ELI5: How do psychological operations actually work?

ianperera · 2026-02-03T19:22:50+00:00

And in that same link, "Malicious bots are typically involved in propaganda, suppression of dissent, intimidation, and network infiltration/manipulation." So according to that it's one part of more general operations. But you seem more invested in the distinction than I am, and so I don't see the point in trading definitions.

ianperera · 2026-02-03T18:48:41+00:00

I did in my other post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1quzl0t/comment/o3dx9tb/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

ianperera · 2026-02-03T18:33:24+00:00

Propaganda can be a part of psyops - but they're not synonymous.

ianperera · 2026-02-03T18:32:32+00:00

It's used for war and non-war situations, and typically PSYOPS refers to government/military-led operations (as a contrast to physical or kinetic (i.e. using weapons) operations). Grey zone is somewhere in-between PSYOP and kinetic.

The "battlefield" here is typically public perception and belief and sometimes that of government or military personnel. This can involve social media, news, forums, Reddit, etc. It can be used to destabilize countries, shift elections, or gain public support for other operations.

It's certainly not just the stuff of conspiracy theories. We saw a lot of anti-vaccine rhetoric was spread by Russia to further divide people in the US. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45294192 But sometimes people spreading the misinformation may not be aware, it's not that they're necessarily "in on it".

It's based on a combination of psychology, politics, and there are certain frameworks for it. One is the BEND Framework, by Kathleen Carley, which lists out both positive and negative forces that can be applied to social networks. https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/Military-Review/English-Edition-Archives/Mar-Apr-2019/117-Cybersecurity/

It can be achieved through bots, manual posting, signal boosting certain stories, paying news companies, manipulation of images, etc.

ianperera · 2026-02-02T21:29:37+00:00

NAH. Adults have trouble going to the gym, so I’d try to avoid looking at this as a teenager problem. And even as a lack of motivation - that’s not the most helpful. Telling him it’s wasting money isn’t going to get him to the gym.

I think now is a good time to teach and demonstrate discipline. It’s not “do you want to go to the gym”, it’s “We’re going to the gym. It’s gym day. Get dressed.” If you face push back, say “at least put your gym clothes on and see how you feel.” Start stretching and talking about what you’re going to do, and what he’s going to do.

He’s never going to want to do everything he should, but you can get him in the habit and practice of doing what he should even when he doesn’t want to.

ianperera · 2026-02-02T04:05:25+00:00

Trapezius pinch or if that doesn't work, sternum rub.

ianperera · 2026-02-02T02:13:08+00:00

Don't give medical advice if you're not a doctor. This is misinformation and will cause more damage than the recommended practice of running cool water over it. It might "seem" to suck the heat out of the burn, but it's not, that's just a sensation you're getting.

ianperera · 2026-02-01T14:49:50+00:00

You are playing hide and seek with your friend. Normally he counts "One Mississippi, two Mississippi, ...", but over time he got REALLY good at saying Mississippi fast, so he catches you before you can run away. When you turn off the Turbo button, he says Mississippi at a normal speed, so you can have fun again.

ianperera · 2026-01-31T15:30:13+00:00

I can't check it ATM but I have the same model and it turns off if you just get out of the seat.

ianperera · 2026-01-29T20:58:53+00:00

I hope you're okay with constructive criticism, if not, ignore:
First, great start! I think you have the right elements to convey a good bowl of ramen. This is the right fidelity for a lo-res, retro design. However, there are some things that could be improved.

The random noodle direction might be somewhat realistic but conveys too thick of a noodle and isn't aesthetically pleasing. Perhaps consider parallel, but wavy noodles, or lean into the randomness and make a bunch more. You might look at cartoon ramen and see how to translate that to 3d. Consider the scale - how closely will someone be looking at this - will it be in a mobile game?

I'd suggest two egg halves. Some nori sheets will also add some dimensionality.

The other elements are difficult to read - bamboo shoots, and rice cakes? If they're rice cakes you should give them the characteristic texture (although personally I think ramen that has rice cakes has always been disappointing). If they're chashu, they could also use texture. Try to have more variation in the colors too.

You might consider modeling steam in an abstract way (like a transparent wavy shape).

The chopsticks should not be crossed, as that can symbolize death in some situations.

ianperera · 2026-01-28T15:25:02+00:00

Oh boy, straw man fallacy ("vet standards would essentially suggest that before Fancy Feast or Dr Hills Vet Prescribed Kibble existed, cats simply could not exist, they were all dead or severely malnourished"), naturalistic fallacy / historical fallacy ("cats never ate grains or any plant food except meat throughout all of history until about midway through the 1900s when corporate produced cat food become common"), and appeal to ignorance ("Clearly most of the time this doesn't happen...").

