I predict (losing Bayes points if I’m wrong) that most people will have a similar experience, but I also predict that the best strategy is to quit cold turkey; nicotine does not run SGD to notice that user retention is at risk and autonomously take actions that were successful at mitigating risk in the past.
It would be hard for them to make their systems not optimize in weird ways due to goodhart’s law; furthermore, anyone running a successful social media platform would need to give the algorithms a wide leeway to experiment with user retention, since competitor platforms might be running systems that also autonomously form novel strategies.
Most of my knowledge on dependencies and addictions comes from a brief study I did on neurotransmitter’s roles in alcohol dependence/abuse while in school, for an EPQ, so I’m really not sure how much of this applies- also, a lot of my study was finding that my assumptions were in the wrong direction(I didn’t know about endorphins)- but I think a lot of the stuff on neurotransmitters and receptors holds across different areas- take it with some salt though.
Quitting cold turkey rarely ever works for addictions/dependencies. The vast majority of time the person has a big resurgence in the addiction. The balance of dopamine/sensitivity of the dopamine receptors often takes time to shift back. Tapering, I think for this reason, has been one of the most reliable ways of recovering from an addiction/dependence. I believe it’s been shown to have a 70% success rate. Interestingly, the first study I found on tapering, which is testing tapering strips in assistance of discontinuing antidepressant use, also says 70% https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20451253211039327 Ever site I read on reducing alcohol dependency with tapering said something similar, back in the day.
I predict (losing Bayes points if I’m wrong) that most people will have a similar experience, but I also predict that the best strategy is to quit cold turkey; nicotine does not run SGD to notice that user retention is at risk and autonomously take actions that were successful at mitigating risk in the past.
It would be hard for them to make their systems not optimize in weird ways due to goodhart’s law; furthermore, anyone running a successful social media platform would need to give the algorithms a wide leeway to experiment with user retention, since competitor platforms might be running systems that also autonomously form novel strategies.
Most of my knowledge on dependencies and addictions comes from a brief study I did on neurotransmitter’s roles in alcohol dependence/abuse while in school, for an EPQ, so I’m really not sure how much of this applies- also, a lot of my study was finding that my assumptions were in the wrong direction(I didn’t know about endorphins)- but I think a lot of the stuff on neurotransmitters and receptors holds across different areas- take it with some salt though.
Quitting cold turkey rarely ever works for addictions/dependencies. The vast majority of time the person has a big resurgence in the addiction.
The balance of dopamine/sensitivity of the dopamine receptors often takes time to shift back.
Tapering, I think for this reason, has been one of the most reliable ways of recovering from an addiction/dependence. I believe it’s been shown to have a 70% success rate.
Interestingly, the first study I found on tapering, which is testing tapering strips in assistance of discontinuing antidepressant use, also says 70% https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20451253211039327
Ever site I read on reducing alcohol dependency with tapering said something similar, back in the day.