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Everything Is a Practice

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Re: Everything Is a Practice

#41

Post by krat0sprakhar »

dswalter wrote: post #3

Something about not being young anymore is that I am much more comfortable leveraging small changes consistently over time. When I was 16, the idea of doing a little bit of practicing vocal exercises each day in order to improve over time would have seemed an insurmountable challenge. I needed things to improve over the course of days or hours. (In this, I was terribly short-sighted). But now that I'm considerably ol…

Exact same mindset change happened with me (and I wish I had known the power of small changes over time earlier). I picked up the guitar at the age of 33 and just playing 15-30mins a day over a year has led to so much improvement. The slow but steady process is so rewarding.

Re: Everything Is a Practice

#42

Post by Baeocystin »

Zetice wrote: post #29

Super duper no, could not more strongly disagree. Practice is not the same as performance, as in practice you ignore the outcome and focus on specific aspects of your skill. If you practice with the full outcome in mind all the time, you severely hinder your ability to narrowly improve, which is critical to growth. I understand this is written to speak more about “practice” in the trade sense, but even there I think…

Right there with you. If I am practicing something, it is usually a specific aspect of the overall skill. A certain aspect of form while I row, a specific approach to shading with a pencil, a certain hand position as I work on a difficult guitar piece... some element of the larger whole that is given my full attention for that session.

If I only ever had the full sequence of $whatever in mind, I would severely limit my growth.

Re: Everything Is a Practice

#43

Post by eropple »

bogrollben wrote: post #17

I'm at the point where I feel fed up with too much talk about self-improvement. It's ok to not be productive and just enjoy things. Enjoy relationships, the sunshine, even video games or something that is literally a waste of time. Maybe I got burned out by goal-setting and productivity talk. It also might be some remnants of some mild depression I had lately. I guess I just don't like feeling pressured to constantly…

I feel like there's a difference of kind between the hyper-competitive "you must be better at this to Be Productive" and what's being espoused here.

I've always been a tinkerer and all that. Rarely with any goal in mind, either; like the author of this blog post, it's always been practice for the sake of it. As I've gotten older, though, the benefits of that tinkering have been accruing over time. It lends itself to a more thorough understanding of the world, which helps in little concrete ways--if you asked me how much I know about mechanical systems I'd say "nothing" but in truth I can get by pretty well from servicing small woodworking tools and from designing stuff for a 3D printer--to the large--having a deeper understanding of why the world is the way it is through history and philosophy and political science.

I do a lot of this practice. I would also say that I'm pretty happy and, in most ways, content with where my life is. Doing more, at that point, is internal practice, not external competition. It's mind-and-soul exercise. And practicing saying no, practicing relaxation, counts too. Just, like with everything else--don't do that too much.

Re: Everything Is a Practice

#44

Post by davidthewatson »

prottog wrote: post #27
bogrollben wrote: post #17

I'm at the point where I feel fed up with too much talk about self-improvement. It's ok to not be productive and just enjoy things. Enjoy relationships, the sunshine, even video games or something that is literally a waste of time. Maybe I got burned out by goal-setting and productivity talk. It also might be some remnants of some mild depression I had lately. I guess I just don't like feeling pressured to constantly…

> if you're not improving, you're less of a human being I mean, it's true. The version of you that was a couch potato for four hours on a Saturday is less good than the version that went for a run, lifted weights, home-brewed beer, met someone for coffee, or whatever self-improvement you might have done. (I don't agree that enjoying relationships is contrary to self-improvement.) Of course, opportunity cost is a thin…

No, this is just as bad as:

"who the world wants you to be" from the OP.

This is toxic positivity.

There's a place for feedback loops whether you label it tldr; GPT, sensemaking, or dislike.

Re: Everything Is a Practice

#45

Post by SteveDR »

bogrollben wrote: post #17

I'm at the point where I feel fed up with too much talk about self-improvement. It's ok to not be productive and just enjoy things. Enjoy relationships, the sunshine, even video games or something that is literally a waste of time. Maybe I got burned out by goal-setting and productivity talk. It also might be some remnants of some mild depression I had lately. I guess I just don't like feeling pressured to constantly…

> In this process though you will become a better human being. You will get better at living. You will have less pain down the road. Your path will be smoother.

