This is a real problem with changing your mind.

I can’t believe how many times I’ve been told I’ve changed when I no longer found something funny or said something that I wouldn’t have in my teen years.

One of the longest-running opinions of mine that hasn’t been disproved yet is that many people just don’t really mature or age mentally, it seems; they just grow older, without accumulating much if any wisdom.

It’s usually a place where you’re not bombarding your brain with stimulation all the time, so your brain tries to use the downtime to work with all the information you’ve been putting into it.

This is actually a big part of learning anything, called diffused learning. Think of how you suddenly get something after a period of rest or not doing anything, some time after you’ve initially focused on a thing for some time - your brain has actually been using the downtime to structure the data and make better sense of it.

This is also why a lot of people that know how a human brain works suggest mediation and walks, especially without listening to music or podcasts, as well as spending little to no time reading, watching or stimulating your brain in any other way before bed. It needs that time, it’s crucial for development. Journaling helps here, too, because it’s both reflection and somewhat of a downtime.

Doing chores and not listening to anything counts, too.

But it’s all easier said than done in this age of constant hunt for one’s attention so they spend more time on your app, giving you more data to sell and more metrics to make the line go up (gotta keep the investors and stakeholders happy, can’t afford to not show constant growth).

Recommend anything to read on the matter? Sounds very interesting, but I’m afraid I may find some dubious material before striking anything good.

I’m self-taught as well, and I’d say look through the current job market and offerings, but don’t worry all that much - teaching yourself IT usually nets you a considerable amount of transferable skills that you build upon if things don’t work out in one field; you also learn to learn and get much more comfortable with switching branches.

The less volatile your branch is, the less likely it is to turn out to be a fad that you’ll have to drop several years down the line at best. Crypto and blockchain, for example, were probably often recommended when the thing was on the rise, but that’s nowhere near as popular and safe now; I believe the current AI hype to follow the same fate. Basically, look at the news and trends and be careful with whatever big and stupid corporations push for, praise, or massively invest in: that’s usually nothing but good marketing successfully baiting the suits.

Web develoment is probably going to stay simultaneously volatile and relevant for decades more, so that’s a good option. Embedded development shouldn’t be going anywhere either, although that’s more low-level and intimidating, but it can be fun and stable and pay relatively well. I hate the smartphones industry and can’t really say much about Android or iOS development, but I doubt it’s doomed or anything.

So far, it seems like not following whatever Elon Musk or other billionaires tell you is the future is a good bet.

As a Russian who’s been thinking about what could’ve been done about Putin’s many moves towards authoritarianism, I say this: I don’t know. I dint think anyone knows either.

indsight is 20/20, so good luck trying to convince people to act now, before the far and distant future is here; it’s probably part of our nature to not be that much concerned with the long-term, as it’s the short- to mid-term that keeps us alive, i.e. fed, sheltered, hopefully healthy etc.

At this point, it feels like history is indeed very cyclical, at least society is, and now anyone left of outright fascism seems to be in minority, with many others either failing or refusing to recognise what’s likely coming. I don’t think it’s new, either - I’m sure people of our ages had things to compare their situation to during the Nazis’ rise to power and subsequent events, just like we look back to their times and wonder how in the world could we possibly let that happen.

It’s probably best to vote and to protest and to be politically active and all that, before the right-wing or some other authoritarian group manages to manipulate its way into your government, local or higher, and start doing all it can to make you not even think of voting or protesting or being politically active. The caveat is you just don’t have any guarantees that any of that is going to work.

What’s even more important to remember is the fact that we cannot come up with some universal solution that’s going to always work the best way possible in every political and economical and social circumstance. This is what makes recording history and experience so important - it will allow us and those that will be after us to analyse the multitudes of factors and tendencies that lead to things and hopefully figure out reliable and effective and predictable mechanisms for society to function and prosper in mutual respect, egalitarianism, support, etc.

My last take is probably a little controversial: I think we shouldn’t ostracise people we see as fascist or right-wing or authoritarian, etc., but rather be welcoming and supporting, giving them respect, community and opportunity to speak and be listened to with kindness and understanding; many turn to violent and inhumane ideologies because, well, they don’t value themselves, feel threatened, humiliated, afraid, or something along these lines. It doesn’t have to be true, because it’s about how people feel, and we must work with how people feel and influence that on emotional level so they feel like they being in a group that’s based on being “anti-woke” or just “anti-” something - that’s a dead end; they should feel like they belong to groups that envision future and prosperity, where people know they can be trusted and can trust, where they can respect and be respected. You may not like it, but you have to understand that the human psyche can be very flexible and eventually turn a person you could easily turn into a human-loving ally into a bloodthirsty fascist just because they couldn’t find their place anywhere else, so instead they’re easily picked up by a group that manipulates confused and lost people into a sense of community and belonging.

