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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

#71
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unexplained underachievement.

I don't think looking at outcomes is a fair assessment at all. I academically excelled, have a successful career, an early employee IPO exit, and a spate of really interesting side projects. Yet I struggle with leading a normal life, prioritizing, sporadic and extreme hyper-focus, and frequent loss of interest. (If something doesn't interest me, I just won't do it. I have to pay people to do taxes, and I sometimes wi…

Yea I agree. I am actually reasonably accomplished in my life and career but I procrastinate like hell and there are times when I am just not doing anything. Perfect example is today. Been browsing HN so far when I have a few tasks to complete for my business. My own business where I know this will be make an impact but I am just not doing it.

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

#72
post #55

I've read sooooooo much of this kind of shiitake, I am sick of it. It is bullshit. Or rather, it's written by people who don't even take into account the biological nature of the brain. Let me check... of course he's a "coach"... If you can't do, teach, I guess. All of this shit will act as a bandaid, a crutch at best. It's like the bullshit "imagine you're wealthy and you will become wealthy". No, that doesn't work.…

Yes biology matters the most, but most of the time we don't have any control of the biological processes, and science does not own enough to do anything about it in this life. So we are left with: Talk, crutches, bandaids, frameworks, meta-knowledge of one's thought patterns, belief systems. Sure they are silly and full of contradictions, but funnily enough: All these things matter to biology. Not only do deeply held beliefs alter what biological organism does (I mean it moves some bodies attend services, right?), but it can also alter thought patterns and mental habits.

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

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well the first example in the article was about the author completing her PhD, and it mentioned productivity and making use of talents, and seemed to be talking about fear of success, so I read it as a (strange) extension of that. If it was meant to be about more personal relationship type stuff the author could have discussed that explicitly. Maybe the piece needed an extra paragraph to explain better what the link…

Yeah I think their analogies are a bit mixed, but the general idea of ‘learned reaction’ is still there, even if the examples the author used didn’t mesh well together.

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

#74
post #62

Maybe it really is actually a bad thing. And by "it" I mean the important thing that you are resisting. It's actually a bad thing. And you have convinced yourself that it's a good thing. But you aren't completely convinced. Deep down you know that it really is a very bad thing. One more step on a march of doom that you have been trying to escape since forever. A special door that, once passed through, your waste and…

> to forget the life that you lost What life would that be?

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

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

until UBI?

I doubt UBI will make everyone stop working. As far as I understand, the point of UBI is to ensure that people are not homeless, have enough to put food on the table and it covers your absolute basic needs. Lets say we implement UBI at 1K/Month which is what people like Andrew Yang proposed. That is not enough to just sit at home all day. You still need to make money but hopefully with that 1K, you won't be homeless…

I'm confident that there are many, many people who would choose to continue living with no permanent home (tent, RV, etc) and spend their UBI on oxy, meth, heroin or crack.

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

#76
Admittedly I didn't and will not read TFA, but this title... like yeah, "internal resistance" is what laziness and lack of discipline feel like from the insider! Those aren't the only possible attributions but they sure are common ones. (I speak from experience, both personal and otherwise.)

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

#77
post #43

It's weird how we don't want to admit we are overworked. Competition is such a horror show. I really disagree with the whole "procrastination" thing. It's normal to feel depressed, it's part of nature of being tired, our brains are fragile and require a lot of energy and sleep. I bet that I would generally would be much happier working at a moderate pace in a farm rather than using my brain to do some other complex t…

In 2010 I went to prune trees in Australia. Immediately, my depression stopped. Almost as if using the full body made everything better than using only the brain and speaking to a computer all day.

+1, I've been an on-and-off brush cutter and tree planter for several years. I can fully confirm this: physical work outdoors does wonders to mental health.

The interesting part is that I can be really exhausted from a day in the woods, struggling to somehow get to the car, etc -- but after 7-8 hours of decent sleep, all of this is gone! No muscle pains next morning, no nothing. It is incredible how well our body can handle and cure physical stress.

Coping with mental exhaustion or overwork, however, seems to be way harder for me -- to the point of ruining the next day entirely. A deep explanation of this deviation (our abilities for physical recovery vs mental recovery) would be really interesting.

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

#79
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.

> I really really suspect I have it but I have never talked to anyone about it.

Please let me add another to the voices saying that the advice you take on a medical matter should not be that of a random internet stranger. Please do talk to a professional about it!

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

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt UBI will make everyone stop working. As far as I understand, the point of UBI is to ensure that people are not homeless, have enough to put food on the table and it covers your absolute basic needs. Lets say we implement UBI at 1K/Month which is what people like Andrew Yang proposed. That is not enough to just sit at home all day. You still need to make money but hopefully with that 1K, you won't be homeless…

I'm confident that there are many, many people who would choose to continue living with no permanent home (tent, RV, etc) and spend their UBI on oxy, meth, heroin or crack.

At least they wouldn't need to turn to petty crime quite so often. And they'd have a means of getting some stability in their lives, which tends to reduce rates of addiction.
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