SaWaSaurus

'The Art of Seeing' by Aldous Huxley is a short read, good resource. His idea is to reduce habitual habits of seeing which strain the eyes, particularly from reading which he thought damaged eyesight when done improperly. There's an art to using the eyes, according to Huxley. You could also try observational drawing. Avoid reading in dimly lit rooms, and get out into the sun without sunglasses or anything that obscures your eyes from natural daylight.

If like most people you went to a typical transmission learning/testing style school then you've probably developed bad reading habits. You probably find it tedious and boring, a natural consequence of spending 15+ years of your life reading uninteresting shit in order to pass tests. So it's important to read things you find interesting, resulting in enjoyment. You'll still have to go through periods of laboriousness to figure out how to enjoy reading. I'm against the idea that reading is hard work that one must go through in order to obtain some result on the other side. It can be like that, but it doesn't have to be. A lot of other good insights in this thread like ability to consume long-form content - it's an atrophied ability in our modern media environments, even before internet (although exacerbated by internet).

I think this falls under 'personality merchants' and you're correct about it being a gold mine. See the 'react sphere' on youtube and twitch and I'm shocked at some of these people pulling in like 50k/month *just from patreon*, which doesn't include ad revenue, merch, etc.. It's all about having a presentable character and being able to speak in an entertaining manner. The applications for such skills span wide these days.

Twin Peaks is one of a kind. I'm listening to a high level commemorative discussion on Lynch if anyone is interested, it's currently live:

I was reading something relevant the other day. Aldous Huxley developed some condition that diminished his sight, and so he was interested in the training of the senses. Huxley found that training the senses went beyond just seeing better, that there was a total gestalt of mind-body coordination which maximizes things like speaking, memory, thought. He was a contemporary of F.M. Alexander and John Dewey, who both agreed that training the senses was of the highest importance when it comes to education. Huxley saw methods like the tachystoscope as exercises in bypassing the conscious and subconscious processes, which is necessary for optimal performance.

Noriko's Dinner Table (2005) Adaptation (2002) Deathtrap (1982) Angel's Egg (1985) The Hunt (2012) I've been watching a ton of movies lately, these are ones that stood out.

Year 2054, you get home from the office where you've been box-ticking and form filing for the last 8 hours. You put on your metaverse helmet because work is done and it's now leisure time. After indulging in a mixture of puppy videos and rage-bait content, your limbic system is primed. As you continue scrolling, an ad appears. Emotional music starts playing, and you see someone you haven't seen in years. It's your dead father, visibly manifest and speaking, as if he were right there in front of you, alive. He's here on behalf of the political party to ensure you make the right choice in the upcoming election. The satirists laugh while the angels weep. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The ability to create synthetic people opens up a big can of worms. It will become a powerful tool for propaganda. In 1964, a primitive psychotherapy algorithm called 'ELIZA' was created Joseph Weizenbaum at MIT. It would output simple answers to questions by says things like, "What is the connection there?", or "Can you explain why you're unhappy?". Some of the users would ask Weizenbaum if he could leave the room when asking the computer questions. Weizenbaum noticed something odd about that, and realized that these people were anthropomorphizing the computer program. This was alarming to Weizenbaum, but when he discussed it with his colleagues, they said it's great news, and that maybe in the future they could use these machines for therapy. Weizenbaum realized something else. While perhaps the machine could be used beneficially for therapy, it could also be a powerful tool for propaganda. LLM chatbots, by design, use language that mimics the way humans talk. Combine this with deepfake technology, deepfake voice, and we're opening ourselves up to overwhelmingly powerful tools, and the consequence of those tools being used for self-interest and propaganda.

The attention economy. A good way to exploit that economy is: divisiveness and sensationalism. (Historically), two things will happen during times of war or great conflict: suicide rates plummet, and newspaper sales surge. People get invested in crisis. The modern day media runs on stoking the fires of any crisis. They'll invent a crisis if they need to. "What changed in the 2010s was not so much the arrival of new technology as the rapid evolution of a business model, the monetisation of attention. This wasn’t a recent invention; indeed, it dated back to the “yellow journalism” of the 19th century, which used sensationalist stories and cheap cover prices to build big audiences that advertisers would pay to reach. But ubiquitous high-speed mobile internet has sent the attention economy into hyperdrive, plunging us into an online world structured to prioritise not the truth, or what matters most, but whatever’s most compelling, which often means whatever makes us angriest."

