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I Know the secret to the quiet mind. I wish I'd never learned it (2021)

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Re: I Know the secret to the quiet mind. I wish I'd never learned it (2021)

#31

Post by FredPret »

lijok wrote: post #16

Amazing recount. I was fortunate to learn in 2018, at a relatively young age, that my mental faculties are the most precious thing I have in life (after my wife ofcourse). It was a very simple accident; chasing a high I let my bike get too fast going downhill on a wet road, a car on the other side was oncoming, I break, the back wheel slips out from under me, I hit my head on the road (with a helmet on). A bruised kn…

Human cognition belongs on the timeline of significant events in the evolution of universe.

We may be only in the tiniest of corners (for now), but probably nothing beats it in complexity (... for now).

Re: I Know the secret to the quiet mind. I wish I'd never learned it (2021)

#32

Post by hypeatei »

anonzzzies wrote: post #14
poszlem wrote: post #9

For some reason I found this line particularly funny and poignant: "But did you know that you can eat whole grains and still get hit by a truck?"

As I get older, more and more people around me get ill and die: many of them super healthy, not smoking or drinking, sporty all their lives, wealthy, health food nuts and no family histories get diagnosed with cancer and heart disease. In my group more healthy than unhealthy receive terrible outcomes at too young an age. It seems indeed it is not fair; do not believe or think it is, there is no reason to do so. Oh an…

Life is inherently suffering and has no meaning. Being healthy brings many people joy and so does smoking cigarettes; either way we're here for a limited time surrounded by things that are trying to kill us so why not enjoy it?

That's my take at least. During winter I'd probably have a more depressing perspective but the sun has been out lately.

Re: I Know the secret to the quiet mind. I wish I'd never learned it (2021)

#33

Post by uptime »

markx2 wrote: post #8
ianai wrote: post #2

She and her family were hit by a wrong way truck probably going 70 mph. It completely shattered their bodies, lives and shows how precious our moments are. This almost feels personal to me because of how well written her account is. I’ve had terrible chronic migraines for as long as i can remember. Apparently they can be associated with brain lesions, too. I’ll clearly never know how they’ve impacted my personality.

After decades of migraines I was diagnosed with Chronic Daily Migraines. I was prescribed a 'under the tongue' triptan which if the migraine aura arrived during the day worked some of the time. If I woke with the migraine at 10/10 pain level than I lost the full day. One of my daughters also had weekly migraines, lost a day at work each time. I got a Daith piercing in my right ear - my migraines originated on the rig…

I had a monthly or quarterly migraine for years before getting some wisdom teeth pulled. Now it is almost never.

Re: I Know the secret to the quiet mind. I wish I'd never learned it (2021)

#34

Post by anonzzzies »

hypeatei wrote: post #32
anonzzzies wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I get older, more and more people around me get ill and die: many of them super healthy, not smoking or drinking, sporty all their lives, wealthy, health food nuts and no family histories get diagnosed with cancer and heart disease. In my group more healthy than unhealthy receive terrible outcomes at too young an age. It seems indeed it is not fair; do not believe or think it is, there is no reason to do so. Oh an…

Life is inherently suffering and has no meaning. Being healthy brings many people joy and so does smoking cigarettes; either way we're here for a limited time surrounded by things that are trying to kill us so why not enjoy it? That's my take at least. During winter I'd probably have a more depressing perspective but the sun has been out lately.

Not sure if you meant to say that, but I do believe you should do what you like and can in this short period on earth. Whatever that is and if it doesn’t hurt others, do it please, it doesn’t matter anyway.

However, almost all people I know that are over the top healthy (measuring everything, doing some sort of ‘du-jour’ diet (all meat, no meat, all protein, no protein, extreme fasting, no fasting; etc; ‘the best way to live’ changes more often than JavaScript frameworks), a lot of sports) are addicts to it or do it because they believe they will get a lot older than others (weird to me as many spend a of time doing stuff they don’t like; why would you want to lengthen your life in that case, but ok).

Re: I Know the secret to the quiet mind. I wish I'd never learned it (2021)

#36

Post by jongjong »

lijok wrote: post #16

Amazing recount. I was fortunate to learn in 2018, at a relatively young age, that my mental faculties are the most precious thing I have in life (after my wife ofcourse). It was a very simple accident; chasing a high I let my bike get too fast going downhill on a wet road, a car on the other side was oncoming, I break, the back wheel slips out from under me, I hit my head on the road (with a helmet on). A bruised kn…

I had a similar moment when I was 16 and had my first migraine aura... Really bad one. I was looking at a billboard and I realized that I couldn't read anymore. Then I looked at people and part of their faces were missing from my field of view even though I was looking straight at them. Then I started feeling tingling in my fingers. I thought it was a stroke. No, just a bad migraine aura. I've had one every 6 to 12 months since though rarely as bad as that first one.

Coming to terms with the fallibility of your own mind is a valuable experience. I think it has helped me to be more rational. Once you accept that your mind can be dysfunctional, it becomes trivial to accept that your mind can be wrong. The way I see it, being wrong is also a temporary dysfunction of the mind.

Re: I Know the secret to the quiet mind. I wish I'd never learned it (2021)

#37

Post by asystole »

alexpotato wrote: post #29

Many years ago I read an article (which I can't seem to find) that had the following key points: - Very smart guy - Had some kind of blood circulatory issue so reduced oxygen to the brain - BUT was a very active cyclist so has very good cardio - due to both of the above, he was getting enough O2 to be functional but effectively had a lower IQ - circulatory issue was eventually identified and then corrected His commen…

Huh, interesting. Kind of a real-life Flowers for Algernon scenario.

Re: I Know the secret to the quiet mind. I wish I'd never learned it (2021)

#38

Post by asystole »

hypeatei wrote: post #32
anonzzzies wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I get older, more and more people around me get ill and die: many of them super healthy, not smoking or drinking, sporty all their lives, wealthy, health food nuts and no family histories get diagnosed with cancer and heart disease. In my group more healthy than unhealthy receive terrible outcomes at too young an age. It seems indeed it is not fair; do not believe or think it is, there is no reason to do so. Oh an…

Life is inherently suffering and has no meaning. Being healthy brings many people joy and so does smoking cigarettes; either way we're here for a limited time surrounded by things that are trying to kill us so why not enjoy it? That's my take at least. During winter I'd probably have a more depressing perspective but the sun has been out lately.

> Life is inherently suffering and has no meaning.

I'd hate to hear your winter perspective :)

Re: I Know the secret to the quiet mind. I wish I'd never learned it (2021)

#39

Post by ryukafalz »

nunez wrote: post #18
ianai wrote: post #2

She and her family were hit by a wrong way truck probably going 70 mph. It completely shattered their bodies, lives and shows how precious our moments are. This almost feels personal to me because of how well written her account is. I’ve had terrible chronic migraines for as long as i can remember. Apparently they can be associated with brain lesions, too. I’ll clearly never know how they’ve impacted my personality.

As horrible as this accident is, this is also a testament to modern automotive safety. If this had happened in the 70s or 80s, they all would've been done for. I've seen reports of recent model year cars surviving these kinds of accidents while leaving their drivers unscathed.

On the other hand, the situation is not so great for those outside of a car due to recent cars' increased height and mass. If the person on the receiving end is a 10-year-old biking to school, there's now less of a chance they're going to make it.
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