Interesting Links for 06-04-2025

[andrewducker]

1. The Darkest Timeline For Board Games

(tags:games economics usa OhForFucksSake doom )

2. Wealthy Americans have death rates on par with poor Europeans

(tags:usa healthcare europe inequality )

3. Exeter's unassuming Co-op worker leads double life as 'Lord of the Logos'

(tags:HeavyMetal design logo Devon UK )

4. Science Stopped Believing in Porn Addiction. You Should, Too

(tags:addiction porn psychology morality )

5. UK bans fake reviews and hidden online shopping fees under new law

(tags:UK regulation shopping )

6. The bits of Excel that you didn't know about (and might make your life easier)

(tags:excel spreadsheet video advice )

Comments

[mountainkiss]

Two comments on 4.

(1) subtle and very pedantic point, arguably entirely semantic: having read this article I do not think it makes the case that porn addiction is not a thing. I think it makes the case that porn per se is not addictive; closely related but not identical.

(2) I am a bit worried about the measures that they are using to determine whether or not porn is bad for the user. IIUC they are in essence capturing measures of individual flourishing. I am concerned by the lack of measures of impact on partners of heavy porn users and on their relationships.

[nancylebov]

I'm not even sure it captures all possible ill effects of porn. Unless I missed something, it doesn't cover the amount of time spent on it or neglect of other parts of life, just whether the subject feels bad about it.

[mountainkiss]

Yes. Generalising from our two comments, it doesn’t capture impacts of which the participant is unaware, which is potentially quite a big set.

This is making me quite thoughtful. I do think it’s a super interesting and probably useful learning, but I also do not know that I would be looking solely towards the testimony of wlog active alcoholics to determine the nature and impact of alcohol addiction.

[juan_gandhi]

So, as I understand, it's not porn, it's religion that drives people sick.

[andrewducker]

I think it's saying that the feeling of addiction comes from wanting something while feeling that you shouldn't want it. If you feel that you should stop then not being able to makes you feel bad. And thus most of the people who feel out of control with pornography are that way because they have been told to feel bad about it.

[juan_gandhi]

Hmm, right, makes sense. An interesting paradox inside their minds. But why is it related to other people, I wonder.

[movingfinger]

2. Without information on where the income cutoffs were for the four quartiles, at least in the US, and how many people are included in each group, the conclusions for me just say there are access problems in US healthcare, which we know. Even in moderately to very wealthy areas, there has been a decrease in medical facilities and actual-MD GPs. NPs and PAs are okay for fill-ins, but they are not as broadly trained as an MD and can miss symptoms and be uninformed about treatments, etc. Areas with high per-capita wealth can still be medically impoverished. The capitalist (and Catholic) consolidation of medicine has been hugely detrimental for public health across the board in the US.

[andrewducker]

That's exactly the conclusion I was taking - Americans can't get access to healthcare in the same way that Europeans can.

[anna_wing]

Perhaps also that a primarily private-sector healthcare system has less incentive to push back again the client's desires, no matter how flaky or lifespan-shortening (in the longer term at least, I hope that the doctor or pharmacist or whoever would still resist something likely to kill the patient on the spot) they might be.

[andrewducker]

Definitely. You want the incetives to drive long-term health. And the ones in the US do not do that.