yesfitz

The ability to picture the scene in your mind is not why listening to an audiobook is different from reading.

Put another way, reading involves:

1. Parsing and interpreting the words on the page.

2. Synthesizing the information in our heads (scenes, arguments, etc.)

3. Interpreting the synthesis (Does it work? Is there subtle or implied information in the synthesis? What comes next?)

My argument is that audiobooks drastically alter step 1.

Let's not denigrate any forms of media though. They all have their unique benefits. You can use your mind or not during the consumption of any of them.

The survey this is based on[1] counts listening to audiobooks as "reading", which can only inflate the numbers.

I have nothing against audiobooks, but they are not the same as reading. It is a passive consumption of the content. You can daydream or lose focus and the story keeps rolling on. If you lose focus while reading, the story stops. You may find that you've "read" a few sentences, but it's quickly self-correcting.

Additionally, reading forces you to parse tone, interpret context, and resolve syntactic ambiguity on your own. Listening to a narrator removes those tasks.

I think that this door was opened when we started accepting that reading graphic novels was the same as reading a book of text. Rather than elevating new(ish) media for storytelling for their own merit, we've lumped them into another medium that was already deemed "good".

All that said, listening to an audiobook or reading a graphic novel is still better than not reading a book at all.

1: https://today.yougov.com/entertainment/articles/53804-most-a...

"The LADWP tells Eyewitness News they will cover the cost of installing a new fire hydrant at the price tag of $35,000."[1]

The median sale price in the Pacific Palisades is ~$2 Million.[2]

The homeowners said "Our insurance certainly wouldn't have covered [a new hydrant]." And according to them, the LAFD said "please contact LADWP to get a cost estimate for what you'll have to pay to build and install this new hydrant." Emphasis mine.

Even if the homeowners had to bear the entire cost, assuming they had a median home, a new hydrant would be 1.75% of the value of the house, equivalent to a $7,175 expense for a home valued at the US median price of $410,000.

I feel for these people. No matter who you are, losing your home is a terrible experience. But it's ridiculous to choose to rebuild in a clearly fire-prone area, and then complain that the city needs to you install fire protection as part of the building.

This should have been a matter between the homeowners and their insurance company.

1: https://abc7.com/post/palisades-fire-victims-told-had-pay-ne... 2: https://www.zillow.com/home-values/19810/pacific-palisades-l...

What data completely disagrees with them and what does it disagree with them about?

The "Persons Killed, by Highest Driver Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) in the Crash"[1] report shows that in 2023, 30% of fatal crashes involved at least one driver with a BAC > 0.08 (the legal limit), and 36% involved a BAC > 0.01.

Interesting that "Non-motorist" fatalities have dropped dramatically for everyone under the age of 21, but increased for everyone between 21 and 74.[2] Those are raw numbers, so it'd be even more interesting to display them as a ratio of the group's size. Are less children being killed by drivers because there are less children generally? Changes in parents' habits? Backup cameras?

1: https://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Trends/TrendsAlcohol.aspx 2: https://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Trends/TrendsNonMotorist.aspx

It's not unreasonable to expect certain behavior in a shared space.

I'm really not sure where some of the other people replying to your comment are coming from. Forcing every human and animal you come across to listen to what you're listening to is selfish. Full stop. And not doing it costs $0, which preempts any question of resources.

Those desperate people are who most need help. Maybe improving the quality of life in "slums" is where the hacking should take place. But those improvements typically leads to gentrification and higher average rents.

Is there a way to hack governmental reform? Maybe an organization that hires lawyers to find weak zoning laws in jurisdictions where a challenge is likely to succeed, and then tests those laws in court? (Now I've reinvented a thinktank.)

I've posted this thought a few times in different ways, but in my experience, community is found and then built.

Regularly sharing space with others is the way to start finding community. I think your surveying is an example of that. The next step is when the interactions begin taking place outside of the regular time/place, as evidenced by your epilogue.

What I haven't posted before is anything about how to successfully create those connections. Maybe we get lucky and someone will share our taste in music or movies or what have you, and the connection will be almost effortless. But to increase the rate of connection, I've found that learning to ask good questions is key.

