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Discussion by doubtingthomas ·

😊 Motivation podcast

A Discussion but mainly the questions I had about that podcast episode. Things I had difficulty understanding.

Edit: Link: https://curi.us/podcast/motivation-and-laziness

1.
The main problem people have which they think is that they are lazy or they lack motivation or whatever is that they're thinking something like I know activity A is a good activity and activity B is a bad or lazy activity which only has short term and not long term benefits so I know A is better than B but I keep doing B what's going on something like that but the actual situation the actual problem is that they do not know A is better than B they're jumping to conclusions that they're not fully persuaded of...

I could not get the punctuation right so I omitted them.

Problem: Above thing seems to say (applied to my case) that I don't actually know that learning FI is better than other activities I instead choose to do like watching youtube videos like a zombie. The videos I watch aren't about topics I'm interested in or want to learn about.
This contradicts with other common sense cultural ideas about procrastination. People delay doing things they need/want to do like writing papers for their school coursework and this is known as procrastination. The specific cultural idea about procrastination which is in contradiction with above is: Being disciplined is a skill. Delaying gratification is a skill. You need to be a hardworker and be hard on yourself to develop these skills.

Which is correct? Do I need to develop the skill of discipline so that I can put in the work of learning FI and thus become better at reason or do I need to become better at reason first and thus become better at figuring out what I really wanna do and become better at finding ways of doing those things?

(Edit: Didn't link the quote so edited to link it)

Comments & Events

Elliot, Fallible Ideas Elliot
viewing something as having less gratification now is a negative view of it. if you see one as more fun in the short term, you don't think it's strictly worse. you see each one as having some advantages. you are not thoroughly persuaded about one being strictly better. you see each one as a compromise with some upsides and some downsides.

similarly, if you see watching YouTube as easier, that's an advantage, so you're watching for a reason: you think it's better in a way that's important to you. you are not fully persuaded that you shouldn't be watching.

PS you should link things you quote. plz edit a link into your post
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doubtingthomas doubtingthomas
I am not able to understand your reply with high confidence. I don't understand it like I understand an idea like "this is an apple".

I am going to choose a part which I am able to understand with medium level of confidence. It's the following:

you see each one as having some advantages. you are not thoroughly persuaded about one being strictly better.

In my mind Thoroughly persuaded =  falling in love with a problem (popper) = ruthless opportunist (wheeler).

I don't think I've ever worked on a problem which was completely my own. I've had this similar conversation about motivation in three different message boards. By the end of those conversations I end up really liking what you tell me and be motivated after learning it but I am actually just nodding my head to show agreement.

I enjoy programming. An elementary complex example would be writing a merge sort algorithm in C language. It was complex and I liked doing it. I wasn't required to do it but still did it because I was enjoying it. It took effort from the manager to do it as it was beyond my autopilot. Some parts were easy and other parts were barely manageable by the manager. Now I barely remember how I did it and wouldn't be able to explain what I did.

I'm stuck and don't know how to make progress. No problem seems like a perfect opportunity (to make progress) for me. I can't see myself falling in love with a problem. I don't have the skills to reason comprehensively to become thoroughly persuaded of following plans that will help me move towards my goal of becoming better at reason.
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doubtingthomas doubtingthomas
It seems like I am trying to have an overarching story. I am trying to imagine a big goal. Trying to imagine the destination even before taking the steps is foolish.

I am going to focus on small goals which can be seen clearly. I think that's the sensible thing to do.
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