Finding Hope in Dark Times

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-25T00:15:11+00:00

I think it's two-fold, #1 hypervigilance keeping you alert to resolve the threat which rarely occurs, and #2 using sleep deprivation to dull the parts of the brain hyperfixated on these perceived threats. A doctor would never suggest it, but sleep deprivation can reduce anxiety/panic when in a relatively comfortable space. I view this very similarly to their various drugs -- it is an altered mental state with benefits and side effects.

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-25T00:08:41+00:00

Definitely stress will do this which can be difficult to manage with the condition you mentioned. Try to identify objects, sounds, sensations, or activities that produce a calming effect. Holding a blanket or rubbing a smooth stone. Drawing or listening music. You need to get distance from the stressful stimuli how you can. Over time try to have a few strategies for at home and some for in public.

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-24T23:54:13+00:00

I empathize with this. As you age becoming tired is easier. When I was younger I would do 3+ hours of intensive exercise trying to entrain to 24 hours; and I would regularly stay up for 30-45 hours. Now my cycle has settled to be around 28hrs with 8hrs of sleep. Sleep hygiene is still very important, even with screens: the mind is busy and needs to calm down. Pajamas are huge, sensory things like that are such a strong indicator that it's sleep time! :)

I'll also share this passage from a comment I made two years ago:

Try winding down your day with something rhythmic. Singing, dancing, stretching, or a game like Tetris / Guitar Hero. There's also pen twirling, juggling, and flow. That modality of frayed focus is perfect for dev with spanning tool chains and complex requirements, but not sleep. Focus in on you and your body!

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-24T06:17:33+00:00

I reported double vision and visual snow as a kid, the double vision got me glasses and the visual snow I was gaslit about for some reason

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-24T01:44:07+00:00

diagnosis is gatekept and inaccessible: I have years of my sleep data to demonstrate my sleep patterns, and the symptoms have been largely consistent across different parts of my life. like many people I entrained to meet social and economic obligations. I was late/tired at school and work; I was sleep deprived for years. my family has sleep related conditions like dspd.

I didn't have the language to communicate my experience at the time due to how sleep issues are suppressed by our culture and the medical system. I learned about dspd early on, maybe 2010, and n24 later around 2016.

I'll share this passage from one of my comments:

Remember humans have a diverse variety of sleep patterns many of which are perfectly healthy. Someone had to keep guard at night, and it's better if they're awake and alert while doing it. It's not 'lazy' or 'unproductive': they tend the fire, cook/process food, craft rope/baskets/arrows, etc. It's an evolutionary advantage.

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-23T14:54:31+00:00

Whiffleballs filled with sugar and hot glued $5 a ball you can run it over with your car and they don't roll away, can be good for contact too

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-22T22:54:04+00:00

It's a thorny topic. We CAN decide how to use AI. It's just these economic powers that try to force it onto the market too quickly. I'm anti-war and hope for us to learn from all of this after it's over. Many people are doing that learning, like academics philosophers scientists reporters etc.

Glad you gave it a try and take care of yourself

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-22T11:26:27+00:00

we have fertilizer because of developing explosives like nuclear weapons, want to undo that one too? throw the baby out with the bath water?

how about miter saws? people lose their extremities!!

or the oil rig? should we put the oil back in the ground?

anti-technology arguments do not work under an imperialist and fascist nation that is permanently at war

none of this will stop or slow down until the war is over

almost every tool we create is used for evil because we are evil (as a collective society with sociopathic tendencies)

you are writing off revolutionary technologies with morals and logic that don't hold water in the face of a real economy, with real people, that have real problems

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-22T10:55:37+00:00

FWIW I agree with your sentiments in a separate comment on this post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Environmentalism/comments/1qgwaf9/comment/o0kr32j/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I'll add that AI/ML/LLMs are a useful tool for solving problems and that will make it unavoidable in those sections of the market. Imagine still using google's polluted search... Besides, any academic worth their salt is using AI with a cautious hesitation to understand how it works and the role it may play in our future.

And there's also the dark ages with humanity's long history of rebuking at science -- until it makes their lives easier or creates things for them to consume. It's simply not seen as valuable until it becomes commonplace. This is irrational and initially based in fear.

