QC

A thing that would make me more powerful if I understood it better: it’s hard for me to tell when people are abusing themselves for fun, vs abusing themselves in a way they don’t want It’s complex and multifaceted bla bla, but also, being able to tell one way or the other is

Consider the failure modes - someone is enjoying a cigarette or a bad movie and joking about how terrible it is, while their internal consensus + extrapolated trajectory is; they’re gonna smoke and watch trash till they die. The optimal interaction strategy depends on your goal

Effective way to not make mistakes is to avoid all interventions, avoid having or committing to any opinions, second-guess all your utterances... it’s also an effective way to imprison yourself and have a cursed life. Aaand hardly anybody enjoys your company except narcissists

A simple + effective lvl 1 strategy that probably works most of the time, tit for tat style, is “ask people what they want + give it to them”. If they’re falsifying preferences (to both you and themselves), so be it - over time you build a network of honest people. Simple & good

this probably goes a much longer way than I realized before thinking abt it. The high-functioning version of this requires being earnest but not pushy, interested but not obsessive. Creating space, sending the invite, and being outcome-independent Still,, what about shitposting

I am v serious about my shitposting i think there’s a failure mode of over-earnestness; it’s exhausting for me to be around people who are over-optimised. There is a deep tragic-comic element to existence itself, and it runs through everything, including/especially all of this

But some people use their shitposting as an avoidance mechanism, to avoid facing things (themselves, their friends, the world). Das not good, frens Some people use their eager/earnest steamroller to avoid facing things. Das not good either frens