I'm working on a new project called Feel (https://www.feelapp.io) which is an app that helps you feel all emotions on demand. It goes beyond just crying and helps you navigate and shift your mood in real time. It can make you cry too though. Or feel joy, awe, confidence, serenity, or even process difficult emotions like anger or fear when you need to.
This isn't an ad or shameless plug I promise - I'm actually looking for a creative developer to join the team and help us take it to the next level. Please reach out if this resonates with you or share with your creative coder friends: johnny@feelapp.io
We’re already living in a scifi dystopia where our emotions are constantly being manipulated by social media, algorithms, ads, etc. Feel is an attempt to offer an intentional alternative. It's not about manufacturing emotions. It's about moving through them more consciously with greater awareness and emotional intelligence.
I appreciate the comparison and feedback though. I welcome it all.
I would argue that releasing your emotions isn't comparable to taking a painkiller. A painkiller numbs the problem. Letting yourself cry and feel and release your emotions brings them to the surface. I've actually received a lot of responses from people who have told me the site has helped them confront emotional issues they have been avoiding or unable to face.
The app goes a lot deeper than you're describing by helping you understand what you're feeling and identify/label your emotions, receive insights on why you're feeling something by identifying triggers and patterns, and then helping you shift your mood when you need to. It could maybe be considered a painkiller in the moment, but it's also a vitamin that improves your well-being and emotional intelligence over time.
There was actually a new study that came out recently called The Big Joy Project that found that just a few minutes per day of intentional emotional shifts can improve your well-being in a week.
It's super important to me that the project so grounded in sound research so this is a big focus of ours. Appreciate you sharing your perspective and feedback.
Its far from ideal and indeed borderline dystopian, but to borrow your metaphor, it's the difference between a fracture, and a fracture with some painkillers available.
Of course with something like this there are also concerns about emotional conformity and losing authenticity. And questions about what is considered a real authentic emotional experience vs a manufactured one.
Some might consider what we're building "manufactured" emotional experiences. But are emotions elicited from music and movies manufactured? Just because something is happening on a screen or coming through speakers doesn't make it any less meaningful. Our brains don't know the difference and the feeling is real.
Media influences our emotions probably more than anything right now and for the most part is currently being fed to us by algorithms designed to prey on our most vulnerable feelings. What we're building gives you the ability to regain control over your emotions and inner world. It's more about using art, audiovisual, media, storytelling, and guided practices to move you through something real. It's about emotional awareness, exploration, and transformation more than artificially induced control. Of course like any tech it's up to people how they choose to use it. But we are trying to design it in a way that prioritizes the emotional benefit and personal growth of each user.
It's an interesting philosophical conversation that could go much deeper. I appreciate the feedback and reflection.
Currently going through a extremely difficult time at the moment with my amazing cat that is dying of CKD/CHF.
First video this site showed me is "A scene from the movie A Dog's Purpose (2017). A family's dog reaches the end of his life."
Now I cant stop crying.
Sending virtual hugs in your direction.
Tried maybe 5-6 videos on the site and none of them worked. :/ Just watched one of my old videos, boom, instant tears.
Don't know about the health implications of crying once a week or anything, but sometimes if I'm feeling a little out of touch with life, watching something sad does help.
Can you share one of those videos?
(None of the videos on the site made me feel bad, even slightly.)
What videos make you cry? Curious to see how they compare. Also, not all the videos on the site are sad. Some are happy tears.
Basically anything absolutely genuine and authentic, especially where I have enough information to understand the context of their emotion so that I can relate better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-B7SIVseO0
verb move (something) into a different position with a jerk. travel by hitch-hiking. informal obtain (a lift) by hitch-hiking. fasten or tether. harness (a draught animal or team). noun a temporary difficulty or problem. a knot of a particular kind, typically one used for fastening a rope to something else. a device for attaching one thing to another, especially the tow bar of a motor vehicle. an act of hitch-hiking. informal a period of service. informal
Slanguagely: "There is a hitch in your get-along", implying "there is a difficulty with your system/process/activity"
Marjorie Kimmerle & Patricia Gibby, "A Word-List from Colorado," in Publication of the American Dialect Society (April 1949) has this entry for the term hitch:
hitch: n. A crick ; a limp. Used only in the expression "He's got a hitch in his git-along." Said of horses and people. OED, A limp, a hobble, an interference in a horse's pace.
