinions though (personal or political), nothing surprising here. Basically anything made my humans will be stained with their worldview.

Some people believe Google or news outlets to be objective depictions of reality, I think, we just tend to oversimplify and not look too deeply into things that are not our primary concern.

seluneon Animals are no less emotional than we are

Orangutans are capable of planning their routes in advance. [1] I guess that does indicate some concept of future, albeit not a far one?

[1] https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-09/orangutans-pl...

seluneon Animals are no less emotional than we are

It has been speculated that elephants know bones of elephants from other animals and that they kind of "mourn" their dead [1][2] in a way.

Most mammals would react to fresh corpses of members of the same species, most would feel what we would call sadness when loosing a member of tribe, parent etc. But feeling emotions towards bones? That's pretty complex IMO.

I've also read somewhere about instances of elephants "burying" other elephants via covering their bodies with leaves. I'll edit and add a source if I manage to find it.

[1]: http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1497634.htm

[2]: https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/photos/12-facts-ch...

seluneon The Banality of Empathy

There is Found object genre(?), style(?) of art so Starbucks coffee cup could be an art object/piece if presented in a specific context.

seluneon The Banality of Empathy

Eh, aesthetic pleasantness does not always go hand-in-hand with art, not nowadays.

But yes, I can agree that art is essentially encoded data.