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You Are Not Lazy or Undisciplined. You Have Internal Resistance

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Re: You Are Not Lazy or Undisciplined. You Have Internal Resistance

#31

Post by papandada »

kiba wrote: post #10

I came around to the idea that procrastination or other form of akrasia is an emotional problem, not a discipline problem. That said, it doesn't really give me new tools or tricks to deal with the problems? It's still the same: podomoro or timeboxing, giving oneself a reward for completing an objective, trying to complete a given task every week, and so forth. I supposed I could give mental health therapies a try, I…

I definitely see procrastination linked to emotional processing issues for me. Maybe it's possible that there are things which provide immediate benefits, but for me many things I tried evaporated and I was still left with this base note, so to speak, of myself. I went to therapy, I went to 12 step meetings, I read books, I journalled, I talked the hell out of my thoughts and feelings with certain friends, got divorced, took medication, found another amazing woman to marry, all along the way there was progress and regress, blind spots, lots of blind spots, lots of denial and resistance and fighting and turmoil and avoidance. The "answers" for me so far are absolutely nothing that haven't been said a thousand times in every place, but having met them myself in my own way at my own time. I'm not sure I could have gone any faster than I did, and I'm ok with that (now, at least).

Re: You Are Not Lazy or Undisciplined. You Have Internal Resistance

#32

Post by pm90 »

beauHD wrote: post #26

For me, pertinent things seem to 'bubble up' and I will get them done regardless of resistance. Resistance doesn't mean the thing needs to be immediately done. The mind has a clever feature in that it surfaces subconscious goal-setting at the right time, and on an as-needed basis. In a professional and career context, however, you would be required to get tasks done straight away. But for artists and even dedicated l…

> The mind has a clever feature in that it surfaces subconscious goal-setting at the right time, and on an as-needed basis.

I've heard of a strategy where you think really hard about a problem, and then you go and do other unrelated things and your mind will come up with a solution. I have found that this does happen in practice. By stepping away from the problem, I'm basically forgetting all the context that made me approach the problem from the original angle and thus my mind tries a different approach. Often this new approach will also not work, but there might be things I discover when trying these approaches that lead to yet another approach.... I guess this process goes on until either a good enough solution is found or I give up.

Re: You Are Not Lazy or Undisciplined. You Have Internal Resistance

#33

Post by pm90 »

papandada wrote: post #31
kiba wrote: post #10

I came around to the idea that procrastination or other form of akrasia is an emotional problem, not a discipline problem. That said, it doesn't really give me new tools or tricks to deal with the problems? It's still the same: podomoro or timeboxing, giving oneself a reward for completing an objective, trying to complete a given task every week, and so forth. I supposed I could give mental health therapies a try, I…

I definitely see procrastination linked to emotional processing issues for me. Maybe it's possible that there are things which provide immediate benefits, but for me many things I tried evaporated and I was still left with this base note, so to speak, of myself. I went to therapy, I went to 12 step meetings, I read books, I journalled, I talked the hell out of my thoughts and feelings with certain friends, got divorc…

> The "answers" for me so far are absolutely nothing that haven't been said a thousand times in every place, but having met them myself in my own way at my own time. I'm not sure I could have gone any faster than I did, and I'm ok with that (now, at least)

Don't want to play armchair therapist, but that's really the best anyone can really do.

Re: You Are Not Lazy or Undisciplined. You Have Internal Resistance

#34

Post by zepto »

gala8y wrote: post #29
zepto wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the article does just set up a new pathology. Your read is much more benign. The article’s set up is actually quite harmful and disempowering. It identifies resistance as a bundle of fears and pain to be overcome in order to be able to ‘just do’ the thing you are trying to do. Obviously sometimes fear and pain do exist, and acceptance and awareness of them makes it easier to move forward. However most of the…

> Your read is much more benign. I think I wanted to see more in this article. I think the idea of acknowledging this part of us and seeing it as a positive force is not conveyed clearly enough, but it's there. > ‘You aren’t lazy, you just haven’t done the necessary prep and planning to make the thing you want to do feel straightforward’ might be just as useful advice. Yes. This would be a subset of "it's too difficu…

> and boom, you are back to square one.

What do you mean by back to square one?

