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The Animal Is Tired

robinhobb.com

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Re: The Animal Is Tired

#281

Post by salawat »

piva00 wrote: post #238
tidenly wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right - I think we get a lot of in-built satisfaction and pleasure from being around or raising kids, specifically to offset just how annoying and difficult the task of raising them is.

I definitely have this built-in feeling quite broken. I left the door open to perhaps consider forming a family at some point since my first girlfriend, over the years it's only got more clear that I don't enjoy kids, at all. I don't take enjoyment from being around kids, playing with kids or any kind of interaction with them, it makes me feel broken but I simply can't. Not even with my niece, my sisters get a lot of…

It changes once you find or have something worth passing on. I don't have any kids or much materially, but I love to teach any of the skills or interests that I've picked up to any kid I get blessed with time with who shows even a mild interest.

Children, after about 3, are so much simpler to be around than adults. Though it can be draining at times if you have too many youngsters around, but your mind is chewing on an adult problem. What really gets the chemistry going is when you run into one where you see them running into the same problems you did growing up, or who has similar problems. The matching communication style but different origins make the entire experience somehow reinvigorating. Like a karmic balloon for your heart by helping someone avoid exactly retracing the life lessons you learned the hard way, and sometimes, they teach you a nugget of wisdom you'll kick yourself for not having caught..

Even if they aren't mine biologically, being a good (kind, wise, intelligent, enpathetic, independent responsible, creative, critical thinking, contributing person) is learned behavior, that the teaching is not straightforward for, but watching the lightbulb come on is one of the few things keeping me getting out of bed these days.

Re: The Animal Is Tired

#282

Post by selykg »

SunlightEdge wrote: post #265
spamalot159 wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brandon Sanderson is my go to recommendation for fantasy nowadays. Mistborn is a great place to start but The Way of Kings is the real meat and potatoes. He also links all these books together in the same universe and it's fun to notice the connections.

At the risk of being downvoted I don't find Brandon Sanderson a very good fantasy writer. For me, The way of kings started well (even if the characters were all pretty 2-D) in book one. Interesting plot with it mixing ww1/dune computer game themes in a fantasy setting. But by book 3 it was an incredible chore to get through and I stopped after about 10% in. I even got bored reading the plot summary of the third book.…

Too bad you will never see the end of The King Killer Chronicles. It has been something like 10 years since the last book. Rothfuss is in the exact same situation as Martin for me. I won't buy any books of his until the series is complete.

You may not like Sanderson's writing, but the man publishes books. He will get my money for anything he writes because I know I'm going to enjoy it (personally, I really enjoy his books) and I know he's going to complete what he starts.

Re: The Animal Is Tired

#283

Post by kkoncevicius »

The animal separation part is confusing to me. Not because of any "mind versus matter" dilemmas but because of desires.

The author says that the animal wants to relax and lie down. But where is the distinction here? If you drink coffee when you feel the urge - that's on you, but if you relax when you feel like it - then it's the animal? Can it be that all those desires for working hard and having coffee and alcohol was part of the animal instinct?

I don't see how to decouple those, even thou I am sympathetic to the animal / inside animal distinction.

Re: The Animal Is Tired

#284

Post by lotsofpulp »

Snoozus wrote: post #234
maxqin1 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> good food Everyone thinks they eat good food. Food is the number one physical measurable input into our bodies. So it boggles my mind that nutrition isn't the most studied subject, alongside maybe the study of living a fulfilling life. Changing my eating habits has changed my life for the better. It took kidney stones (not recommended) to get me here. But even my most obese and unhealthy friends like to proudly tel…

> Food is the number one physical measurable input into our bodies. This is the single reason why everyone focusses on food. It is not the biggest lever you have on your health / wellbeing. It is the easiest variable to measure and to play with. From the research it is quite clear that apart from gross errors what you eat does not really matter to any outcome. Quantity matters, but eating more can be compensated by e…

> Quantity matters, but eating more can be compensated by excercising more.

Eating a little bit more can be. Eating an extra 1k kcal per day cannot be, especially as you get older. I’m in my 30s and relatively fit, and I can only burn 14 kcal per minute for 45 minutes or so. Maybe I can do an hour if I pushed it, but even Olympic level athletes top out at 20 kcal per minute.

