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I gave up TV, then qualified for Olympic marathon trials and got my PhD

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Re: I gave up TV, then qualified for Olympic marathon trials and got my PhD

#31

Post by threatofrain »

thesmallestcat wrote: post #18
doctorpangloss wrote: post #7

Narcissism, I would argue, is a far more dangerous thing than TV. The author's narcissism lets her celebrate all these unlikable cliches: being a fitness guru, being an "aspiring writer," being an academic overachiever, having a perfect husband and incoming baby or whatever. Then the style: preachy, written in the first person, chronologically. As though the only way to write about yourself is like an upbeat propagan…

Depression has a nasty way of driving us to cut down other people with self-esteem.

I think it's good to depart your self-esteem from immediate social stimuli. People will strut, so let them, and don't react with low latency.

Re: I gave up TV, then qualified for Olympic marathon trials and got my PhD

#32

Post by throwaway2016a »

stevefeinstein wrote: post #5

I gave up TV, those things didn't happen, but my wife left me, and took the kids and the dog

In college my grades went down significantly when I started dating my future wife Sophomore year. I was a 4.0 Freshman year and only a 3.75 Sophomore year. Definitely causation...

Sorry, I know you're being tongue and cheek, it just made me think of the anecdote :)

One could argue that if I didn't start dating her and get married I would be much more "successful" right now.

Re: I gave up TV, then qualified for Olympic marathon trials and got my PhD

#33

Post by throwaway2016a »

rdlecler1 wrote: post #2

This article makes the assumption that people are not watching TV as a mental decompressor. Depending on your job and hours you may very well not have the physical and mental energy left over to engage in extreme physical and mental activity.

Some people decompress in weird ways. Ways I decompress...

- Writing code unrelated to what I write at work

- Reading business books

- Exercise

- Mindfulness

- Doing math lessons on Khan Academy

- Watching TV

Arguably 3/5 of those are just as mentally taxing as what I do all day at work yet somehow I am able to recharge. I think for me it is more about changing direction than difficulty.

Re: I gave up TV, then qualified for Olympic marathon trials and got my PhD

#34

Post by j7ake »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #29
j7ake wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I agree. There are countless number of people who get their PhDs and also are good athletes... I don't see why her story is remarkable. There was nothing about what her thesis was about or what kind of book she was writing...It's not clear what her contribution to science or literature was actually. The article did not have much content beyond success related words such as PhD, writing and marathon. Someone might…

> It's not clear what her contribution to science or literature was actually. Her dissertation is here: https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/70983... Title is "A Novel Role for Fyn in ApoER2 Regulation" I can't help but wonder whether you have questioned her contribution to science if she was a man and wrote the same article. I'll let you say whether you think you would though, as I could only specu…

Thanks for the link. I didn't pick up from the article that she was a neuroscientist. When I read the article I wasn't even sure if she was in biology or physics or math or sociology. I don't know why her gender would affect whether or not I think the person should have written about their contribution to science and literature rather than just associating herself with words related to success.

Re: I gave up TV, then qualified for Olympic marathon trials and got my PhD

#35

Post by thesmallestcat »

throwaway2016a wrote: post #32
stevefeinstein wrote: post #5

I gave up TV, those things didn't happen, but my wife left me, and took the kids and the dog

In college my grades went down significantly when I started dating my future wife Sophomore year. I was a 4.0 Freshman year and only a 3.75 Sophomore year. Definitely causation... Sorry, I know you're being tongue and cheek, it just made me think of the anecdote :) One could argue that if I didn't start dating her and get married I would be much more "successful" right now.

Protip: When somebody brings up their wife leaving them and taking the kids, save the marital bliss talk for later.

Re: I gave up TV, then qualified for Olympic marathon trials and got my PhD

#36

Post by throwaway2016a »

thesmallestcat wrote: post #35
throwaway2016a wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In college my grades went down significantly when I started dating my future wife Sophomore year. I was a 4.0 Freshman year and only a 3.75 Sophomore year. Definitely causation... Sorry, I know you're being tongue and cheek, it just made me think of the anecdote :) One could argue that if I didn't start dating her and get married I would be much more "successful" right now.

Protip: When somebody brings up their wife leaving them and taking the kids, save the marital bliss talk for later.

I never said we were still together or blissful... in fact I said I would have probably been more successful if I didn't get married.

Although the thought hadn't crossed my mind I was being insensitive because I am 80% sure the OP post was a joke. Intentionally in stark contract with the article.

Hence why the other replies are:

> You should try stand-up comedy

> But did she take the truck?

(a joke reference to American Country Western Songs)

If I am wrong and his wife did leave him and take the dog my condolences.

Re: I gave up TV, then qualified for Olympic marathon trials and got my PhD

#38

Post by romanovcode »

fred_is_fred wrote: post #22
doctorpangloss wrote: post #7

Narcissism, I would argue, is a far more dangerous thing than TV. The author's narcissism lets her celebrate all these unlikable cliches: being a fitness guru, being an "aspiring writer," being an academic overachiever, having a perfect husband and incoming baby or whatever. Then the style: preachy, written in the first person, chronologically. As though the only way to write about yourself is like an upbeat propagan…

I agree with you here. This is written in the preachy way that people post to Facebook and then say "#blessed" at the end. The whole purpose of this is to say how their lives are better than yours.

Isn't this the main purpose of FB anyway - to boast how much your life is better then everyone's else?
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