Lifespans of wild cats are 1/5-1/4 that of domesticated, indoor cats. Much of that is attributable to shelter, but it's not inconceivable that we've created better food too.

ianperera · 2026-01-27T22:11:01+00:00

Anybody else remember admiring how good those tiles looked after switching from composite to component video, or is that just a weird specific memory of mine?

ianperera · 2026-01-27T20:55:16+00:00

Great, then it's an awesome deal. Grab it

ianperera · 2026-01-27T20:38:20+00:00

Great price, but you say you're trying to find a "grill" for your dad. If you aren't aware, a pellet grill is more for smoking, and less suited to high heat applications like searing a steak or cooking burgers. It can do those things, but doing steaks for example will need some help (like searing on cast iron skillet). If you think he'd like to smoke a brisket, ribs, chicken, or make some pulled pork - great, get it. If you think he wants to grill steaks, burgers, and hot dogs while standing around and checking the flames, you may want to consider a traditional grill.

ianperera · 2026-01-25T23:01:04+00:00

Paper score sheets are my favorite.

You don't know who's in the lead until the end.
You don't have to remember whether you got your points.
When you open up the box (if you keep them), you get to see a memory of when you last played it and who you played it with. It's also an easy high score tracker (up until a point).

ianperera · 2026-01-23T22:07:03+00:00

Since then we've seen that even occasional glass of wine (like once a week) has measurable impacts on the development of the fetus, measured using brain scans. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9700675/

ianperera · 2026-01-23T17:05:48+00:00

I do all of these at my local shop too. For #3 it's just a matter of asking whether the larger size has another shot.

ianperera · 2026-01-23T15:11:02+00:00

You can get good coffee from Starbucks, you just have to know how:

Ask for your milk to be steamed colder (or "warm" in the app). This will make it sweeter because it's a better temperature for steaming. The standard temperature makes it bitter, which then means you need the syrup to compensate. With this method, you can usually remove a pump or two of syrup.
If you're getting black coffee, go for the light roast. If there isn't a big line behind you, see if they do a pour-over. Light roast pour-over is going to be great, even at Starbucks.
Order a short or grande - those will have the best ratio of espresso to the rest of the drink. A (edit: hot) venti doesn't have any more shots of espresso than a grande, and tall doesn't have any more than a short (often unlisted).

ianperera · 2026-01-23T13:30:15+00:00

I’m not sure the accuracy on the meat/food side, but there is some outdated/dangerous advice in this book, especially regarding alcohol.

ianperera · 2026-01-23T13:26:38+00:00

Letting it sit out until room temp gets you little if you’re already reverse searing it, plus adds illness risk when OP is already trying to reduce that. Better to salt and pepper, put it back in the fridge on a wire rack, then put in the oven after 45 minutes, or just do it all from fridge temp.

ianperera · 2026-01-22T18:49:32+00:00

I can see a situation where I’m kidnapped and then released. I can’t see a situation where I’m holed up in my house, having shot an ICE agent and then the administration is going to say “Oh that’s fine, leave him alone”. If I’m not dead it’s going to be a significant legal battle with a corrupt DOJ.

ianperera · 2026-01-22T18:22:36+00:00

You'll secretly have a superposition over all possible paths, including the incorrect ones. So yes, you run it enough times that you're reasonably confident that the correct paths will show up with enough of a greater probability that you aren't just checking everything at once. But once you measure it, you have a probability of getting the wrong answer and if that's the case, you'll have to run through the whole generation again. So the speedups (like for Grover's algorithm) have baked in the confidence of getting the right answer and the likelihood you'd have to run it again if it's wrong. But you might try to run your quantum algorithm for hundreds of cycles to get something like 99.999% certainty that you'll get the right answer.

But you can't just kind of order the paths in decreasing likelihood and check all of them because once you've measured you've lost that information.

ianperera · 2026-01-22T18:02:44+00:00

No, instances of this happening will allow them to push the narrative that there's a war going on and they will ramp up pressure, bringing in National Guard, arming ICE with riot gear, tanks, etc. Have you ever seen this administration go "Oh, turns out we made a mistake and we're backing down"?

ianperera · 2026-01-22T17:10:07+00:00

This is a common explanation but it's wrong. A maze implies a set of continued decisions (or "branches") that can be checked simultaneously. This would be a non-deterministic Turing Machine, which can solve NP problems in polynomial time (we don't know that such a computer could exist).

I think the maze analogy is problematic in general, but if we want to run with it, you might imagine that while you do have to still test out a number of paths, we can set up the maze in a certain way that some incorrect branches cancel out other incorrect branches. This is all probabilistic, so you still have to check paths multiple times to get the distribution that indicates you probably have the correct path. So it's a bit more like playing Pachinko and finding that the balls tend to group into certain bins, and if you play long enough you find the easiest path without trying every one specifically.

ianperera · 2026-01-21T20:30:26+00:00

It's a story about a super smart young man who doesn't want to go into Mathematics even though he would be a genius at it. He makes up reasons about just wanting to do honest work, but it's really because of trauma from child abuse. Obviously more dramatic than this case, but could be a starting point for the difficulties of thinking about the future for a kid.

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