I usually think this, but then I'll see some random piece of advice from thousands of years ago, e.g. Seneca, Sun Tzu, Jesus, Plato and it seems very relevant.
We've got a lot more bells and whistles these days, but maybe the absence of reddit, imgur, youtube and the general dopamine hamster-wheel allowed them to have a better understanding of human nature.
Counter-point is that we are more likely to live longer and have to fight fewer threats of disease, famine, predators and war, so maybe we have more time to contemplate higher thoughts.
I once read that to get the loop out of your head, you have to "finish" the song, i.e. play it to the end, either in your head, sing it or play it on the stereo.
Technology and global markets have driven tremendous efficiencies. Companies can make more money selling a $300 TV to the poor than a $3,000,000 TV to the rich.
Up until around 1900, in the US, the top 10% lived drastically better than the bottom 10% (or whatever top/bottom chunk you want to look at).
Now, extreme money just doesn't buy you anything special. It will have more gold on it, less inconvenience, be bigger (or smaller), faster, etc.
- Bezos has a private plane, the poor have Southwest
- Gates has a Porsche 959, the poor can take a bus
- Buffet lives in a small house in Nebraska (well, bad example)
So the rich earn and/or accumulate more and more money, but since they can only spend $1200 max on a new phone once a year, it mostly get re-invested into the market.
All true, unless you do a low-carb diet. Once your body adjusts (2-3 weeks for me), your hunger feelings are significantly dampened because your blood sugar is always stable. This is why low-carb diets are considered "easier" by many people.
Thomas Sowell digs into this in his book "Black Rednecks and White Liberals"
quote from the book's Wikipedia page:
Sowell argues that the black ghetto culture, which is claimed to be "authentic black culture", is actually a highly dysfunctional white southern redneck culture which existed during the antebellum South. This culture came, in turn, from the "Cracker culture" of the North Britons and Scots-Irish who migrated from the generally lawless border regions of Britain.
The Jews identified this problem and the solution thousands of years ago, hence their weekly Sabbath ritual of disconnecting from work/technology and focusing on their family/faith.
I've got a growing appreciation for rituals that seem silly, worthless or out-dated. If the ritual has survived this long, deep examination is in order before altering or dismissing it.
I recall those times too, however I switched back to gopher because the web was click-click-crash if you were running windows or on the college unix workstations, it was click-click-hang.
https://www.reddit.com/r/keto has 910,000 subscribers who will give you mountains of anecdotal evidence backed up by their lab work and tales of their doctor's astonishment.
You learn on 2, then move to 1 aka slalom as you have far more manuverability.
Wakeboards and skurfers (if those are still around) are wider than a slalom ski and don't have both feet facing forward. They are closer to a snowboard.
But I find the most fun behind a boat is on a regular surfboard.
I grew up waterskiing, so when I moved to the mountains, I thought I'd pick up snow skiing easily.
I did o.k., but after a few years I still hadn't gotten that "flow".
After a few years of skiing, I tried boarding and got "flow" the second day when there was 12 inches of fresh pow, even though I still sucked at it.
Immediately switched and haven't looked back. Several years later, it dawned on me that waterskiing is done on a single ski, so it is much closer to snowboarding. Your feet are just at a different angle. Seems obvious in hindsight.
Another classic indicator is when your cab driver gives you stock tips.
But I figure now it's Uber driver giving crypto tips.