2 ms·

But _why_ do you want to learn Spanish? Is it because you are planning an extended stay in a Spanish-speaking country, or have Spanish-speaking friends, or is i

But _why_ do you want to learn Spanish? Is it because you are planning an extended stay in a Spanish-speaking country, or have Spanish-speaking friends, or is it because you have a romantic conception of multilingualism? My point was that people often seem to romanticise fairly arbitrary personal development goals as being a lofty intent, but when push comes to shove you'll find them in front of the TV or playing a game. What does that say about our internal reward system and the value of forcing yourself to do something that you tell yourself you'll enjoy over something you genuinely enjoy? The idea that entertainment is a "lower pursuit" and learning arbitrary skills is a "higher pursuit" smacks of social construction.

externalities88 10y ago
Whaaat! Social species make social constructs! Get out. Is having a romanticized idea as a motivation wrong? We're humans, not robots. Well, maybe you are; it's the Internet. You undermine your point with the tone deaf point of "social construction". Anything humans take on collectively is a social construct. Ideally as many voices as possible are considered when they are designed. But our social constructs today don't allow this. How much of "sit in front of $GADGET not learning Spanish" is due to the social construct of having no vacation time. Or having to work constantly to afford the basics, forget paying for Spanish. Suggesting there be a limit on who experiences what is also a social construct. Cause reality imposes no such limit. Our society does. It's a social construct to have 200 diff companies doing data analytics. When those problems can be handled by one group of 200. Suggesting arbitrary limits on social constructs is ridiculous. Because you don't agree with one is not basis enough to suggest it not be a thing
PKop 10y ago
Could you substitute "eating healthy" and "exercise" into this line of thinking? Or other alternatives that you yourself might agree are "better" while maybe being difficult to choose to do, and not as "enjoyable" as some less ideal alternative action? That something is "enjoyable" in the short-term does not mean that it is beneficial in the long term. Doing drugs, getting high, gambling, any other short-term dopamine hit is easy, and feels good in the moment, yet can pretty easily be characterized as bad in the long term, and objectively worse than alternative actions that in the short term are not as pleasurable and enjoyable. I use obviously extreme examples to illustrate the logic. Figuring out which pursuits and behaviors fit into which bucket certainly is not quite so straight forward. But I think the OP you are responding to has something right when they describe it challenging to escape the easy/addictive and replace it with the difficult/beneficial. If you only characterized exercise as "practicing picking up a heavy weight and putting it over there. Why do you need to do this? etc." then certainly the benefits can seem ridiculous. That there is no direct practical need to learn Spanish, doesn't mean learning to speak it doesn't garner ancillary benefits.

externalities88 10y ago

Whaaat! Social species make social constructs! Get out. Is having a romanticized idea as a motivation wrong? We're humans, not robots. Well, maybe you are; it's the Internet. You undermine your point with the tone deaf point of "social construction". Anything humans take on collectively is a social construct. Ideally as many voices as possible are considered when they are designed. But our social constructs today don't allow this. How much of "sit in front of $GADGET not learning Spanish" is due to the social construct of having no vacation time. Or having to work constantly to afford the basics, forget paying for Spanish. Suggesting there be a limit on who experiences what is also a social construct. Cause reality imposes no such limit. Our society does. It's a social construct to have 200 diff companies doing data analytics. When those problems can be handled by one group of 200. Suggesting arbitrary limits on social constructs is ridiculous. Because you don't agree with one is not basis enough to suggest it not be a thing

PKop 10y ago

Could you substitute "eating healthy" and "exercise" into this line of thinking? Or other alternatives that you yourself might agree are "better" while maybe being difficult to choose to do, and not as "enjoyable" as some less ideal alternative action? That something is "enjoyable" in the short-term does not mean that it is beneficial in the long term. Doing drugs, getting high, gambling, any other short-term dopamine hit is easy, and feels good in the moment, yet can pretty easily be characterized as bad in the long term, and objectively worse than alternative actions that in the short term are not as pleasurable and enjoyable. I use obviously extreme examples to illustrate the logic. Figuring out which pursuits and behaviors fit into which bucket certainly is not quite so straight forward. But I think the OP you are responding to has something right when they describe it challenging to escape the easy/addictive and replace it with the difficult/beneficial. If you only characterized exercise as "practicing picking up a heavy weight and putting it over there. Why do you need to do this? etc." then certainly the benefits can seem ridiculous. That there is no direct practical need to learn Spanish, doesn't mean learning to speak it doesn't garner ancillary benefits.