We can learn a lot from popular interviewers like Terry Gross, Johnny Carson, or James Lipton. But to provide some direct tips: Lead with open-ended questions (i.e. not "yes or no"). Ask follow-up questions. Share a little bit while asking questions (e.g. "I'm not really into X music, more Y. Where would I start if I wanted to listen to X?")

Of course, sometimes friendships just aren't meant to be. It's tough, and can feel like a waste of time to have made the connection, but I've been surprised multiple times when a conversation that seemed like a slog of a one-off led to fruitful friendships later.

Trailer parks have prefabricated housing rather than true trailers. These prefabs can technically be moved, but not easily or cheaply, essentially tying them to the lot. RVs can be moved easily and cheaply.

So no, this is not exactly a trailer park because it separates housing from the real estate.

I'm not pitching the RV Parking Garage concept as an ideal or even plausible solution, but as an example of a way to disrupt the housing market in developed metros.

My goal is to hear some other ideas to decrease average rents while requiring little to no government/regulatory involvement.

Given this is Hacker News, is there any way to "hack" the housing market to reduce costs?

Every hurdle I see seems to come back to a policy or regulatory issue. Whether it's increasing housing density, utilizing vacant spaces, or increasing transit to existing cultural/economic centers, the answer somehow requires the government.

It's not something I relish, but as I sit here tonight, I think of the rented RVs parked on the overpasses of Los Angeles. Is that model ripe for disruption? Housing not tied to real estate. Could Adam Neumann buy enough chic RVs and parking garages and make a business out of it? I think if you had enough runway, you could get the momentum, and if a city government pitched a fit, you could move out the RVs (and young professionals), and still own the parking garage. Nomadland as a service.

I hope the work of urbanists like Strong Towns makes this a non-issue. But if anyone has any other radical housing ideas that don't involve getting a government on board, I'd love to hear them.

The State Department said[1]: "The State Department will pause immigrant visa processing from 75 countries whose migrants take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates."

Whether or not that's a good/true reason is another discussion.

1: https://x.com/StateDept/status/2011478657680757214

"It's true that many younger buyers just don't have the same taste or sense of style as folks from previous generations. But also, young city-dwelling professionals are less likely to have the room to place a large screen in a dedicated area in their home, a pain point compounded by the fact that TV screen sizes have ballooned over the past decade."

If you find yourself in this position regarding taste or space, I'd encourage you to use a projector.

There is no 50+" black void hanging on your wall, so you don't need to have a nice picture to display instead. Sure, it can be more difficult to watch things during the daylight hours, but that's actually been a positive for me that leads to more intentional consumption.

Replacing my TV with a projector and muting my microwave are two actions that have had an unexpectedly huge impact on my quality of life.

Could someone with more familiarity in reading scientific papers tell me if the paper shows any material difference in the types of Bluetooth headphones tested (in-ear, over-head, neckband)?

It's shown in some of the figures, but all I found in the discussion section was: "Given the thyroid's high sensitivity to radiation, long-term exposure to NIR, especially from Bluetooth headphones worn close to the neck, might intensify the impact on this organ."

I've got a small Bluetooth receiver with a 3.5mm aux port that I'm planning on using with my wired over-head headphones, but my initial plan was mounting the receiver onto the headset itself. Maybe it would be better to keep it further away.

Or perhaps it doesn't really matter and time is the most important factor that I can control for (Figure 7).

Why did you make this? Who is your target market?

This reminds me of "Mag Wealth"[1] from Mag World.

I wonder if there's any effective way to peacefully prevent that concentration in the long run, or if it's something that requires constant vigilance.

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45938427

Corollary: Sufficient inelegance betrays strong ideas.

"Thirty-eight percent of American adults listened to an audiobook in the last year, up from the 35% reported in 2023."[1]

"Roughly one is five American households listened to an audiobook within the last year—23 million households. (Audio Publishers 2001 Consumer Survey)"[2]

"'The best patrons are the best book-buyers. They’re avid readers who use audiobooks to keep up when their eyes are busy,' says Mary Beth Roche, president of the Audio Publishers Association. ('Commuter Consumer,' The Washington Post, April 24, 2005)"[2]

Households and adults aren't exactly comparable, but it's a start. That last quote supports my personal, anecdotal findings that most audiobook listeners also read books.

1: https://www.edisonresearch.com/audiobook-revenue-and-the-num...

