R.D. Laing is a major figure in the history of psychiatry and psychotherapy. His radical critique of how society treats the mentally ill, and advocacy for a more humane approach, are legendary. Laing was also a charismatic guy who became a celebrity of the 60s and 70s counterculture.
The most famous of Laing's experiments was Kingsley Hall, where patients and therapists (though presumably they didn't use those terms) would live together, and where the focus was on helping through simple presence and relationship rather than techniques or treatments. Here is a striking, even astonishing story from one of the houses Laing started after Kingsley Hall: https://www.madinamerica.com/2013/11/living-one-r-d-laings-p.... I posted it here years ago, where it didn't get one upvote (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6713259), but I still think it's one of the most interesting submissions I've made to HN.
The author of that piece, who at the time of the story was a young therapist enamored of Laing's approach, is now the founder of the new(ish) Gnosis Retreat Center in San Francisco, along with a bunch of other people who worked with Laing. Here he is talking about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4-lJWwwRc8#t=8m53s.
I think it's interesting that they are making a fresh start at reviving what Laing did, and that it's in San Francisco. That's why I posted this, though I certainly didn't mean to bork their server!
Here’s one passage I remember after many years: Byron explaining how convenient it was for schoolboys that the editors of the classics had thoughtfully collected all the obscene bits in one place. They were too prudish to leave them in the text, but too scholarly to delete them altogether.
Juan was taught from out the best edition,
Expurgated by learnéd men, who place
Judiciously, from out the schoolboy's vision,
The grosser parts; but, fearful to deface
Too much their modest bard by this omission,
And pitying sore his mutilated case,
They only add them all in an appendix,
Which saves, in fact, the trouble of an index;
For there we have them all "at one fell swoop,"
Instead of being scatter'd through the Pages;
They stand forth marshall'd in a handsome troop,
To meet the ingenuous youth of future ages,
Till some less rigid editor shall stoop
To call them back into their separate cages,
Instead of standing staring all together,
Like garden gods—and not so decent either.
Jerry Weinberg, who died yesterday, used to say that every time you hear the j-word ("just") you should replace it with "have trouble", i.e. "you could also have trouble avoiding your migraine trigger". He was talking about software projects, but the rule is general. The j-word usually indicates that difficulty is being glossed over.
I love motorcyles and motorcycle-commuted for years, and yes—it sure beats driving a car. But it's not a counterexample here! There is no comparison to walking or biking, especially to work. As I said above, the effect is astonishing.
If I'm walking or biking somewhere, especially anywhere work-related, it feels so damn good. If I know that in the past I'd have been doing it in a car, it feels twice as good. If I see lots of other people in cars trying to do the same thing, I have the moral problem of trying to control my schadenfreude.
The one exception I'd make for automated vehicles, but it's only a partial exception, is trains. As someone once quoted on HN: "Everybody hates buses and everybody loves trains." Trains don't have the quality of walking or bicycling, but they have some other lesser quality that still feels pretty good. Well, maybe motorcycles and trains are tied for second. :)
But one group of commuters report enjoying themselves. These are people who travel under their own steam [...] They walk. They run. They ride bicycles.
Completely matches my experience, and it's astonishing how strong the effect is.
You're right. "Common" means something so different than it used to pre-internet. I'm reminded of that every time I google something I think is special.
Edit (missed your other question): He pronounces it "Miller".
The benefit is getting a car, or a place to stay, far more easily.
My point isn't that these services are net good (though I do think so). It's that any "net bad" argument that doesn't consider these benefits isn't serious and so discredits its own side.
Regardless of one's opinion, how can you have a serious discussion without mentioning the benefit users get from these products? That's what drives the whole thing.