First, he wrote the book in the 1970s. People would have noticed if he was wildly off base.

Second, you can do a quick search and prove his numbers were correct.

Look up the book “Hell’s Angel’s” by Hunter Thompson.

There’s a section in the book where he writes about the economics of being a hippie/biker/artist circa 1970.

A biker could work for six months as a Union stevedore and save up enough money to go on the road for two years. A part time waitress could support herself and her musician boyfreind.

I use the creation of bitcoin to mark the end of the idea of the internet community.

Before bitcoin, there were scams and trolling but most of the people were there to enjoy themselves. Maybe you’d learn something, and maybe just kill some time.

As long as sex work is illegal, it will be easy for people to find ways to abuse sex workers.

[off topic]

Daemon by Daniel Suarez. A persistent computer virus develops a game where the only way to win is to kill off your team mates. The people who show the greatest willingness to backstab are recruited for missions in the real world.

You used to buy an antenna TV and a VCR/DVD player. You either got it free with ads, or paid for a movie you could keep forever.

According to this article, and others I’ve seen pen and paper is still best.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/features/handwritten-vs-keyboard-notes-science/#:~:text=Another study from the same year found that,in a more comprehensive understanding of the content.