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Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 26, 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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Assuming that I survive the Hock, how do you think the experience will change me as a person? Do you think it would make my judgment worse, or make me more likely to try crazy shit like this again?

  • -14

Reading this book or watching the movie could be beneficial: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Life_of_Walter_Mitty

Tell you what - if you survive, let us know, and I will unban you. I'm banning you now because you've been warned and at this point you seem to just be trolling for attention, and frankly, I don't want to indulge you any further in your strange suicidal fetish.

All the questions you ask aren't really questions because you don't actually listen to what anyone says.

Mind if I still post occasional updates about his progress?

Wait, did you ban him? Quincy sent me here so I might be missing something, but there's no hammer next to his name. I want the hock stuff to stop too, but I think he should get a warning before being banned, especially if you're banning him indefinitely.

Yes, he's banned. Not sure why there is no banhammer icon.

He was warned, repeatedly.

Cripes I forgot how long he'd been doing this. Fair enough.

I've heard on the ACX discord that he's been doing this for years, and he's banned there too.

In his stead of Hock I am developing something that I term the Fock, wherein I will embark on my own parallel expedition to intercept /u/SkookumTree and have my yet-to-be-disclosed way with him.

It may or may not have the benefit of resolving his virginity question, depending on interpretation of my forthcoming but cryptic journal entries.

I kindly ask the mod team to not interfere with my own salacious status updates which I hope to share with TheMotte periodically during slow news days to maximize engagement.

It may or may not have the benefit of resolving his virginity question

I doubt Skook thinks this kind of virginity loss counts for his purposes.

You know, it's really a shame because with a little more effort, the guy could have taken this in so many interesting directions and still kept up posting. e.g. an earnest training log, or better discussion starters about what makes a 'Hock' or a literature review to look for any precedence, etc.

But it's clear at this point, these posts are just a lazy masterbatory exercise. I do feel for the dude. I suspect these posts had become a parasocial avenue for emotional engagement, to be cared about to some degree and evoke some sense of desire for his well-being.

Might I request that you only ban him until the end of the year? He (supposedly) takes off in mid-February, and as roped into his exhibitionist sympathy bait as we are, it's worth knowing whether he went out and his state of preparation and mental fitness. I think many of us would rather suffer a few January posts from him and provide him some last human empathy and discouragement, rather than go on wondering whether that one guy from that forum ended up killing himself.

Seconded.

Looks like everyone here is no longer willing to give you any constructive feedback. Consider presenting your case on https://rdrama.net, some people might mock you, but at least you'll have engagement.

Use https://rdrama.net/signup?ref=2481 for signing up btw, I'll get a badge for referring you!

I don't think this makes any sense as a question. If you die, obviously you won't try it again. If you don't try it at all, you can't do something again that you haven't done once. You're really just asking how likely you'll do it again assuming you survive.

Pretty much, or is it going to fuck up my judgement and lead me to consider drastic Hock like shit in the future. Assuming I'm around to consider drastic Hock like shit.

I think you'll probably die if you try this. Given that, my answer would depend on whether it is more likely that I am wrong about that or whether it is more likely that you just get very lucky. In the first case, I think you'll have some confidence that will increase the likelihood of your trying it again. In the latter case, I guess you'll be scared off of doing something so stupid. I think both probabilities are low and so it's hard to judge which is higher.

All that said, I think if you planned this better (e.g. do not bring skis), you could survive this. It would be very challenging and very risky, but from the small amount of research I've done, doable.

You've already gotten explicit answer to this question every time you've brought this up. At this point you're clearly getting off on the attention and using the board to milk it. I find it off putting and exhibitionist. Kindly cease.

It won't make you less interesting, and it's cool to subject yourself to things like this. That having been said, I'm not sure you want to create a narrative where something like this is just going to change everything you don't like about yourself. It can, however, be the start of that, if that's what you want.

Edit: All that said, I think we'd be better off if more people did crazy stuff like this. Go for it, have fun, learn something about yourself, and try not to die like the dumb kid who poisoned himself in Alaska

So when's the date again? There's nothing really left to discuss. I rather dislike you milking your intention and/or announcement any more; you've done it more than enough already. I'm looking forward to hearing your report upon your return, though.

I had a friend who had done some kind of cold wilderness survival challenge thing before I met him. In general I liked him, but whenever he talked about the survival thing, it kind of stalled the conversation, because it wasn't very relatable, and there wasn't really anywhere to go other than "yeah, food stress does sound stressful, yeah" which felt lame and awkward and I felt a bit socially anxious. So I would predict you would be weirder and less approachable than if you spent a comparable amount of time working with a volunteer organization or something.

It would be difficult to relate to, but I think I'd like to pick the brain of someone that did this sort of thing regularly.

Possibly I'm wrong, I haven't been following the whole saga. I'm mostly basing this on the tone of the posts I've seen, rather than their content per say. People who go out exploring or on vision quests or something can be interesting, as long as they focus on something, anything, even inside themselves, other than just pure survival in itself.

I do like, say, Wind, Sand, and Stars a fair bit, but he's not actually talking about mountains or dunes or snowshoes, or anything to really grab a hold of.

I think it is unlikely that the Hock will lead you to a healthy and stable romantic relationship with a woman you desire. If the need for a romantic relationship remains unmet then I think whatever thought process that caused you to think the Hock is a solution will manifest again with other unorthodox approaches to your romantic struggles.

It is clear that you have written-off the traditional approaches to resolving your romantic struggles. If the Hock doesn't solve the issue, then I don't think the experience will cause you to revisit the traditional approaches that you have written-off.

Assuming you almost die, but ultimately survive, you will probably be much more likely to avoid considering doing dangerous things again. You could end up with PTSD. Maybe you will become more spiritual or something.

Just to make it clear I in no way endorse the Hock. The benefits are miniscule (or net negative), the risks are enormous, and there are many safer and potentially more effective approaches that you have failed to give serious consideration to.

How many times have you posted about this nonsense? I think everyone is pretty tired of it. Shit or get off the pot.

I'm certainly not going to engage with that topic any longer, everything worth saying has been said, either he'll note the several megabytes of text telling him to find something better to do with his life or he'll go off and potentially kill himself.

If the entire thing was a troll to see how much effort we'd spend engaging with a silly but elaborate hypothetical, it'd have been a huge success.

Also a big point towards having a BLR or more toplevel posts or something, because there's clearly a lot more demand for stuff to reply to than supply of stuff to reply to.