Addicted to curiosity.
Agreed. The Unhook Youtube chrome extension is great. Another extension I use in combination with it is Improve Youtube.
Together they've saved me hundreds of hours.
I'll add: No internet on my phone.
My friend recommended I delete the browser on my phone. It's saved me time from going down curiosity rabbit holes.
Selling my TV was one of the best decisions I ever made. In that same post I wrote about the underlying scientific principles behind Supernormal Stimuli.
If you're interested in the topic, I'd recommend author Deirdre Barrett’s book Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose, and also Eliezer's post Superstimuli and the Collapse of Western Civilization.
Sports betting increases domestic violence. When the home team suffers an upset loss while sports betting is legal, domestic violence that day goes up by 9% for the day.
Stress researcher, Dr. Robert Sapolsky of Stanford University, in his book Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: A Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping found that, unfortunately, one of the best ways to cope for stress is displacing aggression onto another person. (Though, he primarily studied the phenomenon with respect to baboons.)
I find this context helpful in trying to understand why some people might commit domestic violence---a perpetrator (who has not learned emotional regulation and developed healthy coping mechanisms) is experiencing incredibly high stress levels that need to be mediated through some form of coping.
As someone who also likes to write for fun, I've noticed that the quality of my writing is impacted (and is probably degraded) by the pressure to perform. Writing on LessWrong is fun and my personal standards encourage me to create the best post I can make. Writing college papers was stressful because I was no longer writing for myself, but for a grade and to impress my professor.
To an extent you're touching on extrinsic vs intrinsic motivation.
The same is true for other hobbies like playing piano. Growing up doing competitions was stressful, but writing music today as an adult is fun.
Ultimately it's about authenticity.
One of the advantages of hourly coaching is that it creates a source of reliable income for the coach.
As a bounty hunter, have you considered that people might lie to you about receiving benefits in order to avoid paying the bounty? It seems to be heavily tied on the honor system.
I'm not sure if any country has successfully been able to withstand the pressures of the processed food industry once it has entered their country. At least, I couldn't find any examples in my research.
The only countries that potentially could make quick resolutions are those that have high levels of state power over personal freedoms, like China. But so far that hasn't happened yet.
Places like the US will likely continue to suffer from chronic disease in the short-to-medium term (~10-50 years) due to its emphasis on personal freedom to be able to deteriorate one's health.
I'm not sure "we're super dumb as [a] society" so much as we're gridlocked by special interest groups. We were able to take action against the tobacco industry because nobody has to smoke. But everyone's gotta eat.
From an individual-level analysis, I agree that adopting personal responsibility is the way to go. The problem is that it doesn't seem to work en masse.
(I added the following to the main text of this post.)
Research suggests that "~80% of people who shed a significant portion of their body fat will not maintain that degree of weight loss for 12 months" and that "dieters regain, on average, more than half of what they lose within two years."
Obesity and related chronic diseases are systemic issues. They'll likely only be solved through systemic means rather than via the determination of individuals trying to stand against the system that's intent on keeping them fat and sick.
My point is not that individual people shouldn't try to improve their health. It's that, ultimately, people are a reflection of their environment. And the environment we've created over the past 100 years is killing us.
I did not replicate his argument in full. I merely selected interesting excerpts to comment upon.
The full essay can be read online here.