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The answer is discipline. That’s not the answer people generally like, but it is real and honest. I wake up at the same time every day, have the same routine

by SllX 8y ago

The answer is discipline. That’s not the answer people generally like, but it is real and honest. I wake up at the same time every day, have the same routine every day, and have the same commute most days. To an extent, software has made it possible to chuck my own bad habits in the bin and start anew, but it doesn’t have a say in how I spend my time. I read Hacker News and comment here because I like to, but if I need to stop for any reason during the day, I’m losing nothing by doing so, and if something is worth reading, then it is worth writing down what I’ve read. To me this is just a part of my reading time that I’ve allocated for each day, and not even the largest share of it. Same with /r/AskHistorians or /r/DepthHub. If you treat each thing like it is just a book you haven’t stopped reading yet, then you know you can always come back to it and read some a bit more whenever you want to. There’s no guilt, no stress, it’s just another part of my daily routine. Just like my job is. Just like listening to podcasts is. Or going for a walk. Or drinking a cup of coffee. Or cooking my meals and eating. Or brushing my teeth. You are the master of your own destiny. You don’t have to spend time in any way that you don’t choose to, so you might as well spend time taking care of yourself rather than trying to figure out how. Social media might be the digital equivalent of crack, but there isn’t a gun to your head telling you to use it.

tonyedgecombe 8y ago
The answer is discipline. If the OP had discipline then they wouldn’t be asking the question. That response is as useless as telling a fat person not to eat so much.
- paxunix 8y ago
  It's not useless at all. That the answer is simple does not imply the journey to fulfilling the answer is also simple. If a person lacks discipline, it is generally within their control to look at themselves and their choices and figure out how to become more disciplined. If they cannot figure out some way, it is generally within their control to figure out how to ask someone for help about how to build discipline. I recognize that there are people with a mental makeup for whom asking for help is extremely difficult. I do not know what to tell those people, but to continue to make progress in their lives means they have to overcome those blockers somehow.
copperx 8y ago
> I wake up at the same time every day, have the same routine every day, and have the same commute most days. "Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds."
- SllX 8y ago
  It isn’t what you do everyday, it is how and why and with what amount of intent. Just some thought for food.
- Erik816 8y ago
  The correct quote is "a foolish consistency." And the context of the quote has nothing to do with self-discipline. It is a call to boldly speak the truth today, and then boldly do the same tomorrow. If you contradict yourself, then so be it. The truth might not be found in only making logically consistent statements. "To be great is to be misunderstood."
  - yesenadam 8y ago
    I can just feel Emerson smiling contentedly at this comment. :-D Thank you.
CPLX 8y ago
What you’re saying is certainly true but that doesn’t mean it’s helpful. It’s good to remember that ultimately discipline is what’s needed, but it’s also helpful to discuss specific intermediate steps, habits, and tools that are helpful in creating that discipline.
shrimp_emoji 8y ago
>You are the master of your own destiny. You don’t have to spend time in any way that you don’t choose to, so you might as well spend time taking care of yourself rather than trying to figure out how. Fundamentally, I don't think this is true. I think free will is a meme. When you exercise self-possession to change your habits (insofar as you really did it consciously to begin with[0]), you're moving within a predefined space whose boundaries are encoded by myriad factors beyond your control. If, in that space, there's both "succumb to bad habits" and "break bad habits", and you managed to move to "break bad habits", great. But what if the space is only confined to "succumb to bad habits" for some people? That's the fundamental difference here: the conventional concept of agency assumes everyone's decision space is equally voluminous or that they can navigate with equal effort. Especially disgusting to me is that holders of this view can recline in the comfortable callousness their ignorance or mythology affords them. If someone hasn't improved their circumstances, it's their moral failing, so they deserve their misery. On the other hand, the callousness that materialist elitism affords you, that someone who can't improve their circumstances deserves their misery, is less comfortable, so it's a better kind of callousness. Many of us couldn't survive without the coddling of our parents and our civilization, and, on average, our civilization is a better place for our participation in it. Given our highly collective world of artifice, why would someone have a worldview that emphasizes some kind of Darwinism? It's a little silly and less palatable than the handwaving of moral virtue, so the end the result is that you're more forgiving of people's failures and proactive in their success. 0: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/free-will-is-your-brain-the-boss-of-you-video/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/free-will-...
- iliketosleep 8y ago
  How can we possibly escape Darwinism? Isn't it always present in one form or another? There will always be some particular traits will lead to better rates of survival in a particular society. In a world of abundance, discipline could be key - I have seen strong men destroy themselves through a lack of discipline. In a world of scarcity, those same men may have been heroic survivors. In modern society, we try to transform the selection process of Darwinism into something more abstract and therefore less noticeable to our primitive brains.
- 8y ago
O_H_E 8y ago
I often find myself in fear of good stuff being buried down. But I suppose an RSS setup should solve this.

