It’s a broad category.

Good health practices are the foundation–diet, exercise, hygiene, sleep, hydration, etc. Then it comes down to things that contribute to your happiness. Things that just kill time aren’t really fulfilling for the most part, you want something that feels like you’re actually developing some happiness in a more time-investment sort of way. This usually involves either creating or improving something in some fashion. What form this takes varies tremendously from person to person, for some its learning, it can be art, it can be gardening, it can be social activities, it can even be watching movies if you’re actively consuming, where you’re thinking and growing as you watch. Common with movie buffs who can break down the ins and outs of films, they acquired that skill by watching and thinking about lots of different movies. For a big sports fan, watching or playing sports can qualify.

The key that binds them all together is there’s something that can progress, something that you value that can be built further up or otherwise gained.

When they say self care, they want you to think about things in this way. Like, smoking a whole shitload of weed might be really enjoyable, but is there anything developed or gained there? If not, even though it might feel good, that wouldn’t be self care.

Yeah, that’s a good point. You certainly cannot limit your study of the nervous system to exclusively the brain.

I feel like research neuropsychology is a better option personally. Understanding human decisionmaking is the crux of making sense of the world, and the physical structures of the brain are where that originates. Trying to make sense of its outputs without diving into the nuts and bolts (or neurons and axons I suppose) of the machine itself is always going to be very challenging. It’s still a very young field, so there’s not always that much there yet, but that just means a lot of work is available to be done.

Not that philosophy doesn’t have its own merits in other ways.

Good to see that its mainly ammo. That’s how you can stretch the funding, avoiding sending new, high ticket price systems and just making sure they can use the stuff they’ve already got.

Normally I’m a little more picky about my food recommendations, but I fully agree.

It’s a texture thing, it’s not so much about the flavor the cheese adds as it is that sort of drippy, plasticy smoothness.

I understand people that prefer cheddar or whatever, and that’s fine, but it really is completely different.

“Why make a good product if you can put your effort into making it just seem like your product is good? This way you can pivot around more flexibly. Instead of having to possess a wide array of hard-earned skills you can make specific content about, you can simply learn the skills of marketing, branding and style, and now you can bullshit your way through anything you want.”

-many modern business practices

Bah. Who needs NATO when you have the world’s best pikemen?

Subterranean lizardmen, of course.

like diabetes and obesity

With obesity in particular, that’s not exactly the most complicated illness in the world.

Uh huh. Sure thing boss.

Yes, that’s always the story. “Get control”, for ages now. The fact they’re so incompetent that they cannot finish the job despite supposedly overwhelming resources and plenty of time is a strong sign its a bunch of bs.

Yeah, it’s tempting. Sure would be nice if things were that simple. As soon as you start actually trying to poke holes in it, it all falls apart pretty quick though.

The populists are a good example. If media and tech wasn’t after their own profit margins first and foremost and was instead trying to maintain control of the world, then just don’t cover them. Total media blackout. Nobody would hear much about them, they wouldn’t be able to amass huge fanbases, they would never succeed.

But since covering them is very profitable clickbait, the media does so, and they can take power. Would make no sense if your goal was to actually hang onto power. You won’t find Putin giving tons of free airtime to any of his rivals, it just doesn’t make any sense.

Eh, little too gullible.

If the world were really controlled by some singular shadowy cabal for so many years, we’d have a unified world by now, and things wouldn’t be so chaotic. Populist idiots wouldn’t be able to take power so easily and muck everything up.

It makes much more sense that the world isn’t run by anyone, and just goes where the wind happens to blow it. This is far, far more harsh and frightening though, and not as sexy, so people don’t really like the idea. Doesn’t leave them anyone to blame for their problems.

They have wikipedia pages too, go take a look.

Actually, tons of people have. It’s up there in the same category with freemasons and illuminati in the conspiracy theory and qanon circles.

Yeah, pretty much. Collaborative storytelling is the most apt description I’ve heard. Could probably add “rng aided” and you’ve captured pretty much everything about it. It’s definitely one of those “all about the journey, not the destination” sort of things, sort of like a road trip. Also like a road trip, can be anywhere from meticulously planned to basically being railroaded on down to “uh, how about that way?” or anything in between.

I don’t know about “loving” NATO, military alliances aren’t the most loveable things. They’re necessities for protecting from our thousands of years of conquering each other very, very frequently, unless you’re a believer in that neo-lib idea of free trade preventing war.

Understanding NATOs importance is the more important thing imo.

edit: Loving NATO is like loving your car insurance. Do you love it? No, probably not. Should you just get rid of it? No, probably not, unless you just never drive.

Fair point, that is logical.

Since you’re in an unusual situation, it may help set your mind at ease if you simply open up with a very short, but earnest chat about setting expectations.

Just something like “hey, I just wanted to get this off my chest, but I’m not really good at stuff like this, and I kinda just want to hang out and see how things go. i don’t know how I feel about physical affection, but I know it takes me a long time to warm up to people, and i want to give you a chance but don’t want to get your hopes up or anything. that okay with you?”

That last line is pretty key, as it gives the other person an early opt out chance. It’s like “click here to accept the terms and conditions” basically. Then once the pressure is off, just hang out and see if you get along.

Kissing isn’t hard btw, a single kiss is pretty much impossible to fuck up unless you’re massively overthinking it and going a little crazy. A make out session can be judged, but a single kiss doesn’t really last long enough to be able to really fuck it up in any even semi-reasonable way. It’s sort of like a handshake, even going way, way too hard or soft is just “whatever” since its so brief.

Any significant injury that results in paralysis would be a potential candidate. These become possible as soon as you become old enough to climb things like trees.