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I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it

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Re: I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it

#101

Post by fellowniusmonk »

blablabla123 wrote: post #95
fellowniusmonk wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I have no particular position, my brother is a molecular biologist and bioinformatics guy who has been published in nature, featured in NYT, etc. A true scientific nerds nerd, and he endlessly ridiculed the poor science and poor scientific understanding of people on the M.D. track that he interacted with in labs while he was doing research. I do have this anecdote from deep personal experience though... pediatr…

I remember former fellow students telling how they corrected medical students' practical physics internship assignments. Apparently the statistical rigour is much lower. On the other hand, I guess in pure natural sciences you work with much more indirection and have zero results nowadays unless you use a lot of tools. Probably there aren't that many medical conditions that can be treated in-depth based on first princ…

I also think "concluding that whole medical science can be replaced by an AI assistant" is far fetched. I hope that wasn't what you took away from my comment.

Re: I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it

#102

Post by lupinglade »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #55
throwaway205826 wrote: post #13

A few years ago I got some kind of brain illness. Doctors were unable to come up with a strong diagnosis, which is apparently quite common for such cases. One of the effects of the illness was that I essentially became stupid. I couldn’t focus on anything (even trivial activities like watching television), I couldn’t compose emails, I would get disoriented easily. It was absolutely terrifying not knowing whether or n…

> 1. Like any other industry, 90% of medical “experts” are totally incompetent. Yeah, I've come to the same conclusion. When I was a kid it took 2 years to diagnose my, frankly quite textbook, hypothyroidism. Know who first diagnosed it? A friend of my mother's who worked the toll booth at the airport. Her dog had it, you see, so she recognized the symptoms. My mother had to go full Karen mode on a doctor to get them…

Same conclusion here as well.

Re: I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it

#103

Post by georgeecollins »

throwaway205826 wrote: post #13

A few years ago I got some kind of brain illness. Doctors were unable to come up with a strong diagnosis, which is apparently quite common for such cases. One of the effects of the illness was that I essentially became stupid. I couldn’t focus on anything (even trivial activities like watching television), I couldn’t compose emails, I would get disoriented easily. It was absolutely terrifying not knowing whether or n…

>> 1. Like any other industry, 90% of medical “experts” are totally incompetent.

I would need data to accept this, not anecdote. There is a tendency for smart people to think they know better than experts.

Re: I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it

#104

Post by qwerty456127 »

antihipocrat wrote: post #93
qwerty456127 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you don't exist, who wrote this comment? The hands. Driven by the chemical phenomena taking place in the brain given the information it had been fed previously. Both the hands and the brain and the memories are mine but not me. The same way my finger is (I won't be less me if I loose it, neither I will if I loose a memory of something, even of my name) and my car is. I am merely the observer of all these but ok,…

When you say you don't exist are you referring to your sense of self identity? i.e your ego, the feeling that your mind and body and all of your senses, emotions, thoughts and memories are a distinct entity? This idea is very interesting, and not considered strange in philosophy (ego death) and is also prevalent in Buddhism: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatt%C4%81

Yes, kind of.

I'm pretty sure I am neither my ego nor my body. But besides the body and the ego (the ego being a product of the body) no thing which could be reasonably called me physically exists.

I am a rational kind so even if I believed in immortal soul in the Christian sense and could imagine an ethereal projection of my body retaining my memories going to some heaven after my body death, I would still understand the heaven as a physical place existing in spaces beyond reach of today measurement instruments and scientific reasoning of today. Therefore that would still be another body of mine, made of different sort of particles, existing physically (there is no way to exist nonphysically, physicality is a synonym to existence). But not me.

Re: I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it

#105

Post by ausbah »

megablast wrote: post #9

Cars are so incredibly destructive to society, in so many ways. But most people are so blasé about them.

we're kind of stuck with them for the foreseeable future aren't we though

at the very least we need stuff like roundabouts, no left turns, electric cars, etc

Re: I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it

#106

Post by ryandrake »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #89
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. Like any other industry, 90% of medical “experts” are totally incompetent. Yeah, I've come to the same conclusion. When I was a kid it took 2 years to diagnose my, frankly quite textbook, hypothyroidism. Know who first diagnosed it? A friend of my mother's who worked the toll booth at the airport. Her dog had it, you see, so she recognized the symptoms. My mother had to go full Karen mode on a doctor to get them…

With doctors, you are your own doctor and the doctors you see are subcontractors. First appointment is a job interview. That’s the best way to think of it IMO. I guess I’m privileged to have the money to do this. Google helps you know what it could be, but you need to do a fair bit of research and critical thinking. Unfortunately if you are sick this is the last thing you want to do!

I'm all for taking charge of your own health priorities, but don't go too far to the other side of the spectrum. Witness all the "shade tree epidemiologists" that came out of the woodwork last year. One or two Facebook conspiracy videos, and they were suddenly health care experts, confidently spouting off COVID-19 facts they picked up from the YouTube channels of Crystal Energy Lady or Vitality Supplement Guy.

Doing research means actually researching. Not doing a few Google searches and watching YouTube videos that already validate what you feel in your heart.

Re: I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it

#107

Post by qwerty456127 »

brodo wrote: post #85
qwerty456127 wrote: post #18

> Of all the injuries we suffered, mine is the worst. My brain injury has shaken my confidence in my own personality, my own existence. I don't exist. That's the secret. This concept took me years to grok but now I know.

The Buddists call it https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatt%C4%81 Anattā. In psychonautics it’s called ego death. It can be frightening, but for me it is a hopeful, unifying and happy idea.

But the ego doesn't have to die, you can be friends, just don't take it serious :-) Experiencing having it dead for some time can help if that's what you seek, but c'mon, if you still are experiencing something - that's the ego, it is tricking you (itself) ;-)

Re: I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it

#108

Post by sakopov »

megablast wrote: post #9

Cars are so incredibly destructive to society, in so many ways. But most people are so blasé about them.

Most people are blasé? Most people don't have a choice because they don't live in San Francisco or New York where billions are spent on infrastructure and proper city planning which accommodates pedestrians and public transportation.

Re: I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it

#109

Post by davidhyde »

data_spy wrote: post #76
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. Like any other industry, 90% of medical “experts” are totally incompetent. Yeah, I've come to the same conclusion. When I was a kid it took 2 years to diagnose my, frankly quite textbook, hypothyroidism. Know who first diagnosed it? A friend of my mother's who worked the toll booth at the airport. Her dog had it, you see, so she recognized the symptoms. My mother had to go full Karen mode on a doctor to get them…

Not sure if true, but whenever I've had a foreign born doctor, they tended to be better in my experience.

The quality of the group of doctors who emigrate from one country is not representative of the quality of all the doctors from said country. For example, it could be extremely difficult to emigrate and may require exceptional talent over peers to do so. It all depends.

Re: I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it

#110

Post by dQw4w9WgXcQ »

tux1968 wrote: post #31
qwerty456127 wrote: post #18

> Of all the injuries we suffered, mine is the worst. My brain injury has shaken my confidence in my own personality, my own existence. I don't exist. That's the secret. This concept took me years to grok but now I know.

I have good news for you. Ignoring the small chance that you're actually a figment of my imagination, I can confirm you actually do exist.

> Ignoring the small chance that you're actually a figment of my imagination

Haha. I always figure I'm not smart enough to come up with all these people, and if I was, I'd know their thoughts in advance because they'd be part of me.

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