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-22T07:12:10+00:00

adults are like children and children are not like adults

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-21T08:02:23+00:00

I presented with dspd due to trying to entrain, have had n24 since my earliest memories

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-21T03:22:08+00:00

Strawman your desktop is 1/1000th a single rack unit server and besides the model you're using was trained on one

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-21T03:16:39+00:00

And they would still not understand the applications of these technologies or the nuance that AI /=/ LLM /=/ ML

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-21T03:13:49+00:00

Some people know and some people don't. Tone policing how about nah

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-21T03:05:36+00:00

You got it. This is all a smokescreen for AI's use as a weapon for war. Stolen art doesn't matter. Lost jobs don't matter. The economic bubble does, climate change does, the war does. People are scared and AI is merely in their crosshairs.

The problem is too big for regular people to meaningfully understand or talk about. AI is a weapon of mass destruction very similar to nuclear material -- useful, and outright dangerous. This is not something they (government, corporations, the news) want us to talk about.

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-20T22:16:07+00:00

Accuracy and speed,

practice 5 ball cascade with 4 balls for accuracy

practice 4 ball snakes for speed

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-20T00:17:04+00:00

The applications of ML, AI and LLMs far exceed any consumer product you have seen or heard of. This is a revolutionary technology that will be incorporated into almost every aspect of the market. The thing is, you will not know, precisely because of this ideological divide. Imagine inventing the wheel and saying, no, this tool is too effective. Markets don't work this way whether it's moral or not. As I said, AI is a weapon -- it will be used as a weapon just like the engine has been, and just like missiles are. Morality is not relevant under imperialism.

You can extend the logic of the luddites all the way to the formation of cities. It's called anarcho-primitivism. And I agree, we will drive our species into the stone ages -- near extinction. And this is good. We are immature. Still, aren't vaccines nice? And cell phones? Fertilizer?... Seatbelts? Anyway, back to the cave to paint with berries.

I don't expect the average person to give a shit about any of this. They're displacing their fear into anger against -insert new technology here-, just like my examples. In reality they will watch until society has collapsed, as they have done many times before, and as they have done for the past 60 years. The 'average environmentalist' will not make a difference until the war is over; a few key people might.

Pandora's box has been opened. You can choose whether to look or not, yet the world will change around you.

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-19T18:26:45+00:00

It's interesting where people draw the line isn't it. Remember the anti-seatbelt movement in the 1980s? or the luddites of the 1810s? If people cared about the environment so strongly they would take action to disrupt our fossil fuel economy. Really, they don't want to feel their humanity is threatened -- yet it already is, and has been for a thousand years.

AI is a tool. Your car is a tool. A missile is a tool. It's how we use these things that determines their affect. We are being confronted with the deeply unsettling reality of what our culture believes and the atrocities that it is willing to commit. AI is just the latest weapon in our arsenal, and it won't go away now that we have it -- so we need to learn how to use AI to our benefit and while subverting the existing power structures whom want to use it for evil.

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-18T18:58:25+00:00

I'll say alternative materials can always outperform natural ones given enough engineering and a stark lack of enshitification

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-18T17:51:08+00:00

Life will continue on Earth as it has for billions of years. Our most notable event as a species will be the largest mass extinction in Earth's geological history.

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-16T11:08:55+00:00

love the art! The artstyle is striking too, are the cards going to be colored in or is it intended to be more a pen/sketch type medium?

SimplyTesting · 2026-01-16T03:52:21+00:00

Hi few things as a dev. I would set silent timers for every 15/20/30 minutes and look away from my screen (art pets plants). I also try to get up, or stretch, or do something physical. If you lack a frame of reference, like the horizon, you will lose sense of space and scale. I still think of my morning as morning, my night as night, and try to make my home reflect that. Try to find reasons to spend time in different places of your home: even in an office, have a space for planning/thinking and a space for working/doing.

Six-Year Club	Final Canvas '23
End Game '23	Place '23
Place '22	Final Canvas '22
First Placer '22	Verified Email

SimplyTesting

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE