Esme Povirk @madewokherd@computerfairi.es
Joined Aug 2018
hypnosis
I believe that everything a hypnotized person can do is a skill that one can learn. A lot of it is imagination and knowing how to use metaphor to affect and observe one's mind. There are also distinct "mental actions" that can be controlled like a muscle, and "inner senses" that can be as clear as the external ones. And some physical actions affect the mind. None of these require hypnosis, but they're all associated with it, and trying to model them as one thing doesn't work.
hypnosis
This may work for many people, but it leaves no option when the stock phrases don't click. The hypnotist may shrug and say "I guess you're not very hypnotizable", or give a recording and hope the subject gets it on a later attempt.
And, when it does work, the subject may not learn the actual skills involved, and still depends on the cargo cult ritual.
hypnosis
I think of hypnosis not as something human brains are intrinsically capable of, nor as a roleplay/social construct, but a sort of cargo cult. The hypnotist is like an instructor who, rather than understanding the mechanics of the skill he tries to teach and explaining them clearly, simply repeats phrases and actions that have often worked in the past.
animal psychology, conditioning/training //
@lioness Choosing to interpret this as implying that I am a wild animal.
Esme Povirk
boosted
Behind every highly visible positive political change has been years of grassroots projects, small organized protests, parents who want their children to grow up in a more equitable world, a TV show that normalizes women working outside the home or a queer relationship, the person who takes in an lgbtq+ teen that got kicked out, and person who is just kind every day to someone most people ignore. The tipping point will come, we don't always get to understand how or when. When you feel like nothing you are doing matters or makes a difference, remember that is just a trick to try and get you to stop. If you can do nothing else right now, keep being kind to the people who need it, kindness has changed my trajectory many times.
fantasy concept, death (2/2)
It's as though people see the years stretching on forever and the spark of life leaves them. Or as though Death said in her apparent defeat "If you won't follow my rules, then I will follow no rules," and started taking people whenever it pleased her.
fantasy concept, death (1/2)
Medicine and engineering eventually solve all common causes of death, including finally old age, but paradoxically this decreases life expectancy. The leading cause of death is something people call "completion". This often happens after a major life event, sometimes completing a life's work but more often simply a transition.
Got the next 24 hours or so blocked out for feeling sick due to vaccine side-effects, and then immediately feeling better after that.
Esme Povirk
boosted
This is why I believe we're going to need better tools for reading and exploring codebases
"Writing code is easy. Once you have a solution in mind, and have mastered the syntax of your favorite programming language, writing code is easy. Having an LLM write entire functions for you? Even easier. But the hard part isn’t the writing. It’s the reading. It’s the time it takes to load the mental model of the system into your head. That’s where all the cost really is."
https://idiallo.com/blog/writing-code-is-easy-reading-is-hard
actionable threat to gender-affirming care in US
If you have the time and energy, the FTC is launching a clearly political "investigation" into gender-affirming care, for which public comments are open. There's a portal you can use to submit them without giving identifying information: https://transequality.org/ftc-hands-off-gac
I left a comment this morning. I know it won't dissuade them, but it makes it harder to use the comments against us.
I generally avoid commenting on shitty "famous" people I've never heard of whom everyone is suddenly talking about.
Esme Povirk
boosted
"Pay Your Respects" by Mattie Lubchansky
https://thenib.com/pay-your-respects/
Esme Povirk
boosted
(asking the important questions here, boost for science)
Consider the following:
- made in Japan: check
- appears in manga or anime: check
- transformation sequence: check
- female: check
So, w that in mind… Does Samus Aran (from the Metroid franchise) qualify as a magical girl?
Esme Povirk
boosted
hate crimes are for losers do love crimes
Esme Povirk
boosted
For those of us with ADHD, if you are thinking about a task every second you’re not doing it and desperately want to do the task more than anything else and are devastated that you can’t do it so much that you use all your energy just on trying to make yourself do the thing that you want to do but can’t, that is NOT procrastination. That is executive dysfunction. It only seems like procrastination to people who have never experienced executive dysfunction and those who have only ever experienced executive dysfunction.
Procrastination is when you fully have the ability to do something and choose not to do it but to do the thing you prefer doing instead. I hadn’t experienced this until very recently, after a lot of therapy and medication.
@wwahammy We can also get menopause-like symptoms from going off E
@thinkygames Wait where is there a bunny in HyperRogue?
lewd, silly
Tracking major game releases by the uptick in furry porn on e621.
hypno, self, rambling
@emerald I don't think pleasure works for me as a reward even when it does occur. Or maybe it's operant conditioning in general that doesn't seem to work..
mh stuff
@emerald It seemed to me that which solution it suggests depends on whether it's currently an unreasonable response, or a reasonable response to an unreasonable situation. I don't know your situation that well.
Like I have to imagine there are circumstances where one's effort is truly ineffective, and the solution is to redirect that effort to escaping those circumstances.
Joined Aug 2018
