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Ask HN: What is your favorite motto?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite motto?

#152

Post by poxwole »

Praxis Tendatum Docebit!- C.F. Gauss Translation: "Practice will teach those who try"

"We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time." T.S. Eliot

"What one fool can understand, another can." R.P. Feynman

Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite motto?

#154

Post by gadders »

arethuza wrote: post #80
gadders wrote: post #55

"aut inveniam viam aut faciam" "I will find a way or make one" Reputedly said by Hannibal when proposing taking his army (and elephants) across the alps.

He presumably didn't say it in Latin though ;-)

He may well have never said it at all :-)

Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite motto?

#158

Post by jcbrand »

mrjay42 wrote: post #128
giu wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you explain what you mean? English is not my native language, so there's a possibility for me to learn how to rephrase it; maybe resonates with me is not the right word :) I'd appreciate it!

If I may I think I know/feel what he meant: If you've experienced massive fear to the point of panicking, then you'll know that this kind of quotes were written by people who've never faced fear. It's possible to face it, it's possible to address the issues...But fear/panic will always be there, you can learn to live with it, but it's not a "monster you can kill". So when it's said "Only I will remain": well...the th…

> But fear/panic will always be there, you can learn to live with it, but it's not a "monster you can kill".

This is not true.

Fear, like all emotions comes and goes. This is one of the first things you learn when you have a consistent meditation practice.

By clinging to an emotion, feeding it with conscious energy and identifying with it, you prolong the suffering it causes. The quicker you disidentify with it, the quicker it passes, just like every other emotion.

It may come back again, but that's not the same as "always be there" and the better you get with not associating and identifying with it, the less intense it becomes over time.

Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite motto?

#159

Post by kqr »

pwdisswordfish4 wrote: post #155

“By searching, you can always find someone who made a well-sounding statement that confirms your point of view--and, on every topic, it is possible to find another dead thinker who said the exact opposite.” — Nassim Taleb

Related to this, I've always loved how the article on Epistemic Learned Helplessness[1] on SSC turns "well, you can prove anything with arguments!" from a joke to something to seriously consider.

[1]: https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/06/03/repost-epistemic-learn...

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