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This is pure escapism. Numbing yourself to the burden of being. Likely from a stress tolerance so shallow and under-developed that the slightest inconvenience o
by oilkillsbirds 1mo ago
This is pure escapism. Numbing yourself to the burden of being. Likely from a stress tolerance so shallow and under-developed that the slightest inconvenience or expectation feels like a crisis.
The truth is that after the brief initial relief of excusing yourself from being anything at all, you'll end up in a deep depression. It's a naive and immature fantasy.
Remove all electronics from your life, they are a constant nervous system stimulator that has prevented you from truly relaxing into a state of repair. Then introduce responsibilities into your life, start small. We are wired to be needed, wanted, useful, accountable, social. You're just stressed out.
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- john_strinlai 1mo agoi dont think it's that deep. it's the age old advice of "dont give a fuck" dressed up in some modern terminology ("npc")
- oilkillsbirds 1mo ago"Don't give a fuck" - Ignore your feelings. Ignore your thoughts. Ignore others. Exist in some detached unalive state divorced from the human condition. Because it's easier. Oh and the monks did it. It's also easier to die, that's the end of that path of thought.
- robomc 1mo agoIt really isn't that though. If you're disparaging normal ass people with jobs and families and lives as "NPCs" you probably should try ignoring your thoughts and feelings a bit because they're probably part of a some low level grinding psychosis.
- john_strinlai 1mo agothat is not really what is meant by that advice
- wat10000 1mo agoIt even says “maybe this is just a retelling of stoicism.”
- jamesjolliffe 1mo agoI don't know if I fully agree with this analysis, but I really appreciate the argument for emphasizing these values.
- savolai 1mo agoNot sure at all you actually read the piece. Your responses about having a job or inconvenience or expectation seem entirely unrelated. The text does not, for instance, encourage not having a job. It also does not encourage being nothing at all. Being nothing special is quite different. Recommended movie: perfect days https://youtu.be/wqUT9hQd1XM?is=v1x85FdKOK_zfu60 https://youtu.be/wqUT9hQd1XM?is=v1x85FdKOK_zfu60
- phoghed 1mo ago> Not sure at all you actually read the piece. On my HN!? Surprised pikachu
- orphereus 1mo agoDon't be patronising. I am pretty sure he has read the article because I agree with him, and I have read the article as well. Surprised pikachu :OOOO
- phoghed 1mo agoYou agree with him? Even the boomer coded armchair psychology? My comment isn’t even in the same realm of patronizing as that.
- jumpkick 1mo agoHow is this coded to baby boomer? Honest question; I want to understand the post-war generational perspective.
- savolai 1mo agoGuessing, but i suppose he might be referring to the implied-as-given duty ethics tone of the parent post, that easily comes across as an obligation to be blindly guided externally by norms.
- kulahan 1mo ago
- RGamma 1mo agoI don't interpret it to that extreme. I think it's more about shutting out noise and acting along a thread that keeps you pleased without interference from e.g. brainrot media or an over-demanding job. Arguably a reason most everyone found the early internet/web so awesome: it wasn't as commoditized into feeds and platforms. You were an adventurer on an undiscovered planet, a secret life beside the boring real one and just did your thing. It's how most of us ended up here, anyhow.
- nico 1mo ago> Likely from a stress tolerance so shallow and under-developed that the slightest inconvenience or expectation feels like a crisis Maybe, but that could also be because of autism, trauma or some other disability And maybe the author just wants to feel heard, get others to comment on their experiences, be vulnerable in public (which btw can be pretty stressful too), and connect with their community
- robomc 1mo agowtf are you talking about. Being a blacksmith isn't pure escapism.
- AJMaxwell 1mo agoI feel like we aren't reading the same thing.
- boricj 1mo agoThat can happen with a high stress tolerance too, it just needs to be pushed past the breaking point. Some of us have gone through harrowing experiences and the NPC lifestyle is one coping mechanism among many others.
- henk53 1mo ago> We are wired to be needed, wanted, useful, accountable, social. When AI eventually takes nearly ALL jobs, that will be a quite difficult thing.
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- sharmajai 1mo agoYou'd be a great CEO, preaching people to tie their worth to their output in life.
