Ask HN: What do you believe that most people don't? - panabee
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KozmoNau7
That most of us struggle in a pointless daily grind, in the false belief that
it gives our lives some sort of meaning. Most of us are wasting our lives
doing stuff we don't really want to, instead of remembering to enjoy life.
After all, we only get one shot at this.

That people should open their minds and be more accepting of new experiences
that may challenge their own strongly held beliefs.

That we are much too terrified of drugs that are currently illegal, and not
nearly terrified enough of drugs that are currently legal.

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ironjunkie
That most life decisions for most people are based on their social and
cultural environment that force them into a predefined path. Wandering out of
it comes with a price of continual self-doubt. Staying into that path is an
easy way to live an ok life but it comes with the greatest price of all: a
terrible feeling of regret at the end of your life.

Something I also believe is that most people will not question those life
decision and ask themselves if this is really what they want.

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jstewartmobile
That most ailments in the western world are ones of modernity: over-nutrition,
over-medication, physical inactivity, excessive hygiene, lack of sunlight,
non-ancestral diets and/or environments, environmental pollutants, etc, etc.

If something is bothering you that the doctors can't fix, it's a pretty good
heuristic for plan-B.

~~~
agitator
I strongly agree with this. It irks me that doctors often prescribe drugs
first without seeking to find the root cause of a problem. But I guess such is
the culture these days. People want a quick fix without being told to change
their lifestyles.

~~~
jstewartmobile
Most docs I know feel the same way, but when you get shaken-down for pills
all-day every-day, most people are just going to give up and start passing out
nexium and lipitor like it was candy on halloween.

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tonyedgecombe
That you can have a good life without spending much money.

That most technology has little or no real value.

That web development sucks.

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anotheryou
That there is no free will. (and a few things deducted from that, like how
anyone is innocent in some way and how this relates to criminal justice
(protect society, resocialize, but never revenge)).

~~~
ramblerman
If there is no free will why even think about how to organize criminal
justice. Surely the outcome of that is also predetermined, as it's formed by
people without free will.

~~~
nils-m-holm
> If there is no free will why even think about how to organize criminal
> justice

What you are asking is, "if there is no free will, then why are you thinking
about criminal justice out of your own free will?"

None of us is "doing" anything, it just happens.

Here is a little experiment: next time you talk to someone, try to find out
what you will be saying before you actually say it. Maybe, there will be a
surprise.

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nugget
That the majority of high school seniors would benefit more from trade school,
apprenticeship, and small business entrepreneurship programs than four
additional years of formal classroom education.

~~~
oreganoz
If we could only remove the stigma of being seen as somehow lesser for
choosing a profession over another.

The only way people make me dislike them immediately is when they start
showing arrogant and elitist behaviour towards blue-collar workers.

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ramblerman
That most office jobs are useless, and contributing nothing, and what they do
contribute could be done in far less time.

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desdiv
Child labor laws, environmental laws, workplace safety laws, etc should apply
to all goods transported, stored, or sold within a jurisdiction.

One hundred something democratic sovereign states and not a single one
implemented this yet.

~~~
KozmoNau7
Agree 100%. Make local companies liable for the conduct of their international
partners.

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laex
That you don't need to eat three or four meals a day. You can compress all the
meals into one and still stay productive, energetic & healthy. ( Speaking from
2+ years experience of daily fasting and strength training )

~~~
O_H_E
No that would not work, and will make you feel really uncomfortable after
eating.

You just have to eat the right type of food, beans, yogurt...

