Lightning Round

Got a few more questions. (If you too have an inquiry burning a hole in your pocket — that's where everyone keeps their inquiries, naturally — send it in.) From leisure to romance to DIY intellectualism to stealth done right.

what does it mean to be exhausted and how does relaxing make you less exhausted? how do you relax? i have noticed things that don't add up about the conventional model, such as feeling less tired after starting to do work, and that spending a week without doing anything makes it much harder to do work afterwards. in fact, i don't see much evidence 'relaxing' has any benefits at all. would be interested to hear your thoughts as someone who seems quite intrinsically motivated

It's funny to me that I come across this way, since I don't consider myself intrinsically motivated at all. I suppose that I probably am to some degree, but my conscious experience is that I do things with the goal of eliciting reactions from other people. I live to impress! [sweeping off jester hat in an elaborate bow to reveal resplendent bunny ears]

As for relaxation... along the lines of the spoons metaphor, I only have so much concentrated thinking energy per day, and after running through it I switch to activities that don't require active brainulation, like staring at YouTube. To me exhaustion is depletion — I "do things" until my health bar is empty, then I vegetate. Overnight, while sleeping, I recharge until I wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed the next day.

You've already identified the crucial factor: "i have noticed things that don't add up about the conventional model" — as a general principle, do whatever actually works for you. Experiment, try different things, and judge them based on their practical effects on you personally. Despite the handful of reliable human commonalities, people are neurodiverse in all sorts of idiosyncratic ways, and you have to deal with whatever mind you've got. Nothing outperforms trial and error.

acquiring a similarly weird gf/SO as oneself but through twitter, In The Time Of Coronahell, etc

Send flirty DMs to people that you vibe with. In volume — modern dating is a numbers game absent extraordinary luck. (I was my husband's second OkCupid date or something ridiculous like that. He was my umpteenth. I went on a lot of terrible first and second dates before finding him.)

I'm going to assume, perhaps unfairly, that "flirty DMs" is something that you haven't the first idea how to do without being cringe. Given that flirting is easymode for heterosexual women, since men are so goddam horny on a constant basis, I don't have any good tips. Here are some poasts that may help:

Here is my dating advice to young men: pick a point in the middle distance. Focus on it & the objects in its vicinity. Eventually someone will come ask what you are focused on. Tell them politely. If they are interested, expand your conversation slowly until you marry. https://t.co/jLnfKBZ6GG
— donmexlar 🐇 (@donmexlar) May 5, 2020

I've read @GeniesLoki's dating advice and it seemed pretty good. There was guidance for nerdy guys on /r/TheMotte and that also seemed pretty good.

How do I succeed as an autodidact without knowing anyone in the field I'm working on. I'm already studying for a major in my uni but can't change it and now want to change my specialisation. How does one go about it

Read a lot — sci-hub is your friend. Email praise and questions to the people you admire. Blog about what you learn during all of the above, and repeat the process recursively. Expanded versions of this advice:

How do I remain anonymous on the internet. I have views that are controversial and employers and countries ask you to list out your socials from the past 5 years. This for instance can get me fucked by the US visa people in the future. How does one circumvent that? We talked a bit about it on reddit and since you have worked with techies before, I'd greatly appreciate your feedback

In a word, opsec, which means "operational security," which means "behaving in such a way that you don't get got." Maintain alts that are thoroughly segmented from your walletnym. How paranoid you should be depends on your likely adversaries. For example, if it's border control, stay up to date on their practices and assess your attack surface with their methods in mind.

EFF maintains a practical resource called Surveillance Self-Defense, and Allan Dulles' 73 Rules of Spycraft covers the bases. But I recommend inhaling a bunch of the Grugq's work to train your intuition: