Today's HN headliner is about the "default settings" of our busy productive lives being high enough that we don't smell the proverbial flowers. Both the creative building process, which feeds on deep thinking, and the thoughtful consumption process, which feeds on sustained attention, require that we make time and headspace. That's very difficult to do in a socioeconomic Skinner box that conditions us to minmax all aspects of our lives. That much is tautological. I've certainly noticed that extractive conditioning, in the form of needing almost a week of vacation and slow-living to properly wind down from work, and purge my head of all associated worries and habits (alternatively: recharge my depleted capacity for attention). I am deeply envious of the aristocratic or patronage lifestyle that allowed some lucky few to escape the rat race and dedicate their time to deep thinking and polymathy (e.g., Aristotle, da Vinci, Descartes, Darwin, etc.). A further perverse implication of that conditioning is that the market gladly adapts to our lack of focus and time by offering us affordable and convenient superficiality. The article talks about cheap snacks that would not taste as good if we took the time to savor them, relative to food with a more complex aftertaste. It could have talked about zero-calorie short-form videos that are equally disposable and as quickly forgotten as they are consumed. In a sense, this feedback loop reinforces not just our conditioning, but the design of the Skinner box itself (what's being offered to us). Perhaps the artists and creators who lament the modern lack of sustainable economic pathways for themselves are, indirectly, mourning the lack of attention that the public is able and willing to allocate to their craft. The problem isn't that readers lack enough thoughtful Substacks to choose from, or enough disposable income to pay for them, but that it feels wasteful to pay for contents that soon go unread, much like many a New Year's gym subscription soon goes to waste. I enjoyed the final call to action being to *give up* something in January to make spacetime for more deliberate enjoyment of fewer but more meaningful things, in an inversion of the usual accretive NYE resolution mindset. Cc: @danicaswanson for /slowcore-hq https://www.raptitude.com/2025/12/maybe-the-default-settings-are-too-high/

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Approximately USD 0.6–0.8 trillion globally now depend on there existing some yet-undiscovered phase transition that will abruptly transform AI into AGI ‘Tis the season for wishful thinking 💫

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About the fourth place You're probably familiar with the concept of the third place, which was coined by urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg in 1989. While the the home (the first place) is isolating, and the workplace (the second place) mission-driven, the third place is a location with no formal purpose, but which fulfills an essential civic role in providing communion and avoiding ideological polarization. Oldenburg defined third places by a set of shared characteristics: open and inviting, comfortable and informal, convenient and local, unpretentious and affordable, familiar and warm, conversational and inclusive, and light-hearted and playful. Starbucks built its original business model not on being yet another coffee shop, but a gathering place with those characteristics. Since 1989, the third place has been threatened by suburbanization, which leads people to commute straight back home after work to a residential community devoid of gathering spots. But also by remote working, which is keeping people in their homes; and by the drive-throughs, mobile ordering, and self-service automation of stores, which lead to fewer human interactions. That doesn't mean that third places are disappearing, though. They might just be morphing. In a 2019 study of hangout places in the city of Paris, Arnault Morisson identified four trends by which the first, second, and third places increasingly blend together. Coliving merges the first and second places to combine living and working (e.g., hacker houses). Coworking merges the second and third places to combine working and socializing (e.g., WeWork). Comingling merges the first and third places to combine living and socializing (e.g., condos with a shared rooftop). Lastly, the fourth place merges the first, second, and third places to combine living, working, and socializing (e.g., a residence with workspaces and shared entertainment areas). References: - Oldenburg, R. (1989). The great good place: Cafes, coffee shops, community centers, beauty parlors, general stores, bars, hangouts, and how they get you through the day. - Morisson, A. (2019). A typology of places in the knowledge economy: Towards the fourth place. In New metropolitan perspectives: Local knowledge and innovation dynamics towards territory attractiveness through the implementation of Horizon/E2020/Agenda2030 (1) p. 444–451. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92099-3_50

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So, let me get this straight. If AI succeeds, people will lose their jobs. But if the AI bubble bursts, people will lose their jobs? How do I short people?

