Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning Is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy

kirkusreviews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–47 of 47 posts

Re: Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning Is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy

#41

Post by WhitneyLand »

koube wrote: post #15
WhitneyLand wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lack discipline in what way? You mean stuff comes up that’s important but you’re not doing it? What does it feel like? Procrastination or wanting to avoid things? Lack of interest, lack of energy, fear of failure, apathy, other? There can be more than one thing involved, Check each box that applies and we’ll start to get a picture.

As in I sit down in the morning ready to work, I write down everything I've accomplished each day, and many times at the end of the day I find that I've only written down one or two minor things that I've finished for that day. I know things are important, I want to get them done, and it gives me terrible anxiety as the clock ticks down to the end of the day and my list of finished tasks is so short. I have terrible…

I don’t yet know all the answers to these things, but I understand how important they are and that the solution is not as simple as “just do it” or similar advice.

If you ever want to talk to a fellow HN’er my email is ideal.sand2735@fastmail.com

Re: Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning Is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy

#42

Post by astrange »

noonething wrote: post #40
astrange wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nothing can 'make' you do anything. Sounds like someone who's never taken modafinil.

Modafinil does not overcome your moral purpose.

That's making you do something immoral, not making you do anything.

Re: Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning Is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy

#43

Post by noonething »

astrange wrote: post #42
noonething wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modafinil does not overcome your moral purpose.

That's making you do something immoral, not making you do anything.

Your moral purpose is what makes you do things, not modafinil or anything else outside yourself.

Re: Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning Is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy

#44

Post by astrange »

noonething wrote: post #43
astrange wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's making you do something immoral, not making you do anything.

Your moral purpose is what makes you do things, not modafinil or anything else outside yourself.

I claim your frontal cortex makes you do things, which is why stimulating it makes you do more things.

Re: Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning Is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy

#45

Post by soupfordummies »

joshmanders wrote: post #36
soupfordummies wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm frankly getting sick of this whole "staring at phones isn't much different than reading a book" argument. Yes it is. There's a difference between "seeking entertainment/novelty/relief of boredom" and the methods/mediums to attain those feelings. Our collective brains have been seemingly re-wired by these things. I'm not suggesting that we gotta get rid of smartphones or something, I just think it's a little ignor…

How so? I'm sure thousands of years ago when paper was introduced SOMEONE was "the problem with you is that you're reading on paper and not stone!" If your argument is that staring a screen is bad for your eyes, I'd agree with you there, but that has NOTHING to do with the mental stimulation of reading. You are still reading, stimulating your brain. How those words are presented to you does not change that. The "rewi…

Next time you're getting groceries, sitting at a redlight, waiting in line, etc, and you see everyone around you looking at their phone, do you really think they're all reading Kindle? I'd say the vast majority are probably scrolling some sort of short form feed.

Re: Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning Is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy

#46

Post by 2cynykyl »

joshmanders wrote: post #30
sigilis wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People in the subway are just people waiting to get somewhere, being on your phone in that situation is no more dystopian than reading a book which may be what’s on some of those screens. Not saying phone use isn’t a distraction, but sometimes distractions are okay.

Yeah I'm frankly getting sick of this whole "The problem is phones". No it's not. Something happened somewhere and now everyone believes that any type of mental stimulation is bad if that stimulation comes from a device with a screen and doesn't matter one bit what they're doing. Screen === bad! No instead you should be reading a book! What if they are reading a book? On their phone? NO! Not like that. How many times…

This is exactly what a phone addict would say.

Besides I was obviously referring to the type of content consumption enabled by phones, not the phones themselves. Unless by scrolling you mean reading Hemingway on your Kindle app, then I stand corrected.

Re: Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning Is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy

#47

Post by tgittos »

koube wrote: post #39
tgittos wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sibling comments are mentioning undiagnosed ADD (or ADHD), I'd like to float the possibility of undiagnosed depression. The "I can't get disciplined and I'm desperate. It's hurting my job, it's hurting my home life." comment drives it home for me. Has it always been this way for you? Do you also have problems focusing on things you enjoy? I've experienced many of the symptoms you list for almost my entire life. I sta…

It has always been this way. Actually most of my teachers through elementary and middle school have asked that I be evaluated for ADD (before the H was added), although we didn't really see a point to it since I would just be going back to the same doctor who had already ruled out ADD. I can play video games for 12 hours straight and forget to eat, so I guess I don't have problems focusing on things I enjoy, at the s…

I have been unofficially diagnosed with ADD (specifically without the H). My psych and I decided not to diagnose because I have coping skills and habits that prevent it from interfering too much with my life, and the long term implications of an official diagnosis in the US outweighed the improvement in my symptoms if I were medicated. I have also been officially diagnosed with MDD or whatever they call it today. Depression can display similar symptoms to ADD, and it is possible to have both which is fun for diagnosis.

I probably should have been more specific about "things you enjoy". Video games are a special case where the depressed use them as an escape, for a sense of control over their lives, and a sense of growth where there is no growth. I consider that different from hobbies - things that improve you, things that take work that you enjoy. It'd be different if you were skipping meals to finish building a model plane, but with video games you're skipping meals to prevent yourself from returning to your life.

The ADD on learning stuff resonates with me. I experienced the same thing and for myself it turned out to be a coping mechanism for depression. The jolt of dopamine I got whilst learning was compensating for a general feeling of ennui. Since being diagnosed and medicated for depression, I've found my ability to focus and stick with things long term has vastly improved, despite also having ADD.

I'd highly recommend a therapist even though the experience will most likely be frustrating to start with. Aside from the difficulty in finding one that's available, you also need to find one that you like and whose style and techniques work for you. Don't give up on the concept of therapy if your first few experiences don't feel like they work.

I've been seeing my therapist for about 4 years now and while I don't believe you're ever done with therapy, I do believe that I'm working on the fundamentals of what made me feel bad enough to seek out a therapist in the first place and that I've "debugged" most of my issues.

Post reply on HN