(Apologies up front for the length of this post, I did not intend it to get this long when I started..)
I realize I’m a little late to the comments here and it’s unlikely to be seen, but there’s a dissonance that’s been stewing in me for a while now and I’m not sure how to reconcile it. It relates to the dichotomy between JackFr posting his fondness for a badge with cyberferret’s response, so this is why I’m replying here (if someone can suggest a more appropriate forum for me to ask this, please let me know).
I abhor war and death and killing. It’s vile, disgusting and so many other words I’m not literate enough to use to describe it. The very act of snuffing out another human’s life is something so imaginably terrible to me that when I dwell much upon it I become profoundly sad.
And yet, there’s another side of me that’s utterly fascinated by the actual implements of warfare. My father was in Vietnam and although he doesn’t like to talk about it often, I know it was a very unpleasant experience for him, particularly the time he described when he would have to carry body bags off the C-130s on base. Despite that, when I was growing up, I was given army men and plastic tanks by my parents to play with, toy guns, you name it. I fondly remember my father bringing home a variable swept wing toy jet fighter that I cherished. In my teens I pretended I was going nap of the earth in the chopper milsims available on the PC at the time.
Fast forward to today, I can sometimes spend hours getting lost in the endless rabbit hole of links on wikipedia reading about anything from the minute details of how the Exocet sea-skimming missile operates to the different types of recoilless rifles in service around the world. Or scrolling through google images admiring the sleep and sexy curves on the F/A-18. I enjoy watching movies like “We Were Soldiers” too. The scene where all the artillery batteries arrayed fired in unison I sometimes rewind a couple times just to see it over again because I find it awesomely impressive and…kind of “cool?” I watch the movie to be entertained…
This post/question is long enough so I'll try to wrap it up quickly here and get to my point:
I don’t want to go to war. I don’t want to see my brother get sent back overseas. I don’t want anyone’s sons or daughters, wives, husbands, loved ones sent to pick up arms, no matter their race, nationality, creed and regardless of wherever they call home. I wish all killing would stop, however utopian that view might be. I wish we could all experience the “Overview Effect.”
But how do I reconcile this view with my fascination of the instruments of war? I can’t help but find it incredibly impressive to watch a WW2 era battleship fire full broadsides. I enjoy visiting my brother and firing his firearms like an M1 Garand.
Am I wrong for “enjoying” these things which seem at complete odds to the way (I’d like to think) my moral compass points? Is this normal?
I have pretty much the same outlook as you. I used to be a pilot, and I have family in the defence forces even today. I am enthralled and fascinated with various aircraft and weaponry, though I abhor the use of that weaponry except as a deterrent to any hostilities arising at all.
I also used to shoot competitively, but nowadays other interests mean I do not own a gun at all. I don't consider myself a violent person. I could never envisage taking another person's life at all. But still, I admire the devices that could do (and were designed to do) that purely from an engineering and science perspective. Not just modern stuff too - I love WWII aircraft, and even ancient things like sword and armour design through the ages.
Some things DO cross the line, and I don't go down that path (napalm, chemical warfare, IEDs etc.), but a beautifully designed jet or ship etc., I can totally admire and appreciate.
Have you considered using SSHFS? I too do most of my development on remote systems. Once I discovered SSHFS it was great because I was able to use any IDE of my choice and I wasn't just stuck with those that offered remote development support. Since it sounds like you run linux it should be no problem to get running. I haven't tried it on Windows but from what I understand it works there too.
But will the positive experience kids get with this kind of activity have a long-lasting impact in their life? Will they grow up to be adults without ADHD or lesser symptoms?
I was in the scouts when I was a kid and teen, ultimately reaching the rank of Eagle scout. I did plenty of outdoor activities and sports, not necessarily extreme, however we did go portaging deep into the Boundary Waters quite a few times. Yet, my ADHD persisted throughout my teens and 20s and I still suffer from this disorder as an adult in my mid-30s. Of course this is anecdotal.
I guess it's a positive thing that being active outdoors will help a child while he grows up. Hopefully it helps in the long-term. In my case, I only wish it had.
Short rant: it's pretty common these days to talk about the over-medication and over-diagnosing of children with ADHD. We must remember that some of these cases are truly warranted. I wasn't diagnosed until I was 30. Since I've been on meds my quality of life has improved dramatically.
Quick edit for a warning: ADHD medications are very powerful and must be treated with respect. Do your research before and after starting them. Don't hesitate to visit even abuser forums or reddit so you can read about the negative effects of consuming too much, too often. You can easily jeopardize your mental future by taking the medications the wrong way.
Similar situation here. I was diagnosed in my late 20s. I was having marital problems before Ritalin. Inattentiveness can be fatal to a relationship, and my executive function was poor, which put a lot of strain on my wife.
In school, with plenty of free time and few responsibilities, I did fine. A two hour homework assignment might take 6 hours, but I did OK. It was adult life that became unmanageable.
Like the author mentioned in the article, I don't think of it as a disease necessarily, it's a personality type. But it's a personality type that can make it difficult to live in the modern world without help.