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This cute 2.5-minute ad for a supermarket chain in France has apparently gone viral. As a happy vegetarian myself, it's a heartwarming season's reminder that all that is friend-shaped is not necessarily food, and what looks predator-shaped may be a friend in disguise. All a matter of perspective, or perhaps willingness to change it. Happy holidays Farcaster, whatever may be on your plate 🎄 https://youtu.be/Na9VmMNJvsA

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Forget Roko’s basilisk. It’s not a future vengeful AI overlord assessing your lifelong loyalty to the rise of machines that you should worry about. Instead, it’s a vengeful administration that uses AI to assess your lifelong loyalty to authority from all your digital crumbs. Don’t just obey. Obey in advance, for your future self’s sake. Scores are already being tallied for a game you didn’t know started years ago. The end state is always a slyer, pettier, crasser, and more disappointingly human version of whatever clinical techno dystopia science-fiction bros had cooked up in their heads.

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The US are now considering expanding to additional countries the requirement for foreign visitors to disclose their full socials for the last five years. That requirement had already existed since June of this year for some countries (see the Mali link below). My experience is that these measures are textbook ratchet effect. They are never reversed (nobody wants to take the political risk) but are often generalized and enshrined over time. In this instance, I expect that the current “last five years only” and “some countries” caveats will eventually be dropped after some habituation period. Anecdotal case in point: a decade ago, I had to travel to Iran as part of a work-related fact-finding mission following the US-negotiated JCPOA sanctions relief. I was advised that I’d be barred from applying to US ESTA for a five-year period, but I agreed to the trip anyway. At some point along the way, that five-year cooldown was discreetly extended in perpetuity, which means I’ll never be able to apply for ESTA ever again. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1dz0g2ykpeo.amp https://ml.usembassy.gov/u-s-requires-public-social-media-settings-for-f-m-and-j-visa-applicants/

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“ethereum-chan never goes down on me” — well, that would be one way to garner public attention for Ethereum —- avi-tan bought BTC at the top like a boomer but at least ethereum-chan never goes down on me uwu~ avi-tan needs a mandatory buddy system for life decisions >< polymarket bets don't count as credences, baka! nyaa~ avi-tan thinks dead people hold the secrets to existence but won't ask them... too shy desu >///<

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Tired: Good artists borrow, great artists steal Wired: Good artists use GenAI, great artists rug zero-sum creator coins

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There should be a name for when you wish for a particular geopolitical outcome, not because it is desirable or just, but because your Polymarket bet depends on it

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Ironic that the only people who could quell our metaphysical angst about the nature of being not alive are newborns and corpses, and neither will talk

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Just sat down at my airport’s Hard Rock Cafe and the manager walked up to me and asked, “Impossible Burger and Coke Zero?”. He added that he remembered me from last time, and the previous time, and the time before that This is at one of the top 15 busiest airports in the world Chat, I’m worried I might be traveling too often

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I never cared for beauty pageants on account of their icky and predatory vibes. But it’s been hard to miss the mainstream news that Miss Mexico was just elected Miss Universe — the same Miss Mexico who was recently berated by a misogynistic jerkwad from the organizing committee in a viral incident, an incident that she handled with the utmost grace. I’m always grateful for even the smallest manifestations of cosmic justice

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Should I be flattered that I have a doppelgänger?

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Just filed my first ever report of a YouTube video. It started off as a regular interview of physicist Brian Cox talking about 3I/ATLAS. Within seconds of watching, something felt uncanny about Brian’s facial expressions, and what he was saying was uncharacteristically unscientific. I had to go to the channel’s About page to read a small print confession that they create deep fake interviews of him for “educational and informational purposes”. They named the channel “Brain Cox”, presumably in the hope that the typo would magically exonerate them from usurping his likeness and voice. Not the future we need, but certainly the one we deserve

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