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Nothing: Simply Do Nothing

usenothing.com

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Re: Nothing: Simply Do Nothing

#81

Post by elaus »

bko wrote: post #76
sys42590 wrote: post #22

That reminds me of a specific (de)motivational video of one of my favorite comedians Masood Boomgaard, which specifically covers the rat race that prevails in todays workplace culture. While it's meant to be funny, it actually touches some deeper philosophical truths. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8An2SxNFvmU [Do Nothing - a message of motivation from Self-help Singh- (un) motivational speaker and life coach]

What philosophical truths? I've known people that 'do nothing'. The modern day equivalent of that is the pot head. It's a lot easier to do nothing when you're stoned. The other alternative is the basement dweller kid of a well to do couple that just spends his day playing video games. Due to his parent's hard work (or luck), he can probably afford to do so for the rest of his life. But still seems depressing to me to…

But that kid in your example isn't doing _nothing_, they are playing video games. That is entirely different from consciously pausing and doing nothing.

Re: Nothing: Simply Do Nothing

#82

Post by kranner »

saberience wrote: post #79
kranner wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This kind of linguistic innovation is called a “dysphemism”, apparently. The Wikipedia entry for “dysphemism” was quite enlightening. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/17/style/rawdog-flights-term...

Dysphemism isn't an innovation, it's been around a long time. It simply means the opposite of a euphemism. Where a euphemism is a nicer way of saying something, a dysphemism is a worse or derogatory way of saying something. E.g. Referring to your car as a "banger"

I meant the novel use of “raw dogging”

Re: Nothing: Simply Do Nothing

#83

Post by baxtr »

npras1 wrote: post #63

Why do nothing? Because it gives you a chance to think about what you _really_ must be doing instead of what you were doing that led to wanting to calm the mind by doing nothing. And what were you doing that made the mind "empty calorie"-style busy? Usually getting lost in youtube videos or social media doomscrolling.

Love it!

One minor improvement idea: get rid of the timer during the nothing phase. I looked at it all the time.

You could show the timer once someone starts scrolling again.

Re: Nothing: Simply Do Nothing

#84

Post by Izkata »

saberience wrote: post #79
kranner wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This kind of linguistic innovation is called a “dysphemism”, apparently. The Wikipedia entry for “dysphemism” was quite enlightening. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/17/style/rawdog-flights-term...

Dysphemism isn't an innovation, it's been around a long time. It simply means the opposite of a euphemism. Where a euphemism is a nicer way of saying something, a dysphemism is a worse or derogatory way of saying something. E.g. Referring to your car as a "banger"

"Banger" is a good thing, I think it comes from "head banging" at concerts.

Re: Nothing: Simply Do Nothing

#88

Post by guerrilla »

rpastuszak wrote: post #80

Along similar lines, I built Sit ( https://sit.sonnet.io ) a couple of years ago, and so far we’ve generated months of blissful un-productivity (my main metric). (I use it as a meditation timer.) For sitting and doing nothing as a group activity, I made Sit Together: https://untested.sonnet.io/Sit.%2C+(together)+devlog+002+–+S...

Unfortunately for you, resting leads to increased productivity. Sucker!

Re: Nothing: Simply Do Nothing

#89

Post by grugagag »

bko wrote: post #76
sys42590 wrote: post #22

That reminds me of a specific (de)motivational video of one of my favorite comedians Masood Boomgaard, which specifically covers the rat race that prevails in todays workplace culture. While it's meant to be funny, it actually touches some deeper philosophical truths. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8An2SxNFvmU [Do Nothing - a message of motivation from Self-help Singh- (un) motivational speaker and life coach]

What philosophical truths? I've known people that 'do nothing'. The modern day equivalent of that is the pot head. It's a lot easier to do nothing when you're stoned. The other alternative is the basement dweller kid of a well to do couple that just spends his day playing video games. Due to his parent's hard work (or luck), he can probably afford to do so for the rest of his life. But still seems depressing to me to…

That kid is doing nothing with their life, there’s a difference between that and a nornal persob’s downtime that makes sure we don’t task out with some goal that feels like doing nothing but it’s got some agenda: no planned activity!
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