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Clay Shirky On Hackers and Depression: Where's the Love?
giminy writes "Clay Shirky has a thought-provoking piece on depression in the hacker community. While hackers tend to be great at internet collaboration on software projects, we often fall short when it comes to helping each other with personal problems. The evidence is only anecdotal, but there seems to be a higher than average incidence of mental health issues among hackers and internet freedom fighters. It would be great to see this addressed by our community through some outreach and awareness programs."
It would be great to see this addressed by our community through some outreach and awareness programs.
I assume these programs would be released under the GPL, or some other open-source license?
Take these SmaxoGlythKlein brand pills so you are more normal. You want to be normal, right?
Who is this guy, and why does his opinion matter?
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
So cute when people get full of themselves and take on a title like that. Sometimes the depression is when that lofty self-perception is a kite that gets snagged in one of the trees of reality.
I suspect it's also that a lot of us became computer types after neglecting human ties to some degree, and once we get old enough we either come back and learn to deal with people, or we become increasingly lonely and unbalanced as we age. Sometimes both.
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
but when I take over the world, you will all be batteries for war machine... just saying...
I'm not signing anything
Most activist communities have a higher than normal incidence of mental health issues. Personality disorders, paranoia, anger management issues, I've seen a lot of them in various political activist groups.
Why can't I mod "-1 Idiot"?
Great idea! Let's have some entity set up a helpline for hackers and internet freedom fighters, complete with a call center. Since there are mandatory record-keeping laws, they can also keep track of who they are talking to, what phone number they are using, and details about the call. Nothing in there would be ripe for governmental abuse. Who cares about subpoena's and government fishing expeditions?
sudo make me a sandwich
Post anything regarding how you feel on almost anyplace on the internet, and all you'll get in return is mocking and derision.
>> It would be great to see this addressed by our community through some outreach and awareness programs.
OK, who let the social worker on Slashdot? Seriously, when has "outreach" or "awareness" ever solved anything? (Urban violence? Drug use? What?)
I believe that was Steven Wright, but whoever said it was correct
I wonder if we get so focused on the technology side of our world that we forget that this work (programming, architecting systens, etc) has a significant creative side and as such the problems that often plague other creative groups. The anguish and troubles of writers, painters, etc are well documented and seemingly (to me anyway) an accepted part of embracing their work. I know that in my own case letting on that I am anything less than 'normal' has been a scary proposition because of the threat of not only being seen as less than capable but also a direct threat to my livelyhood. After all, software people are nearly interchangeable, right?
And Clay's advice near the end (you did read that far, right?) is dead on. We're a group who likes to fix things. We are not trained to fix this. The best we can do is aim someone we are concerned about in the right direction.
dt
While the evidence he discusses may be only anecdotal, the conclusion he reaches is logical.
There are certain lifestyle and behavioural patterns common among hackers which do leave us prone to depression and other mental health issues. We do tend to spend much of our time alone, engaged in solitary and sedentary pursuits of the mind which - while we may find incredibly rewarding and cool - those around us in meat-space just don't understand.
Now add in the consideration that we tend to find ourselves on the metaphorical wild frontier of the technological world we inhabit. In a place where we are carving out the basis for the new and interesting but always having to look over our shoulders in fear that some technologically inept idiot with a bunch of lawyers with come along and either crush what we have built or steal it from us.
Added to this we, due to our lifestyles, often lack the aspects of life which are typically used to de-stress and prevent depression: good diet to provide the required thinking fuel (no, caffeine and sugar aren't enough), exercise for endorphins to let us forget the shit of the world for a bit and physically present people for company so we can put things in perspective.
Finally, consider that we have both good reason to be down about things and due to our lifestyles tend to lack the things which help prevent depression... yeah, it's not a surprising conclusion.
So, what can we all do about it?
AKA, there is no evidence. (There is such a thing as anecdotal evidence, but I don't see any in this case.)
The news is biased. A high profile hacker commits suicide. How many hackers didn't commit suicide that day? That doesn't get covered.
We're also biased for our group. It's like how you buy a car, and suddenly that model of car is everywhere. Those cars were there before, you just didn't notice them because they weren't your car. You noticed the story about the hacker committing suicide, but do you remember the other high profile suicide reported that day? The one from the community you don't associate yourself with? Of course not.
