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Does anybody feel like these kinds of posts over-rationalize life? I feel like these complex logical guides can be replaced with a simple “put your phone away w

Does anybody feel like these kinds of posts over-rationalize life? I feel like these complex logical guides can be replaced with a simple “put your phone away while spending time with your daughter”. Life should be simpler than having to think about all this stuff so hard. Life shouldn’t be an optimization of resources problem.

Japhy_Ryder 7y ago
Yeah, I completely agree. Not only these kind of posts, but 99.9% of self-help books too. The answer, in general, comes down to: get good rest, meditate, drink enough water, and get some damn work done. Coffee as needed.
eswat 7y ago
Part of the problem that I realized after hearing the author promotin this book in a podcast is that many people not only want to solve problems but also put their own spin/branding on it, even if it’s not actually much different from existing solutions. But that slight difference in the new solution being promoted taps into our brains just in the right ways that it makes existing solutions seem inferior, thus the productive porn.
- Torwald 7y ago
  > Part of the problem that I realized after hearing the author promotin this book in a podcast is that many people not only want to solve problems but also put their own spin/branding on it, even if it’s not actually much different from existing solutions. Yes, but they also have to do it in order to have a branding. You cannot "non-brand." Take for example Microsoft. Thy wrote a version of CP/M and called it PC-DOS. So what? Would it have been better to call it MS-CP/M?
crispyambulance 7y ago
I think many people crave an authoritative voice that tells them what they need to do. It's why the self-help industrial complex works. It can get much worse than a navel-gazing/over-thinking-it post on medium. These kinds of blog posts easily segway into books/media, then courses, then workshops, then, before one knows it thousand dollar hotel conference room shindigs where people end up with binders and get a hard sell on ever more expensive "help". Not saying the author is one of these snake-oil people at all. But it's a slippery slope from, say, Tim Ferriss to Ramit Sethi to Tony Robbins to (what's that "bitcoin genius"?) James Altucher.... and worse.

Japhy_Ryder 7y ago

Yeah, I completely agree. Not only these kind of posts, but 99.9% of self-help books too. The answer, in general, comes down to: get good rest, meditate, drink enough water, and get some damn work done. Coffee as needed.

eswat 7y ago

Part of the problem that I realized after hearing the author promotin this book in a podcast is that many people not only want to solve problems but also put their own spin/branding on it, even if it’s not actually much different from existing solutions. But that slight difference in the new solution being promoted taps into our brains just in the right ways that it makes existing solutions seem inferior, thus the productive porn.

Torwald 7y ago
> Part of the problem that I realized after hearing the author promotin this book in a podcast is that many people not only want to solve problems but also put their own spin/branding on it, even if it’s not actually much different from existing solutions. Yes, but they also have to do it in order to have a branding. You cannot "non-brand." Take for example Microsoft. Thy wrote a version of CP/M and called it PC-DOS. So what? Would it have been better to call it MS-CP/M?

crispyambulance 7y ago

I think many people crave an authoritative voice that tells them what they need to do. It's why the self-help industrial complex works. It can get much worse than a navel-gazing/over-thinking-it post on medium. These kinds of blog posts easily segway into books/media, then courses, then workshops, then, before one knows it thousand dollar hotel conference room shindigs where people end up with binders and get a hard sell on ever more expensive "help". Not saying the author is one of these snake-oil people at all. But it's a slippery slope from, say, Tim Ferriss to Ramit Sethi to Tony Robbins to (what's that "bitcoin genius"?) James Altucher.... and worse.