I'm working on a new project that goes deeper and helps you identify the root causes of things like this so you can better process and release your emotions. Would love for you to test it out when it's ready if you want. You are kind of who I'm building this for: https://www.feelapp.io
Not sure if related, but I had kind of a miserable childhood (authoritarian parents, difficulty in fitting in due to being an insecure runty nerd, being a late bloomer due to late-onset hormones caused women to not be interested until much later, etc.) and I used to cry, I'd say, a lot, and then one day I suddenly stopped (not sure why, but just kind of got fed up with doing it?), and I basically haven't had a good cry since. Not through relationship breakups, not through my mom passing away, not through pet losses. I'd tear up a little, maybe while listening to a song that touched me, that's it. I reckon I haven't had a good, long, sincere cry in almost 40 fucking years.
My parents are German and pretty stoic, not sure if related. When my dad's parents and brother and sister died, I didn't see him cry. The ONLY time I saw him cry (which was jarring, as a kid) is when his beloved sailboat washed up on the rocks during a hurricane. He did kind of wail when he was walking the dog that got away from him and which then got immediately run over, but...
When you say "not sure if related" I would say most probably yes. Most emotional issues come from our childhood. It's interesting that your parents are German too. There have been a few other Germans that said the site didn't work for them and they have trouble crying. Seems like definitely a cultural thing there.
Many of us as kids are told things like "don't cry, cheer up, calm down" etc, etc by our parents and other adults who we are desperately seeking approval from and reliant on for care and survival. So we may not even realize it at the time, but we conform and change to please them. We feel like we need to be a certain way in order to receive their love and care and attention.
I think the answer could be in that one day you suddenly stopped crying. It's interesting that you say you're not sure why. Sometimes we can forget moments like this because they can seem insignificant at the time but they actually are meaningful. Sometimes it can be more difficult than people who experienced something super traumatic and are able to pinpoint that that was when things changed.
What often happens is we either experience or suppress an emotion without much awareness, and rather than letting it pass or move through us, we ruminate on it and get caught in emotional loops. Then that emotion or the suppression of it becomes a mood. Then that mood becomes a personality trait. Then that personality trait becomes who we are. And years later we can find ourselves wondering why we feel the way we do or how the hell we ended up this way, because it was something that started when we were kids and we didn't understand how all this stuff works and unfortunately no one really told us or guided us.
I'm really excited for you to try the app. We are designing it so you can input things like this and it can help guide you to deeper understanding while processing and releasing necessary emotions. I'm building it for people like you where you are now, and also for younger people so they can catch these issues before 40 years fly by without shedding a single tear. It's never too late though. It's great that you are recognizing all this and I hope the app is able to help you.
Also, thanks for pushing in this direction.
He can make it on his own!
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_njWv6ssGZFL5TYEDOf...
I have a collection of clips that worked on me specifically which I used to gauge my state - not crying is a cause for concern, but over the years I got desensitised to them.
I'm almost afraid to ask: are Japanese Toyota ads in there?
I don't think any Japanese Toyota ads are on there. I'll check them out. Always open to suggestions for additions.
feel's website looks great
When I’m tired or uninspired I notice laughter gives me energy
But I would like instant access to it
I'm always amazed at how friendly the IT support people manage these things.
(I have elaborated on this in the past: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17164086>)
If one means to say it's not people's fault that computers suck to use and they shouldn't be blamed for exhibiting some emotional dismay when forced to do so anyway, then one may say so clearly and concisely, and without insisting on oneself even by implication.
What I meant to convey, seven years ago, when writing that comment making the analogy to Zen Buddhism (as described by Alan Watts at least) was that there are those who come to understand technology and immediately go off and despise and belittle all the people who don’t understand it. There are also those who come to understand technology and can explain the relevant parts to those who don’t understand it, and help them handle technology to help them in their lives, without belittling them or even secretly/silently looking down on or feeling superior to them in any way. This dichotomy seemed to me to be very similar to what Alan Watts once described about Zen Buddhism.
But sure, you keep berating people for daring to quote something by someone so plebeian as Alan Watts, in a seven year old comment. I’m sure it will help you get along with people.
