Thank you for this post!
For me, getting into self hosting was nice because of the privacy and tinkering yes, but a huge part of it was just having my stuff work reliably and without enshittification.
I just set up my Home Assistant server and new Zigbee network in the past few weeks and it's pretty awesome. Was already using Jellyfin despite having a lifetime Plex pass. Feels good man.
I'll proudly wear my Space Nerd badge all day long!
It does look like an artist's rendition of the Milky Way galaxy like it's an alien meme pointing at us. But, wouldn't you know it, it's not pointing to the right place. :D
It looks like we are half way out between the core and the outer rim. (very sci-fi sounding sentence, but I like it)
Sorry to take so long to reply! I hope you see this.
The metaphor I came up with a couple years back when I was still in therapy was that we all have unique individualized instruction manuals for our brains and bodies, but for some cruel reason we do not get a copy.
Naturally, our two instruction manuals will be very similar in most areas. Needs for nutrition, water, and sleep probably overlap a lot. But maybe lactose will ruin my day and gluten will ruin yours.
Getting into the realm of mental health, medications, neurodiversity, physical health, personality disorders, and our closest relationships, all of those things interact constantly the complexity just explodes. It is unavoidable that any given person will have to to do some trial and error to craft a lifestyle where they can thrive.
Unfortunately I think tons of miserable people passively fall into the routine laid before them and don't even think about what options might be out there. And double unfortunately, society only seems to be more designed to push people in this direction because it's good for business. Work hard to keep yourself alive, consume to feel something, repeat.
An important subtext underlying all of this is how our biology is so reactive and adaptive to our environment. Do you want to be better at lifting heavy things? Lift heavy things more often. Do you want to be better at playing the guitar? Play the guitar more often. Do you want to be better at being mindful of what's actually important to you? Be better about being in a meditative mental state and in control of your mind? All need their respective workouts.
And it's never just one silver bullet. That last paragraph sounds pretty chill and zen, and that's how I am most of the time. I'm not in therapy any longer and I'm good at introspection, but I am still on my medications that keep chemical stuff in balance.
Some philosophies that really stuck with me:
Buddhism: meditation and the focus on being able to step back and be an observer of your emotions and sensory inputs and whatnot. It's a nice framework for exercising whatever you want to call the muscle that lets you be in control of your own mind and understand your reactions better.
Stoics: the notion that in many cases, things can only hurt us if we let them. We can recognize a problem and solve it, but whether that causes anxiety or dread or excitement in our minds is something we can control.
And above all: continuous improvement. You aren't going to read something and fix all your problems. But if you find a tidbit that resonates with you and you do something that makes life 1% better permanently? Huge victory, and a great use of your day!
Everything is a wave if you dig deep enough.
At least, as far as we know right now. But the standard model and quantum field theory have been really solid with really precise predictions for many decades at this point. (not any kind of expert here, just find it interesting)
Yooo, can communism get ME that swole too?
That's the neat part. There is no point. You get to define what matters in your life!
Optimistic nihilism. 💫
(this is not meant to downplay the real strife brought about by the rich trying to min/max society and looking at human beings like expendable resources)
That sounds like me during my decades of raw dogging ADHD and a bouquet of comorbidities.
It can still be that way for me, but with medication and vigilance and mindfulness and constantly trying to reverse engineer my brain/body's needs, I had a much more productive 2025 than previous years. (productive at the things I care about, not just becoming a good cog in the machine at work)
That couldn't be a picture of Andromeda though, since that is not the perspective you get from our galaxy. Andromeda is facing us more with the edge than being broadside like in this image.
I'm not complaining though. Thanks for including the alt-text!
“You think maybe he’s a little bit sensitive about somebody ramming him?”
Fuck his feelings.
source: all of his supporters.
I thought he made some references to Musk taking care of the voting machines.
It's pretty stunning how they talk like terrorists and abusers and people just go with it.
But I guess I know from experience that conservative culture has a lot of "shut up and deal with it" conditioning. And not like "practicing stoicism is good for you" dealing with it. It's more like "know your place, respect your betters, and shut your mouth."
If they want ubuntu, let them Linux Mint! :D