Live data from Hacker News

Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become

jeremyeder.com

61–70 of 154 posts

Re: Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become

#61
post #32
post #15

This kind of content is better suited for LinkedIn. I'm not a machine. I need rest and recreation to function properly. I sometimes get sick or sleep poorly. I sometimes get bursts of inspiration. There's no telling what condition I'll be working with on a given day. But perhaps you're right. Perhaps I'm casting my vote against being some sigma grindset, 4 AM cold showers, audiobooks at 3X speed kind of guy. The othe…

Woah I didn't know doing audiobooks at 3X was perceived as some kind of a virtue. I do it out of pure laziness. Particularly, all youtube things (with 'Video Speed Controller ' extension) at 2 or 3x because I just can't can't can't put up with normal speed.

It's part of the sigma grindset meme. A while ago Business Insider ran short videos about entrepreneur routines and it was a montage of this sort of nonsense. Then you look back and realise that all the guy did was answer two emails. It was derided and parodied.

Re: Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become

#63
No mention of 'voting' to spend time with friends or family, getting outdoors, giving to charity with one's time or money, painting or trying to learn how to? Perhaps the author does these things or perhaps their context was restricted to work, but this kind of life seems a little hollow to me.

Re: Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become

#64
post #37

Oh man this is such a perfect example of productivity porn. Every action you take isn’t a vote for the type of person you wish to become, it is a vote taken by the person you are. I hate this mindset of “I am constantly working towards becoming someone else”. When do we spend time as the person we are? When do we enjoy the fruits of our labor? I feel like some people who take this mindset see their lives as being two…

I think the point is that if you aren't mindful and deliberate with your actions, you'll descend into behaving according to habits and desires instead of what is in the best interest of your future self. Without being mindful, you'll just have another handful of chips instead of remembering you're trying to be not fat. Without being mindful, you'll watch another Youtube video instead of doing something on your todo l…

I think you made a false dichotomy between thinking of the future and mindless indulgence.

You can be mindful of who you are and what you want now.

A life of always suffering for tomorrow is arguably as bad as a life of mindless indulgence.

You can get to the end without ever enjoying it.

It is better to not want chips than always want chips and restrain yourself.

It is better to enjoy exercise than suffer through it.

Re: Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become

#65
If anyone is familiar with the quoted book, how does one quantify and measure the amount of “betterment”, or even define static “goodness”? Life is a complex affair on many simultaneous tracks. Prioritising one track often impedes the performance on another track in the long run. If you define the “perfect state” of yourself as having gone through thousands of tickets, bullet lists or redundant self-help books, you will certainly suffer in other areas.

Re: Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become

#66
I have a relative that has fallen into several pyramid schemes and is perennially addicted to so-called “self help” books, spending hundreds of dollars on them per month, every month, for about two decades.

I won’t mince words. It is an embarrassing addiction. I often feel secondhand embarrassment when I interact with them. The level of naïveté required is astronomical, but somehow there it is.

It is also one of the funniest phenomenons to see on this website, because it’s not just acceptable here, or even just popular here, but apparently a critical part of the culture to the extent that weird articles about dealing with ~Being super smart~ or ~Optimizing your life~ make it to the front page on a nearly daily basis, beating hundreds of submissions every day.

I am happy to see that people are being critical of it today though!

Re: Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become

#68

If anyone is familiar with the quoted book, how does one quantify and measure the amount of “betterment”, or even define static “goodness”? Life is a complex affair on many simultaneous tracks. Prioritising one track often impedes the performance on another track in the long run. If you define the “perfect state” of yourself as having gone through thousands of tickets, bullet lists or redundant self-help books, you w…

It's about atomic habits. Like do it 1% better and you will be 100% better in 100 Days. Expand all areas and so one. SMART Goals. He does also sell a journal to track everything, so this is this.

I liked the book and the mindset. Reminded me of Arete [0]. But for me it's more like an ideal and a reminder. A bit of fake it till you make it and what would a person who already obtained the goal do or did do in my stead.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arete

Re: Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become

#69

Oh man this is such a perfect example of productivity porn. Every action you take isn’t a vote for the type of person you wish to become, it is a vote taken by the person you are. I hate this mindset of “I am constantly working towards becoming someone else”. When do we spend time as the person we are? When do we enjoy the fruits of our labor? I feel like some people who take this mindset see their lives as being two…

> Every action you take isn’t a vote for the type of person you wish to become, it is a vote taken by the person you are. This is patently false. If you start smoking cigarettes occasionally and start doing it more, you are becoming more of a smoker. The actions you take or don't take are the clearest input to the person you become. It's true that this is also the person you are, but that distinction seems meaningles…

One wonders if you created this post to be come a better typist.

Re: Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every action you take isn’t a vote for the type of person you wish to become, it is a vote taken by the person you are. This is patently false. If you start smoking cigarettes occasionally and start doing it more, you are becoming more of a smoker. The actions you take or don't take are the clearest input to the person you become. It's true that this is also the person you are, but that distinction seems meaningles…

> why such a strong aversion to people improving themselves crab bucket mentality

These trends shift back and forth. A few years ago, certainly a decade ago, everyone was into productivity porn and life hacks and optimizing one's lives. Right now people are just generally burned out after the last couple of years.
Post reply on HN