third_I

Yes, I was in fact 19. Oh my :) Edited.

I'm gonna speak purely anecdotally, and this is personal opinion.

I was born in 82 in France, was 19 on 9/11/2001.

It definitely shaped my psyche and world view. You just don't grow up as naively when you know 9/11 is an option (the end result, however we got there).

I realized last Sept (19) as I visited the Memorial in NYC for the first time that this had had a long, lasting effect on me. I sobbed in the room where you listen to a flight attendant's last call to her husband. Upon exit I saluted the security guard with deep gratitude. We exchanged a timid smile from the eyes. It felt right.

The shitshow that occurred in the US in the years following 9/11 (Patriot Act, Iraq conspiracy to bring in my country to war, Obama spying on Merkel and Hollande and condoning PRISM, etc) made me realize, with profound disappointment, how idealistic and naive I had been about the USA, as if their recent suffering made them somehow impervious to be becoming hostile. I now realize how ridiculous my optimism had been, and the truth is I have countless examples right here at home in history and reality.

The fact is we get over something like 9/11, we move on, but sometimes we're reminded that this shaped us deeply.

I believe COVID will have bigger and more lasting effects on youth, it's just so much bigger and longer. I hope it will help produce the bigger kind of changes that make history move forward.

> You probably couldn't design a situation in a lab that would screw over the poor more than COVID-19.

This is very true in the US and most countries around the world. If I were poor and I could choose where, I'd certainly prefer to be poor in Western Europe where at least it's not a death sentence thanks to free healthcare and a minimum socio-economic net (it's not perfect, far from it, but if I had to choose... better than the USA certainly under COVID, and that would probably remain true whoever the president is given the lasting social security structure).

I feel grateful, in a way, that we're taking care of poor people. I know many rich entrepreneurs today in Europe who, at some point in their life, were poor AF and may have died if it weren't for all the social nets, they might have never become who they are today. Some of them employ 100+ people, others have contributed massively to funding education (lifelong notably, for adults too).

This tangent to say: it's worse for the poor and probably always will be, but that's also how some eventually create value beyond mere wealth. The "trick" is to avoid death, whether social or clinical, when people are drowning. In that regard, most rich countries do worse today than 50 years ago (chances for children to do a better job than their parents), and that's deeply, deeply worrying because it's the very fuel of our current wealth and domination over existence (how modern civilizations are so much better at surviving, at thriving, thanks to science, tech, political stability, etc.)

Food for thought, and room for improvement, which I'm sure those most shocked by COVID will have no choice but to care about. They will have seen the fall, so they are uniquely qualified to build the next new rise.

Edit: math...

Hi team!

Is there a way AMP could have an opt-out option? (maybe a permanent setting, maybe a per-search trigger) Ideally at user discretion, but I suppose it must be enabled by the first-party content provider (the website).

That would make everyone happier I think. I don't mind AMP some of the time, but sometimes it's undesirable for security concerns notably.

I concur. Dual Xeon E5-2687W here (2×8 pcores, Sandy Bridge). Turbo 3.8 GHz to 3.4 all cores. [Ebay: ~$300 each, mid 2016]

It's still more expensive to buy a brand new Threadripper or 16-core Intel (sic) than this bargain I made some 4 years ago.

I will probably get a Zen 3 platform, once each CCX contains 8 cores (4 is just too limited for my virtualization need, I kinda like that my Xeons are "monolithic").

Obviously this is for programming and shit learning, not gaming, but I can still manage my 60 fps stat with a beefy GPU.

And then came undisclosed sponsorship and that difference blurred more than ever...

That's a very good question. I used to be you. As I said above, my 'secret' was to dissociate 'me' (the body, with an inner child inside) from 'my thinking brain', the overarching parent/boss up there who makes decisions.

So parent takes care of the child and is able to say "nope, don't do that". Developing this approach is what made me an adult I think (I was in my 30s already, it didn't come naturally to me).

A great trick was audiobooks. You just listen and that wakes the brain up, but a book is really, really so much better than random posts. 30 minutes as you wake up, then get up, have breakfast etc. is sure mind opener.

It becomes a habit, maybe a need even, but it's a good need. Books and exercises is the winning combination for success and happiness (seriously, just these two things put you in the top 5%, or so I hear).

Places like librivox have tons of free content. A well thought-out podcast is good too I think (long-form content). It's the idea of a passive but mind-opening activity.

Then when I'm working during the day I put the phone away silent for ~30 minutes, then take a break and chill for 5-10 minutes, then back at it, rinse and repeat. That's what got me off the dopamine hook I think.

> even seeing the app icons for notifications on my lock screen can lead me down a nonstop work path

I totally know the feeling! I think it's really biological, low-level:

- dopamine! It's like a shot, the brain gets triggered.

- familiarity: "feels like home", habits take us to our comfort zone.

> you end up in you PJ's at 11h30 with zero caffeine in you and a feeling of a day already passed.

Haha, yeah... I've been there so often in my teens / twenties.

I think it was self-love + discipline that let me exit that loop. Treating myself like a (inner) child and their parent all-in-one person: forces one to think about well-being first, it gives a feeling it's the "right thing to do" to let yourself chill and avoid that kind of time vortex.

That doesn't count IMHO, it's just a couple taps most likely, you're not engaging with the device (it's merely an overkill alarm clock at that point).

;)

The idea is nice, great even, but...

No but seriously.

