Ask HN: Does anyone else just want to disconnect from everything?
I do not like the direction that almost everything is seeming to go in now. Basically everything seems to be falling apart or getting worse over time. I don’t want to blame AI on all of it because I really just think that the increased adoption of AI is bringing out the worst in people. Impatience, greed, laziness seem to be the traits I pick up in people I interact with online and in person more than anything else now. Everything is more expensive, the content I used to enjoy consuming or making myself like game development are in such terrible states I have very little hope for what they will turn out being like in the future. Everyone just seems to be trying to make as much money as possible while trying to use their brain as little as possible and it’s so draining to be surrounded by that all the time. I don’t want to participate in this, I literally want to unplug and go live in the forest somewhere. Anyone else?
Discussion Highlights (10 comments)
leecommamichael
Been there, I unplugged a little bit here and there and it helped. You’re feeling something large which may only need a minor adjustment.
pestatije
For a fee, you can experience the difference https://www.forestholidays.co.uk/
unsupp0rted
Are you kidding? I've been waiting for these times since I was a kid and read Asimov and Kurzweil. Living through these times now is like 14-year-old me receiving a new birthday present more or less every day. Multiple times a week I get the sense I won the "lucky to not have been born a generation earlier" lottery.
chistev
"I want to earn enough money I can get away from everyone"
markus_zhang
I’d say find like minded people in your local and befriend with them. Going go into the cave does push away whatever you don’t want to see, but leaves you with resentment that is unhealthy. Get into offline meetings and promote your ideas. Give your voice to the locals as well as the online communities.
axegon_
Yup. My first "we are cooked" moment was at an old job just a few months after chatgpt was released and during an OKR a manager proudly opened chatgpt and prompted "how do we reduce the critical bugs in our product by X% over the next quarter", chatgpt spat out the most generic answer, he copied it over to Jira and everyone started clapping. Suffice to say, what I see now is infinitely worse: people treating Dario, Altman, Musk (and people that should be locked up for life) as gods is disgusting. From financial, social and political aspects (which is to say all aspects), we are absolutely cooked. I was having this discussion with my mom as well as friends and we are all on the same page: say we want to just disappear and not deal with it, there is no one country on earth that can provide sanctuary. In the 2010s, the tech industry was a place where smart people could be smart and reasonable. The crypto-bollocks was it's special corner where people that had no understanding of cryptography and decentralization could larp around. AI just let them spill out into the rest of the tech world. Add the griefter economy, the idiotic act of making stupid people famous and the fact that, at large, people are not self-aware at all and we get to where we are: Idiocracy was not a comady but a prediction for the very near future - one which we are already in. Simple example: planes have been capable of taking off and landing on their own with 0 human input. 5 years ago, no sane human being would have boarded a plane without a pilot. Hundreds of millions would jump on board now without batting an eyelash. Not only that but if any slop-corp made a fully slopped-together plane, people would start bidding for tickets to be the first on board. All while people like Jensen are openly saying "Knowing maths is not important. For example I don't know my own address". The only hope I have is that there will be a great collapse soon - things need to get worse before they get better.
world2vec
I feel you. I keep daydreaming of getting a small piece of good land and just grow oranges and lemons. I grew up poor and it doesn't bother me at all but I still need funds to buy land, build a roof over my head, etc. So the plan right now is to save money as best as I can.
platevoltage
I've been casually looking at vans lately. I'm thinking about just doing van life and largely disconnecting from the grind because it's just too depressing watching my hobbies turn to slop.
nercht12
The classic response of an introvert to growing problems in the world is to become a recluse. Not saying you are an introvert, but it's a common response. The best thing to do is the opposite: Go out and live as the kind of nice, unselfish, non-greedy, proactive person that you wish other people to be. Thereby doing so, you will provide a little bit of sunshine to make the world a better place, and you'll subtly influence other people to be the same. You may feel like one tiny piece in the puzzle, but 1000 piece puzzles still require each individual piece to complete. Don't retreat. Face your fears: Be the driving force for good, not the one that's forced. May you be blessed in this!
thingstohappy
There will always be people who do this or that, but not everyone follows them. Social media drives what people feel FOMO about. Just ignore it. I think you should spend time on yourself and your family. Keeping your mind calm or taking a trip could help