6 ms·

You'd be surprised how much resources you have available if you spend zero time in front of the TV or surfing the web, and spend all your free time on a hard ch

by tw1010 8y ago

You'd be surprised how much resources you have available if you spend zero time in front of the TV or surfing the web, and spend all your free time on a hard chair with pen and paper studying.

watwut 8y ago
I attempted that three times. It lead to low per hour performance, frustration from slow progress and to depression twice. Turns out, I need to spend some time relaxing.
cosmic_ape 8y ago
I agree with what you mean. But do you read all the medical literature before going to a doctor when something just feels weird? Or, somewhat differently, do you read the source code of all packages on your computer to ensure there is no malware? I'm a universalist as much as I can, but there's a reason specialization, division of labor, results in productivity increase. Somewhat funny that Kant himself also argued for division of labour, just a year after publishing the Enlightenment article, [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_labour#Immanuel_Kant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_labour#Immanuel_Ka...
badpun 8y ago
Have you done this?
s-shellfish 8y ago
That can be just as exhausting as watching TV or surfing the web. All time and life experience need not be optimized, mechanical, and efficient - just because some aspects of it 'must' be.
felipemnoa 8y ago
>>You'd be surprised how much resources you have available if you spend zero time in front of the TV or surfing the web Not really. Your available time, even if not wasted is still tiny. Seriously, just think about it, after college maybe you have some 40 years of peak productivity, if not less (and I suspect it is a lot less for most people). That doesn't really sound like a lot to me. Especially if you want to spend it doing things that are none trivial. >>and spend all your free time on a hard chair with pen and paper studying You cannot do this. You need to unwind. You need to enjoy culture, watch some TV, have relationships. Otherwise you will likely just burn out early. Plus, inspiration many times comes when you are just relaxing doing something completely unrelated to what you are pursuing.
- trevyn 8y ago
  >You need to unwind. You need to enjoy culture, watch some TV, have relationships. In my experience, these things merely distract from underlying pain, including the underlying pain of human mortality. When you free yourself of this pain, weird and unexpected things happen.
  - swendoog 8y ago
    Yes, please do explain further.
  - aoner 8y ago
    Could you explain further?
    - madeuptempacct 8y ago
      He can't explain further, because it's broad rambling meant to sound deep and impressive, while giving too little detail to be useful or disputable.
    - trevyn 8y ago
      I propose that there exists an active mental state in which one is emotionally neutral (i.e. no emotional valence) toward any possible outcome -- removal of access to entertainment, pleasure, one's relationships, even your own death. I don't claim that this mental state is "better" or that anyone should try to achieve it, but experiencing it does tend to disrupt beliefs about what is necessary and important in life. Evidence suggests that desires and pleasures and entertainment and social comforts and ways to unwind that previously felt reasonably harmless and natural start to feel irrelevant and unimportant. As far as I can tell, most of the written evidence is from the spiritual perspective, which is not always the most intellectually rigorous perspective. For a more scientific treatment of the underlying neuroscience, I'd recommend Thomas Metzinger's work; "The Ego Tunnel" is a good start. My experience is that understanding the physiological mechanisms behind our awareness, cognition, and emotion gives us a better map of how we might engineer different mental states, some of which have significant overlap with historically desirable mental states. Metzinger proposes that our conception of "self" is basically an illusion that our brain generates in specific ways for specific purposes. Conceptually experimenting with "if this was true, what would it imply?" seems to lead to a world in which no one and no event can hurt "me", because in a way of speaking, there is no "me". Then backing down the ladder of abstraction, if I really, truly believed this, but of course still had the brain-generated perception of self, what would it imply for my everyday behavior? The result seems to be sparser but deeper and more meaningful relationships (including with myself), much less interest in mindless entertainment and distraction, and intensified curiosity about the natural world. To the point where spending "all your free time on a hard chair with pen and paper studying" actually seems like a good idea.

by tw1010 8y ago

You'd be surprised how much resources you have available if you spend zero time in front of the TV or surfing the web, and spend all your free time on a hard chair with pen and paper studying.

watwut 8y ago

I attempted that three times. It lead to low per hour performance, frustration from slow progress and to depression twice. Turns out, I need to spend some time relaxing.

cosmic_ape 8y ago

I agree with what you mean. But do you read all the medical literature before going to a doctor when something just feels weird? Or, somewhat differently, do you read the source code of all packages on your computer to ensure there is no malware? I'm a universalist as much as I can, but there's a reason specialization, division of labor, results in productivity increase. Somewhat funny that Kant himself also argued for division of labour, just a year after publishing the Enlightenment article, [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_labour#Immanuel_Kant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_labour#Immanuel_Ka...

badpun 8y ago

Have you done this?

s-shellfish 8y ago

That can be just as exhausting as watching TV or surfing the web. All time and life experience need not be optimized, mechanical, and efficient - just because some aspects of it 'must' be.

felipemnoa 8y ago

>>You'd be surprised how much resources you have available if you spend zero time in front of the TV or surfing the web Not really. Your available time, even if not wasted is still tiny. Seriously, just think about it, after college maybe you have some 40 years of peak productivity, if not less (and I suspect it is a lot less for most people). That doesn't really sound like a lot to me. Especially if you want to spend it doing things that are none trivial. >>and spend all your free time on a hard chair with pen and paper studying You cannot do this. You need to unwind. You need to enjoy culture, watch some TV, have relationships. Otherwise you will likely just burn out early. Plus, inspiration many times comes when you are just relaxing doing something completely unrelated to what you are pursuing.

trevyn 8y ago
>You need to unwind. You need to enjoy culture, watch some TV, have relationships. In my experience, these things merely distract from underlying pain, including the underlying pain of human mortality. When you free yourself of this pain, weird and unexpected things happen.
- swendoog 8y ago
  Yes, please do explain further.
- aoner 8y ago
  Could you explain further?
  - madeuptempacct 8y ago
    He can't explain further, because it's broad rambling meant to sound deep and impressive, while giving too little detail to be useful or disputable.
  - trevyn 8y ago
    I propose that there exists an active mental state in which one is emotionally neutral (i.e. no emotional valence) toward any possible outcome -- removal of access to entertainment, pleasure, one's relationships, even your own death. I don't claim that this mental state is "better" or that anyone should try to achieve it, but experiencing it does tend to disrupt beliefs about what is necessary and important in life. Evidence suggests that desires and pleasures and entertainment and social comforts and ways to unwind that previously felt reasonably harmless and natural start to feel irrelevant and unimportant. As far as I can tell, most of the written evidence is from the spiritual perspective, which is not always the most intellectually rigorous perspective. For a more scientific treatment of the underlying neuroscience, I'd recommend Thomas Metzinger's work; "The Ego Tunnel" is a good start. My experience is that understanding the physiological mechanisms behind our awareness, cognition, and emotion gives us a better map of how we might engineer different mental states, some of which have significant overlap with historically desirable mental states. Metzinger proposes that our conception of "self" is basically an illusion that our brain generates in specific ways for specific purposes. Conceptually experimenting with "if this was true, what would it imply?" seems to lead to a world in which no one and no event can hurt "me", because in a way of speaking, there is no "me". Then backing down the ladder of abstraction, if I really, truly believed this, but of course still had the brain-generated perception of self, what would it imply for my everyday behavior? The result seems to be sparser but deeper and more meaningful relationships (including with myself), much less interest in mindless entertainment and distraction, and intensified curiosity about the natural world. To the point where spending "all your free time on a hard chair with pen and paper studying" actually seems like a good idea.