211–220 of 268 posts
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oligarchs who were killing, stealing, raping and betraying their whole lives, now are laughing on this joke so hard, on their super-yachts.
I try to live virtuously in a way Russian oligarchs might laugh at. No yacht, but no enemies either. Never have to worry about novichok or a drone hitting me. It’s not bad at all.
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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…
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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…
The article itself says that there are multiple meanings of "character". One of which refers to a persons reputation and can be traced back to "the Greek charassein, meaning “to sharpen, cut in furrows, or engrave.”
Ever since I quit my first job I've been tinkering with languages and frameworks. And every time I would complete a book or course I'd face the decision of building something on my own. That building never happens. 1 month later my portfolio is nonexistent, there are no projects, and my blog is a figment of my imagination. And right now I'm in the process of learning yet another framework. So I've been thinking: This…
A framework that I have found helpful for situations like this: When you feel this way, that you "want to" do something but it keeps not happening, then there's evidently something inconsistent in your mental state: you seem to think you want to do one thing, but (it would be fair to say) since you're not doing it, maybe you don't 'actually want' to do it. The idea being that 'true wanting' compels actions. So when y…
It reminds me of a common refrain/warning among aspiring writers: it's not enough to want to be a writer, you have to actually want to write. Both for a host of psychological reasons and for the simple fact that you'll never be A Writer unless you're putting pen to paper on a regular basis.
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I try to live virtuously in a way Russian oligarchs might laugh at. No yacht, but no enemies either. Never have to worry about novichok or a drone hitting me. It’s not bad at all.
Doesn't matter. their experience disproves that bullshit about "karma", that's all.
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For a similar idea from another culture, see the ancient definitions of karma : Now as a man is like this or like that, according as he acts and according as he behaves, so will he be; a man of good acts will become good, a man of bad acts, bad; he becomes pure by pure deeds, bad by bad deeds; And here they say that a person consists of desires, and as is his desire, so is his will; and as is his will, so is his deed…
At my summer camp, we used to hear: “Sow an act, reap a habit Sow a habit, reap a character Sow a character, reap a destiny”
"Watch your thoughts, they become your words;
watch your words, they become your actions;
watch your actions, they become your habits;
watch your habits, they become your character;
watch your character, it becomes your destiny."
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I try to live virtuously in a way Russian oligarchs might laugh at. No yacht, but no enemies either. Never have to worry about novichok or a drone hitting me. It’s not bad at all.
Doesn't matter. their experience disproves that bullshit about "karma", that's all.
Ever since I quit my first job I've been tinkering with languages and frameworks. And every time I would complete a book or course I'd face the decision of building something on my own. That building never happens. 1 month later my portfolio is nonexistent, there are no projects, and my blog is a figment of my imagination. And right now I'm in the process of learning yet another framework. So I've been thinking: This…
We think we can just learn to succeed, but in fact we need to learn in the right direction, which requires to first attempt it and gather feedback of where to learn.
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Doesn't matter. their experience disproves that bullshit about "karma", that's all.
I agree. But the message here is not an external occurring but rather internal. One's acts determine one's internal state. If you act virtuously by your definition, your judgement of yourself will be good/not corrupt, which is good. The key point here is that it's your own personal defination.
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> 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…
> 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. If we’re talking about the small, unimportant decisions then sure, I agree. But I don’t think the bigger decisions happen on autopilot — precisely because it would be very dangerous.
For example, the choice to open that one app leads to 30 minutes of scrolling leads to poor night's sleep leads leads to being on a later sleep schedule that week leads to not cognitively showing up to an important meeting that Saturday and missing an opportunity.
What we perceive of as 'big decisions' exist only within the conditions visible to our consciousness. Behind the scenes though those conditions are continuously shaped by small decisions amplified by the lever of the subconscious and our environment.
In other words, we're good at assessing the gravity of immediate conditions available to us, but we're bad at assessing internal and external processes and their effects. One reason why "know thyself" is such important advice.
Thus we'd be wise to make shaping conditions part of what we consider a 'big decision', perhaps even the big decision. This is another way of saying "we make our own luck".