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

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61–70 of 131 posts

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

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Life is inherently suffering and has no meaning. I'd hate to hear your winter perspective :)

I'd think with a username like that you'd be in agreement. Certainly I've not found any other truth about life.

The suffering depends on how lucky you are though; if you are well off (inherited or self made) and/or born in the right country you have the dope to not have the suffering. Eventually the dope to end it, whenever that may be. Meaningless cannot be helped; the universe is dark and vast and nothing ‘cares’ on any larger scale than your immediate family/friends, and even they lose interest, if they really had any to begin with.

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

#62

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…

I believe it was a hn or reddit post, I remember it also.

Me too. I think it was on HN.

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

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you expect the last sentence to be true? Wouldn't you expect the brains of chickens to be vast, and yours to be even more so?

Why, precisely? Larger volume? Don’t know about you, but over the years I’ve met a lot of humans that can’t obviously outthink a higher-end chicken.

I was asking seriously. But yea, I think there seems to be aspects of human intelligence not shared by our chicken cousins. Both are remarkable, but there doesn’t seem to be any reason to believe a chicken is smarter than a human besides misanthropy.

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

#64
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I said, there is no research. But there is also much anecdotal evidence it helps.

This is one of those areas where anecdotes can be quite valuable, because there seems to be no real downside risk to a piercing aside from the money spent and possible infection, but if there's even a .01% chance it could stop debilitating chronic pain, then sure, you might make a valid decision to try it even though there isn't a study supporting it.

I tend to think in medical science that often anecdotes come first, then the "real" science. Not always populist anecdotes / wive's tales / etc, often times they come from nurses, doctors, or researchers of all kinds -- but sometimes they do come from sparse clusters of common folk sharing anecdotes with each other. Most do not pan out.

But the "hard" science generally needs a spark of intuition to help someone decide "maybe I should look into this", whether it's naive citizens positing that a certain practice/diet/supplement seems to help one of their conditions, or doctors noticing a pattern with a handful of their own cases, or researchers noticing something interesting but unexpected in vitro.

Again, most of these anecdotes don't pan out, but many do, and still today often against best-practice medical wisdom for systems we know less about.

The human body is massively complicated, and we're still just dipping our toes in a lot of new frontiers, and there are some areas which are very difficult to formally study.

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

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

my 3 chickens have deep and complex social dynamics all while being able to pinpoint grains of quinoa off the ground faster than a robot while being able to spot the faintest outline of the tiniest potential threatening hawk 2 miles away in the sky, fully discerned from various crows flying around that don't phase them at all. their little brains are processing far more than me.

I don't know how scientifically factual this is, it was presented as such but it's hard to believe it in a literal sense but there's a Benn Jordan video called "How The World SOUNDS To Animals" about how different animals perceive time differently. Like flies perceive life many times more slowly than we do which is, allegedly, why they seem to get away when we swat at them, no matter how quickly we move. If that's tr…

Flies feel the rush of air from our oncoming hand and get out of the way, just like we look up from our book (phone, these days) when we feel air from the oncoming subway train we are waiting for.

The secret to killing flies is that they have to fly up first before they can fly away, so you (slowly) put your hands in front and behind them and "clap" them. They feel the air and lift off, right into the center of your oncoming hands.

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

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why, precisely? Larger volume? Don’t know about you, but over the years I’ve met a lot of humans that can’t obviously outthink a higher-end chicken.

I was asking seriously. But yea, I think there seems to be aspects of human intelligence not shared by our chicken cousins. Both are remarkable, but there doesn’t seem to be any reason to believe a chicken is smarter than a human besides misanthropy.

I never said chickens were smarter than us, I said my chickens are visually processing far more than I possibly can all while engaged in mentally and physically taxing activities.

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

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

If you ever observed animals, e.g. just observing how chickens socialize, it becomes absolutely clear that they have similar cognition and perception than humans.

Parrots are a more fitting example imo, 300 million years of separation and they have complex cognition that evolved independently.

Crows are also quite smart too.

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

#68
post #19

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…

Another data point: We got a Peloton last year and have rode with lots of instructors. All of them are fit as hell. One of them had a stroke and another is battling breast cancer. Life waits for no one.

Statistics are kinda pointless when you only have one life, just enjoy life and try to balance having some health as well.

There are many studies that prove that having a healthy body (like not very obese) improves your lifespan.

But going 5x to the gym a week, or a 6-pack has very little impact.

So make sure you touch grass, have sometime to take care of your body but don't go extreme, it's a waste of time

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

#69
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you get the piercing because you expected it might help (and if that's the case, would you mind sharing why), or did you get the piercing just for aesthetics and then discovered it helped? I'm not looking to pick apart your story, just curious.

I got the piercing after reading something somewhere that a daith had helped someone else. I am no stranger to bodyart / piercings and I have a passing interest / experience in acupuncture / acupressure. So the idea it could help appeared worth a shot, so I went for it. I did not think "this will work", but hey, nothing ventured .. I would not describe a daith as an aesthetic piercing. It is very discreet so not a 's…

Wow pretty amazing. This seems to point very clearly to a muscle tension issue. The piercing into some area on your head may have helped some chronic tension to release, stopping the migraines.

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

#70

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…

I remember that too - I think it was an HN comment, iirc he also had more empathy for less capable people as a result of having temporarily been less capable himself.
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