by SllX 8y ago

tonyedgecombe 8y ago

The answer is discipline. If the OP had discipline then they wouldn’t be asking the question. That response is as useless as telling a fat person not to eat so much.

paxunix 8y ago
It's not useless at all. That the answer is simple does not imply the journey to fulfilling the answer is also simple. If a person lacks discipline, it is generally within their control to look at themselves and their choices and figure out how to become more disciplined. If they cannot figure out some way, it is generally within their control to figure out how to ask someone for help about how to build discipline. I recognize that there are people with a mental makeup for whom asking for help is extremely difficult. I do not know what to tell those people, but to continue to make progress in their lives means they have to overcome those blockers somehow.

copperx 8y ago

> I wake up at the same time every day, have the same routine every day, and have the same commute most days. "Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds."

SllX 8y ago
It isn’t what you do everyday, it is how and why and with what amount of intent. Just some thought for food.
Erik816 8y ago
The correct quote is "a foolish consistency." And the context of the quote has nothing to do with self-discipline. It is a call to boldly speak the truth today, and then boldly do the same tomorrow. If you contradict yourself, then so be it. The truth might not be found in only making logically consistent statements. "To be great is to be misunderstood."
- yesenadam 8y ago
  I can just feel Emerson smiling contentedly at this comment. :-D Thank you.

CPLX 8y ago

What you’re saying is certainly true but that doesn’t mean it’s helpful. It’s good to remember that ultimately discipline is what’s needed, but it’s also helpful to discuss specific intermediate steps, habits, and tools that are helpful in creating that discipline.

shrimp_emoji 8y ago

>You are the master of your own destiny. You don’t have to spend time in any way that you don’t choose to, so you might as well spend time taking care of yourself rather than trying to figure out how. Fundamentally, I don't think this is true. I think free will is a meme. When you exercise self-possession to change your habits (insofar as you really did it consciously to begin with[0]), you're moving within a predefined space whose boundaries are encoded by myriad factors beyond your control. If, in that space, there's both "succumb to bad habits" and "break bad habits", and you managed to move to "break bad habits", great. But what if the space is only confined to "succumb to bad habits" for some people? That's the fundamental difference here: the conventional concept of agency assumes everyone's decision space is equally voluminous or that they can navigate with equal effort. Especially disgusting to me is that holders of this view can recline in the comfortable callousness their ignorance or mythology affords them. If someone hasn't improved their circumstances, it's their moral failing, so they deserve their misery. On the other hand, the callousness that materialist elitism affords you, that someone who can't improve their circumstances deserves their misery, is less comfortable, so it's a better kind of callousness. Many of us couldn't survive without the coddling of our parents and our civilization, and, on average, our civilization is a better place for our participation in it. Given our highly collective world of artifice, why would someone have a worldview that emphasizes some kind of Darwinism? It's a little silly and less palatable than the handwaving of moral virtue, so the end the result is that you're more forgiving of people's failures and proactive in their success. 0: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/free-will-is-your-brain-the-boss-of-you-video/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/free-will-...

iliketosleep 8y ago
How can we possibly escape Darwinism? Isn't it always present in one form or another? There will always be some particular traits will lead to better rates of survival in a particular society. In a world of abundance, discipline could be key - I have seen strong men destroy themselves through a lack of discipline. In a world of scarcity, those same men may have been heroic survivors. In modern society, we try to transform the selection process of Darwinism into something more abstract and therefore less noticeable to our primitive brains.
8y ago

O_H_E 8y ago

I often find myself in fear of good stuff being buried down. But I suppose an RSS setup should solve this.