Comment by HPsquared

Car talk is one of the most broadly relatable topics available for men to talk about, man. It’s right up there with sports, stuff blowing up, and attractive women. There’s something else to it if you can’t find someone that will chitchat about cars. I’m not even a car guy but I’d happily talk to someone passionate about restoring classics or something. I mean this sincerely and not to be snide, you might find that some personal growth unlocks a lot for you when it comes to socializing and community. Don’t throw your humanity away to become some chat bot gargoyle.

Really? I mean this might just be a function of your friend group. I have some long time friends and we'll talk about that weird stuff for hours. Probably going to be hard with new friends or people you don't have a good relationship with but these are very human things. We all have cars so those conversations come up. Similarly things like dealing with investments, 401ks, health plans, relationships, or fucking petty shit like if In-N-Out is better than Five Guys or not (it is, and I'll fight you over this).

Not every friend group is like that. Different friends offer different things. We're all people though. I mean you can't have a relationship around just talking to people over something like that because that is dehumanizing, but I disagree that you can't talk about that stuff with people. Frankly, I think what's more common is that people are just afraid of opening those subjects. Like we've all had that experience in school where the teacher is talking about something and everybody is confused but nobody speaks up because they're afraid to look dumb or feel like they're disrupting. That class of situations doesn't just go away lol.

I'm not saying don't use the LLMs. Hell, it's like saying don't use Reddit. Reddit will often give you bad advice too, but that doesn't mean it can't also be helpful. But my concern is really that you feel like you can't talk to people about those types of things. We're social creatures. There's no "atomised individual". You can't make it through this world without reliance upon others. Unless you're doing literally everything by yourself from scratch, you're an active part of society. The only difference is your interpretation.

So with that, let me say too that there's a lot of advantages to humans and conversations with them. Not being available 24/7 can be advantageous. Forces you to think on your own and helps facilitate better conversations when they do become available. Sometimes you need answers immediately, but that's rare and often decisions are better informed after thinking rather than through reliance on others. The latter only works if there's non-nuanced objective answers. I'm also someone who makes a lot of obscure references. But that's okay if others don't pick up on them. The rarity of that happening actually is a good thing and helps form relationships, as it is a strong signal we have some common ground. When it is rare it is special. And when not recognized I have the opportunity to share things I enjoy with others. Then they also have the opportunity to share things with me! I don't want clones of me, that provides no opportunity for growth, it only leads to a narrower view (which is the opposite of growth!). Also, humans can be rude, mean, push back, and be confrontational. It always sucks but it isn't always wrong either. I'm assuming you're human (hell, it'll be true even if you're machine lol), so you're not perfect. Sometimes our own egos get in the way and that confrontation is necessary. In fact, this is an aspect that is related to the psychosis/danger igleria mentioned. You can't just wrap yourself up in safety blankets and avoid confrontation. As much as we should try to make life more enjoyable and better the unfortunate truth is that often that requires temporary discomfort. If everything was easy everyone would do it. So even in the times where that discomfort doesn't directly lead to future "rewards" it still provides learning experiences that allow you to be more equipped for the (more frequently occurring) times where it does. It is only your perspective/interpretation.