But it's less interesting to me that you brought up Alan Watts seven years ago than that you did so again yesterday. What do you need from him? Why bring him up if you don't want to talk about him? Or is it that no one is allowed to have an opinion that contradicts yours, including when that involves looking askance at needless reference to dead prophets?
Well, possibly. What is interesting and subtle to some is obvious and clichéd to others. Much like how technology is mysterious and ineffable to some, but obvious and plain to others.
> But it's less interesting to me that you brought up Alan Watts seven years ago than that you did so again yesterday. What do you need from him? Why bring him up if you don't want to talk about him?
Now you’re being delusory. You brough up Alan Watts again, after I quoted him seven years ago. I simply responded to you.
> Or is it that no one is allowed to have an opinion that contradicts yours, including when that involves looking askance at needless reference to dead prophets?
I think that, outside purely literary criticism, criticizing a “needless” reference is useless unless the reference itself is incorrect in a way which invalidates the point which the reference is meant to illuminate.
I just checked again, and it does look like you posted [1] the relevant links. Are you seeing something different? My experience has been that people who use apps or scripts which purport to "improve" on HN's interface do sometimes run into such bugs.
I bring it up because I feel like if we're not working from similar sets of facts, that would be a reasonable explanation for what otherwise is seeming very much like you doing everything you possibly can to avoid acknowledging I called bullshit, on the naked appeal to authority to which you resorted, in order to try to lend your words a weight you lack the ability to give them yourself.
Especially since I certainly did not use the quote of Alan Watts as a “naked appeal to authority”. Alan Watts does not describe anything in my point directly, and I do not, in the seven year old post, use the quote as an authoritative argument. It was merely an analogy. I claimed no knowledge of whether what Alan Watts describes is true or not. I used his description to explain what I thought was a similar phenomena to his description, nothing more.
> you doing everything you possibly can to avoid acknowledging I called bullshit, on the naked appeal to authority to which you resorted, in order to try to lend your words a weight you lack the ability to give them yourself.
I think you’re coming dangerously close, if not past, the forum guidelines, here. Please argue the point, not the person. I have asked you, repeatedly, why the Alan Watts quote is wrong, and why this fact would invalidate the point I was making. I even restated my point without referring to Alan Watts at all, to allow you to criticize it directly. But you have ignored all this, and your entire parent comment is instead about me, not about any point I was making, or even any point you are trying to make. Your entire argument seems to lack any point or counterpoint, and is instead only attacking me, personally.
So I see.
Reddit has historically respected your subscriptions but it does look like they are drifting away and making the home page just whatever they want to show you.
[1] https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/436274023/men-dont-cry
Then it shoves a knife through my heart with a montage of that dog movie. Well done.
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLK7qSjp3kvZqH6muR6Oa3...
"Please enjoy each cry equally"
Correlation, causation, etc?
I.e. I can easily imagine that, if something is seriously weighting on your mind, opening up about it and even crying would reduce stress.
It might even be the other way: That once people get a moment to de-stress and get a chance to mentally process some devastating event, they will cry.
I find it much harder to believe that just crying about some random, unrelated thing will magically make you more relaxed.
What kind of a take is this? If you strategically block an entire nation from viewing our sites and media, you're handing the state-run media there more power.
The McCarthy strategy/red scare is very effective.
We're the good guys though. Remember that. If we admit any wrongdoing ever, that's just history and now we are good. Or else.
The take of the Russian government?
Why do you think I shouldn't have access to this website in Russia?
Mind to explain why?
Anyway, this seems to be a covert ad for https://www.feelapp.io/.
Sadly, they have a waitlist, so I'll just come by on the next funnel.
I’m not linking it, therefore no covert ads here.
Unless that’s what I want you to think.
(Sorry could not resist)
Well that was fun.. :)
Didn't make me cry, but came close. I don't know if i feel stress relieved. It made me feel even more aware of my own mortality and mistakes i made/make in life. Don't feel particulary happy or relieved.
So i clicked again
"A scene from the movie Steel Magnolias (1989). A woman mourns the loss of her daughter. (6:44 min)"
Oh hell no..
Third and last attempt
"A scene from the movie Bambi (1942). Bambi mourns the loss of his mother. (02:47 min)"
You sure this is about stress relieving? :)