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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   4111 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 5, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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2 separate questions in one.

  1. Have you ever considered getting an ADHD diagnosis? Mainly for easier access to Adderall? (Not all of us can get it in the streets). I've tried a similar drug recently and it was like a magic drug. I got 3 days worth of work done in half a day. I think I might actually have ADHD or some kind of disorder given how far above my baseline it got me. What's your overall opinion on the matter of taking drugs to be a better wage slave?
  2. Do you feel irrationally anxious about food waste? Even though individual food waste is probably a tiny fraction of all the waste that happens in a modern economy? The idea of food waste gives me the heeby jeeebies and this is most likely because I've been indoctrinated as much as a child. It just feels "wrong".

Yes to both.

I've been able to build whole applications in a single day on Adderall. I don't like using drugs to be a better "wage slave". I think my performance on ADHD medication is too good to be a reasonable expectation of an employer, while without them I'm performing below where I feel my true capabilities lie. It's frustrating.

My anxiety about food waste has been tempered over the years. After working in the restaurant industry you realize that any perceived reduced waste there is just hidden from you. I also realized that I do a far better job of saving and eating leftovers than almost any other millennial I know. It's a fallacy to eat food to not waste it, the cost of ingested calories is non-zero and higher than just letting it rot in a landfill in some cases.

I don't like using drugs to be a better "wage slave".

The archetypical example of labour performed solely for the benefit of the master could be consider the ancient Egyptian Pyramids[1]. Only Pharaoh and the elite could be buried in them, the average Egyptian gaining nothing. But today it is tourists, who are not exceptionally wealthy (except in historical comparison) who enjoy the awesome sight of something so grand and millenia old.

By improving your job performance, unless you are writing code for dating apps for millionaires, you helping the masses. So if you are a slave, you are to the masses, which are likewise slaves to you.

[1] I know the workers weren't slaves. Also while enslaved people picking cotton did make some American slaveowners rich, it allowed clothe and products made from it to be cheaper for the masses.

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