Leo's Blog Discussion Mega-Thread

[Elliott]

 

 

[Davino]

25 minutes ago, vibv said:

Yeah it's all about balance.

My intuition is that balance is the secret to the good life and it is actualized by intelligent decision making and awareness.

Edited 15 hours ago by Davino

[Miguel1]

5 hours ago, Davino said:

I understand the fixation to point at names to this selfishness and corruption, but honestly it's more about the system. No individual changes of the tech oligarchs is going to substantially change the system, they are rats inside the system, the best rats with golden chains.

Nobody has forced themselves from quitting, except themselves.

[Leo Gura]

4 hours ago, Davino said:

why I work so hard really

Most people work hard because they have no other choice. Survival. I was not speaking about those people. I was speaking about the workaholics who are successful enough they don't need to work anymore but they can't stop because they've turned work into an avoidance mechanism.

Edited 11 hours ago by Leo Gura

[Leo Gura]

6 hours ago, LordFall said:

How would you improve the scientific method?

Much more openmindedness, deep epistemology, serious ontology, take philosophy seriously, remove hyper-specialization, remove departmental segregation, change the peer review process, change the PhD process, teach kids how to question and contemplate, teach meditation, teach yoga, teach mysticism, use psychedelics, change how funding works, ditch atheism materialism reductionism and pragmatism, much more emphasis on relativity and truth-seeking, etc. There are many practical reforms to be made.

Edited 11 hours ago by Leo Gura

[Magnanimous]

If work ultimately doesn't make you happy, is it just another form of burning karma then?

It feels wrong reducing Life Purpose to just that but it is what it is.

Edited 10 hours ago by Magnanimous

[Leo Gura]

12 minutes ago, Magnanimous said:

If work ultimately doesn't make you happy, is it just another form of burning karma then?

It feels wrong reducing Life Purpose to just that but it is what it is.

There are levels to this.

The more advanced you become, the less you can rely on work/career for happiness. It works at lower levels because you haven't become conscious enough of the illusion of acheivement. At the highest levels of consciousness, acheivement means nothing.

Career is used to create lots of meaning. That works up to a point, but some day you will question the very notion of working for meaning.

For most of you guys, LP and career is good. But perhaps after 20 years of that you will start to outgrow it, as happened to me.

That blog post is for rather advanced and older people, not youngsters who are just starting their careers. If you are in your 20s, don't worry about working on your career.

Edited 10 hours ago by Leo Gura

[Magnanimous]

Ah ok thanks a lot

[EdgeGod900]

51 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

That blog post is for rather advanced and older people, not youngsters who are just starting their careers. If you are in your 20s, don't worry about working on your career.

But, what do you say to the youngsters who lost ambition after going deep into this work--some, can't get their motivation back up from just someone saying to them, "just focus on your career for now"?

Are they fucked? Be honest?There must be a way a specific way of re-motivating the youngsters who saw how the sausage was made.

 

Like an anology would be: how do you recover from walking in on your fully naked mom?

[Leo Gura]

6 minutes ago, EdgeGod900 said:

But, what do you say to the youngsters who lost ambition after going deep into this work--some, can't get their motivation back up from just someone saying to them, "just focus on your career for now"?

Are they fucked? Be honest?There must be a way a specific way of re-motivating the youngsters who saw how the sausage was made.

Well, I don't know what may or may not give you your motivation back. That's so individual.

I would just say to not give up and to keep trying.

I have lost motivation and also regained it. Not exactly identically, but don't think that just because you lost it that you can't find a new one.

Find what motivates you. You can have multiple life purposes across a lifetime.

Also, I would advise against psychedelics in this case because they tend to be very disillusioning. You need to reenchant yourself with work.

Edited 9 hours ago by Leo Gura

[OBEler]

2 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

There are levels to this.

The more advanced you become, the less you can rely on work/career for happiness. It works at lower levels because you haven't become conscious enough of the illusion of acheivement. At the highest levels of consciousness, acheivement means nothing.

Career is used to create lots of meaning. That works up to a point, but some day you will question the very notion of working for meaning.

For most of you guys, LP and career is good. But perhaps after 20 years of that you will start to outgrow it, as happened to me.

That blog post is for rather advanced and older people, not youngsters who are just starting their careers. If you are in your 20s, don't worry about working on your career.

How about relationships? 

[Natasha Tori Maru]

Work Is Not Happiness

I am in two minds regarding this post.

On the one hand - I recognise humans naturally value something more when they invest in something. When we move toward things we value highly, this can bring pleasure. And happiness - somewhat.

But somewhere along the line, my investment in 'tasks' - be they work or not - seemed to have dissolved. I lost my aversion to life tasks. I lost my desire. I experience preference for certain things - yes, absolutely. I feel more keenly and genuinely. I can identify my emotions, thoughts and feelings with crystal clear vision. I do not resist the moment - that is to say - there is no where I would rather be at any point in time and space. Eating a hot meal after a winter bike-ride. Having a hot shower. Even picking up dogshit. Cleaning my toilet. Getting sick and stuck in bed. Injuring myself. My preference is not to experience these last few phenomenologie/s. But I don't resist. I am content with whatever comes my way - good or bad. I accept.

So I am happy at work, even right now (procrastinating on the forums a bit ). 

But it is not work that is causing the happiness, or contentment. 

It just is. I bring it (happiness) to the work, instead of the work bringing it to me.

Maybe this is what you point to? I don't feel it is quite clear to me - yet.

 

Edited 7 hours ago by Natasha Tori Maru

[Davino]

4 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Most people work hard because they have no other choice. Survival. I was not speaking about those people. I was speaking about the workaholics who are successful enough they don't need to work anymore but they can't stop because they've turned work into an avoidance mechanism.

Yes, I understand. I could work much less and survive nicely if I were less ambitious.

It made me see that tendency you're pointing at, to be a low unconscious factor in the equation that I had never truly noticed.

I'll still work hard for the next 15 years, because I want to, but it's clear to me I'll exhaust it eventually. I've seen too many people burnt to be in executive positions after 40, I don't wanna be like that.

Edited 7 hours ago by Davino

[vibv]

Actualized Quotes #697

It's only ONE way by exhausting ALL possible ways, but not all ways are experienced equally real.

[Jirh]

8 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Much more openmindedness

I think science has enough open-mindedness. Standards are rigor are not the enemy of open-mindedness. They are necessary to keep the balance. The enemy is sloppiness.

8 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

deep epistemology, serious ontology, take philosophy seriously, remove hyper-specialization, remove departmental segregation

I agree. These are great fixes.

Many scientists are lacking in these areas because of hyper-specialisation and department segregation.

I think epistemology and science should be in parallel.

8 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

change the peer review process, change the PhD process

How? What should change?

8 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

teach kids how to question and contemplate, teach meditation, teach yoga, teach mysticism, use psychedelics, change how funding works, ditch atheism materialism reductionism and pragmatism, much more emphasis on relativity and truth-seeking, etc. There are many practical reforms to be made.

I agree. Huge thumbs up 👍🏻