a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by rezzeJ
rezzeJ  ·  3445 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Trying and failing vs listening and learning  ·  

'Sitting quiet' is boring only if you never taken the time to fully experience sitting quietly. There is more value and meaning to be found in considered silence than forced noise.

What is gained by reinforcing to everyone here that you do in fact exist?





Isherwood  ·  3445 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Easy affirmation. The world is a largely plain, boring, and repetitive place. After enough time in it it's easy to blend into the pattern of that repition so well that you start to feel invisible. Any shout that gets attention, positive or negative, at least makes it feel like you're distinct in the pattern.

kleinbl00  ·  3445 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I have no doubts that you and I can find lots of interesting things to talk about. I also have no doubts that you and I, sitting in the same pace watching the same things, will find exotic, interesting and unusual things. The difference, I suspect, is that I'm not interested in the mundane for the most part so it doesn't affect my experience.

It sounds as if you are attempting to address an internal issue with an external approach. Nothing discussed here is about unleashing posts on a social network, it's about identity and experience. I think you'll find that introspection is the quieter, more rewarding path for the simple reason that it requires you to find the interesting bits, rather than dismissing what lies before you out of hand in pursuit of something more immediately shiny.

Isherwood  ·  3445 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I appreciate it. I think, if this is the bar, I'm the guy who got a little too comfortable a little too quick, drank a little and shared a lot. My life is pretty good, just transitioning on many fronts and difficult to digest. It's good to know that this is a friendly place though.

kleinbl00  ·  3445 days ago  ·  link  ·  

the internet: where no one knows you're drunk

rezzeJ  ·  3445 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Is that really worthwhile? Easy affirmations are like browsing the reddit defaults. Any morsels of positivity/entertainment you gain from them dissipate as quickly as they came and leave you perpetually seeking, never sufficed. It's better to seek value for what you say rather than the fact that you simply said something, anything.

    The world is a largely plain, boring, and repetitive place... Any shout that gets attention... makes it feel like you're distinct in the pattern.

You are the gatekeeper of you own experience. You define the pattern. If all those things are true for your life, I think it is mostly down to your own perspectives and actions, not any intrinsic properties of the world.

Isherwood  ·  3445 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah, I understand that, and I have moved myself into a position that I like and worked to achieve. It's the practicalities of reality that eventually catch up to me. The fact that no matter how well intentioned or determined you are to produce variety in life, at some point you come across repetition. It's more a function of time than a qualitative statement, eventually life becomes patterned. I like my pattern for the most part, but there are still times I want to break out of it. If I really wanted to escape all of this, I would, but instead I can feed the tiny demon with a tiny affirmation.

That's the thinking at least.

dublinben  ·  3445 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    The world is a largely plain, boring, and repetitive place.

Maybe your world is, but it doesn't have to be. You should not spend your life seeking external validation and affirmation. Live life for yourself on your own terms, not to make others happy or entertained.