If you do a Google search for ‘meditation’, you might find results like this: ‘Meditation Completely Changed My Life’ ‘How meditation can change your life and mind’ ‘How meditation changes the brain’ Do a bit more digging, and you might find this article
Nice. I’m 100% on board with the productivity stuff. I’ve tried all sorts of systems, and what works best for me is just making sure I write stuff down when I think of it. That’s it.
I read classic novels, but not because I think it’s going to “round me out,” or really improve my life much at all or make me a better person. I see it really more of a learning experience. Sometimes I enjoy it, sometimes I push through it because I think it makes me a better writer, or it gives me valuable perspective for other books.
I do feel like meditation is a little different, though. I don’t meditate because I think it reduces stress or produces pleasurable experiences. The fundamental reason I meditate is I am curious about my mind. But there are other effects that you don’t mention, like being a better listener, being able to direct your attention more fully to beauty, or recognizing mundane things as beautiful, or being able to handle unpleasant experiences with more peace. Did you experience any of these? Did you get any discussion/theory alongside your meditation?
I think you're right about the productivity stuff. I've tried all sorts of different routines, apps, etc., and I always fall back into old habits. The things I've found to work aren't simple quick fixes, they require dedicated work to achieve lasting lifestyle or mindset changes, or otherwise are more external (e.g., getting a full time job or moving into a place more conducive to productivity).
Perhaps apps should be saved for when you really need them, like if you have an upcoming exam or deadline. That way you're not already habituated to them.
I enjoyed this and the other article you link to that gives a good counter point to the hype of mindfulness. While I am a fan personally and have benefited, it’s not in the ways that are often touted. Thanks for the thoughtful conversation:)
I love this post. Meditation has helped me, but only with Robert Wright's "Why Buddhism Is True." Have you read that? I talk more about meditation (and drugs) here: https://www.losingmyreligions.net/
PS: Same for me re: alcohol -- def helps. Our kid loves their weighted blanket. And eff classic novels.
100% on the hype around mindfulness - does this apply to the negative results as well? It seems hard to credit the idea that sitting quietly caused someone severe damage
Classic novels: I think the purported effect could be true, but it has (1) diminishing returns, and it is (2) confounded by increased access to serious fiction since the concept of "well-roundedness" was established.
If you have never read a serious novel, I thing reading your first has high chances of constituting an illuminating experience. I read first serious fact and fiction books when I was a teenager and they exposed me to people (often from different eras and distant places) who saw and thought and experienced the world quite differently than the teenage me did or anyone I knew in real life.
After you have read a dozen or so, it sounds plausible the benefit of exposure to this sort of thinking would diminishes. No person is an island, and certainly not are authors who write "classics" (it is called the "Great Conversation", isn't it), so after a while you will have quite a map of the archipelago.
Secondly, I think it matters that classic novels are no longer the only format with some the possibly-enlightening features of "literary writing" (characterization that may make you think of other people and their internal world differently, social commentary, and such). There is much more of complex prestige TV that tries to present complex characters in morally ambiguous (sometimes not so ambiguous) settings. Ditto for some prestige computer / video games. Many comedy TV series are more of dramedy in the way old sitcoms were not.
What extra would you obtain by reading a book by an author who shares worldview with writers of a TV show you've already seen, except for the plot and other details? (Edit. Maybe it suffices that you know people who read and watch such things. Baseline of literary trope awareness rises.)
I think there's a large set of interventions where a small group of people get a large benefit, and everyone else gets approximately nothing- so the average result is "meaningful but small benefit"
I think if you interact with someone who reads novels for pleasure vs someone who doesn’t, you can tell the difference after a fairly short period of conversation.... but then, I suppose that’s sort of like the productivity thing. But reading for pleasure in childhood is SUCH a strong predictor of future educational attainment that there must be some causative link there.
I think if you interact with someone who reads novels for pleasure vs someone who doesn’t, you can tell the difference after a fairly short period of conversation.... but then, I suppose that’s sort of like the productivity thing. But reading for pleasure in childhood is SUCH a strong predictor of future educational attainment that there must be some causative link there.
I think if you interact with someone who reads novels for pleasure vs someone who doesn’t, you can tell the difference after a fairly short period of conversation.... but then, I suppose that’s sort of like the productivity thing. But reading for pleasure in childhood is SUCH a strong predictor of future educational attainment that there must be some causative link there.
I think if you interact with someone who reads novels for pleasure vs someone who doesn’t, you can tell the difference after a fairly short period of conversation.... but then, I suppose that’s sort of like the productivity thing. But reading for pleasure in childhood is SUCH a strong predictor of future educational attainment that there must be some causative link there.
