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Men who stare at walls

alexselimov.com

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Re: Men who stare at walls

#341

Post by [deleted] »

throw0101c wrote: post #306
ethbr1 wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At some point on William Gibson's now defunct micro blog*, he's about to embark on the book tour for Pattern Recognition (so circa 2003). I'll butcher his insightful phrasing, but he remarks to the effect of > I think I'm going to stop blogging. The act of sitting at a laptop and writing these posts seems incompatible with my life as it exists on a book tour. The only free moments available for it to occupy would be…

> William Gibson's now defunct micro blog Isn't that what X/Twitter basically is (was?), a "micro blog"? * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microblogging

[deleted]

Re: Men who stare at walls

#342

Post by MollyRealized »

ethbr1 wrote: post #318
throw0101c wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> William Gibson's now defunct micro blog Isn't that what X/Twitter basically is (was?), a "micro blog"? * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microblogging

His posts were typically slightly longer than twitter. "Miniblog"? Topic + 2-5 sentences. Also, he's a published writer... so that's another substantial difference with average twitter.

I have to admit, I had hoped that Bluesky would have countered that 300-character limitation and been a true microblog. I'm not sure why they chose to ape Twitter's limit.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#343

Post by jpfromlondon »

This reminds me of David Foster Wallace's The Pale King in which a presumed jesuit guest lecturer tells an audience of college students that true heroism is enduring boredom, that there is no higher calling, that it is key to a successful life.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#344

Post by joseda-hg »

oersted wrote: post #263
Olshansky wrote: post #137

I hope people see this comment. Meditation is to mental training and focus, as going to the gym is to physical training. Socials killed our attention span. Agents are literally making us context switch even more. Putting aside the whole "I am at piece and one with the world" part of meditation, it is extremely hard. I'm also no expert. When I'm waiting for something to finish (agent, compilation, etc), I've found tha…

Much like the gym, meditation seems to me like an artificial alternative to an actually healthy lifestyle. Perhaps it is necessary to have such explicit and focused "exercising" to really get what you need nowadays, there may be merit to that. But why not just go for a nice walk with no headphones?

Depending on who you ask, that is a form of meditation (or at the very least, a meditative activity).

And like the gym, it isn't necessarily orthogonal to a healthy lifestyle; sometimes, it’s just a way of focusing efforts toward a specific goal.

Some people get so much stimulation even when walking normally that it breaks the kind of focus they’re looking for (or they don't live in a zone particularly conducive to walking.) It is what it is

Re: Men who stare at walls

#345

Post by inatreecrown2 »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #295
inatreecrown2 wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A smartphone, at least with a connection to the internet, is always new. There is always something new to see and hear.

Arguably, same with books and - even moreso - newspapers. I vaguely remember doomsaying about people only scanning newspaper headlines. But think about it, a good newspaper has a mix of news, background, entertainment, opinions, adverts, etc - not unlike browsing reddit or twitter, it's a barrage of emotional ups and downs and items asking for your attention in different ways. With that in mind I don't think the conc…

Once you read thru the newspaper you are done. Nothing new left. Not so with the smartphone. Always new.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#346

Post by whtrbt »

randomNumber7 wrote: post #232
krunck wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A meditation practice(in the Soto Zen tradition) over the course of five years changed my life. Daily 40m of sitting facing a wall watching the breath and returning the mind to the present moment when it strays. No judgement. Just returning the mind to the present, again, and again, and again.... The BS starts to drop away. No enlightenment moments. But later, away from the practice you have more patience, more accep…

This is something I want to try. Does the time where the mind stays in the present before it strays away increase when you practice this?

Yes.
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