We could just as easily talk about the connection between (American) football and depression and suicide. We could discuss whether the recent high profile suicides are related to head trauma and brain injuries, or the transition from being part of a team to being alone in retirement, or any number of other factors.
Except retired football players have a lower rates of suicide than the general population. So whatever factors played a part in those few high profile cases, the evidence doesn't support the idea that this is a high risk group.
It's good if the community can become tighter and help each other out, but that's true of any community. The summary and phrases like "internet freedom fighters" make me think of precious little snowflakes battling the tyranny of society from their parents' basement.
Critical thinking is part of the problem. If you've trained your mind to see the world as it actually is, then you're less likely to have comfortable illusions to fall back on. And because other people don't like having their illusions questioned, you don't have much of a social network to fall back on either.
And then when you look for help, you find that psychiatry is bullshit just like everything else. SSRI's don't actually work except for the most severely depressed. And therapy... well when your problem is that you see the world accurately, what exactly is therapy going to do?
Even if you could stop thinking critically, is that an ethical thing to do? Most of the world's problems are due to not enough critical thinking, so if you have that skill and don't use it, you're deliberately becoming part of the problem.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
When I first read this post I thought " yes, but what can be done?". I've been a programmer for 13 years. Socially maladjusted people are all over the industry. You can't force people to take a look at themselves and go get help.
However, there is the power of the example. Look how many IT types went from being obese to slim with John Walkers "The Hacker's Diet".
What is needed for high profile ubergeeks to publish their own accounts cleaning up their mental health and perhaps providing a geeky way, a "Hacker's Diet" for mental health and social skills ( beyond the ground covered by the PUA community ).
I'm sure there are at least a few ubergeeks who had mental health issues, social adjustment issues and who overcame them. It is time to publish.
One of the things I've noticed in the 'professional developer' community is that there is a bit of Jock Culture going on.
First of all, you have a business environment that tends to favor younger, fresher talent and puts a LOT of pressure on aging developers to keep up with their younger peers, many of whom are capable of (in the very, very short run) unhealthy work practices. 80 hour work weeks and back-to-back all-nighters are doable when you're 22 years old. They're fucking painful at 30, and ruinous by 35.
And it's hard to say 'No' to them because we've just come out of a nasty recession when upper management is all too eager to lay you off in favor of younger developers eager to prove themselves.
That shit WILL give you depression, anxiety, and insomnia, and all of those kill.
Second, again with the Jock Culture, developer culture tends to be dominated by hot-headed males, many of whom are eager to replicate locker-room style pecking orders in the cube farms... and that crap just doesn't work when you're developing software.
(Ex-military guys? I'm looking at you here. I've seen you do this shit. Stop it.)
Sadly, those pecking orders are often directly related to pay. The guy who manages to wedge his way into the 'Project Lead' or 'Senior Developer' slot tends to have a few more dollars attached to them. Again, the pressure results in depression, anxiety, and insomnia which are proven killers.
Shirkey's piece spends a lot of time talking about Aaron Swartz, but Aaron was a unique case of being uniquely and unfairly persecuted by multiple 800 pound gorillas. His depression and suicide *should* have been as fucking obvious to anyone who knew him as an 18 wheeler rolling the wrong way down the freeway.
The answer to these issues is, perhaps a shade ironically, the same answer we should be looking at in regards to our sudden flareup of chronic school shooting disease:
Mental Healthcare needs to be made a priority in this nation. We need to destigmatize ADMITTING mental health issues and seeking treatment for them. Also, we need to completely ditch the notion that drugs used for treatment of mental health problems cause more harm that good.
Seriously, guys, when you're having daily panic attacks, when sleep won't come for days at a time, when the world starts showing up in black and white and more black than white... it's time to talk to a doctor. And if your doctor won't help, ditch him and find a doctor who will.
Apropos captcha: Biopsy
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
I don't know about the basement dwellers but I need some Vitamin D3 supplementation at least in winter or I get the blues and the flu.
So maybe we should feed the trolls some D3 for a change.
And before I forget, it maybe the only real cancer prevention that science knows about and this stuff is cheap - http://www.grassrootshealth.org/_download/scientists'%20letter%20050508.pdf
Hey, doesn't sound like a bad idea to me. It would probably be 90% men signed up tho!