Nice. I’m 100% on board with the productivity stuff. I’ve tried all sorts of systems, and what works best for me is just making sure I write stuff down when I think of it. That’s it.
I read classic novels, but not because I think it’s going to “round me out,” or really improve my life much at all or make me a better person. I see it really more of a learning experience. Sometimes I enjoy it, sometimes I push through it because I think it makes me a better writer, or it gives me valuable perspective for other books.
I do feel like meditation is a little different, though. I don’t meditate because I think it reduces stress or produces pleasurable experiences. The fundamental reason I meditate is I am curious about my mind. But there are other effects that you don’t mention, like being a better listener, being able to direct your attention more fully to beauty, or recognizing mundane things as beautiful, or being able to handle unpleasant experiences with more peace. Did you experience any of these? Did you get any discussion/theory alongside your meditation?
I think you're right about the productivity stuff. I've tried all sorts of different routines, apps, etc., and I always fall back into old habits. The things I've found to work aren't simple quick fixes, they require dedicated work to achieve lasting lifestyle or mindset changes, or otherwise are more external (e.g., getting a full time job or moving into a place more conducive to productivity).
Perhaps apps should be saved for when you really need them, like if you have an upcoming exam or deadline. That way you're not already habituated to them.
I enjoyed this and the other article you link to that gives a good counter point to the hype of mindfulness. While I am a fan personally and have benefited, it’s not in the ways that are often touted. Thanks for the thoughtful conversation:)
This is a great post - quick accessible personal null results seem like something we should encourage more of.
I love this post. Meditation has helped me, but only with Robert Wright's "Why Buddhism Is True." Have you read that? I talk more about meditation (and drugs) here: https://www.losingmyreligions.net/
PS: Same for me re: alcohol -- def helps. Our kid loves their weighted blanket. And eff classic novels.
100% on the hype around mindfulness - does this apply to the negative results as well? It seems hard to credit the idea that sitting quietly caused someone severe damage
Classic novels: I think the purported effect could be true, but it has (1) diminishing returns, and it is (2) confounded by increased access to serious fiction since the concept of "well-roundedness" was established.
If you have never read a serious novel, I thing reading your first has high chances of constituting an illuminating experience. I read first serious fact and fiction books when I was a teenager and they exposed me to people (often from different eras and distant places) who saw and thought and experienced the world quite differently than the teenage me did or anyone I knew in real life.
After you have read a dozen or so, it sounds plausible the benefit of exposure to this sort of thinking would diminishes. No person is an island, and certainly not are authors who write "classics" (it is called the "Great Conversation", isn't it), so after a while you will have quite a map of the archipelago.
Secondly, I think it matters that classic novels are no longer the only format with some the possibly-enlightening features of "literary writing" (characterization that may make you think of other people and their internal world differently, social commentary, and such). There is much more of complex prestige TV that tries to present complex characters in morally ambiguous (sometimes not so ambiguous) settings. Ditto for some prestige computer / video games. Many comedy TV series are more of dramedy in the way old sitcoms were not.
What extra would you obtain by reading a book by an author who shares worldview with writers of a TV show you've already seen, except for the plot and other details? (Edit. Maybe it suffices that you know people who read and watch such things. Baseline of literary trope awareness rises.)
I think there's a large set of interventions where a small group of people get a large benefit, and everyone else gets approximately nothing- so the average result is "meaningful but small benefit"
I think if you interact with someone who reads novels for pleasure vs someone who doesn’t, you can tell the difference after a fairly short period of conversation.... but then, I suppose that’s sort of like the productivity thing. But reading for pleasure in childhood is SUCH a strong predictor of future educational attainment that there must be some causative link there.
I think if you interact with someone who reads novels for pleasure vs someone who doesn’t, you can tell the difference after a fairly short period of conversation.... but then, I suppose that’s sort of like the productivity thing. But reading for pleasure in childhood is SUCH a strong predictor of future educational attainment that there must be some causative link there.
I think if you interact with someone who reads novels for pleasure vs someone who doesn’t, you can tell the difference after a fairly short period of conversation.... but then, I suppose that’s sort of like the productivity thing. But reading for pleasure in childhood is SUCH a strong predictor of future educational attainment that there must be some causative link there.
I think if you interact with someone who reads novels for pleasure vs someone who doesn’t, you can tell the difference after a fairly short period of conversation.... but then, I suppose that’s sort of like the productivity thing. But reading for pleasure in childhood is SUCH a strong predictor of future educational attainment that there must be some causative link there.