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Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

henrikkarlsson.xyz

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Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#91

Post by buildbot »

freddier wrote: post #74

He seems to have hyperphantasia, judging by every example of mental images he described. It's not a requirement, as the example from the other person on the beach didn't need it to feel that level of self-feeding joy. But I wonder if aphantastic people have a harder time with this? Or maybe easier with less mental distractions?

I think aphantastic people would be able to but using an inner monologue/internal text? Or even just the feeling and concentration on that feeling?

Tangentially trying to imagine not being able to visualize mental images is really hard.

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#92

Post by metabagel »

lo_zamoyski wrote: post #24

Sure. What you focus on will consume your mind and grow within it. The bad variety is often called dwelling or rumination. Some will find the desert father John Cassian[0] interesting in this regard. He uses the analogy of a water mill for the mind. You cannot stop a water mill from turning - the water keeps flowing and keeps turning the grindstone - so all you can do is choose what is poured into the grindstone. If…

> Stupid or ugly thoughts might enter our minds unintentionally, but we can pull our minds back to good thoughts.

In my experience, the best approach is to maintain a neutral aspect and just let those negative or unhelpful thoughts go. Wave goodbye and allow your mind to naturally drift to something else.

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#93

Post by mallowdram »

Attention probably does not exist as a reduction. Noticing does and has different regularities from the intent we enforce into attention.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10....

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3279725/

There are others.

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#94

Post by mettamage »

superkuh wrote: post #61
causal wrote: post #27

This did not go where I thought it was going, and I'm glad. I enjoyed the read. I'm not versed enough in psychiatry to validate the brain-chemistry stuff but my practical experience lines up. Reminds me of the trick of telling yourself "let's give this my full attention for just 5 minutes, and if I still don't want to do it we can move on". I pretty much always end up wanting to keep doing that thing.

It was such a delight to see someone finally getting the dopaminergic function right and not confusing dopamergic populations activity with perceptions of pleasure, but instead pointing to the modern understandings: they predict future pleasure. Glutamate (in the shell of the nucleus accumbens) is the real "pleasure" chemical (among all it's various other uses).

I think they showcase the anticipation reward no? For example, a near-miss with slot machines spikes higher dopamine than actually hitting the magical 777. Can’t find source atm

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#95

Post by CGMthrowaway »

lisper wrote: post #33

> In Spanish, you “lend” attention. In Swedish, you “are” attention. In Hebrew you "place [your] heart" (lasim lev).

In Japanese (注意を払う), you pay attention, much like in English. However, the verb 払う also means "to sweep away" or "to clear" suggesting a sense of effort or focus in clearing distractions to direct attention

In Korean 신경 쓰다 literally means "to use nerves." The idea of investing mental energy into something

In Finnish, you fasten or attach attention (kiinnittaa huomiota)

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#96

Post by lisper »

fainpul wrote: post #65
lisper wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What German phrase did you have in mind? Because the idiomatic translation of "to pay attention" is "aufpassen", which literally translates to something like "pass on" or "fit on".

You can't rip apart that word into "auf" and "passen" and then individually translate them literally. The result seems nonsensical. I would say "aufpassen" is literally "be attentive" / "be watchful". Edit: "to pay attention" is literally "Aufmerksamkeit zollen"

> You can't rip apart that word into "auf" and "passen" and then individually translate them literally.

Sure, just like you can't separate "pay attention". Both are idiomatic. But you can separate "aufpassen" into "Paß auf". (For the benefit of non-German lurkers, "Paß auf" is a command to pay attention.)

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#97

Post by wry_discontent »

bobson381 wrote: post #46
maroonblazer wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What serendipity! The latest episode of "Philosophize This!" is titled "The Philosophy of Zen Buddhism - Byung Chul Han".[0] I'd never heard of him before. Apparently his book "The Burnout Society" is recommended reading. [0] https://open.spotify.com/episode/3jdvGsEdrpEEjMBJG5oRaH?si=g...

Philosophize this has been on such a cool track out of western canon and through more mystic/nondual flavored stuff, in a way that builds off of itself. I got Deleuze-pilled a few years ago, and have had fun listening to the whole progression lately. Interesting dovetails with the Alan Watts marathon I did for like a year or two haha

I've struggled to read Deleuze in the past; do you have recommendations? I find summaries interesting, but the texts themselves impenetrable.

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#99

Post by jnovek »

mhurron wrote: post #71
thewebguyd wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "let's give this my full attention for just 5 minutes, and if I still don't want to do it we can move on". I have to use this trick to help manage my ADHD. Of course, just actually starting for 5 minutes is a challenge in itself but while medicated at least I can. Giving myself a time limit as an easy out works wonders, and after 5 minutes I'm probably going to keep going.

I wish you the best with that, but by the metric of 'if I can do it for 5 minutes I can probably keep going because I wanted to do it' would mean that I don't want to do, very literally, anything. To be fair, I only just recently (past month) talked to my doctor and started treating it properly so I'm still in the tweaking the dosage phase.

Another thing to consider is that, once you are medicated, you have a whole new set of skills to develop.

I remember when I started taking ADHD meds and I was like “wow I can focus now” and proceeded to focus with all my might on the wrong thing.

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