Re: The Animal Is Tired

#285

Post by bagacrap »

another_bear wrote: post #258
DocTomoe wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are still comparatively young. Give it a few more years.

Well I am 40 this year and in the best shape of my life. I lost some flexibility in my lower regions but that's because I don't do taekwondo anymore, but instead switched to competitive running, cycling, and triathlon. 30 year old me would have wrecked 20 year old me, when I was in the Army, and 40 year old me can out-run, out-sprint, and out-lift 30 year old me handily. What's my secret? Staying positive, staying di…

you're competing in endurance sports while on HRT. hmmmm

Re: The Animal Is Tired

#286

Post by mattjaynes »

SunlightEdge wrote: post #265
spamalot159 wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brandon Sanderson is my go to recommendation for fantasy nowadays. Mistborn is a great place to start but The Way of Kings is the real meat and potatoes. He also links all these books together in the same universe and it's fun to notice the connections.

At the risk of being downvoted I don't find Brandon Sanderson a very good fantasy writer. For me, The way of kings started well (even if the characters were all pretty 2-D) in book one. Interesting plot with it mixing ww1/dune computer game themes in a fantasy setting. But by book 3 it was an incredible chore to get through and I stopped after about 10% in. I even got bored reading the plot summary of the third book.…

Totally agree. I love his lectures on writing which you can find on YouTube. He's a great teacher with excellent content. But great teachers aren't always the best writers.

I decided to try the Mistborn trilogy. The first book was great - a nice tight and satisfying story. But the second and third books got progressively messier and I found myself totally disconnected and eventually just slogging through to the end. I wish I would have stopped after the first book.

Sanderson admits loving to write write write and hating to rewrite and edit, which I think really showed in the latter books of the trilogy.

Re: The Animal Is Tired

#287

Post by Liskni_si »

hedberg10 wrote: post #188
koonsolo wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take a 1 hour walk outside every day. Your 'wasted' hour will be given back tenfold.

*when the sun is the highest in the sky. Shirt off, if you dare. Start slow (don't be stupid and burn yourself). The energy is incredible. I walked about 20 miles this morning with the sun coming up before biking 6 miles to work and then back in the evening. And I know I'll have lots of energy to spare tonight. Yes we are warm blooded animals but still very dependent on the sun and activity.

20 miles is just 6 miles less than a marathon, and would take over 6 hours at the normal pace of 5 km/h. Is that really what you manage to do in the morning before work? :-O

Re: The Animal Is Tired

#288

Post by danenania »

mritchie712 wrote: post #251
polishdude20 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! Weightlifting is probably the number one best thing you can do for your body.

Sprinting is a good alternative to weightlifting. Worth giving a shot if you're hesitant to lift weights or don't have the equipment / gym nearby. https://www.marksdailyapple.com/dear-mark-how-many-sprints-p...

Bodyweight fitness is also a great way to start. Until you're pretty far along, it's about as effective for gaining strength as weights, and has other benefits (balance, flexibility, coordination, etc).

Lots of good info on the sidebar here: https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/

Re: The Animal Is Tired

#289

Post by earthboundkid »

> Me, and the animal I live inside.

This dualism is unhelpful. You are the animal. You aren't a thing inside of yourself. Yes, sometimes your mind can be sharp and your body tired, but at the end of the day, you are the unity created by the synthesis, not some disembodied force.

The worst thing about dualism is that people who think of themselves as not religious do it unreflectively, whereas when religious people do it, at least it's on the table as something up for debate.

Re: The Animal Is Tired

#290

Post by earthboundkid »

Ensorceled wrote: post #276
blfr wrote: post #166

Better food, more exercise, more relaxation... but I also wonder if it would have made any difference. Yes. I'm only half OP's age but working out and eating well (well for me means much more) has made all the little aches I started to have in my 20s go away and made me much calmer, I can also sleep pretty much anywhere and at any time. More interestingly though, Me, and the animal I live inside. there is no animal y…

> there is no animal you live inside, this is not a meat vehicle for something else, your body is you, it's not some machine you merely inhabit. It always drives me crazy when people take the work of a poet or author literally and then pedantically hound any joy or meaning out of the words. The point is that humans are animals, treat your animal well.

You can make that point better if you cut the "inside" part and have the big reveal at the end be that you are the animal. Having the big reveal be that you're in the animal sets up a false distinction which doesn't help make the point.
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