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Community Is Motivation on Tap

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Re: Community Is Motivation on Tap

#21

Post by visarga »

DaveZale wrote: post #8

I like to follow Arnold Schwazenegger's Pump Club free newsletter, but not because I am a body builder. You're right, it's a community where you get solid no-nonsense advice, like, ditch the supplements except creatine and maybe whey protein or vegetable protein. At the same time, he emphasizes building desired habits, to the point where thinking is not required anymore for that purpose. He even goes as far as saying…

> AI is not good at forgetting.

There is also a related feeling of fatigue with our own digital archives - photos, old writings. We like to save them but not to look at them. They evoke powerful and somewhat uncomfortable feelings. And once we write something down, or take a photo of it, it gets out of our head, we don't care about it as much. The simple presence of the archive changes how we think.

Re: Community Is Motivation on Tap

#22

Post by octo888 »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #9
j7ake wrote: post #5

Also suggests 100% WFH is not as good as some weekly face to face time if part of the goal is to keep people motivated and disciplined

WFH does not mean you can't have face to face in today's age

Come on let's not twist the meaning of phrases (assuming you're saying a video call is "face to face")

Re: Community Is Motivation on Tap

#23

Post by sandspar »

RangerScience wrote: post #13
DaveZale wrote: post #8

I like to follow Arnold Schwazenegger's Pump Club free newsletter, but not because I am a body builder. You're right, it's a community where you get solid no-nonsense advice, like, ditch the supplements except creatine and maybe whey protein or vegetable protein. At the same time, he emphasizes building desired habits, to the point where thinking is not required anymore for that purpose. He even goes as far as saying…

Note: many neurospicy brains do not get the thing where something happens on “automatic”. If you’ve tried to “build a habit” and never got to the “now it’s automatic” stage, don’t beat yourself up about it. AFAIK, we have to rely on patterns and explicit attention and reinforcement (“everyday I do this, I have a good day, so now I’ve got more motivation every day to do it”)

This seems implausible. People with mild mental illnesses are still animals. All animals can be conditioned. When you leave a building, do you exit through the door or the window? I assume the door.

Re: Community Is Motivation on Tap

#24

Post by pjerem »

sandspar wrote: post #23
RangerScience wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note: many neurospicy brains do not get the thing where something happens on “automatic”. If you’ve tried to “build a habit” and never got to the “now it’s automatic” stage, don’t beat yourself up about it. AFAIK, we have to rely on patterns and explicit attention and reinforcement (“everyday I do this, I have a good day, so now I’ve got more motivation every day to do it”)

This seems implausible. People with mild mental illnesses are still animals. All animals can be conditioned. When you leave a building, do you exit through the door or the window? I assume the door.

Except it’s harder and harder the more you age. And it’s true for animals too.

Re: Community Is Motivation on Tap

#25

Post by Kiro »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #9
j7ake wrote: post #5

Also suggests 100% WFH is not as good as some weekly face to face time if part of the goal is to keep people motivated and disciplined

WFH does not mean you can't have face to face in today's age

"Face to face" is a protected term that means meeting IRL.

Re: Community Is Motivation on Tap

#26

Post by beshrkayali »

I think the author is overselling the benefits of communities a bit. Sure, groups can boost motivation through approval-seeking and availability bias, but they can also trap you in groupthink or misaligned priorities. I’d say the Brawl Stars grind example (despite author disliking the game) isn’t really a win.

Communities can hijack your goals, pulling you toward their agenda instead of yours. Overreliance on them risks eroding self-discipline when the group fades.

Instead, define your goals clearly and use communities sparingly, for knowledge exchange, not validation. Relying on communities too much can leave you stuck in an echo chamber, chasing approval over purpose.

Re: Community Is Motivation on Tap

#27

Post by jxjnskkzxxhx »

I don't disagree with the benefits of community.

