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Comment by mmkhd | Hacker News Reader

No, this is not really a fantastic comment because the comment initially supports the thesis of the article, which is "change is slow progress, not a burst of activity" and it does this quite well with a biblical comparison, but then it veers off to "daily praying, helps with success in other areas", which is a totally different thesis. That's proselytizing instead of commenting on the article.

And your "+1, fantastic comment" smells, too; because you do not address the content of the comment, but only the original thesis of the posted article. So it should have been "+1, fantastic article". You don't even say what's so good in the comment that you praise.

Is this an attack by missionaries with day jobs in marketing? :-)

(And it is not really a fantastic article either, because it has a nice start with the Rocky comparison and a nice ending (sans post script) that fits the start but the middle is a muddle just like this run-on sentence.)

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(I am the GP whose comment you're criticizing.)

I think you're trying to follow the analogy/point so maybe I can be more explicit.

Consistency is difficult - everyone knows that you "have to" save money consistently, or cut back on calories, or exercise daily, or whatever. The gap from "knowledge" to "able to do it" is quite big - as evidenced by the fact most people aren't able to be consistent about much in our lives.

And that's not because of some sort of "privilege" - people spend time on social media where they could be exercising, they are spending money on stuff they don't strictly need, etc. There's a large cohort of people who (1) know they can make their lives better through consistency (2) have the underlying opportunity to do it and (3) fail to actually capitalize on those opportunities constantly.

The connection to religion is that religious practice is by its nature consistent (you go to your house of worship weekly, you pray daily, whatever the case may be) - which is a great exercise in the muscle of consistency. I suspect that if someone is trained in ability to do religious things daily, they are much better positioned to apply this skill to other domains of their life (similar to how someone who is a trained weight lifter can apply their strength to other domains like carrying their kids or physical work.)

What takes my comment from "true" to "fantastic" (just kidding) is the connection to the applicability of seemingly arcane religious practice to a very-much-relevant modern day skillset, which I also believe is less available in society than it was previously. You may not resonate with this on a religious level, but perhaps there's some room to recognize ancient wisdom applicable to today, anyways.

There is certainly validity in conistency. Some might find it easier with religion.

But the main core concept doesn't require any ritualistic pagentry to work.

This introduced an interesting concept

Any ritual that cultivates consistency is useful

So a ritual of saying the day’s name in a cartoon voice

Or burning a blade of grass

If religion is the indicator, the greater the difference from every day life the better

I have actually found that simply making a new choice daily, one that I can’t remember having made before, does wonders for my sense of possibility & curiosity

Could you elaborate on making a new choice daily? I understand the concept but can you make it practical

To paraphrase your comment: "Connecting the ritual of prayer to another task that you want to accomplish, helps in establishing consistency in doing that other task." Yes, that is a useful tool, to achieve the daily consistency that avoids the "Montage Fallacy". (And it even can elevate your comment to fantastic ;-) )

Less religiously inclined people can easily adapt this concept to other things that they do daily.

Now you are not just promoting prayer but giving a useful analogy. I was a little bit fighty yesterday and perceived a manipulative ploy in your original comment, when it maybe was just a little bit of accidental omission, because coherently and concisely stating something in writing is hard. The latter is something I am also struggling with. And maybe I was going hard on you because you started off with a well stated argument.

Somebody found it a fantastic comment. Someone else did not find it fantastic.

I find a comment stating it _is_ good/bad/fantastic as if that is the ground truth, a lot less convincing, it lacks the nuance of a point-of-view.

The quite firm reply seems to stem from the word "prayer". Some people pray, others not. What's wrong with that?

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