201–210 of 361 posts
The author argues that the popular productivity advice to "eat frogs" (i.e. do the things you don't want to do first) is based on a false premise, that humans are naturally lazy and gluttonous.
This false premise leads to a lot of unnecessary suffering, as people try to force themselves to do things they don't actually enjoy.
I strongly disagree with the author. What brings me pleasure is playing strategic computer games. I was addicted to playing dota. I was playing 12-16 hours a day, which left no place for socializing, career, family, even basic self-maintenance suffered. Anything meaningful, art, self-improvement was cut. It's a disgraceful, shameful life. The meaning of life is not the blind pursuit of pleasure. We are humans precise…
Frustration is a kind of pain and pain is a signal that we should avoid a stimulus. It is frustrating to 'eat frogs'. You can force yourself to go through frustration, or you can use tools help manage those feelings. Or you can try to address the source of those feelings. Or you can choose to not engage in activities that bring up those feelings. We have words for some of these things like 'procrastination'
The point is that those feelings are real and they are not your fault. It is not a failure to feel frustrated. It is a signal. Forcing yourself to go through frustration repeatedly may strengthen that signal, laying down cognitive and emotional scar tissue.
Noticing a stimulus does not mean being fixated on it. It does not mean that you give that stimulus more power. It can feel that way at first, like noticing a tiger in the room; but the tiger has always been there.
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On another level, the article hints at the real purpose of mental/cognitive/emotional therapy. "Therapy doesn't fix anything, you have to fix yourself" is a common way to say this, but I would say "Therapy is a way to see your situation more clearly, help you develop tools to deal with your personal situation, and help you decide what to change about your personal situation". Therapy can make you feel worse in the short term, and sometimes life does just suck; but it can also help quite a lot.
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A tool that helped me -
Emotion Wheel - https://feelingswheel.com/
Contrary to the article, I am a human piece of trash.
The problem with those questions of what will make you successful that you hate doing, is that you can't say with certainty that the behavior will make you successful since there are multiple variables at play (most of the time).
Don't be angry at your shame, it already feels bad enough.
Don't be angry at your fear, it already feels bad enough.
Don't be angry at your anger, it already feels bad enough.
All of your "bad" emotions can feed other "bad" emotions.
The "bad" emotions are a way for your mind to tell you to avoid or change something. They aren't bad in the same way that hunger isn't bad. Hunger feels bad, but it's a signal that tells you to change something or do something.
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This is not a comprehensive comment. There are very important things I didn't say here.
As a Frenchman, it took me a while to realize it was supposed to mean "a painful thing to do"
BTW, as a 44 year old French that has never seen frogs on a restaurant menu, and never had any, I wonder how common eating frogs is nowadays. Escargots seem much more common, to cite something else we're known for.
I cross the line at eating spiders. Nope
Re; This particular quote from the article… > "Stop confusing productivity with laziness. While no one likes admitting it, sheer laziness is the No. 1 contributor to lost productivity." I was taught growing up that if it's something you must do anyhow, then true laziness is finding the simplest and most effective way to do a given task quickly and correctly the first time so that you don't have to waste time and effo…
Your version of "laziness" is quite admirable, honestly.
Well, I think people have big aspirations, and these typically are achievable with lots of money, and people think you have to 'eat frogs' to make that money.
I strongly disagree with the author. What brings me pleasure is playing strategic computer games. I was addicted to playing dota. I was playing 12-16 hours a day, which left no place for socializing, career, family, even basic self-maintenance suffered. Anything meaningful, art, self-improvement was cut. It's a disgraceful, shameful life. The meaning of life is not the blind pursuit of pleasure. We are humans precise…
Except that you're talking about a game hyper-optimized to be addictive, and while I can't speak for your specific case, in general having an addiction usually involves said addiction being a coping mechanism to fill some kind of hole in someone's life, or avoiding the pain of some unresolved trauma. Which is not at all the same thing as being proof of humans inherently being lazy and needing self-help gurus to fix t…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is your occupation where you get paid to work only on what feels right, only when it feels right, for only as long as it feels right, with leeway to hop on your bicycle and forget about work whenever you want? Cause I am interested in this line of work. At least if it pays enough to live comfortably.
allaboutberlin.com. I'm self-employed, and I have no direct customers. So long as my bills are paid, everything else is extra. I can invest time into more, better content, but I can also mess around with things that don't make money. More often than not, they turn out to do just that. "If you build it, they will come." Mind you, I still have to work, but there's rarely anything that needs to be done right now , unles…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oracle?
Negative - as mentioned in a couple other comments here, a different industry. Not a really large company either, like 1700 people, which is a good place as a private firm with a 60% margin on professional services and low overhead… I worked at Best Buy so I recognized the signs immediately. The expression was “man he/she really bleeds blue” and if you hung out with the managers after work - because they all hung out…