"Tony was not born optimistic. He practiced it. He put in the effort.
You can do the same."
The phrase "You can do the same" already shows that this person has never dealt with real psychological problems. I wish these self-help gurus would just say "Here is something that works for some people. Try it. Maybe it works and if it doesn't work it's not your fault". Instead you have to defend yourself if the well-meant advice from people doesn't work.
Yes, it’s ironic that the people closest to AI, who should be able to see that the brain is a physical organ like all others, often have the hardest time recognizing that cognitive deficits are as real as physical deficits. Some people can’t “make themselves feel X” any easier than a quadriplegic can dunk a basketball.
Saying "You can do the same" is extremely condescending and frustrating for people who have repeatedly tried to solve a problem and failed. It's like some people tell depressed people "Just go out there and have fun". It's not helpful.
I would argue that "You can do the same" means the author is in sales, or at least practicing sales techniques. Now, the author might be doing this for the usual reasons, to sell their program, or the author might be doing this because some people feel that sales techniques are 'inspirational' - a lot of people like to be told on no uncertain terms that they will succeed.
I mean, i'm not personally one of those people who likes 'inspirational' sales programs. Personally, when it comes time for me to do something really difficult, I find it works best if I acknowledge it as really difficult as I'm doing it. I mean, I'm trying to lose weight right now, and it is a very difficult thing - not just for people with serious psychological issues, but for almost everyone.[1] Yes, yes, just eat less and work out more. It is simple but just because something is simple does not make it easy, especially when you are trying to run counter to a drive as strong as the drive to eat more calories than you burn. Really, I think that studying people who competitively hold their breath is... relevant here. Most people simply can't make themselves hold their breath as long as their body could physiologically take it. Now, eating less is... less intense than depriving yourself of oxygen, but as evidenced by the failure rates, it's still going against a very basic drive.
And for me, knowing that I will almost certainly never get a "beach body" and that I'll have to count calories and struggle for the rest of my life just to not continue ballooning outward, I think, is a much better long term solution than thinking that I somehow have some secret knowledge that the 99% doesn't have, or that I'm otherwise sure to succeed. I mean, the biggest danger I see is giving up after having a short-term failure of willpower. Binging one day without tracking and then just throwing up my arms and giving up. If instead of shooting for the beach body, I am simply struggling to not be a blob, and every bit less blob-like I am is progress? That's a better, more realistic long-term goal for me.
But... I might be unusual in that regard. Most people seem to think that having some special knowledge, or believing that they have .01% levels of willpower helps them actually achieve more. "The power of positive thinking" and all that. And maybe it does, for them. And I guess I think that's okay, even though I personally find it super irritating and unhelpful.
Try giving up eating all animal products. Good luck not losing weight then. Big weight loss has been an unintended side effect for everyone I know who's gone whole food plant based.
So, uh, I haven't actually read 'Moby Dick' in paper. I read almost everything on the kindle, so I'm not always as conscious of the 'heft' of a book as I might be. It's a wonderful book, and really grabbed me to the point where I couldn't put it down, and I finished it rather quickly and with little effort because of that.
Anyhow, I remember the first time I mentioned that it was a reasonably fast, light read to someone else, and they reacted like I had asked them to read "Atlas Shrugged" or something. Like, apparently, reading anything longer than a medium post is a whole lot of effort for most people, even if it's actually good.
I think about this every time a thin person tells me how easy it is to lose weight just by avoiding certain foods and, you know, eating a reasonable amount of said foods, or "just being more mindful." "It's easy" - I mean, I'm sure it is easy for you, and that's great! But some of us need to monitor our intake. I mean, I'll sit there and scarf a pound of pecans in a sitting, if I don't expend significant will to stop myself, and at what, 200 calories an ounce, I don't have to do that often to remain fat. And fruit juice? I think a significant portion of my gut is composed of that delicious fresh orange juice that the local taquaria will squeeze for you (and serve in those giant cups)
Of course, I don't yet know if monitoring my calories in and out will be enough to actually get myself to a reasonable size or not. I've only been doing it for two weeks or so. But I have been a vegitarian, and in and of itself, that doesn't solve the problem.
Massive difference between vegetarian and whole food plant based.
I hear what you're saying, but I didn't mention the word easy, just that everyone I know who has switched to a whole food plant based diet has lost weight, whether they intended to or not.
So eating a pound of pecans would be no problem. The orange juice on the other hand isn't WFPB
They're discussing Cognitive Based Therapy - a technique used (sometimes in concert with medication) for the treatment of real psychological problems.
Caveat Emptor and all that, but if we assume the best intentions of the article's author: they're just giving people tools, and attempting to show that those tools can work. Convincing people that the tools work will require some marketing language and idioms.
You can do the same."
The phrase "You can do the same" already shows that this person has never dealt with real psychological problems. I wish these self-help gurus would just say "Here is something that works for some people. Try it. Maybe it works and if it doesn't work it's not your fault". Instead you have to defend yourself if the well-meant advice from people doesn't work.