[FRIAM] more evopsych

[Prof David West]

I read because it is a compulsive addiction. 

The only two "filters" I use: refusing to read anything that comes to me via an algorithmic recommendation engine, ala Amazon, Facebook, etc.; and second, listening to my "inner critic" that tells me pretty quickly that something is not worth finishing. The post you included had several trigger words/phrases in the first paragraph that suggested it was not worth finishing.

Alan Kay once said, "if you do not read for pleasure you cannot read for purpose." I have always thought there should be a corollary, if you are forced to read for purpose, you cannot read for pleasure. That seems to be what you are experiencing.

davew


On Mon, Apr 7, 2025, at 9:28 AM, glen wrote:
> https://www.skeptic.org.uk/2025/04/reputation-why-do-we-care-so-much-about-what-other-people-think-of-us/
>
> Not as toxic as Jordan Peterson, but still insidious. I regret reading 
> it. I'll never get that time back. So why post it here and bait some 
> other poor soul into wasting their time as well? I think because I 
> don't have my own defense. I keep getting suckered into this stuff. 
> Why? What practical things do you do to prevent yourself from reading 
> trash like this? I can't help but wonder what those of you who enjoy 
> *chatting* with LLMs (chatting is very different from something like 
> declarative programming) might opine.
>
> Also, I used to enjoy the mere act of reading. I literally did not care 
> what the words meant. I enjoyed reading an article in the journal 
> Ethics just as much as, say, a long novel by Michael Moorcock. But once 
> I started having to read as part of my job, it grew less and less fun. 
> Now I don't enjoy reading at all, despite doing it all day every day. 
> But my decision support system for choosing *what* to read is very 
> broken.
>
> -- 
> glen
>
>
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