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No More “Insight Porn”

jakobgreenfeld.com

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Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#151

Post by ip26 »

layer8 wrote: post #80
recyclelater wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jocko willinck (and many others I am sure) likes to state that you can’t rely on motivation because it comes and goes. Rely on discipline, build habits using discipline if you want to get anything done. A trite but in my opinion helpful statement is discipline equals freedom.

That sounds like insight porn. How do you build discipline if you’re undisciplined? How do you decide what to be disciplined about?

He suggests through practice. You start with something small but easy that you don't want to do, and make a habit of doing it anyway. His favorite small first step seems to be getting up early.

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#152

Post by leoc »

MilnerRoute wrote: post #146
danaris wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can increase your "luck surface" by doing certain things ....and your chances of being able to do those things (without severe risk of poverty and homelessness) are increased dramatically by having been lucky enough to be born wealthy, or at least upper-middle-class.

Someone once seriously proposed making the final determining decision for who gets into Harvard be based on...a random drawing. (From an oversized pool of qualified applicants.) The idea was students wouldn't go through the rest of their life thinking they'd prevailed in a meritocracy, and had earned and deserved every bit of their future success. They'd always have to acknowledge: some of it was pure luck.

It's an excellent idea which has been proposed more than once, including by me. ;)

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#153

Post by manmal »

rograndom wrote: post #56
bombcar wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Get lucky" is always the key - however, you can increase your "luck surface" by doing certain things (for example, you couldn't have gotten lucky if you hadn't started the company, nor if you hadn't bothered to talk to people).

Not just getting lucky, but being ready to get lucky. If they didn't have the company or the product already, bumping into the former manager wouldn't be enough. And I think I've just given the type of advice TFA is railing about :)

Well it’s true, you can’t win the lottery without buying the ticket. Only that way you don’t know what prize you’re playing for.

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#154

Post by pessimizer »

Swizec wrote: post #86
danaris wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can increase your "luck surface" by doing certain things ....and your chances of being able to do those things (without severe risk of poverty and homelessness) are increased dramatically by having been lucky enough to be born wealthy, or at least upper-middle-class.

> ....and your chances of being able to do those things (without severe risk of poverty and homelessness) are increased dramatically by having been lucky enough to be born wealthy, or at least upper-middle-class. While this is true, it also isn’t helpful. Play the cards you have, not the cards you wish you had. You always gotta start somewhere . Might as well start with what you’ve got and go from there.

> While this is true, it also isn’t helpful.

It isn't quite helpful. The second half of the advice should be to tell working class people to do whatever they can to get near rich/upper-middle class people, to flatter them, befriend them, attend their parties, and sleep with them.

The more rich people around you, the luckier you get. Some rich manchild somewhere is waiting for you to be "the brains" behind something.

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#155

Post by layer8 »

recyclelater wrote: post #148
layer8 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to have discipline in the first place to “just do it” consistently. For those who lack enough motivation, which is the situation the advice is supposed to address, I don’t see how it helps. If they were able to “do it” consistently despite lacking consistent motivation, they wouldn’t have a problem in the first place. I guess that for some people, being told “there’s no way around just doing the things even…

Plenty of actionable advice. Start small, build habits, work your way up. Jordan Peterson (love him or hate him) talks about making your bed and cleaning your room. Then build off this and tackle something a little bigger. Small personal goal that takes a year or more of regular practice (language, physical fitness, writing, anything you highly value). If you can’t manage to build a habit of this, then maybe being di…

That’s already better. :)

I was calling out the GP that the mere insight that discipline is usually necessary because you can’t rely on being consistently motivated fits the pattern of an insight that doesn’t by itself makes it easier to solve the problem. The insight can explain lack of success (inconsistent motivation combined with lack of discipline), but it doesn’t tell you how one might engender a lasting change. Also, the difference between discipline and consistent motivation is arguably small, because you somehow have to consistently motivate yourself to build up and maintain a discipline.

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#157

Post by nemo44x »

Silverback_VII wrote: post #127
Swizec wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ....and your chances of being able to do those things (without severe risk of poverty and homelessness) are increased dramatically by having been lucky enough to be born wealthy, or at least upper-middle-class. While this is true, it also isn’t helpful. Play the cards you have, not the cards you wish you had. You always gotta start somewhere . Might as well start with what you’ve got and go from there.

>"While this is true, it also isn’t helpful. Play the cards you have, not the cards you wish you had." certainly not, if you have bad cards it's better to bluff - What is there to lose? btw the best book on the subject is unscripted from MJ DeMarco.

> if you have bad cards it's better to bluff

That's playing the cards you have.

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#158

Post by PuppyTailWags »

throwaway98797 wrote: post #125
jjj123 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re right it’s not helpful towards the goal of becoming an entrepreneur or whatever, but I disagree that it’s not helpful at the macro level. We should all have this basic understanding of how our society works, and how our plutocrats got to be in the position they are in. We’re fed myths that they all started from the bottom and worked hard enough and smart enough to get where they are, and you can do it too! And…

> We’re fed myths that they all started from the bottom and worked hard enough and smart enough to get where they are, and you can do it too! i know this may be rhetoric but i’ve never heard someone say that. a lot of folks in power say “I got lucky but also worked hard” it’s counter productive to claim the elite is this super disconnected group of people. because they are not and it weakens the case for reform. let’…

The elite are a super disconnected group of people. My understanding is that their children don't even have the same capacity for empathy as children from other classes. Money literally changes how humans think, such that humans with significant wealth have a different psychology. There is of course nuance but let's not pretend like moneyed people, new or old, are normal.

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#159

Post by antonymy »

I've never tried to give advice to people in my life since my career is mostly founded on a series of coincidences and lucky breaks. I know that luck factors into a lot of people's experiences, but in my case luck is the foundation of everything I have accomplished outside of school. I've built on top of this foundation, to be sure, but it's like saying fishing is all about waiting for the fish to jump in your boat.

Re: No More “Insight Porn”

#160

Post by acuozzo »

bowsamic wrote: post #36
suction wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does everything nowadays? I think the analogy to porn at least here is fitting. The idea porn as a word to mean "of no substance, for easy consummation, from morally questionable sources, to make a quick buck off desperate people" quite accurately describes all these "insight gurus", which to me are grifters.

That's not what it means. Look at subreddits like /r/historyporn or /r/earthporn. These do not mean porn in any kind of derogatory sense. It literally means nothing more specific than "lots of content that people like". It really does not carry a derogatory connotation, or at least it is most widely used in positive ways

> It literally means nothing more specific than "lots of content that people like".

I think it's a bit more than that, something like: "lots of content that people like and will waste a ton of time consuming for little hits of dopamine".

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