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
It's amazing how backward DSM-IV (and -5) can be in considering human behavior. Psychology gives lip service to evolution, then ignores it in determining the grounds for "mental illness."
Let's consider kleptomania. Stealing is a behavior that is rewarded by evolution, and is a cross-species phenomena. The theft of resources is hardly an oddity in a few species like the cuckoo, but is a subset of general parasitic relationships, all of which are hard-wired into our biology. There is an endorphin rush from stealing, and the perpetrator receives an opioid high as a reward in addition to the object of the theft.
Kleptomania is reduced to an illness in mental health, with no particular understanding of its origins. Obviously, we as a species would not exist were it not for the many evolutionary behaviors, including this one, that allowed us to survive. In a supreme gesture of arrogance, an overstatement of an evolutionary imperative becomes a sickness. We do not understand who we are.
The same goes for all the endorphin/opioid compulsive behaviors, including alcohol/substance abuse, compulsive gambling, likely pyromania, and even binge eating (all treatable with the naltrexone family). The quackery of this profession is staggering.
The U.S. has around 30,000 suicides per year, yet there is no thorough study of lithium in an attempt to curb this number (instead we prefer to solve the problem with gun control). Depression is common for these people, yet no studies of the ingestion of tryptophan with niacin to increase serotonin production exist. We don't even understand how basic diet can help these people.
We don't care about those who are dying, only about labeling and profiting. We have the mental health profession that we deserve.
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Comment removed based on user account deletion
I second this. It's easy to isolate yourself as an IT guy. I went through a work-at-home period where I felt gloomy all the time. It took me a while to realize that isolation can lead to a feedback loop where you're gloomy and don't feel like being social; making your more gloomy. Working at home might be a utopia for some people, but I hated it.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Furries are the greatest concentration of drama on the internet.
I can say that. See the name? I am one.
... is increasingly used as a catch all term for people who don't fit into the social order and won't be good little obedient workers who obey the corporate line, the lack of autonomy and the shitty pay/jobs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q
If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, consider increasing your intake of lithium, which is available over-the-counter. Statistics from Japan seem to indicate that it is effective. How much should you take? Unknown. Good luck.
If you are depressed, consider increasing your intake of tryptophan, along with niacin, to increase your production of serotonin. I've also heard that saffron and tea have some impact. Your diet in general should be carefully researched.
If you think that you drink too much alcohol, you abuse drugs, you gamble too much, or you steal without reason, ask your doctor for a prescription for naltrexone to quell your opioid receptors. Your physician should make this medication available to you with few restrictions after reading the relevant literature (the book by Eskapa lays out how to obtain and use it).
This is the best advice that I have. I wish that there was more, and it was better.
Damn right :-(
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
One of the primary facets of my personality that I have noticed in my thirty-five years of life is that left to its own devices, my mind is very problem focused. It makes me a great IT resource because I am constantly aware of the short comings of the systems, the holes in the programs, the potential for failure. I make a very good living by proactively addressing the problems that I see. Before that, I made a decent living by being very good at troubleshooting.
As much of an asset as that mindset is in my career, it is a hindrance in my personal relationships. Very few people enjoy spending time with someone who is frequently focused on what is wrong with the world. It also carries over into my work relationships. As good as I may be at my job, there is a significant amount of risk of being the guy who is often in the position to say "I told you so." Nobody really likes that guy, no matter how right I might be.
One of the biggest helps for me has been Neuro Linguistic Programming. It is like an instruction manual for the mind. That, combined with some good philosophy (primarily Taoist and Buddhist), have given me the tools to find ways to be positive. I did not start figuring these things out until my mid twenties though, and I still work on them daily.
For the younger guys, the teenagers and the college kids who are multiple times more intelligent that I am, I can imagine the despair and hopelessness they might feel at times. I remember how much 9/11 bothered me, and all of the unanswered questions. I remember before that, 2600 meetings and Defcon and being really interested in computer security, then realizing how much society hates and fears people who "speak truth to power" by pointing out problems with the systems. I spent some time being disillusioned by the political process here in America.
My "solution" was to tune it out, and to focus on myself, my friends, family and loved ones. We all only have one life, and changing things like a political system or any major organization is often more than a single person can handle. We can make our own lives better though. We can improve our health, both physical and mental, and by doing that become an example to others who might be inclined to do the same. We can mentor others, both at work and in our personal lives.