~~~
imkamilm
Yes, it works. Eat a salad, rice, beans, fish, and vegies once a day and
you're good. I'm fasting 18hrs/day and I lose fat + gain muscles. Also, I save
lots of time which I can put into work since I don't spend my time on
preparing/cooking meals that much.

~~~
O_H_E
Oh crap I replied to the wrong post. I was replying to a comment who asked if
he can just "load up all of your daily calories in that one meal"

I am actually fasting right now, sorry for -accidentally- being rude

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BigHatLogan
I may be preaching to the choir here (because this is largely a tech audience)
but I don't buy into the stereotype that gamers play videogames (video games?)
because of laziness or sloth or some other unfairly negative characteristic
misattributed to them.

I saw a post on Reddit where a group of gamers had recreated King's Landing,
the main city from Game of Thrones, in Minecraft. The entire project looked
like it took years to complete. It was something of an architectural marvel
and a sight to behold.

The reason I bring that up specifically was because it was not the work of a
lazy and apathetic group of people. I would imagine the entire project took
more hours than I spent studying for much of my undergraduate degree. Not to
mention the collaboration involved. The entire project was a collective team
effort towards a goal that the group deemed meaningful. I have seen multiple
projects of this scale on Minecraft. If the people involved were lazy and
slothful, where would they muster up the energy to work on such an endeavor? A
project like this involves a certain level of planning and discipline to see
to completion.

I have felt the same way about competitive games like Starcraft in that I'm
amazed at how much effort people put forth to obtain proficiency and
competency. There are thousands of hours of YouTube videos online dissecting
every aspect of that game, not unlike the way a football quarterback might
analyze game film. Again, there is nothing particularly lazy about this. I see
it no differently than I would see a chess player studying old chess matches
and strategies to improve their skill.

My preliminary thoughts are that video games offer a fair simulation of
perfect competition in a world that is otherwise devoid of fairness. Reality
is messy. Much of it, maybe most of it, depends on where you started out
economically, who your parents were, and what kind of people were around you
while you grew up. It's easy to fall into patterns of thought that resemble a
"Why Me?" view of the world. I suspect a lot of gamers fall under this
umbrella. I'm not making a moral judgement here. Instead, the way I see it is:
If the real world has been disappointing to you for whatever reason, why
wouldn't you seek out a more "perfect" world in a simulation? Especially when
the simulation offers you what you crave in the real world: status,
competency, hierarchy, friendship, community, etc. All of those can be found
in video games. To me, many of them resemble a sort of perfect and fair world
where one lives and dies by their own merits. I see the appeal of disappearing
into one of these.

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on this. I was thinking about this
recently and I am still hashing out my thoughts.

~~~
rwnspace
One component of the 'gamers are lazy' stereotype probably comes from the fact
that most of the people authoring that opinion are the gamers' parents; who'll
just perceive it in the way they will. They are also the generation which like
to hear their opinions reflected in prime-time news, which gladly obliges.

Gaming is ubiquitous, in another decade I imagine that attitude will be on the
way out.

Those are the obvious points though, I think it's more interesting to think
about how the mechanical and repetitive aspects of gaming replace a naive,
deep drive for precise actions which demand focus and skill, and move chaotic
or unordered things towards some goal. In the 20thC that was probably fixing
cars or working in a factory or building stuff. Good ways for satisfying the
drive, if you have it.

And in a nice continuation of this relationship, the more that AI replaces
work, the more I think leisure, work and gaming will coincide. Many gaming
environments are good examples of behavioural economics in action: incentives,
rewards, how changes to game balance (even perceived changes to balance) or
the price/availability of cosmetics nudge or shove player behaviour... We
could stab guesses at how to implement these patterns in a way that considers
them economic activity.

I don't think gaming necessarily has to be 'better' than life for it to take
up a great deal of it. It just has to have the right kinds of 'APIs' to
satisfy that messy, obsessive, predatory/reward-loop hunger which appears in
most men and plenty of women.

My central thesis is that a couple of decades leads us basically to the Matrix
(though I'm hoping for a sunnier version).

~~~
BigHatLogan
I love the example of fixing cars and building stuff. I never thought about it
like that, but now that you mention it, I do think a lot of modern games are
replacing the 20th century hobby of coming home and working on your car on
weekends.

What you said is also what I'm suggesting: that gaming satisfies that drive in
its own way. It's a simulation that can provide most of those same feelings.

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cpt1138
That quantum entanglement is limited to strong gravitational fields. Like we
see the probability field because we are in Earth's gravitational field. But
it doesn't span the entire universe infinitely.

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cerberusss
That it's entirely possible to save enough in order to retire early.

~~~
charlesdm
I can agree with that, though in part it obviously depends on how high your
income is, and how you invest and compound the money you have made.

If you're making $25k a year it will be a lot harder and take much much longer
to retire than for someone making $150k a year.

~~~
cerberusss
Yeah, I agree. Psychologically, I found it's easiest to simply not use raises
in income.

~~~
charlesdm
Well, I think you need to find a balance. Don't blow through everything, but
also enjoy life because you only live once.