Fascism has to be the unappealing option for them, and that requires a mind healthy from trauma and loneliness, the lack of that feeling like you’ve been played and robbed of something you own - like some great historical period the mouthpieces promise to get you back into if you yell at teenage girls for wearing bright-colored hair and rainbow pins.

Ranting is just a detail here, focus on the point - it’s a place of discussion. Like a tavern back in some older days. People talk here, come up with ideas, act on some of them, and it’s through this ranting, too, that some people may eventually pursue political or otherwise influential careers, try and bring changes they want to see, exerice their rights.

You can’t just get up and go to vote without having discussion either. This is all part of the process.

That’s amazing, thank you!

Has it already been confirmed or it’s still a hypothesis?

Please share any material proving it if you have any, I love space.

People aren’t rational beings - we mostly operate on emotions, fueled by chemical reactions to certain events and sensations and experiences.

Most flat-earthers probably don’t care about any of the “facts” or “explanations” they hear or spread or study or come up with - first and foremost, it’s a community to them, a place where they feel like they belong and such. For their own reasons, they allow the obviously positive emotions they experience there to outweigh any of the absurd they may honestly recognize internally, but never admit or voice out or truly give in to.

I think I’ve seen several somewhat lengthy videos on YouTube on the matter, explaining how and why that happens. It’s a mechanism similar to other conspiracy theories and communities around them, as well as various cults - vulnerable, susceptible people are the ones to usually to end up in these because they’re reeled in one way or the other.

I’m not saying the theory isn’t nonsense, of course; only that the theory itself is probably only a facade for a way for some people to experience connection with others, a sense of belonging, some shared activities, something along these lines. That’s why you shouldn’t be surprised that their numbers grow or that they can easily ignore facts and science - it simply isn’t about facts or science, but emotions and feelings.

Might be a Linux thing, though.

Did he mention that a lot of the real estate that people own in most post-Soviet countries is inherited when (grand)parents die, this being first if not the only step towards the market for most people?

None of the people I know from Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus bought their first apartments on their own through hard work or anything: it’s mostly apartments where your grandma died, apartments that you’re either massively helped with or outright gifted by parents when yuu have a significant other to move in with (so both families join funds, most coming from selling some dead relative’s apartment) or on a wedding day (a rarer occasion), or some mix of that.

Without any help or gifts, you’re lucky to be able to get a mortgage that you can pay off before you’re 60 (at least).

The real estate prices outside the US and the EU may seem nicer, but salaries and expenses sure don’t.

Everybody is screwed, everywhere.

Email is still functional and necessary so have to stick with that.

I what way? Are you talking about email lists or something like that? Please share some wisdom so I can think of email as of something more than just annoying spambox that corportations and governments use to spy on me.

These meals don’t cost the money to be microwaved again, it’s just not that good. Better off ordering groceries in that case.

Car dependency and pedestrian facilities vary greatly between countries, have you thought about that?

Many Americans simply don’t have sidewalks or any other safe routes to navigate to many restaurants and other places, nor do they have sufficiently developed public transport in those same areas (if at all).

Even in Russia, in cities built and/or amended by the Soviets to be walkable or at least accessible via public transport, there’s a lot of day-to-day places you’re not going to be able to reach without a car unless you have literal hours in your day outside work and other chores; not to mention some people not having the luxury of being able to walk as easily or at all.

Right, 100%! They’re just trying to see if you’re going to be able to sustain yourself and their relationship. No harm there, I’m sure; actually seems like a sign of serious intentions.

You should check for sure and let us all now. For the boys.

She’s also definitely Russian, and we, Russians, believe that it’s a guy.

There’s no women on the Internet.

I think we’ll collectively figure it out with time and have more specific, yet popular instances, rather than instances trying to be the all-places with communities. Like an instance for memes where communities act as sub-categories or something.

But I maybe wrong, I’m not on oracle or something.

I feel like it’s unlikely to happen regardless of the userbase. Fediverse as a whole seems to have been built on different merits and it’s curated by the large corporations, so they won’t be coming here with their algorithms and ad-revenue and thirst for profits and engagement.

The biggest difference between Fediverse and the old-school internet websites, like forums and blogs and such, is that Fediverse is relatively easily intertwined; it’s an ecosystem that consists of autonomous small-ish communities that get to choose whether and what they share. If you want, you can basically make one account, subscribe to as much shit from the Fediverse as you like, and have it all come to your curated feed (defederation happens, though) - or you can treat it all as separate platforms and have one account for each, with occasional guests hopping by (like you’re with d.gs and I’m with feddit.de).

Even if there are platforms that later use the same protocols to try and get some profits, they’ll most likely be out of everyone’s memory much like Threads (remember that?) because it’s just not the same as creating some kind of “everything platform” and have people walled off there to “engage” with rage-inducing content and have them (hopefully) generate ad revenue.

The small business doing the hauling, because the truck owner won’t risk scratching the bed of their lovely pickup.