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> My addiction to quitting started in seventh grade, when my teacher read some meatpacking excerpts from Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle out loud in class. It's im
by ravenstine 3y ago
> My addiction to quitting started in seventh grade, when my teacher read some meatpacking excerpts from Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle out loud in class.
It's impressive to me that this book was read in a 7th grade class. The Jungle is a pretty hardcore read.
Though I do respect the author exercising such self control, I wonder where their limit lies. Avoiding addictions can end up being an addiction in itself, and lead to things like orthorexia where one is so careful to avoid harmful substances that they end up eating an insufficient amount of nutrition. I've also known people who have gotten into a new age or spirituality kick, decided that even an hour of video games a day is an hour a day of time wasted, went minimalist, and then came away looking to fill that void with other things that are just as surrogate as video games are.
- hidelooktropic 3y agoNotwithstanding, An hour of video games a day doesn't sound like a small amount of time to me.
- dafelst 3y agoReplace "video games" with "reading" or "TV" or "dicking about on your phone" and it starts to feel much more reasonable.
- uoaei 3y agoReasonable? If anything it just points to how much of your day disappears with those. Profoundly unreasonable... unless they actually help you reach your goal somehow.
- lr4444lr 3y agoIt's a hobby. It doesn't have to have a goal other than leisure or relaxation. It's only unreasonable if it causes distress and prevents him from reaching other goals. I do not for the life of me understand why every waking activity has to be judged by its contribution to goal achievement maximization.
- dafelst 3y agoMy goal is to lead a happy life, and by and large the entertainment derived from all of the above activities contribute to that goal. There is a lot more to life than grinding yourself into the machine you know.
- Almondsetat 3y agoAbsolutely not. Maybe it sounds more reasonable because you have been programmed to not think too much about those other activities
- dafelst 3y agoYes, how dare you have an hour of leisure time per day. Unthinkable.
- Almondsetat 3y agoThat's not what I'm saying, but your aggressive reaction shows you have a particular attachment to garbage activities