Jack, I was in a similar place regarding your H&F statement not long ago.
I have halved my standard drink intake to maybe ~20 a weekend now and I feel SO much better on a daily basis now (probably due to sleeping better on the weekends).
What helped me curb the rampant binge drinking/partying was a renewed focus on software projects I had been meaning to work on, and training for local races (10ks, half marathons).
I am sure you will succeed as you have already identified what you can divert the time and energy to.
I am on maybe 20 a week at the moment - main problem is the cost (which is probably $160 AUD a week) and how it makes the next morning/next few days useless while your body recovers.
It spends a while at the beginning on credentials and the importance of using citations (something damore failed at), and starts getting into the science at 'universal across all cultures, are we sure?'
Damore didn't fail at providing citations. You did apparently fail at reading the original document, however. References were deliberately stripped out by Gizmodo, and then republished by everyone else.
>Damore didn't fail at providing citations. You did apparently fail at reading the original document, however.
Maybe read the medium post he linked to? (The irony of your comment is killing me). If Wikipedia, The Atlantic, and the NY Post appear as citations more than primary literature, it is absolutely a failure to cite (as described in the medium post).
Please don't do this. There have been many take-downs of his full document (that include the so-called citations).
The one legit paper he linked to (http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.173...) didn't reach the conclusion he was claiming. That paper demonstrates that in egalitarian developed societies men are less oppressed by other men, not that there are innate differences. In all cases women's behavior is the result of being oppressed to a greater or lesser degree. In other words in less developed societies many men are just as oppressed by the powerful as women and use the same coping strategies.
He also failed to address the fact that interest doesn't necessarily correlate with ability. Research shows men and women don't differ in empathy unless men know they are being judged, which suggests it is a culturally-imposed trait and definitely not universal.
He makes a lot of assumptions without bothering to explain them, eg: assuming effective meritocracy and blindly ignoring his own caveats, never resolving the conflict with his own arguments. He never once presents ANY evidence that cognitive differences between men/women influence performance in software engineering.
One interesting result is if you can get women to picture themselves as men most of the cases where we do see differences disappears, again suggesting the vast majority of differences are cultural:
http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/picture-yourself-as-a-s...
Honestly it doesn't take much effort to stop with the confirmation bias. Do some actual research on your own and don't just look for sources that reinforce your existing biases.
James Damore wrote a document mostly describing his feelings and sprinkled in a few footnotes to make it look like he had done some research. He is woefully out of date with the current research (because he obviously didn't do any). That's pretty much what everyone does regarding this topic, both on HN and elsewhere.
It has become a demoralizing slog to repeatedly attempt to educate people when they are both a) so ignorant on a topic and b) so absolutely certain they are correct despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. I suppose this issue falls into the category of things that "everyone knows" so people Dunning-Kruger themselves into a position without giving it any thought.
The question of whether there are biological differences that make men and women suited for different tasks has been studied for decades. There are mountains of data. Brilliant men and women have written extensively on the topic. For the love of God, please take the time to educate yourself.
Even if you want to cling to the idea that women aren't as suited to programming (despite the evidence to the contrary) you could at least avoid doing an incompetent job by being aware of the research in the field.
There have been many opinions in favor of it as well, many from psychologists. So I too suggest you take the time to educate yourself of that part of the opinion spectrum.
My thought is, maybe you are too good at your current role?
Ive heard of good performers not getting promotions because they are needed to maintain performance in their current team. (not in a software company)
Man people could have probably agreed with what you wrote until "And be honest with yourself if you think the society we live in is anything but a necessary evil: you know you've felt the desire to murder, or torture, or rape, one time or another, just as any other human being, and that you've been hurt by society because it didn't let you exercise the freedom to do these things."
I agree with this "I mostly like our current set of rules, but let's not delude ourselves into seeing them as anything other than a local average optimization!".
> Man people could have probably agreed with what you wrote until "And be honest with yourself
...yeah, that's the bigger problem imho, most people are far from honest with themselves :) And then some people, instead of doing some "harmless rape & murder" bending "slightly" some rules of society to let off some steam (like medieval warlords did, chopping some heads off doing a big party "for the lulz", and moving on, maybe even building some churches later to "atone their sins"), choose instead to be "civilized", and go sign some orders to deport millions to concentration camps, or order the stockpiling of nuclear weapons, or some other shit "civilized" people do.
My current pre-quarantine schedule was:
Morning 1x long black at a cafe near the office with a colleague
Rest of work day (plus minus 1 on each item) 2x long black from machine in the office, 1-2x long black with another colleague(s) at a cafe
Home (around 5-6pm) 1x long black
Current WFH schedule is: 2-5x long black roughly every 90 mins.
I enjoy the ritual of making it (plunger) and the warmth. I don't think I get a buzz anymore, but the odd time I do, I love it.
I don't get any noticable side effects, and have gone periods 1-4months without drinking it with no adverse effects.