Ask HN: How to turn off my desire to be seen? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How to turn off my desire to be seen?

#21

Post by meric » Sat, Sep 23, 2017, 2:51 AM UTC

timthelion wrote: post #6

timthelion wrote: post #5

I too have this problem, I wonder, however, whether HN is a great place for such discussion. Not that it is off topic, but HN is a place that increases this feeling by creating an all or nothing atmosphere. There is no way to be seen just a little. --- Did the tree hear itself fall? One of the first successful AI experiments was a computer in a booth at a fair. The computer had a genetic algorithm which would draw tw…

I'd also like to add a fourth dimension to the problem, and that is. ---------------- Distributed attention Attention is like wealth, in that the distribution of it is unfair. Some people get lots of attention while others get none. When someone has a lot of attention, they are said to be famous. We've come to equate "getting attention" with "being famous" but it need not be this way. We can receive the love and atte…

We cannot change the fact that our loved ones' attention are directed into attention centralisation services like YouTube, Instagram, newspapers, politics discussions, etc. But we can choose to direct our attention to the people next to us. A well placed smile can really make someone's day. :)

Re: Ask HN: How to turn off my desire to be seen?

#22

Post by saimiam » Sat, Sep 23, 2017, 4:56 AM UTC

saimiam wrote: post #19

nexus2045 wrote: post #18

I was surprised to read this post because it echoes my sentiments down to the T. Another one is when I learn or read anything, I almost reflexively think about how I might dispense that information in front of an audience (friends, a crowd) and "sound smart". That impending validation feels good. The only saddening conclusions I've come to are that "all I want is attention" and "I'm narcissistic".

After I asked this question of HackerNews, I went off to medium.com to read about art because they say art can save the heart. One thought exercise on creativity showed me for a brief second what intrinsic reward looks like. I'll try to find that post and share it with you. To summarize, 1. Imagine a red apple. It's your own red apple. 2. It floats in space in front of you not tied to the ground or the sky. 3. Add ye…

The apple exercise in question: https://medium.com/@Catylator/one-thing-you-can-do-to-feel-m...

Re: Ask HN: How to turn off my desire to be seen?

#23

Post by gt_ » Sat, Sep 23, 2017, 6:06 AM UTC

saimiam wrote: post #19

nexus2045 wrote: post #18

I was surprised to read this post because it echoes my sentiments down to the T. Another one is when I learn or read anything, I almost reflexively think about how I might dispense that information in front of an audience (friends, a crowd) and "sound smart". That impending validation feels good. The only saddening conclusions I've come to are that "all I want is attention" and "I'm narcissistic".

After I asked this question of HackerNews, I went off to medium.com to read about art because they say art can save the heart. One thought exercise on creativity showed me for a brief second what intrinsic reward looks like. I'll try to find that post and share it with you. To summarize, 1. Imagine a red apple. It's your own red apple. 2. It floats in space in front of you not tied to the ground or the sky. 3. Add ye…

Sincerely, thank you. I actually do this thing a lot, and one of these little ideas (usually artistic) can last from a day to about a week maybe. It is my own little idea that I will just appreciate and it stays good or it goes away. Maybe I start to judge it but the net yield is happiness in my own space. I like making art but have realized conceptualizing it or visualizing it gives me my own existence that I get to 'exclude others from' if I want to see it that way. I find this habit can often lead me to not make the actual art but I am in the process of realizing that is actually the beauty of it.

I also do this through art history, too. This has am interesting angle to it. I habitually look for unconventional interpretations of art history but any will do. I often find little pieces of art history that I relate to a lot, or have personal theories of. Maybe others would think similarly but I don't know that and it doesn't matter. These relations are between me and a bunch of dead people and the lineage of the human mind.