TIL the first use of the term "brain rot" was in Henry David Thoreau's Walden

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pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11939997/#%3A%…

Lock in, chat. If you're on your sigma grindset (or your GenZ/Gen Alpha kids are) you might think I'm delulu, but it's true - Thoreau, a utopian philosopher with big W-rizz, lamented the issue, which he described as one's inability to capture the essence of the condition of a gradual atrophy in the capacity to think critically, concentrate, and be in the world appropriately. It's not bussin, no cap.

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Why level downward to our dullest perception always, and praise that as common sense? The commonest sense is the sense of men asleep, which they express by snoring. Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half-witted with the half-witted, because we appreciate only a third part of their wit. Some would find fault with the morning red, if they ever got up early enough. “They pretend,” as I hear, “that the verses of Kabir have four different senses; illusion, spirit, intellect, and the exoteric doctrine of the Vedas”; but in this part of the world it is considered a ground for complaint if a man’s writings admit of more than one interpretation. While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally?

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This fella peeble streaming on doop no cap

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I love to read. I have picked up Walden multiple times. I cannot for the life of me get through it. Thoreau is thorough in his writing, if nothing else.

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I got through it years ago when I was on a classic literature kick. There's certainly a lot of detail about hoeing peas as I recall.

I also got all the way through Moby Dick. It's mostly intricate details about the whaling industry at the time, which was fascinating, but man it dragged on. It did make me want to try a whale blubber steak, though.

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea is mostly a travelogue detailing the marvellous variety of sea life they encounter, and how they taste. :)

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OP

Agreed. I think I’m fairly well read and I’ve worked through a decent number of philosophical texts, but I’ve never finished Walden.

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one's inability to capture the essence of the condition of a gradual atrophy in the capacity to think critically, concentrate, and be in the world appropriately.

This was called ADHD a few years ago

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This might have been misdiagnosed as ADHD some years ago, true

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OP

Yes, but you can medicate ADHD. There’s no entry in the DSM for brain rot (yet).

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Of course there is. Cure it with Smarties.

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