This is the core of the issue. The thing is that in modern western societies shame is placed upon many activities that are normal and necessary for a human to enjoy a good life. It is shameful in many places for a person to sing, dance, and to express their true emotions. So we intoxicate ourselves, in order to escape from the overly rigid social conditioning we have all internalised.
Agreed. What I love about Strava is it leverages some of the same darker parts of the human psyche that traditional social media does (desire for social status by showing off etc), but in doing so it encourages its users to actually do something extremely positive. It makes me think of how I'd like to see a really well made addictive VR based MMORPG that encouraged its users to exercise in some way to progress.
Not VR, but I’ve been wanting one of these too. Pokémon Go flirted with it with steps and egg hatching but I want a classic fantasy MMORPG where my workout is the grind and then the play part is all fun
My SO openly admits that she logs in more bicycling kms than she would otherwise have done thanks to Strava. She has also just managed to convince one of her close friends to use Strava, that person is also seeing a rise in the number of logged-in kms.
I completely agree. In my view group chats on apps like WhatsApp much more accurately mirror how humans actually communicate in real life. That is to say it's more like a spontaneous conversation rather than social media which is more like a narcissistic advertising board for your life.
My dad frequently shares jokes in real life, some of them I've heard more than once during all these years. When I was younger, late teens, early 20s, I thought them cumbersome, "come on, dad! you've told me that joke countless times", now, when I'm in early 40s, I cherish those retellings of jokes.
> When I was younger, late teens, early 20s, I thought them cumbersome, "come on, dad! you've told me that joke countless times", now, when I'm in early 40s, I cherish those retellings of jokes.
Reminds me of:
Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps 20. And yet it all seems limitless.
Golden advice. I would even add, do it every weekday, even if it means just walking to the gym, going inside, and walking back out again. The habit will become so much easier to ingrain if its even more consistent.
It completely changed the way I work. I'm now a checklist making machine and I find it helps so much, not only with clearly defining what I'm aiming to do, but also with motivation, as each checkbox is a very small bitesize chunk that always seems manageable. I recommend giving it a shot. It's really short aswell so you could smash it out in an afternoon.
Totally get where you're coming from. I really recommend the Sam Harris "waking up" app. Really helped me and I think it appeals to the more skeptical and rational people you find on HN.
Basically the principles behind meditation are explained at a much deeper level, and in a way that allowed me to transfer it more into my every day life. Headspace seems to just revolve around following the breath, whereas this is just a small chunk of what the waking up app teaches you. I recommend giving the free trial a go and see what you think.