But the thing he describes with StarCraft Vs whatever the brainrot game is can be explained differently. I think the author likes the idea of liking StarCraft, but doesn't actually like playing it. Brainrot on the other hand is engineered to be addictive. Surely if he LIKED playing StarCraft he wouldn't have to be searching for motivation. Personally, I know that in my life I only need motivation for the things I don't like. The things I like I just naturally do a lot.

One insight that I've had is that people often don't really understand what they like and don't like. How many times have you heard "oh I wanna be a writer" "ok what have you written?" "I haven't written anything yet because I'm not a writer yet." These people like the idea of having achieved some end result, but they don't enjoy the process, and aren't even aware that the two are different.

In fact some times I think the word "to like" isn't that useful as it doesn't map well into anything in the mind. I think perhaps we should differentiate between the ideas of "things I planned to do", "things that I did", and "things that when I do make me feel such and such internally". If you re read the post with these ideas in mind, it makes a lot more sense what's happening: the author planned to do one thing and did another. You no longer need to invoke strange ideas like "I need community to give me the motivation to do the thing I already like doing because without motivation I do things I don't like".

Re: Community Is Motivation on Tap

#28

Post by mirabar »

sandspar wrote: post #23
RangerScience wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note: many neurospicy brains do not get the thing where something happens on “automatic”. If you’ve tried to “build a habit” and never got to the “now it’s automatic” stage, don’t beat yourself up about it. AFAIK, we have to rely on patterns and explicit attention and reinforcement (“everyday I do this, I have a good day, so now I’ve got more motivation every day to do it”)

This seems implausible. People with mild mental illnesses are still animals. All animals can be conditioned. When you leave a building, do you exit through the door or the window? I assume the door.

I don't know enough about the science of what you reply to, but neurodivergence is not a mental illness, so not sure what you're implying here. I'd also wager people leave rooms by the door because it is easier, so I don't think that requires a habit or conditioning.

Re: Community Is Motivation on Tap

#29

Post by p_l »

sandspar wrote: post #23
RangerScience wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note: many neurospicy brains do not get the thing where something happens on “automatic”. If you’ve tried to “build a habit” and never got to the “now it’s automatic” stage, don’t beat yourself up about it. AFAIK, we have to rely on patterns and explicit attention and reinforcement (“everyday I do this, I have a good day, so now I’ve got more motivation every day to do it”)

This seems implausible. People with mild mental illnesses are still animals. All animals can be conditioned. When you leave a building, do you exit through the door or the window? I assume the door.

Conditioning does not equal "habit". You can train a lot of things to the level of muscle memory (like I always check seat belts before moving and avoid taking them off, or how I mentally recall coordinated turns even when turning while walking), but it's a completely different set of behaviours - or at least totally different difficulty level - when it comes to "habits" that take longer time and aren't linked to directly executed skills - think like making a habit of training every few days to get more fit, or even habit of checking email at the start of work day.

Re: Community Is Motivation on Tap

#30

Post by DaveZale »

visarga wrote: post #21
DaveZale wrote: post #8

I like to follow Arnold Schwazenegger's Pump Club free newsletter, but not because I am a body builder. You're right, it's a community where you get solid no-nonsense advice, like, ditch the supplements except creatine and maybe whey protein or vegetable protein. At the same time, he emphasizes building desired habits, to the point where thinking is not required anymore for that purpose. He even goes as far as saying…

> AI is not good at forgetting. There is also a related feeling of fatigue with our own digital archives - photos, old writings. We like to save them but not to look at them. They evoke powerful and somewhat uncomfortable feelings. And once we write something down, or take a photo of it, it gets out of our head, we don't care about it as much. The simple presence of the archive changes how we think.

Same here! I don't want to be reminded of an passing interest that I had ten years ago when I was researching a topic briefly, either, which is what a newsfeed might offer up. And I completely agree about old photos. Sometimes I get a new used phone just to start fresh. My stack of old used phones is always there if I want to see the old photos. But I've never looked.

Same with email contacts in gmail. Someone I briefly corresponded with about business 15 years ago will pop up as an email address gets typed ahead automatically and I will just smh and type over it. It's good to just move on to new things sometimes. Forget unpleasant jobs in the past.

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