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Ask HN: I feel like I've destroyed my attention span. How do I get it back?

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Re: Ask HN: I feel like I've destroyed my attention span. How do I get it back?

#71

Post by naru_s »

nukeop wrote: post #68
andrei_says_ wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which one of the many gods do you think it tries to impose upon and in what way? What do you think is the purpose of prayer and what do you think is the purpose of meditation?

There is only one God, by definition. If there were many, they wouldn't be God, by an obvious contradiction (since God is the greatest conceivable being, there is only one).

Thats your definition of God, the definition that is made by people like you who want to make claim for your God. Stop making such obvious circular logic please. You know in the history on mankind there are more than 3000 definitions of God. If you born in old Greece 2000 years ago, your definition of God would be different from now. If you are born in Thai or India, your God will again be different. What you are currently believing just depends on your geographic location.

Re: Ask HN: I feel like I've destroyed my attention span. How do I get it back?

#72

Post by naru_s »

nukeop wrote: post #69
krapp wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prayer has never helped anyone, unless you consider the placebo effect to be helpful. In which case prayer is no more or less useful than meditation.

Communion with the divine is not a "placebo effect". it has a profound effect on the mental and intellectual condition.

Which has zero evidence except your holy text and personal experience, just like any pseudoscience

Re: Ask HN: I feel like I've destroyed my attention span. How do I get it back?

#73

Post by allanmacgregor »

rwieruch wrote: post #67

If you are looking for books about getting your attention back, I can only recommend Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi [0] and Deep Work by Cal Newport [1] I wrote an extensive blog post about both books (which happened to be on HN too), because they are kinda life changing. - [0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/66354.Flow - [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25744928-deep-work - [2] https://www.robinwieruch.d…

Read both and tried to follow the Deep work kind of model for a while, is harder than it looks. Specially being in a position where I don't a 100% control my time.

Fortunately, for the past year I been slowly setting up things in a way where I can defend my time better.

Re: Ask HN: I feel like I've destroyed my attention span. How do I get it back?

#74

Post by nukeop »

naru_s wrote: post #71
nukeop wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is only one God, by definition. If there were many, they wouldn't be God, by an obvious contradiction (since God is the greatest conceivable being, there is only one).

Thats your definition of God, the definition that is made by people like you who want to make claim for your God. Stop making such obvious circular logic please. You know in the history on mankind there are more than 3000 definitions of God. If you born in old Greece 2000 years ago, your definition of God would be different from now. If you are born in Thai or India, your God will again be different. What you are cur…

If I were born in Greece 2000 years ago I would have read Plato and know the same definition anyone interested in theology has known since the Sumerians. You would have read Plato too and we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Please stop spreading this misconception that religions are somehow completely different and incompatible, they are simply different paths to the same goal, this has been acknowledged by saints and scholars across the world for as long as there has been religion. We might disagree on some particulars but the core concept and idea of the absolute reality is the same.

Re: Ask HN: I feel like I've destroyed my attention span. How do I get it back?

#75

Post by nukeop »

naru_s wrote: post #72
nukeop wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Communion with the divine is not a "placebo effect". it has a profound effect on the mental and intellectual condition.

Which has zero evidence except your holy text and personal experience, just like any pseudoscience

There is abundant evidence of effectiveness of prayer practices, thousands of years ago and now. The human mind has the need for divinity built-in at a hardware level.

Re: Ask HN: I feel like I've destroyed my attention span. How do I get it back?

#76

Post by chad_strategic »

nukeop wrote: post #56
anderspitman wrote: post #29

I've been working on this lately as well. Not finished with the process but here's a few things I've tried: * Read part of a book before starting work. * No HN/reddit/etc until noon. * No Facebook until 6PM. * Disable almost all notifications. * Only check emails/texts once an hour at the top of the hour. * Use software that respects my desire for focus. The last one is currently the most interesting to me. When I wa…

How about "no facebook, period"?

Agreed.

Re: Ask HN: I feel like I've destroyed my attention span. How do I get it back?

#77

Post by chad_strategic »

nukeop wrote: post #64
dukeflukem wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such a bold statement. You have to explain why.

Prayer has been helping people for thousands of years, meditation is a new-age, godless impostor.

Ugh I fell for this off argument...

Meditation predates Christianity. Buddhism any one? I don’t recall anybody meditating and then become ing a suicide bomber.

Re: Ask HN: I feel like I've destroyed my attention span. How do I get it back?

#78

Post by chad_strategic »

For me exercise, weightlifting, bike riding and basketball are great. I love playing basketball, no Facebook, Twitter, code, news feeds, fake news, just chase the damn ball.

After physical exercise I feel it’s easier to concentrate.

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