This was my first time listening rather than reading. It's a nice change of pace, though I have to do more work to keep my focus; not because of anything about your reading, but just that lately my eyes get bored even when my ears are trying to feed my brain information, and that's a problem for concentration.
I like the way you picked two pretty unambiguous test cases that both seem wrongly decided from opposite directions to illustrate the problem occurs at both ends---fatally so, even.
"The look of terror and helplessness in her eyes after she’s been stabbed, when she knows she’s dying, but in the few seconds before she actually dies… It’s tragic on a scale that we don’t often see outside of actual war."
I might suggest cancer wards could hold that sort of terror, just not acute. But maybe that's because I just found out a classmate passed from it this week and its on my mind.
"And most of all that once she was on the medication treadmill it was really hard to get off of it."
Scott Alexander has discussed how a major hurdle to treating schizophrenia is people going off of their meds when they feel better (and dislike the side-effects). But perhaps that's a difference between getting off medication and getting off the treadmill? That is, for people wanting to live an ordinary life, are they constantly nagged by the system to be on something in ways that someone content to live on the margins might not be? Or is it different by locale?
Another issue I thought at first this might address is the abundance of therapy. Also potentially a problem, but a less lethal one to get wrong. But I'm sure you're aware of that debate.
I read the essays. The book reviews are read by an Eleven Labs AI voice clone. It's surprisingly good, though I think it has a problem knowing where to really emphasis things.
You're probably right about the tragedy of cancer. Conceivably pediatric oncologists probably see that level of tragedy just about weekly, though as you say it's not quite as acute. Sorry to hear about your classmate. I've lost a couple of friends to cancer and both of them were comparatively young.
Yeah I probably should have spent more time explaining her situation with medication because it was the crux of her story. Basically here's how it worked:
1- She'd be on a medication, and it wouldn't work
2- New medications would be added, often on top of the medication she was already on though sometimes as replacements
3- As she points out none of these drugs have been tested in combination with other drugs and neither have they been tested for use over several years.
4- Drug interactions and side effects create new symptoms requiring additional drugs to treat. (For quite a while she was on Ambien and Modafinil)
5- Any attempts to get off any of the drugs might risk both a recurrence of the symptoms the drug was treating and withdrawal symptoms.
6- Going cold turkey maximized both problems, which is why she advocates hyperbolic tapering. (reducing medication by 10% every month or so)
I wonder if hyperbolic tapering could help dial in the best dosage of medication for schizophrenics...
And yes I am well aware of the therapy debate. My entry for the ACX book review contest two years ago was all about "Bad Therapy".
A few disparate thoughts...
This was my first time listening rather than reading. It's a nice change of pace, though I have to do more work to keep my focus; not because of anything about your reading, but just that lately my eyes get bored even when my ears are trying to feed my brain information, and that's a problem for concentration.
I like the way you picked two pretty unambiguous test cases that both seem wrongly decided from opposite directions to illustrate the problem occurs at both ends---fatally so, even.
"The look of terror and helplessness in her eyes after she’s been stabbed, when she knows she’s dying, but in the few seconds before she actually dies… It’s tragic on a scale that we don’t often see outside of actual war."
I might suggest cancer wards could hold that sort of terror, just not acute. But maybe that's because I just found out a classmate passed from it this week and its on my mind.
"And most of all that once she was on the medication treadmill it was really hard to get off of it."
Scott Alexander has discussed how a major hurdle to treating schizophrenia is people going off of their meds when they feel better (and dislike the side-effects). But perhaps that's a difference between getting off medication and getting off the treadmill? That is, for people wanting to live an ordinary life, are they constantly nagged by the system to be on something in ways that someone content to live on the margins might not be? Or is it different by locale?
Another issue I thought at first this might address is the abundance of therapy. Also potentially a problem, but a less lethal one to get wrong. But I'm sure you're aware of that debate.
Thanks.
I read the essays. The book reviews are read by an Eleven Labs AI voice clone. It's surprisingly good, though I think it has a problem knowing where to really emphasis things.
You're probably right about the tragedy of cancer. Conceivably pediatric oncologists probably see that level of tragedy just about weekly, though as you say it's not quite as acute. Sorry to hear about your classmate. I've lost a couple of friends to cancer and both of them were comparatively young.
Yeah I probably should have spent more time explaining her situation with medication because it was the crux of her story. Basically here's how it worked:
1- She'd be on a medication, and it wouldn't work
2- New medications would be added, often on top of the medication she was already on though sometimes as replacements
3- As she points out none of these drugs have been tested in combination with other drugs and neither have they been tested for use over several years.
4- Drug interactions and side effects create new symptoms requiring additional drugs to treat. (For quite a while she was on Ambien and Modafinil)
5- Any attempts to get off any of the drugs might risk both a recurrence of the symptoms the drug was treating and withdrawal symptoms.
6- Going cold turkey maximized both problems, which is why she advocates hyperbolic tapering. (reducing medication by 10% every month or so)
I wonder if hyperbolic tapering could help dial in the best dosage of medication for schizophrenics...
And yes I am well aware of the therapy debate. My entry for the ACX book review contest two years ago was all about "Bad Therapy".
Thanks for the clarification. Makes sense.
Per the recording, I was fooled, though I had to re-evaluate my estimate of your age and disagreed in a couple places with the emphasis :)