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Doing something is better than doing nothing for most people: study (2014)

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Re: Doing something is better than doing nothing for most people: study (2014)

#81
post #75
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not part of human nature. It does happen when a person has a restless mind, however. How would you test this? The first way is direct: learn to quiet your own mind. The second way is through inference: observe a newborn baby who doesn't need food and when there isn't excessive stimulation (light sound, smell, pain, etc.) - they simply observe what is around them.

Because that's all a new born baby can do (and often they're not happy about it). As soon as they're mobile they will interact with their environment whenever they can.

When a baby isn't happy, they will let you know that, regardless of whether some adults believe that most babies are unhappy.

Re: Doing something is better than doing nothing for most people: study (2014)

#82

I'm 27 years old and I don't have much purpose in life. am I'm kind of becoming desperate, to be honest. I have always thought about becoming a programmer but I don't know where to start. What programming language do you learn first? What languages and skills do you need to learn to become hire-able by a company?

It's never too late to start. At the beginning you should really focus on trying some things that keep your attention.

(For me that was programming games - incredibly crufty ones, but seeing thing move on my screen got me really excited and got me to understand)

Personally, that was javascript for me - mostly because you can do stuff with it in any browser you want. Lua[0] is also a great language for beginners, and I'm still using it for game development[1] and general scripting/fun stuff.

I just don't want to turn this into a hella long comment, so I'll wrap it up; but I could talk about the first steps you could take for hours :)

If you want to ask me anything on how to get started, just shoot me a mail under info@(my username here).com I'd be super happy to help :)

[0]https://www.lua.org/ [1]https://love2d.org/

Re: Doing something is better than doing nothing for most people: study (2014)

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly this. My #1 advice for new parents is that the most important thing for a parent in the long run is to make sure their children are bored out of their gourds regularly. Kids need to have times when screen time has run out, there's nothing on TV and they have no hobbies on engagements to run to. Just time alone without any external inputs. This is the point where creativity usually pops up. Kids should be able…

Yeah, boredom is a key, one I remember unlocking creativity when I was younger, and one I rarely can find anymore without effort (like John Cleese of Monty Python sitting in a barren room for four hours, 3.5 hours of boredom followed by a half-hour of inspired writingj[0][1]. [0] Create a space to play (2min clip): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWEXQ9E4QiI [1] Make time for boredom (36min, Swedish subtitles?): http…

I wish someone made the opposite lecture to John Cleese on creativity; I'm stuck in open mode, an endless supply of ideas, struggling to turn off the faucet and actually make something.

Re: Doing something is better than doing nothing for most people: study (2014)

#86
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” From a philosopher writing in the 1600s. I don't think it's an issue with any particular society. It just seems part of human nature to be inable to sit and do nothing for a significant period of time.

I for one would love to be a bohemian layabout all day doing nothing. Like a cat staring out a window listlessly wasting the clock.

There's a reason humans have conquered the world and cats are our pets.

Re: Doing something is better than doing nothing for most people: study (2014)

#87

Ever since reading Bertrand Russell's "The Conquest of Happiness", I've thought a lot about the importance of being able to sit inside my own head. One quote that I wrote down: > A life too full of excitement is an exhausting life, in which continually stronger stimuli are needed to give the thrill that has come to be thought an essential part of pleasure. A person accustomed to too much excitement is like a person w…

>substituting titillations for profound organic satisfactions, cleverness for wisdom, and jagged surprises for beauty... ...And porn for relationships and intimacy. If there's any modern ill that has exacerbated our inability to be comfortable with boredom (which is essentially inner loneliness) it's porn. It's an escape for loneliness and a terrible salve that leaves the intrinsic desires for intimacy and connection…

yeah porn is a pandemic, NOT.

here is a secret: we are hardwired to reproduce. you may think you have a choice but you are wired to fsck everything that has even a remote chance of resulting into you passing your genes forward.

porn is a way to release some of the tension that comes with this wiring. nothing more, nothing less.

Re: Doing something is better than doing nothing for most people: study (2014)

#88
post #34

Ever since reading Bertrand Russell's "The Conquest of Happiness", I've thought a lot about the importance of being able to sit inside my own head. One quote that I wrote down: > A life too full of excitement is an exhausting life, in which continually stronger stimuli are needed to give the thrill that has come to be thought an essential part of pleasure. A person accustomed to too much excitement is like a person w…

But contrast, dynamic range, is not just about chasing intensity. This seems to be written from the perspective that avoiding any thrill is necessary so that boredom may be endured. As if you should avoid fun so that you don't ever have to fear the lack of fun. No. Absoluty not. You can listen to loud music and still enjoy the quiet parts. You can have intensity & quiet, and find beauty in both. Severing yourself fro…

Your reading of this is rather extreme, and I feel you've missed the point by thinking that Russell is advocating to avoid fun intentionally at times so as to preserve a happy life. I read it as more an observation that the boring times, those in which there's a lack of stimulation, are an important part of a balanced, healthy life.

A more modern take on his advice would be to avoid mindlessly surfing the internet every dull moment in which we are waiting a few minutes for some time to pass. If you haven't taken an extended, conscious break from the internet outside of your work needs (no social media, no news, etc), I recommend it. It was very enlightening for me to feel this lack of stimulation. I certainly enjoy my time on the internet when I'm there because I want to be there, not because I'm just looking for something to kill the time.

Similarly, I've stopped listening to music while coding because I realized that the listening without mindfulness was killing my passion. After doing so, the passion has been restored.

His words, too, remind me of the drug user's plight. My sister works in drug rehabilitation and has told me about the struggles many go through known as Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome. From my naive understanding, these people have adapted to the constant, unnatural amount of dopamine flowing through the brains during addiction by producing more dopamine receptors. When the drug is gone, those receptors are still there. But, the body is not capable of naturally releasing the dopamine required to fill these receptors even during the highest of natural moments, leading these people to experience serious anhedonia -- an intense lack of pleasure from everyday life. It takes a long time for these receptors to downregulate, which is the reason for such a high rate of relapse for certain drug types.

I think of Emerson's words a bit: "If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown!"

Re: Doing something is better than doing nothing for most people: study (2014)

#89

I'm 27 years old and I don't have much purpose in life. am I'm kind of becoming desperate, to be honest. I have always thought about becoming a programmer but I don't know where to start. What programming language do you learn first? What languages and skills do you need to learn to become hire-able by a company?

To a small minority, programming is an interest in itself. To most programmers, programming is a tool for achieving something they want. I learned to program mainly to make video games and websites.

For a general purpose programming language, I might suggest Lua. It's much less cryptic than most.

Re: Doing something is better than doing nothing for most people: study (2014)

#90

I'm 27 years old and I don't have much purpose in life. am I'm kind of becoming desperate, to be honest. I have always thought about becoming a programmer but I don't know where to start. What programming language do you learn first? What languages and skills do you need to learn to become hire-able by a company?

It's never too late to start. At the beginning you should really focus on trying some things that keep your attention. (For me that was programming games - incredibly crufty ones, but seeing thing move on my screen got me really excited and got me to understand) Personally, that was javascript for me - mostly because you can do stuff with it in any browser you want. Lua[0] is also a great language for beginners, and…

Thank you
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