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Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born (2023)

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Re: Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born (2023)

#51

Post by xyzelement »

Jblx2 wrote: post #25
Gecko4072 wrote: post #3

Why is there always a self-imposed need to extract something from ourselves instead of just being? I really hate this in the modern world. Maybe one of the worst defining traits of industrial times.

That sounds like a recipe for living like hunter/gatherers. I for one appreciate modern medecine, indoor plumbing, and hope to live long enough to see someone step foot on Mars. Each to their own, but I appreciate all the work our ancestors have put forth, planting the trees whose shade they knew they wouldn't enjoy.

Crazy that this needs to be explained.

Re: Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born (2023)

#52

Post by solarity_studio »

pendenthistory wrote: post #37

The "new ideas are fragile" is certainly true. I'm struggling with something I'm building which I think is extremely cool but technically difficult, but which if based on the reaction of friends and family I'd abandoned long ago. Only after having worked on it for 2 years and really got it working technically did I see a small spark in my dad's eyes as he said "oh, you can make MONEY off of this?". I feel like I have…

What's the idea?? I'm curious (and won't shoot it down haha)

Re: Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born (2023)

#53

Post by altmanaltman »

pendenthistory wrote: post #37

The "new ideas are fragile" is certainly true. I'm struggling with something I'm building which I think is extremely cool but technically difficult, but which if based on the reaction of friends and family I'd abandoned long ago. Only after having worked on it for 2 years and really got it working technically did I see a small spark in my dad's eyes as he said "oh, you can make MONEY off of this?". I feel like I have…

I understand what you're saying but the last line is kind of weird no? Why do you need to villify them if they didn't give you good feedback? Why do you care so much that you have to mention they "have not acheived much themselves, never taken any risk" etc.

The entire point of feedback is to see it as impersonal and not a value judgement on you (the creator) vrs the project.

Like okay, what if someone was extremely successful and taken a lot of risks and repeats the same feedback you've gotten. Would that make the feedback magically true?

Instead of judging the people who give you feedback, judge the feedback itself and let it go. In the end, you disagreed with them because you knew what was right to do. There is no point thinking about them as good or bad people but just whose feedback was objectively wrong.

Again this is a bit of a ramble but my point is that "i will prove them stupid people wrong" can turn into internal resentment as well where you judge your victory by how much you "showed them" rather than how much you showed yourself. It is very likely you can get all the success in the world and those people will still think you are a loser. You cannot win that battle and if you actually believe them thinking that of you matters, you will not be happy even in success.

Re: Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born (2023)

#54

Post by abc42 »

Another take from David Lynch: https://www.amazon.com/Catching-Big-Fish-Meditation-Consciou...

> Ideas are like fish.

> If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deeper.

> Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure. They're huge and abstract. And they're very beautiful.

Even though he liberally sprinkled pseudoscientificism into his metacognition, the older I get, the more I think he really got it.

Re: Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born (2023)

#55

Post by inigyou »

andai wrote: post #45
Gecko4072 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well of course but there are many ways to survive very close to “just being” that are seen as not fulfilling potential or a wasted life. It’s not a full binary but living close to one end is shunned and we internalize it as a waste of space when really it is more sustainable for the planet and mind.

I saw this video of an American tourist in the Mediterranean, stunned that people would drink one coffee for hours and didn't feel pressured to order more. He said, back home, he would have been getting dirty looks, if he wasn't constantly justifying his existence in a place by either consuming or producing something.

That coffee shop isn't paying much rent. When your local leech increases the rent, you have to sell more coffees, and kick people out who don't buy more coffees.

Re: Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born (2023)

#56

Post by jwrallie »

pendenthistory wrote: post #37

The "new ideas are fragile" is certainly true. I'm struggling with something I'm building which I think is extremely cool but technically difficult, but which if based on the reaction of friends and family I'd abandoned long ago. Only after having worked on it for 2 years and really got it working technically did I see a small spark in my dad's eyes as he said "oh, you can make MONEY off of this?". I feel like I have…

People will sometimes wish you to follow their footsteps. That is because they wish you succeed and they have a framework that lead to their own success. And by success I mean something as simple as just surviving so far.

That means they may try to tell you to give up on any idea that does not fit their framework, simply because having no experience with means it’s riskier than things that do fit.

I don’t mean to defend this behavior, neither to say this is definitely what is happening here, but if it applies, I think it’s a good idea to frame this as people wishing you well, in their own twisted way.

Re: Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born (2023)

#57

Post by silver_sun »

xyzelement wrote: post #32
Gecko4072 wrote: post #3

Why is there always a self-imposed need to extract something from ourselves instead of just being? I really hate this in the modern world. Maybe one of the worst defining traits of industrial times.

Because we don't want to be useless consumers of resources - it's embarrassing.

Why would you want to create things for people to use if you regard them as "useless"? This attitude is so alien and repulsive to me.

Re: Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born (2023)

#58

Post by pendenthistory »

altmanaltman wrote: post #53
pendenthistory wrote: post #37

The "new ideas are fragile" is certainly true. I'm struggling with something I'm building which I think is extremely cool but technically difficult, but which if based on the reaction of friends and family I'd abandoned long ago. Only after having worked on it for 2 years and really got it working technically did I see a small spark in my dad's eyes as he said "oh, you can make MONEY off of this?". I feel like I have…

I understand what you're saying but the last line is kind of weird no? Why do you need to villify them if they didn't give you good feedback? Why do you care so much that you have to mention they "have not acheived much themselves, never taken any risk" etc. The entire point of feedback is to see it as impersonal and not a value judgement on you (the creator) vrs the project. Like okay, what if someone was extremely…

I don't mean to vilify them, I think it's just a matter of fact that if you habitually poke 100 holes in any idea, both your own and others, you will do the very safe thing.

If someone had taken risks, had ideas, seen some fail some work and they said my idea is bad, I would listen to them more for sure. Maybe my idea is bad, only time will tell. I'm not saying these people are stupid, many of them are smart. I think if you are smart it actually gets easier to poke holes in an idea.

Re: Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born (2023)

#59

Post by xyzelement »

silver_sun wrote: post #57
xyzelement wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because we don't want to be useless consumers of resources - it's embarrassing.

Why would you want to create things for people to use if you regard them as "useless"? This attitude is so alien and repulsive to me.

I don't get to control whether someone is motivated to contribute to society. If someone was raised to not care about contributing - to me that feels like an ultimate limit on how meaningful their life can be but that's their problem (and their parents shortcoming)

But what I can do is ensure that I orient my own life around contribution and pass that on to my kids.

Re: Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born (2023)

#60

Post by sph »

usernametaken29 wrote: post #40

I’m going to sound rude here but I think the debate around solitudal achievements suffers a great deal from bias. For one, survivor bias favours the ideas emerging from deep thinking work. We overestimate however how much of that is the deep thinking vs quantity tradeoff. Einstein had many, many, many ideas and the majority of them were pretty bad if not outright outrageous. If you have the time and environment to pr…

What exactly are you ranting against? You complain about three unrelated points in your comments, all to say your belief is that a conductive environment is what is necessary for ideas to flourish. Yes, well of course, that is the point of the article.
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