> Knowledge is power. Random bullshit ideas isn't.

Every proven idea started as a random bullshit idea. No one in this thread is presenting their ideas as definitive solutions as far as I see, everyone is being pretty good about providing their confidence levels and sources.

> what they want you to do, not what you, at a fundamental level, want to do

This is a whole philosophical rabbit hole about advertising and free will in general, it's not specific to OP's case so I don't really want to get into it, that discussion is better had on Reddit or some other HN thread.

As for the rest, I think this other commenter said it better than I can: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42657251