This article reminded me of David Mumet’s character, Edmond. In that play things does not end very happily for the main character after he asks himself to many “whys” and starts to do lots of changes on his day routines.
The illusion of being stuck
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Re: The illusion of being stuck
#72At the end of the article, it becomes clear that author went abroad for a while, which might have inspired the article. Changing one’s environment is indeed a good way to get unstuck - eg some addicts only ever get out of the vicious cycle by moving away and cutting ties with everything/everyone that kept them stuck.
Maybe the rest of the article has merit too, but I’m not sure it’s not a post hoc rationalization.
Re: The illusion of being stuck
#73I've come across these kinds of articles before and they always seem to suggest that you rewrite the metaphorical firmware of your brain so that it operates in a way that is advantageous to you. There's some notion of self discovery from first principles. I'm not convinced that this is generally a good idea. It makes a person unmoored and open to anything ("so open minded that your brains fall out"). It's also often…
Did you know, the brain is hard-wired to be suckered by self-help books? One trick that I personally find very liberating and enlightening is to make a big pile of such material and burn it. It gives me a sense of warmth and inner joy.
Your advice is superb. You can start writing self help books learning people how to make the fire in order for them to achieve the inner joy.
Re: The illusion of being stuck
#74If you feel stuck it means you need new habits because the old ones are not serving you well!
Program your environment, set up commitment devices to lock in your future behaviour that is positive and effortless.
Do not ever set goals, they are high-risk low pay off mental bets that will eat you if you fail (odds are against you).
Re: The illusion of being stuck
#75If you feel stuck it means you need new habits because the old ones are not serving you well! Program your environment, set up commitment devices to lock in your future behaviour that is positive and effortless. Do not ever set goals, they are high-risk low pay off mental bets that will eat you if you fail (odds are against you).
What is an example of a commitment device?
Re: The illusion of being stuck
#76If you feel stuck it means you need new habits because the old ones are not serving you well! Program your environment, set up commitment devices to lock in your future behaviour that is positive and effortless. Do not ever set goals, they are high-risk low pay off mental bets that will eat you if you fail (odds are against you).
I found that it is extremely difficult for me to set habits and keep them. I used to go running 4-5 times a week for months, and I couldn't make it stick.
Re: The illusion of being stuck
#77I've come across these kinds of articles before and they always seem to suggest that you rewrite the metaphorical firmware of your brain so that it operates in a way that is advantageous to you. There's some notion of self discovery from first principles. I'm not convinced that this is generally a good idea. It makes a person unmoored and open to anything ("so open minded that your brains fall out"). It's also often…
Did you know, the brain is hard-wired to be suckered by self-help books? One trick that I personally find very liberating and enlightening is to make a big pile of such material and burn it. It gives me a sense of warmth and inner joy.
I enjoy reading them, thinking I'll change myself. Then I'm done, I don't apply anything and put the book on the shelf.
It's its own kind of horror for these books.
Re: The illusion of being stuck
#78If you feel stuck it means you need new habits because the old ones are not serving you well! Program your environment, set up commitment devices to lock in your future behaviour that is positive and effortless. Do not ever set goals, they are high-risk low pay off mental bets that will eat you if you fail (odds are against you).
What is an example of a commitment device?
addicted to smartphones? leave it behind when you go to study at the library and you have no choice but to study.
you are not hitting the gyms for the 10 years you been telling people? subscribe to a local gym on the way to or back from work! (brain: "well i already spent money and its too embarassing to cancel now and besides the gym is literally down the same street i dont even have to drive there welp guess im going")
Re: The illusion of being stuck
#79If you feel stuck it means you need new habits because the old ones are not serving you well! Program your environment, set up commitment devices to lock in your future behaviour that is positive and effortless. Do not ever set goals, they are high-risk low pay off mental bets that will eat you if you fail (odds are against you).
I found that it is extremely difficult for me to set habits and keep them. I used to go running 4-5 times a week for months, and I couldn't make it stick.
The best way to build a positive habit is to make it not painful and easy.
Heres my advice:
If 4-5 times a week is not sustainable then make it 100x less (whatever point you feel is not painful). If you used to run 50km a week, try 500m each session. Fight the urge to continue running.
The goal of this exercise is to build the "show up" muscle. Another hack on top of this is to not tell yourself you are going for a run, you just need to put on the running shoes. (brain: "i put on my shoes might as well go for a run now") Step further is you go to sleep in your running clothes.
Principle is to always reduce friction of good habits you want to build and add friction to bad habits you want to stop!
Godspeed
Re: The illusion of being stuck
#80Around a year ago I had one of those 6 months long tasks that you have no idea where to start. I hitted my had on the wall a few times, and had to erase first month work completely. In the end what worked was:
- Spend a day or two creating a fuzzy view of the whole problem. Pay attention to the rabbit holes, do not fall in them, be superficial.
- Spend a day or two creating a detailed view of the next 2 weeks. Go as deep as you can, but pay attention to not prepare more than 2 weeks of work, because things WILL change. And you will lose a lot of work. Minimize that.
- Execute.
- Repeat.
After a couple iterations your estimation will be much better and you will see the light in the end of the tunnnel.