Something to keep in mind is that adrenaline is something used in medication to treat ADHD in some cases. The desire for some to go out and do things like this (ie: Base Jumping) could be sourced to them craving that adrenaline that helps them focus. Maybe they are taking the wrong type of medication or maybe they aren't taking any at all.
Additionally I found this part very frustrating
>>Panksepp points out that while common stimulant medications for ADHD like Ritalin and Adderall may improve attention skills and academic performance in many kids, they do so at the cost of reducing the playfulness urge—at least temporarily. “We know these are anti-play drugs in animals,” he says. “That is clear and unambiguous.”
This is strongly anecdotal but as someone who takes Adderall, I can't say this could be any further from the truth. The only thing that I can come up with that could lead to this thinking is that younger kids who have trouble with their hyperactivity might not be as hyper anymore after taking medication (which was the whole point in the first place for some). All this is doing is encouraging more adrenaline junkies to treat themselves outside of conventional means.
I can actually attest to being less playful on medication. I'm a very upbeat, humorous, and witty person. Too much of a stimulant however makes me very bland, an intense listener, and I have trouble coming up with replies to people. I tend to think of it as generally I have a firehose of ideas and thoughts spewing, and medication pinches the hose and directs its flow. It's a balancing act though
From what I have witnessed it even varies with type of the same stimulant from person to person, even within a family. (In a case I know all too well the recipient get tongue swelling as well as clenched jaws[0] on R XR at 40mg/day but has absolutely no issues with doses from 40 - 80 mg/day of the standard one. Oh, and the other person in this study, the brother of the first, went into spiraling weight loss at 60mg/day but prefer XR.)
Also playfulness seems to be preserved in these two cases. The best explanation I can come up with is: lowers the "interesting" threshold so that driving according to the speed limits is less intensely boring etc.
[0]: of course this can be reactions to additives of XR but they are commonly referred to as side effects of R itself.
I found this with Ritalin as a kid, and amphetamines/various analogues as an adult. It makes me so focussed I get colossal social anxiety and my brain loops over everything. It's horrendous, and kinda stunted my social development.
Wow, thanks for that link about anesthesia! I never thought to look into anesthesia being the culprit of what I'm about to relate..
5 years ago I underwent major surgery after an incident. I remember one day being fine and normal and then my next memories are of me slowly becoming self-aware, conscious & lucid again in a hospital bed over the course of somewhere between 15-30 days (I'm not sure I can pin-point a specific time I became fully aware of where I was and what had happened).
The period of time in between my surgery and when I was fully awake was without a doubt the most terrifying experience of my life. Mentally, I was in a nightmare state for what felt like a large extent of the time that I was 'out of it.' I still have memories and images in my mind today of the dreams I experienced falling in and out of consciousness while slowly 'waking' up over a month.
"If you like somebody's work just go and see them. However, don't ask for their autograph. A lot of people came and asked me for my autograph and it's creepy." -- Marvin Minsky (https://youtu.be/qJZ_1a-t_sA?t=1543)
I realize I’m a little late to the comments here and it’s unlikely to be seen, but there’s a dissonance that’s been stewing in me for a while now and I’m not sure how to reconcile it. It relates to the dichotomy between JackFr posting his fondness for a badge with cyberferret’s response, so this is why I’m replying here (if someone can suggest a more appropriate forum for me to ask this, please let me know).
I abhor war and death and killing. It’s vile, disgusting and so many other words I’m not literate enough to use to describe it. The very act of snuffing out another human’s life is something so imaginably terrible to me that when I dwell much upon it I become profoundly sad.
And yet, there’s another side of me that’s utterly fascinated by the actual implements of warfare. My father was in Vietnam and although he doesn’t like to talk about it often, I know it was a very unpleasant experience for him, particularly the time he described when he would have to carry body bags off the C-130s on base. Despite that, when I was growing up, I was given army men and plastic tanks by my parents to play with, toy guns, you name it. I fondly remember my father bringing home a variable swept wing toy jet fighter that I cherished. In my teens I pretended I was going nap of the earth in the chopper milsims available on the PC at the time.
Fast forward to today, I can sometimes spend hours getting lost in the endless rabbit hole of links on wikipedia reading about anything from the minute details of how the Exocet sea-skimming missile operates to the different types of recoilless rifles in service around the world. Or scrolling through google images admiring the sleep and sexy curves on the F/A-18. I enjoy watching movies like “We Were Soldiers” too. The scene where all the artillery batteries arrayed fired in unison I sometimes rewind a couple times just to see it over again because I find it awesomely impressive and…kind of “cool?” I watch the movie to be entertained…
This post/question is long enough so I'll try to wrap it up quickly here and get to my point:
I don’t want to go to war. I don’t want to see my brother get sent back overseas. I don’t want anyone’s sons or daughters, wives, husbands, loved ones sent to pick up arms, no matter their race, nationality, creed and regardless of wherever they call home. I wish all killing would stop, however utopian that view might be. I wish we could all experience the “Overview Effect.”
But how do I reconcile this view with my fascination of the instruments of war? I can’t help but find it incredibly impressive to watch a WW2 era battleship fire full broadsides. I enjoy visiting my brother and firing his firearms like an M1 Garand.
Am I wrong for “enjoying” these things which seem at complete odds to the way (I’d like to think) my moral compass points? Is this normal?