I have not read Haidt's The Anxious Generation, although I did listen to the If Books Could Kill episode on it. (Transcript at the link.)

So...
1. It's easy to hate on Haidt and all the people who love to hate on cell phones.
2. Unfogged is characterized by a bunch of people who would nevertheless want to derive their beliefs from first principles, instead of just knee-jerk disagreement with Haidt and the haters.
3. Ok, maybe a little knee-jerk disagreement.
4. Plus it sure is tempting to believe that cell phones have ruined me, since I've never grown older before and don't know otherwise how ruined I'd be.

So where do you land?

Clearly, the effects are not uniform. There's a portion that are undeniably better off, a portion where cell phones compound existing problems, and a portion where it probably washes out to neutral. The question is the relative size of each group, I think.

Discuss here.

Tomorrow, that is Thursday November 14, at Fresh Salt. I'll get there around six, and we should all expect to be sitting outside because there will be a guest-terrier in attendance.

All particulars open for renegotiation in the comments; lurkers if there still are any welcome.

Heebieville is surveying the community about potentially switching to a 4 day school week. (They're being a little vague about childcare on the 5th day and a lot of other details. They're aware of the need, though.)

It feels super appealing and simultaneously like a really bad idea. Their rational is for staff-retention. It seems easier to just not be utter dicks to your teachers, if you want to try for some low-hanging fruit towards staff retention? But what do I know.

First: it feels like what you do when you need a hail mary because your district is on fire and you're desperate.

Second: my unjustified suspicion is that the 5th day would get loaded up with sports practices and rehearsals and things like that. This will benefit the kinds of kids and families that get connected to those opportunities. This will hurt the more isolated kids and kids with more familial responsibilities, who will either be spending more time isolated, or more time watching all their younger siblings.

But maybe it's great! What the hell do I know.

So what is the topless, enlightened answer to deal with misinformation and propaganda by bad faith actors? What's the ideal policy solution, to organize one's thinking around? Am I just supposed to have crippling vertigo forever when I contemplate the loss of shared basic facts about "reality"?

I am knee-deep in this cybernetics chapter and finding the topic extremely dull. The first quarter zipped along and was totally engaging, but now I'm finding it a grind. How long until it perks back up again?