Huxley's Brave New World is sure to be more telling of how things will actually play out.
We won't give up our liberties if they are taken by force, but rather give them up out of apathy. Apathy as a result of the cessation of our easy desires.
There are many parallels between trends we all see coming in the 20s and themes of Huxley's '32 work.
Smoked on and off between 17 and 21. Took me about 8 months full of relapses to finally stop completely - psychological addiction was far harder to break than I first anticipated.
In my case, I realised I had been self medicating for some mild pervasive anxiety without explicitly acknowledging it. Although smoking calms anxiety temporarily - it tends to exasperate it in the the longer term - creating a vicious cycle of excessive smoking for me. Once I started to take action on this underlying issue, smoking became far easier to quit. So, find the underlying issue, why do you feel the need to smoke so much? Lack of alternative activities? Loneliness? Mental health issues?
Hope my anecdote can help you out - my life is FAR better after investing the effort in quitting. You'll wish you had done it sooner, but do not underestimate the willpower it will likely take.
I feel I can relate to this somewhat - although in a slightly different context. I build a decent amount of side projects in my spare time with aspirations to take something seriously once I get traction/an interesting opportunity.
But, I'm at a mid-tier university in the UK, with a lacklustre hacking scene. Makes me think weather I made a big mistake not purposefully surrounding myself with more like-minded people - my probability of finding a cofounder in this situation seems slim and it seems that my only option is to relocate to more of a startup 'hub' once I'm finished education.
I know you're probably pissed off but HN is a free service and they have no duty to you. Having said that, mods are usually upfront about things like this.
I created a complete chatroom infrastructure in java, complete with website for registration. Features include, personal profiles, ban/reporting system, user hierarchy and a lot of other cool stuff. Could easily be adapted into an corporate chat network, that's what I planned to do with it. Let me know if you're interested!
We won't give up our liberties if they are taken by force, but rather give them up out of apathy. Apathy as a result of the cessation of our easy desires.
There are many parallels between trends we all see coming in the 20s and themes of Huxley's '32 work.