2: https://web.archive.org/web/20101119164743/http://audiopub.o...

Coffee shops are definitely tougher than bars. I've made friends with baristas in one of three ways: The shop wasn't busy and they had time to chat (these shops don't usually last long), I recognize them outside of the coffee shop and get to say hello, or I worked at the coffee shop with them.

I wonder if Yemeni cafes would be a bit more bar-like in terms of socializing. They're usually open until midnight or later, but I think it'll be a while before they come to where I am in Iowa.

As for the pinball evangelism: I think it's because pinball is a great shortcut for making friends for introverts. The level of structure, competition, socialization, and just about everything else about it can be dialed in to each individual's liking.

That's a fascinating concept[1] that I hadn't encountered before.

What do you think the implications are regarding this post?

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-context_and_low-context_c...

From my experience, here's the general lowest-effort way to find community:

Make a list of public places that you like (bars, coffee shops, game shops, etc.) and go to them at the same time on the same day every week. You'll shortly start seeing the same people regularly, even if it's just the staff.

Then you can greet those people, introduce yourself, and talk with them. By asking questions about their day, their plans, and sharing the same about yourself, you'll open the door to expanding your social life outside of those locations, hours, and people.

Community doesn't need to be a series of planned events and invitations. It can be implicit and organic just by virtue of regularly sharing space.

Personal anecdote:

I do this with pinball. Sure, it's often in bars, but it's a great way to be at a bar without having to drink. Pinball players are happy to talk about pinball (or anything really), it provides an instant topic of conversation, and it's easy to invite another player to a game because it's such a short commitment. And if no one's around that you want to talk to, or you don't feel like focusing on socializing, you can just play the game while still maintaining your regular schedule.

If you want to try following in my exact footsteps, you can use Pinball Map[1] to find locations near you. Good luck!

1: https://pinballmap.com/map

The "trend" is a reference to the sentences preceding what I quoted, in which Xi Jinping celebrates the continued integration of Hong Kong and Macau.

"Not long ago, I attended the opening ceremony of the National Games, and I was glad to see Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao coming together in unity and acting in unison. We should unswervingly implement the policy of One Country, Two Systems, and support Hong Kong and Macao in better integrating into the overall development of our country and maintaining long-term prosperity and stability. We Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a bond of blood and kinship. The reunification of our motherland, a trend of the times, is unstoppable!"

Given the unrest and bad optics from Hong Kong, which was a gradual, negotiated transfer of power to China, I'm hoping that the threat of invasion remains just a threat. Soft power takes longer and is more easily contested. I think 2026 will determine if America's step back is a blip or the start of a trend. I wouldn't be surprised if China and other countries are waiting to determine the same.

Here's the full English text of Xi Jinping's speech: https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202512/31/WS69550b6ba310d686...

There's one mention of Taiwan, in the eigth paragraph (of twelve).

"We Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a bond of blood and kinship. The reunification of our motherland, a trend of the times, is unstoppable!"

I support an independent Taiwan, and given China's recent military exercises that encircled Taiwan, everyone's right to be cagey, but the speech itself doesn't focus on Taiwan, nor does it seem to escalate China's rhetoric.

To be fair, the Guardian article does provide the context of the military exercises, so I guess I'm complaining about the headline being overly alarming. A first in journalism, I'm sure /s.

And if we built more housing units in the Bay Area (increased supply), do you think that would make speculative investors' housing units increase or decrease in value?

I'd venture a guess that a lot of the examples were part of the Works Progress Administration[1], which employed laborers, craftsmen, engineers, artists, and more as a response to the Great Depression. While it ended during World War II, the humans that worked in it would have continued in the labor force.

There's also the improvements in building techniques like curtain walls in commercial buildings, and truss connector plates and aluminum/vinyl siding in residential allowed for laborers to replace craftsmen like masons and carpenters. While you'd think that would free up more money for beautification, the economic preference for many individual shareholders and taxpayers doesn't seem to support that.

Add in car-centric development and the advent of television, the internet, and smartphones, and what's the point of making things beautiful anymore? You won't appreciate the finials on a lamppost from the inside of your car, and if the world is ugly, you can look at your phone.

