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Ideas That Changed My Life

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Re: Ideas That Changed My Life

#71

Post by thinkingemote »

mdp2021 wrote: post #66
oh_sigh wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the point? What one person needs at one point in their life is very unlikely to be what another person needs - it might appear banal or unintelligible to another.

Instances are asked for the purpose of possible generalization.

One could read the comment summarised by "what's the point?" as itself an idea that could change a life.

Towards the negative mainly but also maybe towards stopping negative behaviour or thoughts. "Why care?"

Nihilism is an idea that has changed the world.

The rest of the comment is more of a modern idea where no one is able to know anyone else, prioritising the individual over all. This is most common in identity politics today.

It's worse than nihilism and it also changes societies and people as it encourages and demands the rejection of understanding and empathy.

Re: Ideas That Changed My Life

#72

Post by mdp2021 »

irishloop wrote: post #14

> The world always makes sense. But it can be confusing. I just don't agree with this at all. I think its folly to assume the world will always make sense. As humans we seek to make sense of things, but not everything fits into our cognitive little boxes.

It simply meant that "there is always a reason for things[: if you do not see it, your world model is incomplete]".

Re: Ideas That Changed My Life

#73

Post by F-W-M »

wenc wrote: post #40
mif wrote: post #11

One idea that changed my life is stop believing that other people have changed their lives based on ideas. The only way of change is by habit.

I actually changed my mind based on some simple ideas. Carol Dweck wrote a book called Mindset, which talks about two mindsets: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. The idea is super simple, and you don't even need to read the book to know what it is. But just knowing that idea changed my entire motivation to do things, and now I believe that even if I'm not talented at something, I can get surprisingly far. (for in…

> for instance, I'm a deep introvert, but I'm able to socialize for long periods of time and talk to strangers easily now, but only after I kept practicing for a period of 2 years -- I discovered it's possible to "bend" your introversion if you don't put yourself in a box and are willing to make an effort

How did you practice?

Re: Ideas That Changed My Life

#74

Post by afpx »

dcl wrote: post #70
wenc wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually changed my mind based on some simple ideas. Carol Dweck wrote a book called Mindset, which talks about two mindsets: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. The idea is super simple, and you don't even need to read the book to know what it is. But just knowing that idea changed my entire motivation to do things, and now I believe that even if I'm not talented at something, I can get surprisingly far. (for in…

It's great you've found techniques that work for you and you are correct the science is fuzzy... From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Dweck#Criticism > Timothy Bates, a psychology professor at the University of Edinburgh, has been trying for several years to replicate Dweck's findings, each time without success, and his colleagues haven't been able to either.[23] The statistics in Dweck's papers also fail the GRI…

You just blew my mind. Dweck's theories are used all over the corporate-sphere.

Here's the article (the wikipedia link 404d): https://web.archive.org/web/20210216192213/https://www.spect...

Re: Ideas That Changed My Life

#75

Post by taneq »

mif wrote: post #11

One idea that changed my life is stop believing that other people have changed their lives based on ideas. The only way of change is by habit.

For some things yes. For others, nope. The realisation that, when you pour a full long-life milk tetrapak, the opening goes at the top not the bottom of the top face? That changed my life instantly. I mean, it’s not earth shattering but it’s had a permanent and measurable impact on me, and I’ve passed it on to a few people with similar results.

Likewise a friend once pointed out that swinging a closed sauce bottle to get the sauce to the top is way more effective than shaking it linearly. That was 15 years ago and I still think of him every time I use this trick.

Re: Ideas That Changed My Life

#76

Post by taneq »

ulnarkressty wrote: post #63
wenc wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually changed my mind based on some simple ideas. Carol Dweck wrote a book called Mindset, which talks about two mindsets: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. The idea is super simple, and you don't even need to read the book to know what it is. But just knowing that idea changed my entire motivation to do things, and now I believe that even if I'm not talented at something, I can get surprisingly far. (for in…

How do you get past the feeling that nothing you do actually matters?

If nothing matters then there’s no reason not to.

Re: Ideas That Changed My Life

#78

Post by mdp2021 »

m463 wrote: post #65
hettygreen wrote: post #4

Another good idea that will change your life is to keep things short and simple. 51 ideas is like 43 too many :)

- get enough sleep - don't eat junk - get out and exercise 6 days a week - commit - don't overcommit - forgive yourself - be sovereign

> Eric Idle: «Now, here's the meaning of life. (Thank you, Brigitte.) M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations»

~~~ Monty Python, The Meaning of Life

Re: Ideas That Changed My Life

#79

Post by wenc »

F-W-M wrote: post #73
wenc wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually changed my mind based on some simple ideas. Carol Dweck wrote a book called Mindset, which talks about two mindsets: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. The idea is super simple, and you don't even need to read the book to know what it is. But just knowing that idea changed my entire motivation to do things, and now I believe that even if I'm not talented at something, I can get surprisingly far. (for in…

> for instance, I'm a deep introvert, but I'm able to socialize for long periods of time and talk to strangers easily now, but only after I kept practicing for a period of 2 years -- I discovered it's possible to "bend" your introversion if you don't put yourself in a box and are willing to make an effort How did you practice?

I went to Meetups and talked to strangers. I want to say I had a specific practice routine, but the fact is I just went out and did it.

At first it was awkward and tiring, but because I truly wanted to get better at being a conversationalist, I kept doing it. I picked up a few conversation starters like "what keeps you busy these days?" but a lot of it is just reading the person and coming up with the right questions. And there were definitely ups and downs but now I'm able to walk into a room and have an easy conversation with a stranger (most of the time).

It does help that I can read social cues very well, an ability without which would have made it much harder. But we are all dealt a different deck of cards, and the idea of growth mindset is not to achieve some specific goal (we all have limits), but knowing that it's possible to get a lot better from where we started. That change of mindset is huge -- I've often been surprised by how far I'm able to push myself by not allowing myself to be put in boxes.

Introversion is not a binary setting. It's a social energy tank. And I've discovered the size of that tank can grow with practice. I've also discovered that introversion and antisocial tendencies are orthogonal concepts. Many introverts who have learned to grow their tank can be very social people. Their tanks drain much slower than unpracticed introverts.

Re: Ideas That Changed My Life

#80

Post by taneq »

F-W-M wrote: post #73
wenc wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually changed my mind based on some simple ideas. Carol Dweck wrote a book called Mindset, which talks about two mindsets: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. The idea is super simple, and you don't even need to read the book to know what it is. But just knowing that idea changed my entire motivation to do things, and now I believe that even if I'm not talented at something, I can get surprisingly far. (for in…

> for instance, I'm a deep introvert, but I'm able to socialize for long periods of time and talk to strangers easily now, but only after I kept practicing for a period of 2 years -- I discovered it's possible to "bend" your introversion if you don't put yourself in a box and are willing to make an effort How did you practice?

Get out of your box. Go to a foreign city, take public transport, wander around public places, and just talk to strangers.
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