Ninja_pig

I would say that materialistic success is actually positively correlated with consciousness level. Look at how the average spiral dynamics stage of a country correlates with the per - capita income of the country. More security, more education, higher quality of life, less time spent working, these things help you become more conscious and also come from wealth. As for people who have obscene amounts of wealth, say the top 0.5% of earners in the United States, wealth can only do so much. After a point wealth is just a number and it won't help you increase your consciousness.

@Leo Gura I guess I don't understand intelligence as you understand it.

In my opinion you really have to rely on people for most of the information in your life. All you can do is be aware that you are putting trust in others and take responsibility for your learning. Always take note of from where you get your information.

IQ is actually a pretty good measure of intelligence. IQ and EQ are different things though. EQ and consciousness are much more closely tied. You can't really learn to increase your IQ, but you can learn to increase your capacity for love. I would say that IQ has no correlation to lovingness and consciousness.

I totally agree with this. Music has helped me through some of the darkest times. It's like a drug that doesn't have any side effects, doesn't make you addicted, and you can enjoy without building up a tolerance. Like some psychedelics?

@Realms of Wonder Honestly your ability to overcome your addiction so far is very inspiring. I struggle with YouTube addiction myself, and I've tried to quit many times, but I always relapse. The longest I've gone is 2 weeks, and I have gone through everything you described. Your determination in the face of the agony of withdrawal makes me think that not all hope is lost. Keep strong, I hope that you are successful and your psyche returns to normal. You also have healthy habits like music, reading, and meditation that you practice fairly consistently. I just want to say that what you are doing is really quite impressive and the fact that it is hard is no surprise. I think that what you are experiencing is just withdrawal. It is telling you that you really are changing on a deep level. Keep it up! I believe!

It do be like that sometimes

I can see why a lot of people say they are addicted to this forum because it has a lot of like-minded people on it. When I'm on the forum, I specifically look for topics where I have an opinion or view that I want other people to know. I feel very satisfied when someone looks at something I said and approves of it or says it helps them, I'm slightly less satisfied when someone disagrees with what I say, and I feel disappointed when no one shows any sign or having read my post or no one offers an opinion. I think that I have learned a lot by using this forum, and engineering my posts in order to gain attention has forced me to write high quality posts that require a lot of contemplation. However, I am worried that browsing the forum will turn into an addiction, or that seeking to be helpful will sabotage my growth because I may be less willing to learn from others. I'm writing this post in order to bring this insight more to some other people who might be doing the same thing. I am also writing it because I want other people to respond with their experience on this forum and validate my own feelings. So please respond if you have any suggestions and if you think this is a problem. How can I be less reliant on what others think? Should I be less reliant on what others think? Have you dealt with this problem in the past?

I actually think coding can be fun once you get good. It allows me to easily get deeply into the flow.

I don't think you should be asking which language to learn, because once you learn one language, you can learn the others a lot faster. Instead, be asking what resources are best for learning. If you're just starting out, I recommend following a few project tutorials. They will let you see each concept in action as it is used. Also, the true skill in programming is not really remembering syntax, but being able to think through a problem, write pseudo code, google the correct things, and read error messages.

Right now I don't spend too much time on this forum, but I can see that I could, which is why I wrote this post. I also use that app, and I deleted all the social media off of my phone (moderating my usage time just didn't work). Also, I think there is a lot to "words on a screen". I spend a lot of time reading on my phone, or reading emails, or reading articles. I'm studying computers in college right now so words on a screen is a large portion of my life. I think it matters which words.

There is a book called My Big TOE by Thomas Campbell that provides a highly sophisticated answer to this question. It might be worth checking out. I have also been watching a lecture series recently that seeks to answer a related question. It's called Awakening From the Meaning Crisis. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLND1JCRq8Vuh3f0P5qjrSdb5eC1ZfZwWJ Leo also has a video on the topic:

It's so interesting how there are so many people who are experts on so many different topics in this forum. Anyway, for me, it was reading books, listening to seminars, and writing essays that helped me become a better writer. I think that Leo is a really good writer actually, so listening to his videos will make you a better writer. Maybe write a few research papers on various topics that interest you. Explain you ideas in an orderly, clear, and concise manner as if a very large number of people were going to read it. Also, listen to internet debates and engage in debates. Debaters are the most skilled writers in my opinion.

I respectfully disagree with this. Every morning we all make a very important decision, and that is whether or not to kill ourselves. If there really is no meaning, we should just kill ourselves. That is what I would do anyway. I'm not even saying this to be shocking or bleak, it's literally just the most logical option. Anyway, humanity is a beautiful thing, and having a reason to be here is one of the core aspects of becoming human. You can't just dismiss it or life is just grey.