The highly intelligent have the "curse" of often times being unable to let things go. Most of us have probably dealt with it at one time or another. Maybe it was a problem at work that we kept thinking about long after coming home. Maybe it was a conversation that we had with someone that did not go as we would have liked it to, and so we play over thousands of different variations in our head. When that mindset, that inability to let things go, gets wrapped up in some of the massive challenges that face our generation.... climate change, loss of civil liberties, economic collapse, 10+ years in Federal prison for publishing some free works... it can be overwhelming. It can be overwhelming because there is not an obvious way to change things. The deck is so stacked. There are so many interests vested in the current system and actively opposed to anyone trying to change it. When those forces collide with a "hacker mentality" and someone who "needs" to be in control of their own future and their environment, I can see how suicide happens.
It's just no covered by the mental health systems in most place, predominantly due to mandatory treatment being outlawed as a violation of civil rights.
When you hold someone involuntarily, it's limited to a 72 hour hold, and it take an extreme act by the person for that yo last beyond 72 hours - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5150_(Involuntary_psychiatric_hold) . The typical reaction is treat-and-turf (get them back on their medication in the 72 hour window, then throw them out), or worst case, extended to a 5250: a 14 day hold, with the same results, or a T-Con (Temporary Conservatorship or 5270, which is a 30 day hold), also with the same results. If that doesn't work out for the worst cases, a so-caled permanent conservatorship can be initiate, so called because it constitutes a 1 year hold. Most psychiatric treatment personnel won't ever go that far for fear of a lawsuit.
This originated with a cost reduction measure under Ronald Reagan, then governor of California, signed in 1967 and phasing into full effect in 1972: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanterman–Petris–Short_Act .This successful cost reduction measure was adopted by other states, modeled on the California law, and quickly gained adoption in most Blue states, particularly where there was a high homeless population of mentally ill persons self-medicating with alcohol, marijuana, and other substances, rather than getting real treatment.
In any case, it typically means no treatment for psychiatric disorders.
My mother was a psychiatric social worker in a red state (Weber County Mental Health in Ogden, Utah). It took them a long time to adopt these measures, and they continued to treat patients (they were euphemistically referred to as clients), but they finally did so in the late 1980's and phasing in through the early 1990's. The reason they adopted them was also cost cutting, but it was mostly driven by Colorado convincing their mentally ill persons to accept a one way bus ticket to Utah - which was Colorado addressed the problem.
Ironically, you could call Weber County Mental health, and report a person who was off their medication -- those on Lithium for Schizophrenia frequently decompensated on their medications when diet drinks came out, since Aspartame bonds to N-Dopamine receptors making the treatment less effective, and mentally ill persons frequently have accompanying body image issues which drives them to diet drinks -- and their case worker would show up and talk them in.
I tried this same things with Santa Clara County Mental Health in the last couple of years, and they were totally uninterested in a man outside a subway who was arguing with his voices. No dice. My options, according to the social worker, was to call the cops on the guy -- the last thing someone in that state needs -- and run them through police system to get him a 5150 to get his medication. Santa Clara County absolutely does not care about their mentally ill the way Weber County does.
Although Obama's Affordable Care Act gives better access to treatment options for mentally ill persons: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/06/29/what-the-affordable-care-act-means-to-mental-health/ in actual practice, it's probably not going to matter if these people do not choose to avail themselves of treatment, and without reform of the laws governing mental illness treatment practices, it's most likely to remain a 72 hour hold, stabilization, and throwing them out after they have been on their medication long enough to ave their symptoms temporarily alleviated.
The end result is that it will likely not address the issue, and certainly without forced medication, it won't stop criminal gun violence or suicides, since as soon as they feel better, they're going off their medication again.
if intelligence is the having of facts whereas wisdom is the making of good decisions, it is obvious that one needs facts (accurate ones) in order to make good decisions
In the real world, people make decisions based on whichever facts are convenient for them. That is because it is impossible to know everything. And some sort of selection bias is almost impossible to avoid.
Generally, it is the consequences of decisions that are more important than the reasons for them.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
It is something that happens inside you, and causes you to feel bad. It has nothing to do with injustice, as far as I can tell.