I know guys who save up to the last penny to try and achieve financial
freedom. It's infinitely easier (and more efficient) to try to make more money
than it is to, for example, not buy the occasional starbucks coffee.

~~~
presidente20
That's right. The approach that works for me is optimising top-down. Save on
the big expenses (accommodation, car, groceries) which requires planning and
System II thinking. Try and save on the smaller stuff but as you're fighting
your impulses (under social pressure, marketing influence etc) its much
harder, so go with the flow.

~~~
charlesdm
Yup, exactly my line of thinking!

As an example: I had the opportunity to take over a very nice corporate car of
a friend at a ridiculously low price (for a variety of reasons). Basically I
managed to purchase at half the actual value of the car -- it was a few years
old but looked almost new and had super low miles. It was in perfect
condition.

I could've bought and sold it on the spot for close to double the price I
paid. But I'll drive it for a few years and likely be able to sell it for
close to the same price I originally paid for it. Others go buy a new car,
take a massive depreciation hit, and in the end spend tens of thousands more.

The expensive tickets are worth focusing on. Then go drink all the coffee you
want.

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ajurna
That we are all part of a macro-organism. we all act as parts of the body and
the more we organise the more we collectively grow.

populations that are decimated lose massive amounts of knowledge and only
increase in numbers increases the complexity of the technology.

in a lot of ways we act like cells in the human body. nothing tells them to be
what they are, they find an opening and fill the role required of them.

this doesn't mean we are going anywhere specific, but it does mean that as we
work together our collect potential grows.

~~~
anotheryou
I believe this too and my biggest fear about it is, that globalized humanity
is a single specimen (at most a single pack).

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pythia__
Corporal punishment is more humane and a more effective deterrent to crime
than prison. I am not actually sure if most people don't believe this.

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Spakman
That birthdays are stupid. I love celebrating life and try my best to do so in
every moment, but this forced celebration is a total turn off.

~~~
muzz
I feel the same way about New Year

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KozmoNau7
The only way to be truly happy is to be ignorant of all the ills we are
inflicting on the world and each other.

Once you attain this awareness as part of growing up, the only way to drown
out the awareness of this deplorable state of the human existence, is to numb
the mind with drugs or to damage the brain to such a degree that it stops
mattering to you.

~~~
agitator
I think there are two sides to this. Either ignore it, or embrace it and
accept it as part of the human experience. If you accept that suffering is
inevitable, you recognize the positives in life more readily. To me, this
approach allows me to be present in life, as opposed to numb with drugs,
waiting to expire.

~~~
KozmoNau7
The main problem is that no matter what, those positives are only tiny points
of light in a big pile of shit.

------
hansthehorse
Sugar is as toxic as alcohol. People here may agree but try that one at a
neighborhood block party.

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yaya69
Believe is the death of intelligence

~~~
oreganoz
You go around testing and reproving everything you encounter? Or do you
believe in what a scientific community tells you, even partly?

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ManlyBread
One has a right to dislike an another person based solely on gender, race,
religion or ethnicity; I can be tolerant but I won't feign acceptance or force
myself to like such a person.

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Marc66FR
1) Destiny exists: events of our life are pre-determined

2) There is life after death to transit and prepare before your next
reincarnation

~~~
latexr
Why do you think most people don’t believe this? Aren’t those major points of
the most popular religions? I feel (I haven’t searched for hard data) those
views are shared by billions of people.

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ThatGuy64
That all mental and physical reactions presented by all living things do not
yield a true bearing of value. Every entity in the universe reacts with every
other entity it comes accross to produce an outcome and nothing more. Being
ecstatic bears no difference in value of being tortured.

~~~
rayalez
This doesn't make sense to me.

There's no such thing as "value" determined by the laws of physics or floating
around in the universe. Things that don't have minds don't have the concept of
value. But we do. Value is created by human minds.

And if value is created by human minds, then it's definition depends on what
we find valuable.

I find not being tortured pretty fucking valuable, so are many other people
[citation needed]. If I place value on a thing or a state of mind or some
state of the world, then it's valuable.

~~~
ThatGuy64
by value im talking about morality/ethnicity of the whole occurence. sorry for
not clarifying that.

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brudgers
Most people are smart.

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whataretensors
Consciousness is all around and estimates the same thing. The global minima
consciousness is the mind of the universe.

