.aviral

I think the main reason you find a lot of very unhappy tech people even at the highest levels - when you're a typical employee everyone around you is making .5-2x what you are - when you start breaking out wealth goes on log scale. ppl with 10-1000x your net worth become common - this is native to network effects, scale associated with AI training, and other winner take all dynamics in tech - all of VC is structured this way as well -- (1 unicorn returns entire fund rest of investments are zero) which psychologically reinforces all or nothing thinking - this makes competitive people miserable - this leads them to do hallucinogens or other psychoactive substances in order to accept their place in the universe - the conclusions drawn from these psychoactive substances are typically at direct odds with how they got to where they are - and after getting one shotted they're still ultimately in a hard wired competition with people worth 10-1000x more than them - due to the structure of technology it becomes more or less impossible to break out of your 'bracket' without engaging in increasingly dark things - you realize that time is running out -- and become aware of synthetic biology (peptides, genetic alteration of children) - you end up getting involved in police state investments, gooning investments, or crypto -- and view it as non optional to take the gloves off bc everyone around you is doing the same thing - you're on a permanent hedonic treadmill and you can't ever get off or go back to where you were before bc after doing all of the things you've done you can't possibly ever relate to normal humans - you get involved with politics or Catholicism or other Lindy cults to try and get off the treadmill - of course it won't work and you bring all the weird baggage directly into politics or religion and poison those wells too the current configuration of economics/ wealth distribution is pretty solidly optimized to drive the wealthiest people in society batshit insane, which - to some extent - explains a lot of things you see around you