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Excellence is a habit, but so is failure

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Re: Excellence is a habit, but so is failure

#221

Post by fsckboy »

tinkrr wrote: post #197
e1g wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Webster [1] traces the source of the word “character” to theater where it was used as an emblem of the reputation of someone or a group of people, similar to how you would recognize the brand name engraved into a thing. The interpretation that character is a result of “engraving” through repeated behavior (at the individual level) is fascinating, but doesn’t seems as supported from original usage for centuries. [1] h…

The article itself says that there are multiple meanings of "character". One of which refers to a persons reputation and can be traced back to "the Greek charassein, meaning “to sharpen, cut in furrows, or engrave.”

multiple meanings, ok; multiple etymologies, unlikely.

Re: Excellence is a habit, but so is failure

#222

Post by akprasad »

EugeneOZ wrote: post #219
lennxa wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. But the message here is not an external occurring but rather internal. One's acts determine one's internal state. If you act virtuously by your definition, your judgement of yourself will be good/not corrupt, which is good. The key point here is that it's your own personal defination.

I'm not praising the oligarchs, of course. I'm saying that the "karma" bullshit just doesn't work. Yeah, I don't want to be like these bad guys, but I have no illusions that some magical "karma" will reward me or punish them - that's naive.

I agree. The quote I shared above has nothing to do with external systems that dole out rewards and punishments. Ancient definitions of karma are very different from the mainstream definition in vogue today (edit: with the usual caveat that ancient concepts have multiple interpretations, and I'm sure there are contemporaries of the view I shared that are more in line with what you imagine).

Re: Excellence is a habit, but so is failure

#223

Post by npsimons »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #200
adamsmith143 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"No one becomes obese eating natural foods" That is the most hippy BS I have ever heard. Eat 10,000 calories of raw sugarcane a day for 1 year and get back to me on the results. >If you remove the sense of taste from someone, I assure you they won't enjoy food and will lose weight very quickly. Almost like that was the answer all along. Yes, reducing the number of calories you eat is how you lose weight.

I don't think anyone is disputing that? The challenge has always been getting people to eat less, not making them realize that is what they need to do.

> I don't think anyone is disputing that?

Oh, but they do, even right here in this very thread!

I admit it's hard losing weight - I've been there. But there are some people who will compound the difficulty of following through by denying the reality of the conservation of mass.

Re: Excellence is a habit, but so is failure

#224

Post by zh3 »

> We often hear that making small incremental improvements every day can lead to great things. This popular piece of advice rings true...

A journey of 10,000 miles starts with a single step.

You can only cross a chasm with a mighty leap.

YMMV.

Re: Excellence is a habit, but so is failure

#225

Post by npsimons »

croes wrote: post #201
vorpalhex wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But usually you do. Like obviously there are edge cases, but for the most part consequences aren't a surprise. Eat too much, you get fat. Fail to work out, your body goes to hell. Fail to sleep and your mind goes.

It not that simple. Eat healthy and you become obsessed with it and get a eating disorder. Work out, get injured, need pain killers, get addicted. In hindsight it's easy to spot your mistakes. Should have turned left instead of right.

> Eat healthy and you become obsessed with it and get a eating disorder.

Except that's the exception, not the rule - the vast majority of people who eat healthy are not disordered eaters.

> Work out, get injured, need pain killers, get addicted.

Again, this is the exception, not the rule. The majority of people exercise without sustaining an injury.

Re: Excellence is a habit, but so is failure

#226

Post by wonderwonder »

Andrew Tate (I am in no way condoning his character) has an interesting video where he talks about discipline vs motivation. If you need to be motivated to do something then its probably not going to last, discipline is what makes things last. Combined with patience is how we see real change and results. If we wake up at 5am to go to the gym, many of us are motivated when we set the alarm but that motivation is gone when the alarm rings, only discipline can make you get up day after day instead of hitting the snooze button.

This applies to all aspects of life. Its the reason so many new years resolutions die after a few weeks. Why diets fail. Why the gym is packed in January and back to normal in March. If you need to be motivated to succeed, you will likely fail, only discipline will get you through both the good and bad times.

Discipline is what separates the great from the average or even good.

Re: Excellence is a habit, but so is failure

#227

Post by mikrl »

EugeneOZ wrote: post #219
lennxa wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. But the message here is not an external occurring but rather internal. One's acts determine one's internal state. If you act virtuously by your definition, your judgement of yourself will be good/not corrupt, which is good. The key point here is that it's your own personal defination.

I'm not praising the oligarchs, of course. I'm saying that the "karma" bullshit just doesn't work. Yeah, I don't want to be like these bad guys, but I have no illusions that some magical "karma" will reward me or punish them - that's naive.

I don’t believe in karma or in the words of Johnny Cash “god almighty is gonna cut em down” but the world does work in funny ways.

Such behaviour is not sustainable and even if your network of nasties shields you from consequences, you’re making a giant gamble relying on that forever without some meaner network coming along and pop! with no moral issue.

Re: Excellence is a habit, but so is failure

#228

Post by npsimons »

SanderNL wrote: post #117

I found it interesting to learn about the etymology of the word "character". It comes to us from Latin which took it from the Greek (χᾰρᾰκτήρ) which comes from kharasso (χαράσσω) - I scratch or engrave . Our character can be thought of as the result of a long process of engraving or scratching. I tend to see it as a solid metal shield full of scratches from long battles. The resulting grooves tend towards virtue or v…

I'll just toss this in, since I haven't seen someone else put it out out there yet:

    Excellence is an art won by training and habituation: we do not act
    rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have these
    because we have acted rightly;
    
      'these virtues are formed in man by his doing the actions';
    
    we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit:
    
      'the good of man is a working of the soul in the way of excellence in
       a complete life... for as it is not one swallow or one fine day that
       makes a spring, so it is not one day or a short time that makes a man
       blessed and happy'
    
        -- Will Durant, "The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of
           the World's Greatest Philosophers" (1926), Ch. II: Aristotle and
           Greek Science; part VII: Ethics and the Nature of Happiness

Re: Excellence is a habit, but so is failure

#229

Post by croes »

npsimons wrote: post #225
croes wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It not that simple. Eat healthy and you become obsessed with it and get a eating disorder. Work out, get injured, need pain killers, get addicted. In hindsight it's easy to spot your mistakes. Should have turned left instead of right.

> Eat healthy and you become obsessed with it and get a eating disorder. Except that's the exception, not the rule - the vast majority of people who eat healthy are not disordered eaters. > Work out, get injured, need pain killers, get addicted. Again, this is the exception, not the rule. The majority of people exercise without sustaining an injury.

But you don't know if you are the exception or the rule.

And often it's not as simple as counting calories.

Do you work too hard or not hard enough? Should you learn something or let it be?

Re: Excellence is a habit, but so is failure

#230

Post by npsimons »

croes wrote: post #229
npsimons wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Eat healthy and you become obsessed with it and get a eating disorder. Except that's the exception, not the rule - the vast majority of people who eat healthy are not disordered eaters. > Work out, get injured, need pain killers, get addicted. Again, this is the exception, not the rule. The majority of people exercise without sustaining an injury.

But you don't know if you are the exception or the rule. And often it's not as simple as counting calories. Do you work too hard or not hard enough? Should you learn something or let it be?

Chances are, you are not the exception, and neither am I.

Also, it's not easy, but is as simple as counting calories. Conservation of mass and all that.

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