Good stuff, and I agree with all of it, especially the power of repetitions (I did a self-imposed "Write Lift Repeat" challenge that I came up with in a desperate attempt to battle depression in 2019. And it worked! I wrote and lifted weights each day for 10 weeks, which indeed resulted in me lifting myself out of depression.
However, I do agree with the tweet from that person on spaced repetition being a kind of soylent green as well. Not because discipline is bad or soulless in itself, but a different reason. It's that spaced repetition is more and more being used in corporate, digital, and healthcare learning systems (I worked for a business for 3 years where the whole schtick of the business was providing this digital spaced repetition thing for employees of different organizations). It really does leave out the soul of learning and misses the point in many places.
The "Sell" to orgs is that their employees will be able to do more work because they learn more/faster, but this is being pushed top-down by management (sold to by these "learning companies"). What happens is that both the wrong things are repeated and that it comes through external motivations instead of internal. It becomes a hoop to jump through. Which is soulless. And sure, that angle or implementation may not be the _actual_ definition of spaced repetition, but that is where the brunt of the phrase' use is made nowadays.
seems spot on to me. "It really does leave out the soul of learning and misses the point in many places." I can totally imagine that, especially in a corporate/grindset kind of environment
The idea that repetition can be a form of devotion to something greater than oneself is a powerful perspective. I also enjoyed the discussion on self-discipline without self-deception. Recognizing that discipline can be a form of freedom, rather than a constraint, is an important insight. Also the idea that we have a conscious choice over which characters we feed within ourselves is a valuable reminder. 🙏
> the idea that “doing whatever you feel like in the moment” leads to sub-optimal outcomes implies that your feelings and wants are somehow sub-optimal.
I'm actually not sure this is true. it's not that your feelings/wants are sub-optimal, it's just that you can choose to give certain wants/feelings more attention than others, without labelling any of them as "bad".
I agree that on a deep level, absolute trust in self/world is the key. and for a lot of people self-discipline comes from a lack of trust, but I don't think it needs to be that way. it can come from devotion, love, etc.
i think also if someone's never tried repitition and discipline, then their feelings processes is unaware of the sense of peace and devotion that can arise with systematically following long-term goals (affirming a few, deliberate desires and consciously rejecting the others)
people who have accessed wonderful inner spaces through repititon and discipline will maybe, when they feel bad, reach for a new goal to work towards. while people who've more often accessed wonderful inner spaces by being totally spontaneous will naturally reach for that.
but those who have never tried discipline will probably always reach for instant fixes (the drink) and spontaneous action and struggle with the disciplined approach they've never felt the reward, and so maybe these people need to consciously override their impulses for a bit by reading essays like this one and rationally convincing themselves over and over again that it's an experiment they need to run-- just to see what it's like.
i think it's a task of education to give people the taste of both so they're aware of how it feels for them, and what it can do for them, so they can consciously choose the best course of action
Agree we need both in order to flourish. About 6 months ago, I wrote (also cheekily) about the importance of repetition at work, as a leadership skill: https://rajeshachanta.substack.com/p/over-and-over-and-over-the-art-of
Good stuff, and I agree with all of it, especially the power of repetitions (I did a self-imposed "Write Lift Repeat" challenge that I came up with in a desperate attempt to battle depression in 2019. And it worked! I wrote and lifted weights each day for 10 weeks, which indeed resulted in me lifting myself out of depression.
However, I do agree with the tweet from that person on spaced repetition being a kind of soylent green as well. Not because discipline is bad or soulless in itself, but a different reason. It's that spaced repetition is more and more being used in corporate, digital, and healthcare learning systems (I worked for a business for 3 years where the whole schtick of the business was providing this digital spaced repetition thing for employees of different organizations). It really does leave out the soul of learning and misses the point in many places.
The "Sell" to orgs is that their employees will be able to do more work because they learn more/faster, but this is being pushed top-down by management (sold to by these "learning companies"). What happens is that both the wrong things are repeated and that it comes through external motivations instead of internal. It becomes a hoop to jump through. Which is soulless. And sure, that angle or implementation may not be the _actual_ definition of spaced repetition, but that is where the brunt of the phrase' use is made nowadays.
seems spot on to me. "It really does leave out the soul of learning and misses the point in many places." I can totally imagine that, especially in a corporate/grindset kind of environment
The idea that repetition can be a form of devotion to something greater than oneself is a powerful perspective. I also enjoyed the discussion on self-discipline without self-deception. Recognizing that discipline can be a form of freedom, rather than a constraint, is an important insight. Also the idea that we have a conscious choice over which characters we feed within ourselves is a valuable reminder. 🙏
> the idea that “doing whatever you feel like in the moment” leads to sub-optimal outcomes implies that your feelings and wants are somehow sub-optimal.
I'm actually not sure this is true. it's not that your feelings/wants are sub-optimal, it's just that you can choose to give certain wants/feelings more attention than others, without labelling any of them as "bad".
I agree that on a deep level, absolute trust in self/world is the key. and for a lot of people self-discipline comes from a lack of trust, but I don't think it needs to be that way. it can come from devotion, love, etc.
i think also if someone's never tried repitition and discipline, then their feelings processes is unaware of the sense of peace and devotion that can arise with systematically following long-term goals (affirming a few, deliberate desires and consciously rejecting the others)
people who have accessed wonderful inner spaces through repititon and discipline will maybe, when they feel bad, reach for a new goal to work towards. while people who've more often accessed wonderful inner spaces by being totally spontaneous will naturally reach for that.
but those who have never tried discipline will probably always reach for instant fixes (the drink) and spontaneous action and struggle with the disciplined approach they've never felt the reward, and so maybe these people need to consciously override their impulses for a bit by reading essays like this one and rationally convincing themselves over and over again that it's an experiment they need to run-- just to see what it's like.
i think it's a task of education to give people the taste of both so they're aware of how it feels for them, and what it can do for them, so they can consciously choose the best course of action