Hi,

Welcome to the Procrastilearning Newsletter, where your time is well spent even though you should probably be doing something else.

3 things worth procrastilearning over

1. Improving your appearance might make you kinder

Recent research has indicated that looking after how you look can increase self-awareness, which in turn fosters generosity. So if you're the type of person who makes sure their hair is always trimmed or your arm muscles are always bulging, you may also be into giving to charities, ethical decision-making, and thinking about others' feelings more than most.

And you thought people into plastic surgery were shallow. You still do, let’s be honest.

It makes me wonder two things: seeing as many women take time every day with a make-up routine, could that be a factor in why they are traditionally seen as the kinder sex? Also, is this why my unshaven, slovenly and unfit self is so cold-hearted and mean?

2. AI-generated music is actually getting good

The music made using AI over the last year has been mostly ignorable. But I recently stumbled upon one AI artist in my Spotify app that was surprisingly good - Nick Hustles, also known as AI For The Culture on social media platform. The song that caught my attention was Grateful, but he makes all sorts of amusing and convincing songs purporting to be from the 1960s and 1970s while referencing things from the 2020s, like Quitting My Job and Starting an Only Fans or Time for the Office Party.

@_ai4theculture

I Lied On My Resumé (1968) #hiphop #soulmusic #music

Although the music is fun and well made, it points towards a bigger problem being exacerbated within the music industry. Spotify is already putting lots of music on its platform that it doesn't have to pay royalties for, and if AI is this good now, then it just makes that process for Spotify even easier - and the more time users spend listening to their AI churn, the less real artists get listened to, thus reducing the overall royalties Spotify pays out. But honestly, if it’s independent creators like this making the music, then the young 'prompt engineers' who make this AI stuff do fully deserve their micro-pennies .

p.s. AI video is also getting good. Try these two sites if you want to make something surprisingly convincing out of a simple text description: Hailuo AI and Pika.

3. Scientists are developing psychedelic drugs that don't make you see things

Imagine being able to experience the typical highs of psychedelics, like feeling a oneness with everything, but knowing you won't have to see your furniture melt into a pile of jelly babies that start talking to you. That's the idea behind a whole slew of new 'pseudo-delics' being developed as possible mental health treatments - for example, one called tabernanthalog is supposed to aid substance-abuse disorders.

Elsewhere, older drugs that can give you visuals, like ketamine, are getting respectable reputations as therapy aids through services like Mindbloom and Innerwell.

All of this reminds me of the use of soma in Brave New World, but I’m sure it’s helpful for many in need.

2 quotes to keep in mind

1 simple tip to stop yourself worrying so much

Ask yourself “Are my thoughts useful? How do they behave?“

It’s very easy to fall into a negative stream of thought. But if you notice you’re putting yourself down or catastrophising, you just need to ask a couple of simple questions to stop you in your tracks and give you some objectivity. Here’s a TED talk about it if you’d like more detail.

That's all for today. Many thanks for reading. Here’s a photo of a quokka discovering a camera.

Adam

Adam Zulawski
Procrastilearning on Beehiiv / More stuff

Sent this by somebody else?