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Excellence is a habit, but so is failure

awesomekling.github.io

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Re: Excellence is a habit, but so is failure

#141

Post by MicropenisMike »

ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #132
xorvoid wrote: post #102

I’m continually struck by how brave Andreas is for talking about his addiction problems out in public. In most every interview he leads with it when he could just easily say a vague: “I found myself with a lot of free time”. Addiction can come with a LOT of shame baggage. To embrace vulnerability over it is quite substantial. Thank you Andreas for being a positive example for the world! Keep up the great work!

I think if more people were vulnerable, the world would be a kinder place. I also wish more CEOs were vulnerable. They are forced to "show strength" and "not complain" especially if they are a billionaire. But it would really show how much their lives are a mixed bag and we all face challenges and try to figure it out.

Unfortunately vulnerability is among the first things to be exploited, just take a look at any advertisement.

Re: Excellence is a habit, but so is failure

#142

Post by mylons »

the author is describing self medication as incremental failure. i think this is a mindset that can lead to more.

in those moments you’re seeking relief, and viewing it as failure can just perpetuate shame and creates a vicious cycle.

Re: Excellence is a habit, but so is failure

#143

Post by hk__2 »

nickpp wrote: post #47
onion2k wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you could wave a magic wand and give someone a day to do whatever they want to do no one would be choosing chips and TikTok. I don't think many people really enjoy it. It's just less painful than other things, or they don't have the resources to do what they actually want to do, or their choice requires something that's not possible right now... Chips and TikTok is the fallback, not the first choice.

I wonder why we find life so painful that we find "chips and TikTok" as an acceptable default.

What’s the issue with "chips and TikTok"? It’s virtually free, requires no new equipement and can be done anywhere. Depending on how your feed is curated, you can learn more things in five minutes on TikTok than the same duration on HN or any other website.

Re: Excellence is a habit, but so is failure

#144

Post by ultrasandwich »

sph wrote: post #70
wccrawford wrote: post #4

Life is about taking risk. We make daily decisions that involve big and small risk constantly. Choosing to enjoy life today instead of waiting for tomorrow for that enjoyment isn't a failure , it's a choice. It comes with risk and tradeoffs. Everyone thinks there's a magical line that everyone else should take that straddles that line between enjoyment today and tomorrow. That lines doesn't exist, and isn't even the…

> Choosing to enjoy life today instead of waiting for tomorrow for that enjoyment isn't a failure, it's a choice. This conveniently papers over a critical mechanism of how biological brains operate: we do not choose 99% of our actions. It would be extremely inefficient and energy-consuming. 99% of our life we are on autopilot, driven by our habits engaged as response to sensory and internal stimuli. Habits explain ne…

I learned a lot about this kind of predictive modeling function of our brains from _The Experience Machine_ by Andy Clark. He was on Sean Carroll's podcast not too long ago and they had a great conversation on this topic.

Re: Excellence is a habit, but so is failure

#145

Post by ragequitta »

blitz_skull wrote: post #135
sph wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Choosing to enjoy life today instead of waiting for tomorrow for that enjoyment isn't a failure, it's a choice. This conveniently papers over a critical mechanism of how biological brains operate: we do not choose 99% of our actions. It would be extremely inefficient and energy-consuming. 99% of our life we are on autopilot, driven by our habits engaged as response to sensory and internal stimuli. Habits explain ne…

Hmm.. I’m torn because on the one hand, you’re definitely correct that a non-trivial amount of our lives is subconscious, which is different from auto-pilot in my pedantic opinion. However, anecdotally I’ve found that whether you think you can do something or whether you think you cannot—you are correct. That is to say, I feel like admitting to the biological truth actually becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy which ca…

What you're talking about is a kind of willpower, which funnily enough has a biological basis also. Genetics seems to play a role, as do many medications. The marshmallow test seems to show willpower largely stays the same over 4 decades. Ozempic also seems to show you can artificially induce it. It's not mind over matter, it's having a mind primed to do it in the first place. It won't be as easily taught to someone who grabs the marshmallow instantly as a preschooler. We also seem to be able to induce it these days with ozempic, which is fascinating.

Re: Excellence is a habit, but so is failure

#146

Post by jliptzin »

coffeebeqn wrote: post #133
xorvoid wrote: post #102

I’m continually struck by how brave Andreas is for talking about his addiction problems out in public. In most every interview he leads with it when he could just easily say a vague: “I found myself with a lot of free time”. Addiction can come with a LOT of shame baggage. To embrace vulnerability over it is quite substantial. Thank you Andreas for being a positive example for the world! Keep up the great work!

Especially since most CEOs are at a minimum work addicts. Most probably use various chemical “enhancers”

They are also addicts. They’re addicted to the dopamine rush of their stock prices ticking higher and moving up the wealth ladder.

Re: Excellence is a habit, but so is failure

#147

Post by renewiltord »

birdyrooster wrote: post #131
e1g wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Webster [1] traces the source of the word “character” to theater where it was used as an emblem of the reputation of someone or a group of people, similar to how you would recognize the brand name engraved into a thing. The interpretation that character is a result of “engraving” through repeated behavior (at the individual level) is fascinating, but doesn’t seems as supported from original usage for centuries. [1] h…

I don’t think Webster is always right or writes complete etymology. Perhaps there is a more charitable way to interpret the PC. But PC should provide sources, that would be nice.

It's more a poetic association than etymology. That's an all right way to link the two.

Re: Excellence is a habit, but so is failure

#150

Post by tiffanyg »

wccrawford wrote: post #4

Life is about taking risk. We make daily decisions that involve big and small risk constantly. Choosing to enjoy life today instead of waiting for tomorrow for that enjoyment isn't a failure , it's a choice. It comes with risk and tradeoffs. Everyone thinks there's a magical line that everyone else should take that straddles that line between enjoyment today and tomorrow. That lines doesn't exist, and isn't even the…

There's a hack that solves "the problem" in general: "non-judgment".

We get so inculcated with comparing, contrasting, thinking about "better", "not as good as", "worse" ... it's THE recipe for all manner of negative psychological states, emotions, etc. There are basic biological drives, of course, but both implicitly and explicitly we are taught minute-by-minute, starting from not long after birth, to JUDGE EVERYTHING. Parents - "good/bad boy / girl", school - grades / social status / toys, work - "star employee / slacker" ... It's a set up for every imaginary "treadmill" that exists - consumer, achievement, etc.

All illusory.

It takes some conscious work / effort, to undo. But, I found, ultimately, that I was able to undo a hell of a lot of that crap in a shorter time than I expected. Several weeks worth of work with Jon Kabat-Zinn's 7 pillars of mindfulness, etc... can make a big difference, in my experience.

Getting out of the habit of having to have "an opinion" / "judgment" about every single F'ing thing that IS ... That just IS, until we have to categorize, compare, pick apart, judge, ... let the moronic inner critic - amalgamated, in part, through years of inculcation via others, intentional and not - dissect every molecule of existence until the minutest shred of simple BEING, JOY, etc. in any MOMENT is reduced to ash ... getting out of that habit is the greatest gift I've ever been given.

I still judge, I still fall into traps / stupidity ... I'm still human - hell, this comment has enough judging in it itself, even more simply implied / denotational ... but, I'm so much further out of the mire of crap our heads tend to get filled up with than so many people. It's both tremendously more comfortable, and yet also saddening to see so many still so trapped - by the same kinds of shitty thinking I was trapped by for years.

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