- NegativeLatency 1mo agoFeels more like they're discovering Taoism to me
- chasd00 1mo agoWho is this “we” you speak of? I see this word thrown around a lot here. Never use “we” in a sentence unless you’re referring to another individual directly. It’s beyond arrogant to assume you have the authority to speak for all others.
- uncivilized 1mo agoParent commenter means “we” as in humans. Their comment is not meant to speak for others’ individual preferences.
- saghm 1mo agoHumans are a bunch of individuals though with an incredible amount of diversity. If their claim is biological, it would be helpful to pin down more precisely what they mean, because right now it's pretty vague. I'm dubious that there's a rigorous claim here though because pretty much every time I've seen a claim like this before it's essentially just protection of one's personal beliefs about psychology without more of a basis than assumption that their personal experience is universal, which is what the comment you're responding to is alluding to.
- uncivilized 1mo agoGreat. I couldn’t care less. Was just clarifying the comment in case the commenter wasn’t a native English speaker. Reply to them not me.
- saghm 1mo agoThey didn't explicitly say they were trying to speak for all of humanity. I'm responding to the specific interpretation of it directly because as the comment you were responding to pointed out, it was ambiguous.
- brisket_bronson 1mo ago> you'll end up in a deep depression That’s a stretch and in realm of pure speculation. A blacksmith is useful for society and for himself. It’s a profession and it’s not anything. OP’s point is that profession compared to chasing dragons. I’m tired of chasing dragons and very happy focusing on my own life.
- michael0church 1mo ago[dead]
- throwmeoutplzdo 1mo ago[flagged]
- Henchman21 1mo agoBro, this ain’t LinkedIn you don’t have to signal your virtue as a worker so hard
- cindyllm 1mo ago[dead]
- JKCalhoun 1mo ago(Singer) Paul Simon said he no longer plays "I Am a Rock" at shows.
- bugbull 1mo ago> The truth is that after the brief initial relief of excusing yourself from being anything at all, you'll end up in a deep depression. So status quo lol?
- jonaustin 1mo agoNot all of us live for The Hustle...
- ms_menardi 1mo agoa low stress tolerance and a highly sensitized stress reaction can often look the same. If someone is hurt repeatedly in the same way, they will react when a stimuli that reminds them of it comes near. Similarly, people who are constantly stressed out often develop things like "learned helplessness", where they are incapable of solving their problems because they've failed, been rejected, or told no so many times that they stop trying.
- morpheos137 1mo agoYeah if you are a "non playing character" why play at all?
- anal_reactor 1mo agoWe are wired to be > needed If I died today, I wouldn't even get a slack memo "we miss anal_reactor". Modern economy proved that humans are totally fungible. > wanted I have a dream that someone would take me on a date. But I understand it's just a silly fantasy. > useful I spent last two years at work doing projects that went nowhere because my manager is deaf to feedback. > accountable What is that even supposed to mean? If I don't pay taxes I'll go to jail. > social I tried inviting a neighbor for a beer. Didn't work.
- Sorrop 1mo agoI'd have a beer with you
- spoiler 1mo agoVery tangentially related but I've seen the word escapism used a couple of times in this thread... I can't tell what's happening here... Did we all extract a different conclusion/meaning from the piece? Did a bunch of people discover the same new word recently, and are learning to use it? Did people not read the full post perhaps, and jumped to conclusions? I don't think the author is advocating or engaging in escapism here... Did I misunderstand the post?
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- savolai 1mo agoThese are the cultural projections previous western generations were built upon. My reading is that that is what’s happening, that is why they are so predominant.
- watwut 1mo agoWhat does that even means in this context? Is "western" now synonym for "people exactly like me"?
- savolai 1mo agoIt appears obvious to me that there is a hegemonic world order that is more culturally western oriented that has driven globalisation. Your mileage appears to vary.
- watwut 1mo ago> cultural projections previous western generations were built upon By that you mean American? Or German? Or French? Or Nordic? They were very different a generation ago. Or like the fascist subculture? The pro-Russian one? The liberal one?
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- bibimsz 1mo agosuch a reddit reply