But it's not fully explained by the unwillingness to spend money either. I think the postmodern movement's impact on public beautification turned a lot of people off the idea. Eschewing traditional beauty is fine for museums and galleries, but there are a lot of murals out there that ruined perfectly good walls. Chicago's Cloud Gate, Philadelphia's LOVE Park, Minneapolis's Spoonbridge and Cherry, and I'm sure a large number of other instances of public art since the postmodern era can be fun, visually striking, and iconic. But I'd hesitate to call them beautiful from an aesthetic standpoint, especially when compared to their cities' existing monuments and statues. However, that's a matter of taste. And as we've grown more divided almost all matters of life, both literally and figuratively, even if we all agreed to spend $X on public beautification, I doubt we'd be able to meaningfully agree on what's beautiful.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration

There are 164,121 vacant housing units in the Bay Area[1].

While that's only ~6% of total housing units, it's still a lot of opportunity for both squatters and these businesses.

Generally though, this situation only feels possible due to compounding systemic failures. In some order: Not building enough housing, income inequality, homeless support, and law enforcement (or lack thereof).

Fixing problems further up the chain solves the problems further down, but is more difficult and probably creates other unintended consequences.

1: https://census.bayareametro.gov/housing-units?year=2020

I think the library system does a good job of that. For example, here's the WorldCat entry for Thinking in PostScript[1] that shows its 4 editions physically available at 107 libraries. It's also available as an eBook and (since 2024) on Archive.org[2]

Which highlights why Archive.org is so important as an archival and lending library. It's like the idealized version of microfiche. The content of the books have been made so small that not only can they be trivially stored, but beamed to your pocket at any time, almost anywhere in the world.

There are at least ~158 Million books in existence as of 2023[3], and between 2 and 4 million added every year. To ask that each library be an unopinionated store of physical books is too much, and reduces their function to a well-organized warehouse, when the real power of libraries are its librarians. They are research specialists available to anyone and everyone, and well worth a conversation the next time you want to know just about anything.

1: https://search.worldcat.org/title/22114396 2: https://archive.org/details/thinkinginpostsc0000reid 3: https://isbndb.com/blog/how-many-books-are-in-the-world/

Not sure if you've already explored this avenue, but you can usually request media that your library doesn't have through the interlibrary loan[1].

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlibrary_loan

I'm not the person you asked, but I assume their basis is that the majority of the Adult US Population is overweight or obese.[1]

However, we're conflating the related problems of hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition. Food insecurity at its most extreme will result in hunger (a lack of any food), but the affordable food that is available in food deserts (and at food banks) is often ultraprocessed and incompletely nutritious, which can lead to obesity.[2]

Largely, Americans don't seem to be affected by "hunger" as defined by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization[3], but are very affected by malnutrition and food insecurity (as defined by that same body).

1: https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statisti... 2: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9790279/#jhn12994-s... 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunger#Definition_and_related_...

I could see a case for personal de-dollarization in the long term, but based on previous American financial crises, European and Asian markets are also impacted by the downturn. Even the Shanghai Stock Exchange was hit in 2008[1].

Of course, this time could be different. Do you have any speculation as to why it would be?

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Stock_Exchange#Timeli...

I guess my takeaway from this is: Try not to build your life around AI, but there's so much money being pumped into it that your life will be heavily affected by AI succeeding or failing.

What else can individuals do though?

I remember "doomsday prepping" became a cultural phenomenon after the 2008 financial crisis. But if you avoided the stock market and/or taking on debt at historically low interest rates, you missed out on some significant opportunities. Maybe part of that prepping is to reorder your life so that you don't care about stocks or real estate. Maybe the timeframe I'm looking at is too narrow, and history will lump 2008 and any AI crash together.

But maybe AI would be bailed out. I think we're already seeing private industries treat AI the same as their office real estate after COVID, i.e. "We don't need this, but we have it, so we need to use it."

The only call-to-action that Zitron writes in this piece is, "When the collapse happens, do not let a single person that waved off the economics have a moment’s peace." But I think if the collapse occurs as he is proposing, we won't have time to police the boosters' peace.

Does anyone have a more actionable plan for insulating yourself, your family, your community, or society at-large from a potential AI crash?

What alternative powerplant would you recommend that has a shorter breakeven, doesn't consume oil, and is attractive to look at?