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It's effortless because my actions are aligned with my goals and desires. I used to be very addicted to poker. There was a book I read during that time called "

It's effortless because my actions are aligned with my goals and desires. I used to be very addicted to poker. There was a book I read during that time called "The Mental Game of Poker" that is really good and broadly applicable to life. One of the lessons is to figure out your subconsciously held goals that are negatively impacting your consciously held goals. For example, someone's stated goal may be to build an amazing startup or open source project. But they constantly find themselves going to founder meetups and conventions, staying up very late and drinking a lot. They may also find themselves posting a lot on social media instead of working on building their thing. I would claim that this person has a hidden goal of seeking attention and fame. They likely would never tell themselves this and this is why self honesty is important. Once you are able to bring these hidden goals to the foreground it's actually easy to manage them. Wanting to be famous and get attention is a pretty ridiculous / base desire.

throwawyroutin 2y ago
It's also effortless because your goals and desires are sustainable and bring you prosperity. My desires are to chill, play music for myself and friends, sleep a lot, have sex, hike, go to concerts and generally go out and drink. Only doing that would, predictably, make me homeless eventually. Effortful actions it is for me, I guess.
- lucianbr 2y ago
  You should start a band. I'm pretty sure some singers' lives are exactly what you described.
- gnramires 2y ago
  Related to what GP said, I think desires are complicated. What you (and commonly you hear) referred to as desire might be something like a "first order desire" -- either what you would desire if there were no constraints or consequences from your actions, or what you desire immediately (and not taking your long term life into account)[1]. I think it's a good idea to visualize the consequences of your desires, because actions have consequences and the world is inherently full of constraints. So you might "desire" (1st order desire) drinking, but not desire hangover or even becoming an alcoholic, or miss some opportunity because of over sleeping (or even increased health as well), so maybe update your desire to 2nd-order desire where the consequences and constraints[2] are taken into account, and if you still desire it (e.g. find sleeping a lot really worth it), then it seems fine. I believe it's Carl Jung that talked extensively about bringing your unconscious into consciousness. Or Feynman: The first principle is you must not fool yourself, and you're the easiest person to fool :) (Although I think it's normal to have some amount of internal conflict or inconsistency that we can only resolve as we go along, experiment, work and live) [1] Maybe we should call those cravings? [2] I think a more refined approach would add philosophical implications (e.g. ethics, meaning, etc..) as well

throwawyroutin 2y ago

It's also effortless because your goals and desires are sustainable and bring you prosperity. My desires are to chill, play music for myself and friends, sleep a lot, have sex, hike, go to concerts and generally go out and drink. Only doing that would, predictably, make me homeless eventually. Effortful actions it is for me, I guess.

lucianbr 2y ago
You should start a band. I'm pretty sure some singers' lives are exactly what you described.
gnramires 2y ago
Related to what GP said, I think desires are complicated. What you (and commonly you hear) referred to as desire might be something like a "first order desire" -- either what you would desire if there were no constraints or consequences from your actions, or what you desire immediately (and not taking your long term life into account)[1]. I think it's a good idea to visualize the consequences of your desires, because actions have consequences and the world is inherently full of constraints. So you might "desire" (1st order desire) drinking, but not desire hangover or even becoming an alcoholic, or miss some opportunity because of over sleeping (or even increased health as well), so maybe update your desire to 2nd-order desire where the consequences and constraints[2] are taken into account, and if you still desire it (e.g. find sleeping a lot really worth it), then it seems fine. I believe it's Carl Jung that talked extensively about bringing your unconscious into consciousness. Or Feynman: The first principle is you must not fool yourself, and you're the easiest person to fool :) (Although I think it's normal to have some amount of internal conflict or inconsistency that we can only resolve as we go along, experiment, work and live) [1] Maybe we should call those cravings? [2] I think a more refined approach would add philosophical implications (e.g. ethics, meaning, etc..) as well