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by engineeringwoke 1567 days ago
How does not being around other people make you your "most authentic" self? We are only human through others. Every word you've ever spoken, every thought you've ever had, is codified in a language that was created over hundreds of thousands of years by people attempting to communicate. Are you anything without that language? It is a description of how you think.

I wish it wasn't so popular for people in tech with mental issues to project them onto everyone else, instead of looking at the early family life that made them. Your parents failed if you are so afraid of the other. It is not everyone else's fault that they don't hate people.
2 comments
shrimp_emoji 1567 days ago
Putting on clothing with collars and buttons is a huge hit to my sense of "authenticity", to start. You feel pressured to to put on airs, deal with smalltalk, etc.
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engineeringwoke 1567 days ago
But it's only putting on airs and small talk to you. Why is your perception normal and the regular one "fake"? I grew up thinking like you did, in a household of people like this, and there couldn't be anything further from the truth. It's a projection of an insecurity around being unable to control the people around you.
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electriclizard 1562 days ago
I've no interest in controlling the people around me. I'm interested in controlling myself, which I'm not allowed to do at work due to the need to survive. Your choices are determined by your options; you do not pick your options at work, your employer does.

Those who it's fake for are not allowed to throw it off. I get my socialization in groups I choose to be a part of where I don't have to curtail my every thought to avoid political retaliation that affects my livelihood.

And get a PhD before you start throwing around words like "mental issues" for things you disagree with.

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throwaway675309 1567 days ago
Just for reference, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis has largely been discredited.
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engineeringwoke 1567 days ago
It wouldn't be hacker news without a pedantic reply that is carefully constructed to have no real counterpoint.

Wittgenstein was not wrong. Language is meaningless without its connection to the rest of humanity.

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