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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

This is my conversational account. For my work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    1. Sarah Constantin‏ @s_r_constantin Jan 14
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      The theory may simply imply that for any given person, they're going to be less interested in open-ended intellectual conversation as they age, so that you notice your friends talking and exploring less and less over a ten-year time period.

      2 replies 0 retweets 9 likes
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    2. Sarah Constantin‏ @s_r_constantin Jan 14
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      (Not sure this is a sufficient explanation for the widespread impression that "discourse quantity and quality has declined", just that it could be a factor.)

      1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
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    3. Sarah Constantin‏ @s_r_constantin Jan 14
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      The experimental fact that older adults are happier than young adults, along with the observations that they focus more attention on positive things, despite the obvious fact that aging is uncomfortable, seems to suggest a weird model of happiness/well-being.

      4 replies 0 retweets 8 likes
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    4. Sarah Constantin‏ @s_r_constantin Jan 14
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      What if people are more interested in "darker", more troubling topics when they are confident they have the strength and resources to deal with them, while they become more "conservative" about guarding their positive outlook when they're in a position of true scarcity?

      2 replies 0 retweets 13 likes
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    5. Sarah Constantin‏ @s_r_constantin Jan 14
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      Also related: construal level, something @robinhanson talks a lot about. "Far mode" seems to go with the "young person style" of caring more about learning, novelty, and starting new long-term projects; "near mode" with the "old person style" about living more "in the moment."

      1 reply 0 retweets 6 likes
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    6. Sarah Constantin‏ @s_r_constantin Jan 14
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      If you have all the time in the world, starting new, open-ended, exploratory things, which may have large vague spots on the map, is appealing, because you can firm up the details later. You have the time to do it all.

      1 reply 0 retweets 11 likes
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    7. Sarah Constantin‏ @s_r_constantin Jan 14
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      If you have limited time (and limited capacities), you want to limit your attention to things you can actually get done, which means more modest, more concrete, more immediately enjoyable, more "near mode."

      1 reply 1 retweet 8 likes
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    8. Sarah Constantin‏ @s_r_constantin Jan 14
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      Achieving long-term goals is of course a matter of building a long-term, far-mode aspiration out of near-mode, concrete building blocks. If this is connected to age, maybe it's important to have more collaborations between older and younger adults.

      2 replies 0 retweets 9 likes
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    9. Sarah Constantin‏ @s_r_constantin Jan 14
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      (This only works if there's mutual respect though; I don't think it would be any good for old or young people to shame each other for having different priorities.)

      1 reply 0 retweets 5 likes
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    10. Sarah Constantin‏ @s_r_constantin Jan 14
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      (moi qui balance entre deux ages... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMALuEYxK6U …)

      1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
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      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jan 14
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      Replying to @s_r_constantin @HiFromMichaelV @robinhanson

      I'm not yet super confident in all aspects of this theory taking shape, but it's robust enough for the arguments I want to make. Like I wouldn't take the 20y horizon too literally, since chronological time is not even the ontologically appropriate notion to use here.

      3:21 PM - 14 Jan 2020
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        1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jan 14
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          Replying to @vgr @s_r_constantin and

          I've reframed that piece of the argument for myself in finite vs. infinite game terms and "foreshortened future" states as ones in which infinite game has stalled and there are no options to continue it. The motivation to have children might even be considered a hack for that.

          0 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
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