On the other hand, if somebody is depressed already, they may be sensitized to injustice, hopeless quests, etc.
Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company -- Mark Twain
Cod Liver oil, a multivitamin tab, B complex, and Piracetam + lots of water
That combo has changed my life.
Moe
SARAVA!
I used to believe stuff like that about vitamin D and minimal sun exposure of hands in the winter, which I was taught in grade school. It turns out to be wrong. You may want to do some more research on this topic before making such confident (and incorrect) pronouncements on this topic in the future. See for example: http://gizmodo.com/5823058/tanning-can-cause-cancer-but-not-tanning-could-cause-a-lot-worse
Or from:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2839537
"Sunlight has long been recognized as a major provider of vitamin D for humans; radiation in the UVB (290-315 nm) portion of the solar spectrum photolyzes 7-dehydrocholesterol in the skin to previtamin D3, which, in turn, is converted by a thermal process to vitamin D3. Latitude and season affect both the quantity and quality of solar radiation reaching the earth's surface, especially in the UVB region of the spectrum, but little is known about how these influence the ability of sunlight to synthesize vitamin D3 in skin. A model has been developed to evaluate the effect of seasonal and latitudinal changes on the potential of sunlight to initiate cutaneous production of vitamin D3. Human skin or [3 alpha-3H]7-dehydrocholesterol exposed to sunlight on cloudless days in Boston (42.2 degrees N) from November through February produced no previtamin D3. In Edmonton (52 degrees N) this ineffective winter period extended from October through March. Further south (34 degrees N and 18 degrees N), sunlight effectively photoconverted 7-dehydrocholesterol to previtamin D3 in the middle of winter. These results quantify the dramatic influence of changes in solar UVB radiation on cutaneous vitamin D3 synthesis and indicate the latitudinal increase in the length of the "vitamin D winter" during which dietary supplementation of the vitamin may be advisable."
A fair-skinned person in a skimpy bathing suit under noon-day near-equatorial summer sun can produce on the order of 20,000 IU vitamin D (which self-limits in the skin when from UV) in about twenty minutes. A dark-skinned person will take a couple of hours to reach that level under those conditions. As the above paper suggests, in winter father from the equator, your skin will produce essentially no vitamin D. Reference:
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/about-us/our-staff0/john-j-cannell-md/
Given the above, the US RDA of about 600 IU D3 per day for an adult of any size is just bad medicine, as is setting a tolerable upper limit of 4000 IU D3 daily (when that "limit" is closer to what the avergae adult needs). That is why you won't get enough vitamin D from food, because the RDA is about 10X too low for most people. A better recommendation:
http://www.grassrootshealth.net/recommendation
With our increasing indoors lifestyle, people became more and more vitamin D deficient -- even living in sunny places like Arizona or Texas. That was made worse by the fear mongering by the dermatology profession (with dermatologists as whole causing on the order of 10X the cancer they prevented plus a host of other health issues like autism with their well-meant but terrible advice).
Studies have shown a link between nutrition and depression. See, as one example:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2738337/
"Few people are aware of the connection between nutrition and depression while they easily understand the connection between nutritional deficiencies and physical illness. Depression is more typically thought of as strictly biochemical-based or emotionally-rooted. On the contrary, nutrition can play a key role in the onset as well as severity and duration of depression. Many of the easily noticeable food patterns that p
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
"Now if I could just get off my fat ass and exercise to fix the rest of me..."
http://www.squidoo.com/walkingwhileworking
I've been using a DIY treadmill workstation for about five years. I agree about the value of vitamin D. I think having a treadmill workstation contributed to vitamin D deficiency because with it I would then spend less time exercising outdoors.
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2738337/
Look into books by Dr. Andrew Weil and Dr. Joel Fuhrman.
See also a list of other stuff I put together on health and happiness: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2738337/
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Related by me: http://www.changemakers.com/discussions/discussion-493#comment-38823
http://www.pdfernhout.net/reading-between-the-lines.html
By others:
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/natural_depression.aspx
http://www.anwot.org/
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1108-21.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2738337/
http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Watch out for too much vitamin A from cod liver oil...
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/12/23/important-cod-liver-oil-update.aspx
Best to get vitamin A from vegetables like carrots or carrot juice.
