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I'm an addict

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Re: I'm an addict

#231

Post by christophilus »

NoGravitas wrote: post #156
christophilus wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's kind of a strawman. Serious Catholic thought (John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Pope Benedict, etc) doesn't try to "remove the doubt" at all. I highly recommend Ratzinger / Benedict for modern text, and the great contemplatives for non-modern texts. They grapple with doubt and all other tricky subjects head on, and have a broad (and in my opinion accurate and subtle) view of the journey of life.

I was also going to recommend John of the Cross. There's also a whole tradition of apophatic (negative) theology, and an associated tradition of darkness mysticism (e.g. Pseudo-Dionysius). That your doubts are founded in the reality that God is unknowable-as-such, and even "existence" may be an invalid concept to apply to the divine.

In that vein, but I've been reading a book that synthesizes John and Teresa and the gospels. It had a few gems that stood out to me recently. On the importance of voiding oneself of all: "He is not only beyond all things, but boundlessly beyond them. Created realities are... more unlike God than like Him.... However impressive may be one's knowledge or feeling of God, that knowledge or feeling will have no resemblance to God and amount to very little."

Re: I'm an addict

#232

Post by eric_cc »

bin_bash wrote: post #176
bengale wrote: post #128

My desire to read the comments sections on reddit and increasingly on here completely baffle me. If I was sat in a room and the people in there were saying things as stupid as I see on reddit I would leave that room and wonder how the hell I ended up in it. What possible reason do I have to be wasting time reading the barely formed thoughts of what must be predominantly teenagers. Yet ... I find myself back there.

I'm in my mid-30's. I quit reading Reddit because in pretty much all the subreddits I was in I started to feel old. People sound like I did 10-15 years ago when I lacked the life experience I have now. I don't have this experience on HN really. I suspect I'm closer to the average age here. There is the occasional poor opinion but it usually gets downvoted pretty hard. Even people that I disagree with I learn a lot fr…

No matter what the subreddit is, it’s full of radically far left political comments. They get upvoted and any attempt to provide reason gets downvoted.

Not sure how it became this way but perhaps it’s as simple as what you say:

> People sound like I did 10-15 years ago when I lacked the life experience

They’re kids.

Or perhaps it’s more sinister and coordinated. Either way, the political component of Reddit has made me abandon it. It’s unfortunate because I used to enjoy niche subs in the same way you would any other niche forum.

Re: I'm an addict

#233

Post by dhosek »

bostonsre wrote: post #195
bengale wrote: post #128

My desire to read the comments sections on reddit and increasingly on here completely baffle me. If I was sat in a room and the people in there were saying things as stupid as I see on reddit I would leave that room and wonder how the hell I ended up in it. What possible reason do I have to be wasting time reading the barely formed thoughts of what must be predominantly teenagers. Yet ... I find myself back there.

It kind of feels like some kind of idle loop where my mind has some spare cycles and it defaults to hacker news and similar stuff, then it goes down the rabbit hole once started. Just making it a little harder to view the sites seems to help me a lot. I add 127.0.0.1 to my /etc/hosts file during work hours. I find myself looking at a broken page a couple times a day without even realizing how I got there, but it allo…

Is there a good MacOS¹/Unix-y way to automate this? (I’m guessing a crontab that swaps two versions of /etc/hosts is my best option but maybe there’s something more elegant?)

⸻

1. I’m aware of ScreenTime, but it’s too easily overridden.

Re: I'm an addict

#234

Post by rajin444 »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #151
Jaruzel wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I recommend religion and religious teachings which address this and many other daily worldly issues perfectly. This advice simply doesn't work if the recipient is an atheist. To me, Religious texts are made up fiction that hold no more meaning in my world view than Harry Potter or Game of Thrones. If you read enough fiction on a shared topic, you'll be able to pull the same number of 'enlightening' quotes from thos…

The difference between Harry Potter and most religious texts is that the religious texts are often the result of thousands of years of evolutionary processes which refine them, and the people who have followed them have survived/thrived. It doesn't matter if the Bible/Koran/whatever is a fact or not. Religious beliefs/texts are an extension of human evolution and should be seen that way. Questioning their wisdom in h…

This answer is on the right track. There will always be outliers, but most humans have a fundamental need for “religion”.

The west is in the process of creating a new one (modern liberal values), but as with most rewrites, you probably should have understood the existing solution before throwing it out.

