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Becoming the person who does the thing

fredrivett.com

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Re: Becoming the person who does the thing

#51

Post by GuB-42 »

Groxx wrote: post #14

I've generally found quite a lot of success at abandoning goals / "destinations" for most things, and focusing on the "journey": don't aim to "be fit" or reach a specific weight. aim to "do one more thing" to make progress along a direction. every step in that direction is success, every bit is something you weren't doing before and is something to be happy about. it doesn't have to be big at all - have you done one…

That's why I don't really get the gym. What is enjoyable in a gym? All activities you do there feel so useless and mindless. Running on a threadmill, lifting weights to put them back down, etc... For the journey/destination analogy, the destination is all that matters here, and you are taking the highway, because it is efficient.

There are may other activities that will get you fit and are what I think are way less boring. Sometimes, it is a literal journey, as in hiking. But also team sports, combat sports, climbing, actual gymnastics, etc... Here, you actually concentrate on the activity itself rather than on the end goal.

Re: Becoming the person who does the thing

#52

Post by Brendinooo »

conductr wrote: post #34
huhkerrf wrote: post #20

I found the article anodyne enough, so this is not a knock on it, but something I've noticed as I've gotten older that I find a bit amusing and curious. What is it that makes people in tech in their late 20s and 30s write about life lessons like an old sage? I don't notice 32 year old farmers or roughnecks doing this.

As a older than this person, I feel like it’s around the time most people have that first large step of retrospectiveness where they see their current self has deviated from their self they thought they were previously. They realize they have autonomy to craft themselves. They realize there are more important aspects to life than their grades/sports/hobby or whatever things they built their identity around for the fi…

This is good, and I'll add that for the kind of person who grew up sitting in front of a computer and is now working full-time sitting in front of a computer, this is most likely to manifest in recognizing problems with physical health and taking steps to fix it, steps that are tangible and highly achievable for someone in their 20s and 30s.

EDIT: Oh, and farmers do not have this particular problem, lol

Re: Becoming the person who does the thing

#53

Post by Cthulhu_ »

dbdr wrote: post #15
olau wrote: post #6

Some years ago I bought a little pamphlet with a few mental exercises by Rudolf Steiner, known for the Waldorf school system. One of them was about building a habit. You find a small meaningless thing to do, it must have no purpose at all, and then you do it once every day for as long as it takes to become a habit, probably a month or two. E.g. you could fill a glass with water and throw it out. I did the exercise (I…

What's the benefit of building a useless habit instead of a useful one?

I can see why; doing something useless requires conscious thought / effort. Doing something you want to do / achieve / change is, controversially, difficult because you think you can rely on just you "wanting it", that is, innate motivation. But that's usually not the case, especially not if it's something that causes discomfort at first (like going to the gym) or if it means giving up or cutting back on something pleasurable (mmm, donuts).

But intentionally doing something that you don't do normally, something you don't want to do, something that doesn't give you any kind of dopamine feedback can help you practice forming habits, practice self-discipline, etc. It's an interesting experiment.

Re: Becoming the person who does the thing

#54

Post by dewey »

flippyhead wrote: post #45

The trick to getting results in the gym, and establishing a sustainable practice (which is key in both exercise and diet), is to just go regularly but allow yourself to leave at any point. Say you decide four days a week is your long-term goal. On that first day, if you want, leave after 5m. But return the next day. Keep doing this and eventually, I promise, you'll average the 45m you need four days a week forever. I…

> I do the same thing with books.

Can relate, I go to a Cafe to read almost every morning, even if I'm just reading for 5-10 minutes.

I usually read 1-3 books in parallel because sometimes I'm just not in the mood for non-fiction and I just want to read a quick interview with an interesting person. One of the best features of ebook readers for me is that I can easily switch between books with a few taps, instead of having to bring 3 books.

Re: Becoming the person who does the thing

#55

Post by Cthulhu_ »

michaeldoron wrote: post #16

With love and respect, why is this on HackerNews?

Because someone submitted it, it showed up in new or the home page, it didn't need prior approval because there is no editorial board, at least 69 people upvoted it, and it hasn't been removed yet by a moderator if it does break any submission rules.

Because that's how news aggregators like HN and Reddit work.

Re: Becoming the person who does the thing

#56

Post by ludston »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #32
huhkerrf wrote: post #20

I found the article anodyne enough, so this is not a knock on it, but something I've noticed as I've gotten older that I find a bit amusing and curious. What is it that makes people in tech in their late 20s and 30s write about life lessons like an old sage? I don't notice 32 year old farmers or roughnecks doing this.

I draw analogies with junior / medior / senior developers; juniors don't know anything and they know it, mediors know something but think they know everything and want the world to know, seniors know something but know they know nothing. ...if that makes any sense, I'm sure someone else put it more eloquently than that.

Dunning-Kruger?

Re: Becoming the person who does the thing

#57

Post by Cthulhu_ »

rckt wrote: post #8

You can summarise the whole post by the meme video of Shia LaBeouf with his "Do it!" talk.

DON'T LET YOUR DREAMS BE DREAMS!

Except it's a bit deeper I think; the author realised at one point they were confirming to a stereotype, maybe even thinking they were playing by the rules and doing what was expected of them by ??? society or something, but then realised they have free will, they can do whatever they want in the privacy of their own home and the cops can't stop them, and they were in bad physical shape.

They realised they were holding themselves back and stopped.

Re: Becoming the person who does the thing

#58

Post by yyx »

GuB-42 wrote: post #51
Groxx wrote: post #14

I've generally found quite a lot of success at abandoning goals / "destinations" for most things, and focusing on the "journey": don't aim to "be fit" or reach a specific weight. aim to "do one more thing" to make progress along a direction. every step in that direction is success, every bit is something you weren't doing before and is something to be happy about. it doesn't have to be big at all - have you done one…

That's why I don't really get the gym. What is enjoyable in a gym? All activities you do there feel so useless and mindless. Running on a threadmill, lifting weights to put them back down, etc... For the journey/destination analogy, the destination is all that matters here, and you are taking the highway, because it is efficient. There are may other activities that will get you fit and are what I think are way less b…

Mindlessness is a positive thing here. You don't have to think, just follow the moves, hit your goals and the numbers will naturally go up over time.

Re: Becoming the person who does the thing

#59

Post by ramses0 »

dbdr wrote: post #15
olau wrote: post #6

Some years ago I bought a little pamphlet with a few mental exercises by Rudolf Steiner, known for the Waldorf school system. One of them was about building a habit. You find a small meaningless thing to do, it must have no purpose at all, and then you do it once every day for as long as it takes to become a habit, probably a month or two. E.g. you could fill a glass with water and throw it out. I did the exercise (I…

What's the benefit of building a useless habit instead of a useful one?

Taking out the emotion. Since the genesis of this discussion was "lifting weights", why uselessly lift weights instead of doing useful work like moving sacks of grain from point A to point B?

"If habit is a muscle that can be developed...", then being detached from the simple, useless habit being formed is good practice for being able to apply it to a productive or important situation.

Re: Becoming the person who does the thing

#60

Post by ludston »

huhkerrf wrote: post #20

I found the article anodyne enough, so this is not a knock on it, but something I've noticed as I've gotten older that I find a bit amusing and curious. What is it that makes people in tech in their late 20s and 30s write about life lessons like an old sage? I don't notice 32 year old farmers or roughnecks doing this.

Sharing ideas leads to feedback. People in their late 20s and early 30s are only just feeling like they are cementing their identities, so they seek validation.
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