> Whonix when used via Qubes DispVMs is more effective than Tails in my opinion (better protection against IP leaking), unless your goal is mainly the amnesic aspect.
It's a matter of convenience.
Your setup is far more complicated for a non-technical activist or journalist Vs. Tails.
I want to know if it's even remotely possible for a EV truck company like Rivian to unseat the F-150 as America's best selling truck within the next 5 years?
Those are all excellent points, but fail to address the addictive downsides OP mentioned.
The business model of the internet has always been surveillance and modern smartphones + tech companies have taken that to the extreme.
Brilliant engineers / behavioral scientists using supercomputers to manipulate humans at scale guarantees that the average individual (and teenagers etc) has absolutely no fighting chance.
The thing about addiction at this scale is that... no one things they're addicted because our entire world/society is addicted - so we all justify it and move on.
I went on a silent meditation retreat for 10+ days (with no technology, talking, or smartphones etc) and it was awesome for my mind, but then, turning my phone on after 10+ days of it being off brought back the dread 2x as more.
"You asked me how depression felt, and this is all I could come up with.
It feels like I’m walking upstream through a current strong enough to pull me under four times over.
There are others with me but they are walking along the banks telling me to “just get out of the water.”
But instead of extending a hand in help, they just move on and leave me behind.
Every once in a while I find a rock that is strong enough for me to lean on, And I can rest for a bit.
But the rocks always get tired of holding me up, and when they let go, I’m left drowning, thrown 50 feet back again.
And nothing is harder than standing up in that current when everything in you is telling you how much easier things would be if you just let yourself get dragged under."
Your situation is pretty common actually, unfortunately.
Keep learning new, valuable skills that will never expire and will only compound your value and keep applying for new jobs while you already have your current one.
Reduce consumption, invest as much as possible in indexes/tech stocks.
That's a myth.
You can't lick the skin of toads — more specifically that of the Sonoran Desert Toad aka. Bufo Alvarius as it's toxic.
That's a meme propagated by The Simpsons: https://youtu.be/uFn7VjYksBM?si=OecdfsmXyOTJJAeF.
You can however milk it's venom via glands and smoke it.
There's also insufficient evidence for the pineal gland as that is an unsubstantiated hypothesis proposed by Dr. Rick Strassman.
Plus, the Wikipedia page you linked to literally says:
> "...although the physiological significance of this biotransformation is not yet known."
Soo...