AC Radio: Episode 5
7 Jun
This week on the show.
Dr. Rob is sick, we discuss beating the little hater and I give everyone a homework assignment.
AttentionCrash Radio: Episode 5
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1. I think the suicide/porn question is actually not as bad as it seems. One is a single terrible incident, while the other isn’t nearly as bad, but is an on-going continuous thing. It would also make a difference how many kids you have. Recovering from losing 1 of 3 kids isn’t nearly as tough as losing your old child and having that whole category of relationship wiped out from your life. Having a kid go into porn is probably equally bad if you have no other kids, or 1 porn star and 2 doctors. Maybe actually worse, since the comparison makes the failure as a parent all the more clear.
2. I don’t think people are any less empathetic. Our baseline empathy rate is probably largely genetic, and that’s not going to change over just a few generations. I think the change in answers probably comes from a change in what people will admit to, rather than an actual change in feeling. Also, the increase of information about problems in other countries and cultures has probably increased empathy in a lot of ways.
3. Does Rob even know what an event horizon is? He doesn’t seem very sciencey. Sometimes he seems spacey, but that’s not the same thing.
4. I think you’re unlikely to get constructive feedback online because most readers are going to feel like they’re asshats for trying to tell you how to improve your writing, unless you very specifically ask for that sort of commentary (who am I to tell you how to rewrite something?). And, a lot of people aren’t going to want to provoke a slap fight with your readers who really liked it. Maybe asking people to send in comments by e-mail would be a good idea.
5. I agree with Rob about people rooting for college teams that have no connection to. I went to ‘Bama, so there are a frackton of these people. It’s our club, and you can watch it, but you’re not part of it. It was super annoying when I was in NYC and people would come dressed in crimson to the alumni bar on game nights and they wouldn’t have gone to the school, and might not have even been from the state. It ruined what could have been a very cool alumni club.