See also: http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/natural_depression.aspx
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
"The unfortunate fact is that there's no way to fix depression."
Nutrition can help oftentimes: http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/natural_depression.aspx
See also on optimism:
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1108-21.htm
"In this awful world where the efforts of caring people often pale in comparison to what is done by those who have power, how do I manage to stay involved and seemingly happy? I am totally confident not that the world will get better, but that we should not give up the game before all the cards have been played. The metaphor is deliberate; life is a gamble. Not to play is to foreclose any chance of winning.
To play, to act, is to create at least a possibility of changing the world. There is a tendency to think that what we see in the present moment will continue. We forget how often we have been astonished by the sudden crumbling of institutions, by extraordinary changes in people's thoughts, by unexpected eruptions of rebellion against tyrannies, by the quick collapse of systems of power that seemed invincible. What leaps out from the history of the past hundred years is its utter unpredictability. This confounds us, because we are talking about exactly the period when human beings became so ingenious technologically that they could plan and predict the exact time of someone landing on the moon, or walk down the street talking to someone halfway around the earth."
More health advice:
http://www.changemakers.com/discussions/discussion-493#comment-38823
Ideas towards building a better world:
http://www.pdfernhout.net/reading-between-the-lines.html
http://www.pdfernhout.net/on-dealing-with-social-hurricanes.html
http://www.pdfernhout.net/beyond-a-jobless-recovery-knol.html
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
"Although Obama's Affordable Care Act gives better access to treatment options for mentally ill persons: ..."
Things like nutrition, positive psychology, physical infrastructure, life opportunities, community and so on can make a huge difference in mental health. But they are not generally covered as treatments by insurance. Similarly, health insurance may pay $100K for a heart operation, but it won't pay a penny towards the healthy food needed to stay physically and mentally well.
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/natural_depression.aspx
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/PCI_angioplasty_article.aspx
Worse -- junk food is heavily subsidized:
http://www.seriouseats.com/2007/11/the-subsidized-food-pyramid.html
And for decades bad nutritional advice like "the four food groups" has been enshrined in public education by regulatory capture and clever marketing by agribusiness.
Contrast with a model like "Blue Zones":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Zone
Or what Dr. Andrew Weil writes about in his book "Why Our Health Matters".
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Terrific point about separating an appraisal of the world from general moods.
And after all, some people even like tough challenges:
http://www.papert.org/articles/HardFun.html
As I quote here from "What Dreams May Come":
http://www.pdfernhout.net/reading-between-the-lines.html
===
"This is their composite mental image?" I asked. Soundless; hueless; lifeless.
"It is," he said.
"And you work here?" I felt stunned that anyone who had the choice would elect to work in this forbidding place.
"This is nothing," was all he said.
===
Howard Zinn also suggested there is always reason for the "optimism of uncertainty": http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1108-21.htm
I agree about the bringing nutrition/lifestyle stuff all together synergistically:
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/natural_depression.aspx
http://www.changemakers.com/discussions/discussion-493#comment-38823
Also maybe of interest:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_approaches_to_depression
And:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/12/the-science-of-success/307761/
"Most of us have genes that make us as hardy as dandelions: able to take root and survive almost anywhere. A few of us, however, are more like the orchid: fragile and fickle, but capable of blooming spectacularly if given greenhouse care. So holds a provocative new theory of genetics, which asserts that the very genes that give us the most trouble as a species, causing behaviors that are self-destructive and antisocial, also underlie humankind's phenomenal adaptability and evolutionary success. With a bad environment and poor parenting, orchid children can end up depressed, drug-addicted, or in jail -- but with the right environment and good parenting, they can grow up to be society's most creative, successful, and happy people."