Re: I'm an addict

#235

Post by maxerickson »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #151
Jaruzel wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I recommend religion and religious teachings which address this and many other daily worldly issues perfectly. This advice simply doesn't work if the recipient is an atheist. To me, Religious texts are made up fiction that hold no more meaning in my world view than Harry Potter or Game of Thrones. If you read enough fiction on a shared topic, you'll be able to pull the same number of 'enlightening' quotes from thos…

The difference between Harry Potter and most religious texts is that the religious texts are often the result of thousands of years of evolutionary processes which refine them, and the people who have followed them have survived/thrived. It doesn't matter if the Bible/Koran/whatever is a fact or not. Religious beliefs/texts are an extension of human evolution and should be seen that way. Questioning their wisdom in h…

Questioning specific things seems easy enough.

Like proscriptions on pork or seafood; we have a pretty good understanding of the consequences of eating pork and don't necessarily have to rely on something that was a useful rule of thumb absent that knowledge.

Re: I'm an addict

#236

Post by dhosek »

supernihil wrote: post #160

I dont like the idea of replacing the time spend compulsively procrastinating with "learning a new language, getting a pet, going to the gym" is the right way. I see the root cause (for me atleast (used to read HN and blogs for 4 hours everyday)) is that i cant stand being with myself. During the last two months ive been trying to not panic when i'm idle. And not take out my phone or read the nearest material i can l…

I’ve found that having a very finite procrastination activity (like, say, doing ten push-ups) can help. The trick is finding something that can’t be extended indefinitely.

Re: I'm an addict

#237

Post by anarticle »

supernihil wrote: post #160

I dont like the idea of replacing the time spend compulsively procrastinating with "learning a new language, getting a pet, going to the gym" is the right way. I see the root cause (for me atleast (used to read HN and blogs for 4 hours everyday)) is that i cant stand being with myself. During the last two months ive been trying to not panic when i'm idle. And not take out my phone or read the nearest material i can l…

At least if you know you have addictive tendencies you will get a benefit! :D It's a good first step to replacing a destructive/ineffective behavior with something a little better. I think in our software somewhere we all have a kind of addictive complex that for some, modern tech seems to be good at pushing. If you can wield it for good, I think that's a good change.

I agree with you that the obsession with S-tier clearing life is very bad for people. I have many young friends who obsess over optimizing every move they make at cost to their sanity and time. Specialization is for insects.

Re: I'm an addict

#238

Post by archiewood »

I feel the pain of internet vices.

What worked for me recently (for the last 4 months only - so can't claim victory yet) was exercise and a goal (so I don't bail). Decided to run a half marathon. Found a training plan where I run 5 days a week.

- Now I have to get up at 7am (Before: 8.55am for 9am start) - If I don't get to bed by 11:30pm I feel lousy running (Before: 2-4am bedtime) - And it makes me shower and eat breakfast (Before: no shower, no food)

It's basically added a bunch of structure to my day, which has really helped with work

Re: I'm an addict

#239

Post by _gabe_ »

paskozdilar wrote: post #196
VoodooJuJu wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>recommend philosophy to people, instead of religion Religion is philosophy, plus ritual and aesthetics. It's the set of philosophies that have survived the ravages of time. It's a set of philosophies that are so useful to live by, that these philosophies have survived through books and rituals for millennia. Or put another way, these philosophies are so incredibly effective, that people are surviving today precisely…

> There existed philosophies you've never heard of, that are dead, because they died with the people who've followed them. Is it just chance? Nope. Religion tends to bring people together, often making them much more powerful as a group. But to me, it's just not worth selling out. > I think this is a focus exclusive to "nu-Christian" Anglosphere denominations I don't think that is the case. John 14:6 says: “I am the…

This is pretty disingenuous don't you think? In the same book a few chapters later we read:

> Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” John 20:24-25

If that's not encouraging engaging with doubt I don't know what is.

> If that's not an effort to restrict doubt, then what is?

I can tell you that 1 + 1 = 2 and you can still doubt me. Just because you doubt me it doesn't make that statement any less true. Also, me stating that fact isn't me restricting doubt, it's just me stating a fact. If Jesus was God, and what He says here is true, He's stating a fact. You can choose to believe or not to believe, or doubt or not to doubt.

Re: I'm an addict

#240

Post by wnolens »

comboy wrote: post #31

Here's what worked for me. 1. Ask yourself why do you think this is a problem and debug deeply. Maybe, after all, spending day watching videos is fine and what you want to do and the story that you don't is unnecessary. 2. Once you bring it to your conscious mind, you face a decision, do I want to watch videos and maybe learn something and relax, given that it comes with not delivering some things I promised and doin…

I think we have completely different brains. What you said hits me like someone telling me to "be happy" when I'm depressed. It's not a matter of rationalization.

I am jealous this works for you. Life would be so much easier if my intrinsic motivation was well-aligned with my rational thinking.

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