Re: You Are Not Lazy or Undisciplined. You Have Internal Resistance

#35

Post by the_only_law »

beauHD wrote: post #26

For me, pertinent things seem to 'bubble up' and I will get them done regardless of resistance. Resistance doesn't mean the thing needs to be immediately done. The mind has a clever feature in that it surfaces subconscious goal-setting at the right time, and on an as-needed basis. In a professional and career context, however, you would be required to get tasks done straight away. But for artists and even dedicated l…

> “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”

Unfortunately, in my experience, I’m more likely to just determine the hard problem is not worth the effort to complete.

Re: You Are Not Lazy or Undisciplined. You Have Internal Resistance

#36

Post by luckyandroid »

jacksonkmarley wrote: post #27

> in my experience it is usually tied to some kind of predicted loss of love and connection This seems like a creative explanation that probably makes an article such as this seem a bit more quirky and interesting or something. Otherwise it's not a bad piece, but I don't think potential loss of love or connection is necessary to explain not wanting to do some difficult/annoying/time consuming task.

I think the article is describing resistance not just in terms of ‘difficult’ creative processes but any excuse you could make for any action that would likely benefit you.

Hence that line is more for people who resist finding new connections to people because of past problems. Learned fear of action is just that - learned. And it can be unlearned given the time and practice.

Re: You Are Not Lazy or Undisciplined. You Have Internal Resistance

#37

Post by luckyandroid »

beauHD wrote: post #26

For me, pertinent things seem to 'bubble up' and I will get them done regardless of resistance. Resistance doesn't mean the thing needs to be immediately done. The mind has a clever feature in that it surfaces subconscious goal-setting at the right time, and on an as-needed basis. In a professional and career context, however, you would be required to get tasks done straight away. But for artists and even dedicated l…

Big difference between ‘someone who cuts corners’ and ‘someone who won’t do the task at all’ when it comes to the phrase ‘lazy person’.

The first person will do the task, they just deemed it not worthy of their focused effort. The second person will find any excuse not to do it at all, which is the ‘resistance’ the article talks about.

Re: You Are Not Lazy or Undisciplined. You Have Internal Resistance

#38

Post by codegeek »

echelon wrote: post #30
kayodelycaon wrote: post #4

As with most posts of this type, it assumes you are neurotypical and not dealing with other issues that compromise executive function. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just important to point out there is a prerequisite condition that must be met before this advice becomes useful.

I've got ADHD and this. I couldn't be happier this came across the HN feed today, because it seems to accurately answer so many questions I've had about my performance on personal projects recently. I spent months working on the next version of https://vo.codes , and I've only got about five hours of frontend work to do before launching it. I've sit on it for a month now. What I think is happening is that I'm worried…

How would you go about identifying whether you have ADHD or not ? Any tips ? I really really suspect I have it but I have never talked to anyone about it.

Re: You Are Not Lazy or Undisciplined. You Have Internal Resistance

#39

Post by luckyandroid »

kiba wrote: post #10

I came around to the idea that procrastination or other form of akrasia is an emotional problem, not a discipline problem. That said, it doesn't really give me new tools or tricks to deal with the problems? It's still the same: podomoro or timeboxing, giving oneself a reward for completing an objective, trying to complete a given task every week, and so forth. I supposed I could give mental health therapies a try, I…

Everyone’s different. You can read a hundred different ways to get around the resistance, but doing them 100% the way they’re described likely WON’T work for you. You have to find the things you do like about it, and discard the parts you don’t, and continue to refine your personal routine over the course of a lifetime.

The most important part of that process is continually (once a week or a couple times a month, in my opinion) taking a step back and assessing what is and isn’t working for you, then taking the time to find a way around it.

Re: You Are Not Lazy or Undisciplined. You Have Internal Resistance

#40

Post by echelon »

codegeek wrote: post #38
echelon wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got ADHD and this. I couldn't be happier this came across the HN feed today, because it seems to accurately answer so many questions I've had about my performance on personal projects recently. I spent months working on the next version of https://vo.codes , and I've only got about five hours of frontend work to do before launching it. I've sit on it for a month now. What I think is happening is that I'm worried…

How would you go about identifying whether you have ADHD or not ? Any tips ? I really really suspect I have it but I have never talked to anyone about it.

There are several different manifestations of the disease, so be aware of that. Some that present with hyperactivity, some that don't. Look up the symptoms and see if they ring a bell, then go to see a specialist.
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