Who, in 2020, grabs their phone first thing before hitting a drink, or bathroom, or wash your face or whatever you do when you wake up?

I (37M) find it weird. In 2010, sure, it was all new and I was younger maybe. Nowadays I just don't even have to refrain myself, it could be 10, 20 minutes before I look at any screen. It would usually be my laptop actually.

Am I the exception? I'd think a technologically mature crowd to be much less... dependent, less hooked to their phone. I would think of this being an actual challenge for the mainstream Facebooking / Instagramming / Twittering, but not people like us...

[work notwithstanding, evidently, sometimes we need to grab the phone but that's irrelevant to my observations]

Ah, don't get me started on Stoicism. It changed my life. Helped me "self-cure" a long nasty trend of seasonal depressions. It's nothing short of a superpower to me, a magical skill. I never even dreamed of having such control over myself. And yet, happiness, here we are.

I tend to spend more time than usual thinking about current events, obviously, but mostly to anticipate, prepare myself, navigate the chaos (should I say 'thrive' even? Yes, I should, and I do).

But indeed, with a cold stare.

Plans are useless, but planning...

Ha, interesting!... We have several common answers.

I might have put Bolsonaro's Brazil in there, along with a strong authoritarian turn (but the lure of wealth is a strong populist stance, especially if you can deliver soon(tm), and China would have huge freed capacity to intake massive partners (factories etc) once the West is gone).

It's striking to me that many could choose China not for China but rather against the US. They say "the devil you know..." but I wonder, if said devil scares the hell out of you, you might just try your luck with another one. (case for Africa notably)

See why I fear blocks... Could devolve into a cold-WWI way too soon way too fast. And from there... ah, better not think ahead too soon.

If US/EU were to tell the rest of the world, in a typical WWI or Cold War "blocks" style fashion, “you're either with us or with China, i.e. against us!”, how many do you think would choose China?

I mean, the West + JP + Oz + etc. is so much bigger than China alone, and the deceitful / lying / financially predatory nature of that country alone is a big deterrent... Not that Europe was better a century ago, or the US as we speak, but...

That's my big fear, tbh. Blocks. Major blocks. If there is too much symmetry in power, it could have dire consequences.

Edit: not "an instant", I said 10 years at least (that's how long it takes to setup a whole new major factory + logistics flow afaik).

Indeed, interesting times. I never thought it'd go this fast this soon tbh. COVID-19 really is provoking a major shift, I think, resurfacing much deeper tensions, much wider than a 'mere' pandemic.

Hey, maybe you're right. I don't care that they care to be honest, I mostly care about our future for now.

But you ask "why should they care?"

Well, I profoundly believe (stressing: belief, no crystal ball here) that no, they won't be able to just shrug it off, they stand to lose a pretty f-ing lot, and it has begun.

Ultimately damaging, delaying or even killing the "Belt and Road" project. That's Xi Jinping's #1 thing, by far the biggest international move they were actively executing, and it will certainly hurt if they lose it (I think the correct phrasing is "now that they've lost it", but let's be conservative here, time will tell).

I think the massive drop in foreign investment, combined with sanctions (or worse) may be huge enough to send them into a depth of economic crisis they hadn't experienced in decades (if only because it takes time to re-profile an economy this vast. A decade or more. They've quite possibly 'doomed' the growth of an entire generation).

We could right now be witnessing China's failure to actually reach #1 GDP (at all, or sustainably beyond momentum). This could be the turning point that cements the USA as #1 for another 1-2 decades.[1]

Considering a big part of Chinese population support for the CPC's is based on the premise of economic growth and ever-higher living standards (that's why they shut up and don't ask for more freedoms or political rights, afaik, because they are content to just see their income rising crazy fast), I don't know what this means for the stability of the CPC there (but surely, 10-20 years of recession is a major, fundamental risk to the very existence of, or compliance to, such an oligarchic model).

But yeah, you may be right. We'll just have to agree to disagree on forecasts for now, which should be easy since none of us predicts the future. And my convictions are, again, strong, but loosely held. We need more data (notably, origin of the virus, cause of the spread, etc).

____

[1]: Assuming the USA doesn't worsen their situation too, which seems, ahem... increasingly less likely as we speak, given the abysmal leadership (I don't know how many deaths from COVID it takes to put this country to its knees, but it sure looks like it's trying hard to get there... so weird).

Not to mention the growing hostility towards all foreign powers almost irregardless of their 'allied' status (as if decades of shared history and partnership suddenly meant nothing anymore...)

This to mean rules apply to all, not just China, and everybody might do well to humbly heed that memo. Including national governments in their handling of the situation.

I didn't want to mix topics, but if you're gonna go there...

As a European, I wholeheartedly agree.

It's not a new sentiment either. The US has grown increasingly hostile towards the world since the turn of the century, Bush Jr.

Needless to say, 45 made things way, way worse, but the US made that choice and is poised to double down come November, despite the criticality of current events. The why and how does not matter to the outside. Dems/GOP blablabla, corruption blablabla, Biden blablabla, Hillary blablabla... who cares? Get your shit together!

It's worrying (at an all-time high as we speak) for foreign states and companies. For many around the world, being too tied to the US has become a liability indeed, adding too much uncertainty (risk) to their bottom line or stability. This is no more acceptable than China's lies and deceit. Humbling reminder that hostility is not without consequence, and pretty much always results in lose-lose outcomes.

Losing the US as a dependable, reliable world leader has been the most tragic loss of this century, in my opinion.