While Shirky's post has some great insights, I actually disagree with a sentiment implied where he says: "Most of us won't kill ourselves, no matter how bad things get. ... Madoff hasn't killed himself because he isn't the kind of person who kills himself." While perhaps true, it is misleading. I'd suggest depression and suicide could happen in almost anyone's life probabilistically, but that certain circumstances make it more or less likely. Then, if it does, the survivors tend to work backwards from "if only" proximate causes, but overall it is always a network of interacting causes and effects. Genes are one thing affecting probabilities, but so is nutrition, lifestyle, mental outlook, mental habits including gratitude, religions and spiritual upbringing or life philosophy, social networks, physical infrastructure, and many other factors (including what we think about the world) which interact with each other. Or, in other words, a life is like a tree, and whether that tree is blown over by any particular storm in life is about both how big the (perceived) storm is and how deep the tree's roots are (and roots help us grow more roots). For a person, roots are things like nutrition, family, friends, hobbies, community, music, values, habits, religion/philosophy, and so on. See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_psychology
Thanks for the success story of personal growth to grow deeper roots in various ways. Good luck in continuing to grow them as best as is possible in this plane of existence filled with various dualistic tensions, with life at a Yin/Yang interface of
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
You're right, people can make a big difference in small ways, and together that can add up to a lot. Plus, every small change gives us more experience, confidence, and resources to use in working towards larger things.
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
"Try going 72 hours without food. You'll be amazed how *real* discomfort can focus the mind."
For some people, if you do it right:
http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1137654
http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/content/3/2/288.full.pdf
http://www.fastingconnection.com/forum/General-posts-to-Index/1184-fasting-and-bipolar-disorder
See Dr. Joel Fuhrman's work for how to fast correctly.
http://www.amazon.com/Fasting-Eating-Health-Medical-Conquering/dp/031218719X
Although ultimately people have to eat right:
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/natural_depression.aspx
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
See my other posts, but in short: http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/natural_depression.aspx
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Explained in detail with many refs: http://www.drfuhrman.com/shop/ETLBook.aspx
Dr. Joel Fuhrman, MD, talks about the political history of how the meat and dairy industry got this information into schools in one chapter. But, here are some key points if you are probably not going to read that right away.
First, here is some general history of changing guidelines (you can see the pre-1956 guidelines we more diverse):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_USDA_nutrition_guides
"From 1956 until 1992 the United States Department of Agriculture recommended its "Basic Four" food groups."
Those four food groups were: "Milk", "Meat", "Cereals and breads", and "Vegetables and fruits". They were usually displayed in roughly equal physically-sized portions. Beans were technically included in the "meat" group, but in practice are fairly ignorable by most people in that model (including how it was typically drawn). Because of differing calorie density (fruits and vegetables having few calories per unit volume because of fiber), this meant 90% or more of your calories when eating by the four food groups would be from animal products and (usually) refined grains in bread. As described in "Eat to Live", humans are adapted to get most of their calories from fruits, vegetables, and beans (plus some nuts, seed, and whole grains). The "basic four" effectively inverts this concept, meaning your diet will have almost no essential phytonutrients.
You also need phytonutrients to grow well and for your immune system to resist cancer and other disease.
http://www.peertrainer.com/health/dr_joel_fuhrman_super_immunity_book.aspx
It is true a case can be made for some animal products in the diet (especially for omega-3 fats, and for iodine unless you eat sea vegetables, and for some other reasons). People can argue about the role of fish-eating in recent human development perhaps, even though fish today may be polluted with mercury and PCBs. I'm not saying I agree 100% with Fuhrman about every detail, but he sketches out well the big picture.
It is harder to make the case for having any refined grains and refined sugar in the diet (meaning refined flour and sugar, as opposed to whole grains). That is because refined grains and refined sugar spike insulin levels and cause inflammation (the small particles are rapidly digested). Fuhrman also suggests not eating much unrefined grains (like brown rice) although others like Dr. McDougall may disagree from a convenience perspective:
http://www.lanimuelrath.com/diet-nutrition/mcdougall-vs-fuhrman-notes-for-you-from-the-great-plant-based-doctors-debate/
So, basically, the four food groups is a prescription for disease -- specially heart disease and stroke, cancer, and diabetes, which are the main "diseases of affluence" that kill most US Americans now but were very rare 100 years ago. Ideally, you should get 90% of your calories from fruits, vegetables, and beans (and some nuts, seeds, and whole grains) and use animal products as side dishes, flavorings, or binders in recipes. As Dr. Fuhrman says in Eat To Live, we have not yet seen what modern medicine could do to extend the lives of people who ate in a healthy way.
Note also that most of the world tend to be lactose intolerant. Thus emphasizing milk also destroys many people's health, especially that of many minority children in the USA who will then suffer from continual stomach distress and worse. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactose_intolerance
More on the problems of milk for most people:
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.