Meaning is such a difficult thing to grasp for me. One thing I have found you can never go wrong with though is to help others. Service to the human race turns any wasted life into a meaningful one.

blunt but true. humility is the antidote to devilry and self deception. Be a seeker, not a preacher.

OK I am just going to assume this is not a troll post. @KoryKat I agree with you that there is a lot of "just be more conscious brahhhh" stuff that goes around on this forum. Although Leo will deny this, I believe that this general attitude is largely perpetuated by him. This is definitely a problem because even if people believe the need to be more conscious, telling them so will do nothing to actually make the more conscious. If you really want to know why this general forum is not exactly results focused though, I will offer an explanation. Of course it is important to pursue things like physical health, wealth, sex life, the lot. And even if you are a "spiritual" person, these are things that you should still consider important. Because they are. Again, the things you mentioned will always be important. A person like Elon Musk is doing very well in general I think. He is doing a lot for society and he is really pushing humanity forward technologically. And I agree we need more people like him, and we should look up to a person like him. I have a poster of him smoking a blunt in my room. The trouble is, though, that these things alone simply do not make people feel happy, fulfilled, and a peace. Have you ever really asked yourself Why you value these types of results so much? Have you ever questioned, "What is is about money, sex, health, success, knowledge, and perseverance that makes me want to pursue it?" Your psyche is deep and nuanced, and the world would not be fixed if everyone had these things. Action is too simple of a solution. You can't just go around "taking massive action" and expect everything to work out. Humans don't work like that. You really have to expand your knowledge, have uncompromising compassion, and seek truth above all else to become fully human. What you ARE, what you CAN BE, it's just so far beyond just things that you can acquire in the "real world". I highly recommend that you look into spiral dynamics and specifically study stage orange. You will find that all of the values listed as being stage orange pretty much exactly line up with how you think. Remember to treat it all with openminded skepticism. There are some things that you will disagree with, or may even become defensive about. Just realize it is a model and is meant to educate and not accuse. So basically, the reason why people are less focused on results is because it is more important to focus on internal matters in your mind and soul in order to truly grow.

A guy comes on here in search of advice, creates a post that is highly insightful and honest, and you respond with THIS? Aren't you supposed to be some self help guru? Why not say something useful? Things like this on this forum cause confusion and judgment that are counterproductive. I really don't know what you were trying to accomplish by saying this. Please help me understand.

@Hello from Russia I'm going to put together a post that goes over every way Leo is wrong and why he's wrong. It's kind of a project so I haven't finished it yet.

This guy has some good insights! Thanks for sharing.

The reason astrology exists is to give people grounds and suggestions for their identity. It's not predictive of reality, but you can make it reality. Example: "I'm a Pisces, so I'm super pragmatic and sensitive, and Jupiter is 50 degrees ahead of earth in its orbit, so that means I can't wipe my ass more than 3 times when I shit this week". There I know something about myself with 0 effort put into introspection. Doesn't matter if it was true, it's true now because I believe it.

In my opinion you can never not be a fool. All you can do is learn in which ways you are a fool, and find out what you don't know. We are all so tiny, all you can do is your best.

@something_else I agree changing your self image is not exactly something you can instantly do, but I think it is true that your self image is largely independent of reality. The idea is that you are not reliant on the outside world in order to know you are a valuable man. This concept is talked about in David Deida's The Way of the Superior Man. In essence, be a rock, unmoved by the ocean waves crashing against it. Maybe you can't just arbitrarily decide to be like this, but you can definitely work towards it. I think state is a poisonous idea because it puts a guy's attention on himself rather than things outside himself. A high value man is generally just living rather than judging himself. If you believe in state it will become a self fulfilling prophecy because it will make you less confident and more prone to fluctuations in "state".

I personally think that interest and curiosity is a choice. You are an intellectual type right? You like to explore various topics? Do the same with people. Every person is a deeply nuanced and complex story that is practically bottomless. All you have to do is listen to them very closely. A person will tell you pretty much tell you all their deepest secrets if the believe that you will listen to them without judgement. If you find people uninteresting, that is either because they are not opening up to you for whatever reason, or because you are not truly listening to them. Give them your full attention, never judge any aspect of a person, but still have boundaries. I know Jordon Peterson is not exactly a trusted source on this forum, but I think he says it pretty well in this video: I also highly recommend the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. It's basically a handbook for people like you and me who don't automatically know how to be sociable. It will tell you everything there is to know about seeing people as interesting and being more easy going. As far as relationships go, yes there are many girls who will enjoy deep talks with you, but you have to remember to flirt! Don't be %100 cerebral. This is a problem for me personally. I tend to stick to intellectualizing because that's where I'm comfortable. I have to remind myself to stick my neck out a little and be sexual. If you are an INF person like me then you might make this mistake from time to time.

Dude 7g? that's metal. I personally have to drink tea and lay down for the first part of the trip to avoid throwing up, and that's on 4.5g