Ask HN: Does anyone else just want to disconnect from everything?

The classic response of an introvert to growing problems in the world is to become a recluse. Not saying you are an introvert, but it's a common response. The best thing to do is the opposite: Go out and live as the kind of nice, unselfish, non-greedy, proactive person that you wish other people to be. Thereby doing so, you will provide a little bit of sunshine to make the world a better place, and you'll subtly influence other people to be the same. You may feel like one tiny piece in the puzzle, but 1000 piece puzzles still require each individual piece to complete. Don't retreat. Face your fears: Be the driving force for good, not the one that's forced. May you be blessed in this!

To add, you can argue for the altruistic proactive behavior on the basis of self interest too.

A good side effect of becoming the person you wish others were is that many people secretly feel the same way, and you'll attract good people by being so. You'll ofc also attract charlatans and pretenders and naturally get better at distinguishing the two. And soon you'll realize that there are good people, or good communities out there! And now that you've practiced your form of virtuous behavior, it's more likely that they'll welcome you with open arms.

When your environment changes so does your thought process and then habits. If one becomes cynical of the world the best antidote is imo to find a small world of like minded people, and first step is almost always to become a virtuous person yourself

The creed of the system makes us all so insular.

I’d say find like minded people in your local and befriend with them. Going go into the cave does push away whatever you don’t want to see, but leaves you with resentment that is unhealthy.

Get into offline meetings and promote your ideas. Give your voice to the locals as well as the online communities.

Yup. My first "we are cooked" moment was at an old job just a few months after chatgpt was released and during an OKR a manager proudly opened chatgpt and prompted "how do we reduce the critical bugs in our product by X% over the next quarter", chatgpt spat out the most generic answer, he copied it over to Jira and everyone started clapping.

Suffice to say, what I see now is infinitely worse: people treating Dario, Altman, Musk (and people that should be locked up for life) as gods is disgusting. From financial, social and political aspects (which is to say all aspects), we are absolutely cooked. I was having this discussion with my mom as well as friends and we are all on the same page: say we want to just disappear and not deal with it, there is no one country on earth that can provide sanctuary.

In the 2010s, the tech industry was a place where smart people could be smart and reasonable. The crypto-bollocks was it's special corner where people that had no understanding of cryptography and decentralization could larp around. AI just let them spill out into the rest of the tech world. Add the griefter economy, the idiotic act of making stupid people famous and the fact that, at large, people are not self-aware at all and we get to where we are: Idiocracy was not a comady but a prediction for the very near future - one which we are already in.

Simple example: planes have been capable of taking off and landing on their own with 0 human input. 5 years ago, no sane human being would have boarded a plane without a pilot. Hundreds of millions would jump on board now without batting an eyelash. Not only that but if any slop-corp made a fully slopped-together plane, people would start bidding for tickets to be the first on board. All while people like Jensen are openly saying "Knowing maths is not important. For example I don't know my own address".

The only hope I have is that there will be a great collapse soon - things need to get worse before they get better.

Are you kidding? I've been waiting for these times since I was a kid and read Asimov and Kurzweil.

Living through these times now is like 14-year-old me receiving a new birthday present more or less every day.

Multiple times a week I get the sense I won the "lucky to not have been born a generation earlier" lottery.

I'm the combo. I feel like you, and I live in the forest.

I feel better-prepared for this than almost anyone. I have everything I need, I can work with my hands, I can build any software I need, I own my own business for 16 years. I have a 38 acres of forest and game, a big garden. I'm a generalist, born in the perfect year to understand how computers actually work, remember DOS, remember before 9/11.

I've never been more excited about the world, and I have never felt I could have this much power (without great wealth) as an individual. I can't wait for robotics to land in similar fashion. I hope biomedical advances can keep my folks alive until we beat this game.

Very Interesting perspective. I would love to hear more from you on this.

Pick a random story from this week.

E.g. we're literally commercializing alchemy now.

Not "sort of kind of if you squint and pretend"... literally honest-to-goodness alchemy.

https://x.com/marathonfusion/status/2113001073019662481

I am living in a Sci-Fi novel from my youth

There will always be people who do this or that, but not everyone follows them. Social media drives what people feel FOMO about. Just ignore it. I think you should spend time on yourself and your family. Keeping your mind calm or taking a trip could help

I feel you. I keep daydreaming of getting a small piece of good land and just grow oranges and lemons.

I grew up poor and it doesn't bother me at all but I still need funds to buy land, build a roof over my head, etc. So the plan right now is to save money as best as I can.

This is what I want to do too. If I had money, I would also like to build a small community (maybe 20-50 people max) who can live off the land, and just do what they like - compose music, write software etc etc. Maybe build a library with only physical books, only those that were published before 1980 (or some timeline like that).

For a fee, you can experience the difference

https://www.forestholidays.co.uk/

Been there, I unplugged a little bit here and there and it helped. You’re feeling something large which may only need a minor adjustment.

I've been casually looking at vans lately. I'm thinking about just doing van life and largely disconnecting from the grind because it's just too depressing watching my hobbies turn to slop.

Whatever you do please avoid becoming the van that parks in the amazing spot next to the ocean and then sits in the back staring at their screen. The whole ocean is there! Stare at the ocean!

"I want to earn enough money I can get away from everyone"

this is a good goal to have

No, that is terrible.

1. Spending years of your life earning enough money so that you can begin to live at some later date is not a good way to live. Tomorrow is not guaranteed, and even if it was, you will be different and everything and everyone around will be different.

2. Human beings are not meant to live away and disconnected from everyone else. We are community creatures, even if not always very social.

I do think people overall would be happier if it was culturally, socially desirable to be, or at least come across, as humble, and consume little, especially the more resources you have. Think Warren Buffett -- maybe he does spend a lot on himself, but at least he does not come across as if he does and he certainly does not brag about it. The opposite of Instagram culture. Anyone going against this would see fierce backlash, reputational damage etc.

A new religion of sorts.

Perhaps then people would not feel the need to keep up with the Jones' as much, always feeling as if they don't have enough, worrying about their status. Once people have enough, they can have more choice in what they work on, and perhaps the economy can restructure towards more activity that actually makes people's lives better.

As is, people can't seem to stop even using Meta products or X or buying Tesla cars, despite most people likely having poor opinions of the people at the top of these companies. I do not really understand why. It is easy, these companies have no moats, there are easy alternatives, and it would change the world.

i grew up without running water. these types of problems are caused by people who play zero sum games, on both side (the victims and the oppressors).

you live your life.

i'm living my best life.

I was recently thinking the time will come when not consuming becomes a product. Imagine being paid to not use power or to not take a shower so the power and water are available for the billionaire instead to swim in his heated pool.

Insanity that the most sane goal in a capitalist system is to make enough to leave the system. Surely we have enough resources to figure out a method of distribution that doesn't involve this much suffering?

Actually getting away from everyone isn't expensive (in the US anyway).

It's expensive only if you want to feel like you're away from everyone, but actually stay very near to everyone.

You can buy a decent acreage (30-80 acres) for less than a new truck.

hi, random. Saw your comment some posts back. You need azure account with credits?