>psycho-thriller movies with tense atmosphere and lots of symbolism David Lynch Blue Velvet Twin Peaks (3-cour show plus a movie) Satoshi Kon (anime) Perfect Blue Paranoia Agent (1-cour show) Paprika

"But of course if you're sufficiently steeped in the tripe and hogwash dished out by the molders of public opinion, you'll tend automatically to pollute your impressions at the source; you'll re-create the world in the image of your own notions— and of course your own notions are everybody else's notions; so the world you live in will consist of the Lowest Common Denominators of the local culture. But the original poetry is always there— always," he insisted.

So funny seeing this posted here when it's such an obscure thing. I loved this image too. I came across this image 6 months ago from this (https://www.youtube.com/@sun-ship) youtube channel before she changed her avatar.

Speaking about Adderall: It can easily become a crutch. I wouldn't say don't try it out, but just because it's prescribed by doctors doesn't mean shit. It's still bad for your cardiovascular system. I don't think you actually perform better when on it (if that's why you'd be using it), but people sometimes think they perform better... but I think people confuse better performance with the dopamine they're getting from the drug. It's good for productivity if you're doing a bulk load of monotonous tasks. If that's what you need it for (like studying), then take it knowing the true risk for addiction/crutch.

I think I have this... but it's such a non-factor in my life that I didn't even notice it until reading this thread (I'd notice it at different points in life). So perhaps mine is quiet, but I only notice it when I want to.

Start tracking your spending if you aren't already. Assuming you keep your money in the bank, your online banking app should have tools for this. Otherwise there are tools outside your banking app that can assist you with keeping track and organizing your spending. Look at areas you can save. Some examples... Learn to cook for yourself. This includes learn to shop for food, which is majorly underestimated when it comes to savings. Figure out which stores have your desired balance of price, quality, and selection. This is going to be dependent on what's available in your area. Use a credit card, but avoid debt at all costs. We live in a debtor economy - most people can't afford their monthly expenses so we use credit (borrowing money, typically from a bank). With credit cards, you're loaned however much you want to spend per month within the limits of your card. At the end of that month, you pay off your credit card bill. If you can't pay it off, you can pay it back later, but with interest. It should be obvious then - always pay off your credit card bills if you can afford to. Owning a credit card has other benefits too - rewards programs like flyer miles, and credit score. Your credit score is your profile as a debtor. If you are often late on payments, are a victim of identity theft, or have filed for bankruptcy, this can harm your credit score. A bad credit score can make it difficult to secure loans for major purchases like homes and cars. It can also make it harder to find an apartment. Debt is sometimes necessary for big purchases, but otherwise avoid it. Research your purchases, don't make frivolous purchases. Our culture is one of mass consumption. People buy way too much shit they don't need with money they don't have. Ask yourself how much, realistically, am I going to benefit from buying this thing. How much will I actually need or use it? Buying things can be fun but it's a cheap thrill. Break this habit if you have it. Shop around for insurance and other large purchases. Personal antidote - last year I re-shopped my insurance and found I qualified for a low-mileage car insurance program offered in my state. That cut my insurance from ~$1200/year to ~$550/year, quite a difference. Plan for the future. Aim for stability first, but once you're stable you should ask yourself what kind of life you want to live financially, and how does that dovetail with the kind of life you want to live inter-personally and spiritually. If you're at a stable point in life but want to earn more then you need a plan. Typically that's going to look like some sort of learned skill/degree that gets you into a field with higher pay. You could also find a company that has potential for vertical movement up the corporate ladder. Good luck.

https://www.youtube.com/@Footnotes2Plato/videos I like this guy. One of the few modern philosophers who focuses on Alfred North Whitehead, which comes in handy since reading Whitehead can feel like learning a new language.