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You should separate trendy goal-oriented mindfulness from the thousands year old concept so you aren't throwing the baby out with the bathwater. A mindfulness

You should separate trendy goal-oriented mindfulness from the thousands year old concept so you aren't throwing the baby out with the bathwater. A mindfulness consultant forced onto a workforce sounds about as effective as forcing all your employees to run five miles every week. But that doesn't mean that running is bad for you.

craftyguy 8y ago
There is no baby, it's bathwater all the way down.
- newfoundglory 8y ago
  Bath water has a specific purpose and society would be pretty poorly off if everyone stopped using it.
  - internetman55 8y ago
    Haha, funny :)
- monktastic1 8y ago
  You know the experience where you're reading something, only to discover that your eyes are just scanning the page while your mind wanders? During that time, you're thinking about something without knowing that you're thinking about it. This mode occurs all day long, and not only while you're reading. The "baby" is the ability to recognize the tens of thousands of thoughts you are thinking every day without knowing that you are. This can offer tremendous insight into your mood and personality (and how to change them if you wish).
  - taneq 8y ago
    It's exhausting just keeping up with the thoughts that I do know about. I'm perfectly happy to let my autonomous systems keep doing their autonomous things and only demanding my attention when something requires higher-level intervention, just as they've evolved to do.
    - monktastic1 8y ago
      I find mind-wandering exhausting whether or not I'm aware of it. The difference is that I can now choose not to fall into the same old cycles for the n-thousandth time, because I'm aware that I'm doing it.
rayiner 8y ago
People believed a lot of dumb things for millenia. The fact that people have believed it a long time is no reason to think the idea has merit.
- Erik816 8y ago
  It's actually an amazingly good reason to think an idea has merit. Unless you think all your ancestors were just idiots.
  - jmchuster 8y ago
    That's my dad's favorite (unironic) phrase -- "3000 years of chinese medicine can't be wrong"
    - jeena 8y ago
      My dad has the exact opposite phrase, if someone tells him "We've been doing it like that for 20 years already!" he just very dry responds "And you've been doing it wrong for those 20 years."
  - CodeMage 8y ago
    Would those be the same ancestors that believed in the healing power of bloodletting and leeches? Or are we taking about those who knew for a fact that the Sun went around the Earth? Or are we talking about my ancestors in particular, who believed thunderstorms were caused by Perun chasing Veles around the world?
    - rosser 8y ago
      Do you have any idea how many "folk" remedies — specifically including leeching — have subsequently been validated, in at least some contexts, by modern medicine? How many plants the daft old witch in the forest used in ancient times, from which we now extract some medicinal compound or other to treat the very same ailment? The general position here seems to be that because the ancient herbalist didn't have a notion of acetylsalicylic acid, the willow bark he dispensed for pain wasn't even "wrong", despite its being the correct treatment from the tools he had available. Huh?
freshhawk 8y ago
But it does mean that you get to write the article "Maybe running doesn't make you immortal. If not, is it really worth doing?" Interleaving quotes from various semi-related conversations plumps up the word count, grab that quote from a conversation about a shoe marketing campaign and segue it into a quote from a blogger who thinks barefoot running cures cancer. Boom, there's your content production done for the day. Sweet. You can get a head start of reading the wikipedia entries on "incels" and "crypto" as you will be solving those questions tomorrow, so you should probably find out what those words mean.
jimmy1 8y ago
Actually, now that you mention it, forcing all of my employees to run for five miles every week would actually be amazing. I bet the impact to health would be profound. (given able physical condition, of course)

craftyguy 8y ago

There is no baby, it's bathwater all the way down.

newfoundglory 8y ago
Bath water has a specific purpose and society would be pretty poorly off if everyone stopped using it.
- internetman55 8y ago
  Haha, funny :)
monktastic1 8y ago
You know the experience where you're reading something, only to discover that your eyes are just scanning the page while your mind wanders? During that time, you're thinking about something without knowing that you're thinking about it. This mode occurs all day long, and not only while you're reading. The "baby" is the ability to recognize the tens of thousands of thoughts you are thinking every day without knowing that you are. This can offer tremendous insight into your mood and personality (and how to change them if you wish).
- taneq 8y ago
  It's exhausting just keeping up with the thoughts that I do know about. I'm perfectly happy to let my autonomous systems keep doing their autonomous things and only demanding my attention when something requires higher-level intervention, just as they've evolved to do.
  - monktastic1 8y ago
    I find mind-wandering exhausting whether or not I'm aware of it. The difference is that I can now choose not to fall into the same old cycles for the n-thousandth time, because I'm aware that I'm doing it.

rayiner 8y ago

People believed a lot of dumb things for millenia. The fact that people have believed it a long time is no reason to think the idea has merit.

Erik816 8y ago
It's actually an amazingly good reason to think an idea has merit. Unless you think all your ancestors were just idiots.
- jmchuster 8y ago
  That's my dad's favorite (unironic) phrase -- "3000 years of chinese medicine can't be wrong"
  - jeena 8y ago
    My dad has the exact opposite phrase, if someone tells him "We've been doing it like that for 20 years already!" he just very dry responds "And you've been doing it wrong for those 20 years."
- CodeMage 8y ago
  Would those be the same ancestors that believed in the healing power of bloodletting and leeches? Or are we taking about those who knew for a fact that the Sun went around the Earth? Or are we talking about my ancestors in particular, who believed thunderstorms were caused by Perun chasing Veles around the world?
  - rosser 8y ago
    Do you have any idea how many "folk" remedies — specifically including leeching — have subsequently been validated, in at least some contexts, by modern medicine? How many plants the daft old witch in the forest used in ancient times, from which we now extract some medicinal compound or other to treat the very same ailment? The general position here seems to be that because the ancient herbalist didn't have a notion of acetylsalicylic acid, the willow bark he dispensed for pain wasn't even "wrong", despite its being the correct treatment from the tools he had available. Huh?

freshhawk 8y ago

But it does mean that you get to write the article "Maybe running doesn't make you immortal. If not, is it really worth doing?" Interleaving quotes from various semi-related conversations plumps up the word count, grab that quote from a conversation about a shoe marketing campaign and segue it into a quote from a blogger who thinks barefoot running cures cancer. Boom, there's your content production done for the day. Sweet. You can get a head start of reading the wikipedia entries on "incels" and "crypto" as you will be solving those questions tomorrow, so you should probably find out what those words mean.

jimmy1 8y ago

Actually, now that you mention it, forcing all of my employees to run for five miles every week would actually be amazing. I bet the impact to health would be profound. (given able physical condition, of course)