[tclancy]

“Because we've created a world where effort gets treated like a disease to be cured.”

That pretty much sums it up for me. Well put. I am at a point where I am trying to acquire hobbies to improve my happiness and there is a difficulty modifier now on a lot of things where it’s like “what’s the point”. It reminds me of when X-Box first offered the ability to watch other people play. I was grinding to get like five more points on a course to hit the 200 point requirement, so I downloaded the top ghost video for the course. That person and I were not even playing the same game; they were orders of magnitude better than I was and all I wound up learning was I would never be that good at it.

[spacemadness]

I think this is why I grasp on to strength training and fitness as one of my main hobbies. There is no current shortcut other than steroids but even then you still need to put in the effort. If I stop, I can feel and see my body atrophy, my stress levels rise, my energy going down, etc. You need to keep learning and adjusting to make progress. You can definitely nerd out about it if you want. And it provides the dopamine rush after a tough workout and looking back and seeing my progress. It helps me connect with my body since I’m in my head all day. It’s also a primal and human activity that has nothing to do with AI.

[ak_builds]

Hug brother. Strength training taught me to respect my body.

[aidenn0]

> ...all I wound up learning was I would never be that good at it.

I suspect that if you had looked at a 98-percentile video instead of the top video, you would also have thought that you would never be that good at it, but in many things, being in the top 2% is attainable with effort for the top 50% or so of the population; practicing for that is just not how they choose to spend their time.

[jimmydddd]

I was a musician (drummer) during my school days and took pride in being the best drummer in my school, and (I thought), probably top 2% in the world. However, if ytube was around at that time, I would have watched videos from around the world and realized that I was mediocre at best. Maybe I would have lost interest? Maybe I would have worked harder at it? Hard to say.

[Levitz]

Your example touches on a very related phenomenon. Videogame design.

Anyone who has activated cheats on videogames enough times can attest to the fact that it takes the enjoyment away. We do have games with superficial, skinner-like rewards, probably the majority, but many still rely on the satisfaction of overcoming real challenges to reward players.

I reckon all puzzle games are like this.

[ethbr1]

Game (video- or other) difficulty is interesting, because the goal (a “fun” game) is so tied to individual skill level (and others’, if multiplayer).

Historically, there wasn’t much technical ability to dynamically adjust difficulty. So the player had to improve to progress.

But now it’s possible to engineer games that are effectively impossible to lose, yet always make a person feel like they’re barely winning (aka “fun”).

I’m not sure that swapping of objective difficulty for subjective difficulty was healthy, though.

[Gigachad]

This is why I hate when games make you play with the difficulty to deal with broken mechanics. The elder scrolls being one where you can just end up stuck and forced to lower the difficulty because your character is physically incapable of proceeding.

But then it’s hard to be disciplined enough to only use it when strictly required. And it just feels unsatisfying.

[vouaobrasil]

One easy-ish solution is to realize that the pseudo-anonymous mass of people doing things on the internet really doesn't matter, and crucially, spend less time on the internet. Already taking 2 days/week away from the net makes my life much better.

[FollowingTheDao]

> there is a difficulty modifier now on a lot of things where it’s like “what’s the point”.

That is becasue you are still lacking dopamine. One needs to erase all the dopamine stimulation in your life to truly recover. Go to a AA meeting and you will see everyone drinking and smoking saying they are "sober" and wonder why they relapse.

Learn to limit your rewards to slow, natural ones, like he says in the article. It will absolutely suck at first. It is not about the activity, it is about slowing down the strong dopamine pulses.

[Aurornis]

> That is becasue you are still lacking dopamine.

Dopamine doesn’t work like this. You don’t “run out” of dopamine by engaging in stimulating activities.

This is pop-science metaphor stuff, not actual dopamine science.

[ethbr1]

Parent should have more precisely said “over-activate dopamine receptors” instead of “run out”, but effectively it means the same thing — dulling an individual’s response to a set dopamine generating event via excess dopamine exposure.

[FollowingTheDao]

Yes, it is a metaphor. Not everyone can understand neurobiology so we use metaphors.

Define Lacking: not available or in short supply.

Lacking (I did not say "run out" you did, again exposing your bias) dopamine is exactly what causes the symptoms of Parkinson's. It is well known that people with impulse control disorders are more likely to get Parkinson's.

Even Dopamine Receptor Antagonists increase addictive behaviors.

Reports of Pathological Gambling, Hypersexuality, and Compulsive Shopping Associated With Dopamine Receptor Agonist Drugs https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullar...

You are accusing me of all or nothing thinking but that is not what I am doing. But you seem to think that Dopamine has nothing at all to do with anything yet there it is in our body. It must do something, yes?

[ak_builds]

> all I wound up learning was I would never be that good at it

Every time I got competitive with my hobby, it stopped being one. I relate to you.

[voxleone]

I'm from early Generation X and was raised with the belief that AI and robotics would—finally!—liberate humanity to pursue nobler endeavors: advanced technology, great art, and, most importantly, philosophy.

But reality has turned out bleaker, and it seems to be aligning more closely with the author's darker vision.

To avoid the dopamine collapse, we must reclaim effort as meaning—design systems that enhance human creativity, not replace it; use AI to challenge and collaborate, not merely to create shortcuts; and incorporate friction into learning, art, and problem-solving—not as inefficiency, but as intentional practice.

We must also teach people not only how to use AI, but how to preserve their humanity while using it.

Philosophy is no longer a luxury—it becomes a necessity.

[vouaobrasil]

> We must also teach people not only how to use AI, but how to preserve their humanity while using it.

One of the best things you can do is just not use it. There is no way to preserve your humanity while using it, at least not in the long run. Because its nature of mechanizing creativity creates feedback loops in our brains and reduces the magic of having the unclimbed mountain...so to speak. It's like trying to teach your body to feel good after having eaten too much sugar. It is beyond our capabilities and fundamentally incompatible with us.

[nibblenum]

if liberated, can philosophy really be explored?

expanding fractals. the past in the present and the inverse...

darker vision and negativity bias / optimism bias

u have the freedom of being unhappy with an AI

you still have infinite value

this may be the beauty of being disposable... ;)

[Gigachad]

I’m preserving my humanity by downvoting this AI slop.