Still - probably better than Hollywood in the long run, and more accessible, even in the hellish direction it will undoubtedly go.

I mean - there’s this popular topic of the issue of loneliness lately. People are less motivated to do things that would maybe normally bring them social joy and get them out of their own homes and bring them together with others in the flesh. You’d expect people to be motivated to do that kind of thing, maybe? But it’s hard. And it’s harder every day when there’s a zeitgeist of growing isolationism.

I certainly don’t think the inflexibility of a 5 day in person work week with a hellish, uncompensated commute is the answer to the loneliness issue, nor the lack of motivation to do good work. But maybe there is some middle ground that would serve as a kick in the pants of sorts, without making us all miserable little ants going to and fro once again, that could help people get back out there in a way that helps.

I mean, at least, it doesn’t seem like the metaverse or whatever else is filling that gap as the techno-seers foresaw… but maybe future generations will prove that to be more realistic than bringing people back out together in meatspace. Or maybe we just stoop deeper into this new reclusiveness without any real stand ins for grabbing lunch together at all.

Blue prince’s rng is quite well thought out imo. Once you pick up on some of the unwritten rules about the room drafting system and start building strategies around what to prioritize and how to adjust your goals, it starts feeling a lot like many other popular card-based strategy games.

There are weak points, for sure, and your contrasting it with Lorelei makes sense. But Lorelei’s puzzles felt so plain and unchallenging. I like that blue prince is keeping me on my toes.

They’ll maybe read, watch tutorials, engage in social media, chat about doing a thing, but then never actually do it regularly enough (even poorly or briefly) to see what their improvement trajectory looks like.

They’ll go a week or month between engaging in doing a thing (even if not specifically denoted “practice,”) and only do when bursts of excitement or inspiration hit. And because of the gaps between starting basically from scratch each time, they stay a beginner for years and years with no insight on their actual capabilities. Certainly guilty myself.

Maybe the chapo trap house people or Adam Friedland or other socialism adjacent people fit the bill a little bit as well, but they seem more in line with the types that are ultimately corporately unpalatable, like you mention.

If it’s a simple matter like that, what ideas could other social media take from HN to improve?

It feels unlikely. Maybe this new loneliness isn’t the same, even as what we’ve grown familiar with through decades of tv and movie celebritydom. Traditional social interactions may feel unsatisfying in comparison to what we now crave. We’re no longer just seeking connection… we want an audience, we want to be heard but not necessarily to hear. This isn’t entirely new, but it seems more pervasive now than ever. The disease of digital loneliness has been manufactured so that the only cure seems to be some impossible hyper-reality where every lonely person gets their own little social media following.

What good is sitting down with someone for a conversation where you may or may not come out feeling anything like the thrill you get with constant interaction and validation? Has loneliness changed into something we can’t fix by putting the phone down? Is there a way back that isn’t regressive? Is there a way forward that isn’t dystopian?