Without any context, it sounds as if everything that you're perceiving right now is shit. Maybe your relationships are strained and you feel lonely or guilty. Maybe the news hits you harder every day. Maybe money is tight. Maybe you've suffered a great loss. Maybe nothing has happened at all and you're sitting there, contemplating whether life is worth it. I don't know your situation.
And whatever it is, it's valid. Heck, I sometimes feel like life is shit.
Now, I'm not here to say we should look at reality with rose-colored glasses or to look at reality with naive optimism. No. I'm here to say that we have a choice. We can choose what to focus on and how to respond to reality.
Is it really true that "everything is shit"? Is the fact that your body has managed, against all odds, to sustain your life shit? Is the fact that humans can grow and change shit? Is the fact that we can be better as people shit?
Still, shit happens. And we have to be ready to accept that. Regardless of how much shit there is, we can always choose how to respond to it.
For one, we play a massive role in our interpretation of shit. There's solid science behind this. You could look at theories of cognition such as the Theory of Constructed Emotion, Relational Frame Theory, or even the shallow but effective Cognitive Behavioral Therapy frameworks. All of those theories think it's crucial to notice the lens that you and I are looking at the world through. Not only should we notice the lens, but sometimes we should clean it or direct it elsewhere. Otherwise we spend our whole lives stooped over a pile of crap, when we could stand, look around, and notice the world around us from a different perspective.
But that's not the only thing that matters. We don't just want to see the world differently. We also want to live valued lives. Once again, this is possible regardless of how much shit there is. How so? Well, what kind of person do you want to be? A kind person? A person that is reflexive and open minded? A person that notices and appreciates beauty when it appears? A person who is proactive about their future and that of others? A person who is compassionate towards others? A person that's curious about the world and how to improve it?
It's not easy, being kind, appreciative, and proactive when you're bogged down by shit. But you're not alone. There's brilliant and insightful people who have dedicated their lives to finding out how to do it. If you're interested, I'm happy to talk about empirical ways of doing it. For now, it's more important to ask what the alternative is. Is a life spent stooping over shit a good life?
Ah. I see that it seems as if I’m saying that hand-washing is the result of a theory of cognition, and that this theory of cognition suggests that hand-washing has been deeply ingrained in our psyches for millenia, somehow eliciting the results from the experiments.
I am not suggesting that. Sorry for not having been clear before. I’m tired so I’m sorry if this response is not clear as well. I’m happy to clarify any further misunderstandings.
This is the theory that I’m referring to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnSHpBRLJrQ (of course, there are academic publications on Relational Frame Theory, but this video shows its practical implications quite well)
Learn it in one.
Derive it in two.
Put it in networks,
and that’s what you’ll do.
We have relational frames surrounding hand-washing. We also have relational frames for thousands of other thoughts and behaviors. When those two (hand-washing frames with other frames) combine, they can affect the way we think and act in ways that are novel and perhaps unusual.
Thank you so much for taking the time to research and share you findings.
As to Atkinson Hyperlegible, I suppose its merit could be, at most, making it harder to confuse characters such as B8, O0, or 1Iil.
Beyond these benefits (and as you mentioned), there is just not enough information on whether Atkinson Hyperlegible definitely helps or not.
Also, thanks for the link on dyslexia. I suppose that, to an extent, promoting fonts like Open Dyslexia could lead to the unintended consequences described in the article.
However, I think it’s possible that these results are true. If you understand relational frame theory, then you can see how the act of washing hands can activate some schemas or deactivate others.
Seen through this lens, the results of these experiments are not special, but are simply implications of an already established theory of cognition.
If you're experimenting with fonts to see how they change comprehension, you could try Open Dyslexic too! It looks quite ugly, but it makes reading easier to me and another commenter on this thread. I suppose it's a matter of testing what works best for you.
I actually changed my Anki to OpenDyslexic a couple of months ago! I changed it again when Atkinson Hyperlegible Next came out, but I agree that OpenDyslexic makes reading a breeze.
My only grievance with OpenDyslexic is that I don't think I could send reports with this font without pushback. On the other hand, I have sent multiple reports using Atkinson Hyperlegible and nobody has ever said a thing.
You're bringing up a fair point, similar to "can you separate the art from the artist"? I think it's possible; I've seen mean and disparaging people do amazing work. Heck, at times I've been a cranky worker cranking out good work.
However, I also know that toxic people are hard to work with and limit their own potential and that of others. A quick look at the ACT literature, the intrinsic motivation literature, the learned-helplessness literature, and the Lybomirsky et al. meta-analyses from 2008 and 2018 all point to the same idea: psychologically flexible people are happier and that leads to better work and more productivity, but not the other way around.
If you're going to download it, try the torrent option! That way, you can give back to the community that gives you LibreOffice.