I mean it’s hard to argue that you should do things that get in the way of this pursuit.

I agree with your sentiment, but I think your definition of self-improvement is off if it doesn’t include leisure, because finding healthy ways of incorporating leisure into your life definitely makes your “path” “smoother”.

Like, my ideal self isn’t a 100x engineer that sleeps at the office most nights. My ideal self spends time with his family, and cares for friends even if they don’t offer me anything tangible, and has hobbies that won’t result in measurable benefits to my “productivity”. So doing those things is self-improvement because I’m moving towards my own definition of success.

Re: Everything Is a Practice

#46

Post by screwturner68 »

dswalter wrote: post #3

Something about not being young anymore is that I am much more comfortable leveraging small changes consistently over time. When I was 16, the idea of doing a little bit of practicing vocal exercises each day in order to improve over time would have seemed an insurmountable challenge. I needed things to improve over the course of days or hours. (In this, I was terribly short-sighted). But now that I'm considerably ol…

It doesn't hurt that now a month goes by in a blink of an eye but when you are 16 a month feels like forever.

Re: Everything Is a Practice

#47

Post by celaleddin »

carbonx wrote: post #8

I used to play pool a fair amount and it reminds me of a quote an older player shared with me one time: "Every shot is a practice shot". His point was that every time you shot you were building up either good or bad habits, so every time you shoot you were to shoot the same way. Don't ever just "fuck around" because that contributes to bad habits or at least not building good habits.

Pre-shot routines come into play to help with that I think. To take every shot with the same level of seriousness and preparation, whatever the position is.

For the last few years, I want to play pool more and more, but going to a club is such a drag for me. Especially when alone. A home with a pool table would be great.

A few frames of six-ball every few hours as a break from work...

Re: Everything Is a Practice

#48

Post by lacy_tinpot »

gausswho wrote: post #40
lacy_tinpot wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Productivity making you better or worse makes a needless moral judgement. What's better is that being productive allows you to accomplish the things you want. Then the real question becomes about your goals, rather than some vague ideas of "work". I think it's better to really consider what you want and don't want, and genuinely accept them. The productivity scale is not some inherent moral metric. This shrouds the i…

I think you have distilled this to an accurate origin. Those who are driven to improve wish to live an intentful life pursuing their explicit goals. I would however challenge the corollary that that is an objectively more enjoyable life. I find many unhappy friends an colleagues grinding on a path of thejr choosing, to a pace of their own arbitrary selection. In my experience, I am most happy when I am goal-less, but…

I don’t see why goals need to be anything other than what makes you happy. That was kind of the point. Maybe “living with intent” is another way to think about it. But still I think actual goals should be explicit. If not for anything else but to be honest with yourself so that you can live sanely.

So even if things are more free flowing the fact that you accept the consequences and benefits of living that way is still goal oriented, and being productive. Being productive in that way can even be playing video games, so long as it, the act itself, doesn’t interfere with what you want.

Be shameless about what you want!

Re: Everything Is a Practice

#49

Post by epolanski »

adversaryIdiot wrote: post #6

I've become a 'handyman' in the way that this article alludes to. A big problem that I come across when saying "yes" to every problem that peaks my curiosity is that Ive become mentally drained. I end up spending a lot of time and energy hacking away at problems. The problem is, it seems like my mind isn't resilient enough to keep up with it. After a certain point there comes an onset of fatigue, frustration, and jus…

I used to suffer of the same and then went with the time limiting: I can't do that stuff on weekends or after 7 pm, I stick to it and it became a habit in few weeks time.

Re: Everything Is a Practice

#50

Post by epolanski »

itsmemattchung wrote: post #5

> There is no finish line. There is no winning, no losing. There is a finish line, but I think the goal post moves over and over and over again. Historically, every time I set a goal, I would think to myself, "once I do/get/achieve X, I'll be happy." In retrospective, I care less about the goal and find myself most joyful throughout the process of achieving said goal.

That's baceause society bombs us with slogans such as "you'll be truly happy when you will obtain X", it's hard to deprogram.
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