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Comment by swatcoder | Hacker News Reader

> I don't think I can do SRS. My dopamine system...

I'm willing to bet you've never had probes analyzing anything about your dopamine system and how it responds to any of the activities you go on to describe. More likely, you've started using trendy pseudo-scientific jargon to justify why you believe yourself to be physiologically limited.

Do you struggle to see through or enjoy to some of those activities? So be it.

But chalking that up to some scientific sounding stuff you pieced together over the years just hardens those limitations. It's a very bad habit that's become really common lately. I strongly recommend trying to break it. It'll open up some doors that you're currently keeping shut.

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I feel similar to how the parent commenter feels, but describe it using different words. Therapists and psychiatrists will use similar language, dopamine, motivation, and executive function.

How do you recommend one does this? > I strongly recommend trying to break it

I currently try to hack my main activities to prevent myself from being too lazy to do them. Would be happy to hear your suggestions!

For the typical HN person who might valorize evidence-based living, the starting point is probably learning to:

1. Recognize where you've adopted a belief from little direct evidence,

2. Pay attention to what impact these (inevitably) many beliefs have on your life

3. Stop reinforcing and repeating those that are only there as invisible walls to justify negative or limiting self-image

Even between "dopamine" and "motivation", one belief blames an imagined phyiology that might only be remedied through some therapeutic medicine/practice that may not even exist; the other blames a weak will that you might find some satisfaction (or pleasure) in challenging now and then.

Are either strongly evidenced in one's individual case? No, but if you have to believe one of them, it may as well be the one that lets you wake up some morning and see if you might accomplish something surprising.

I spent many years as a basically spoiled over-paid developer, sitting around with effectively unlimited resources for distraction and definitely, it took some conditioning to recover from it.

It's really not something I can easily recommend, but completing 75hard had quite a significant impact on my approach to a lot of things, and I'm extremely fortunately to have done it. I also practice zazen quite intensively but I'm not sure that's quite as directly useful as 75hard for most people.

Yes, the guy behind it is a lunatic, and the subreddit is a bit of a cult, but something happens to you around day 40 and it sort of 'snapped' me out of it.

You've got this!

For anyone else wondering:

https://andyfrisella.com/blogs/articles/what-is-75-hard

Controversial take but I think the state of therapy/psychiatry has become a bit of a joke over the past handful of years where people have normalized the idea that everyone needs to be speaking to a therapist. With the fact you can shop around for a therapist, and the fact that most people like being told their problems are others' faults, you have an industry that from my view has mostly just taught everyone to externalize blame and pay someone to validate that for them.

Everyone wants to get a diagnosis of ADHD and/or autism so they can spend the rest of their life never growing or improving and living under the pretense that they don't have the ability to do certain things because a professional told them their brain is inherently limited. When in reality these diagnoses are just categorizations of behaviours, not some kind of scientific barrier baked into the coding of the universe.

I think people would be better off not dwelling so much on the "facts" they think they know about their own brains. It's inherently limiting to assume everything your capable of can only come as a result of the function you think your brain operates on.

This is not true.

Honestly, diagnosing for ADHD accelerate the improvement.

It is impossible to fight if you don't know what you're fighting. It enables you to prevent repeated patterns, not chasing your tail in an endless struggle.

You are so right. People imagine everyone going to therapy to cope, but really it's being able to recognize triggers and adapt.

Everyone already does it in some ways - for example, you know you make mistakes when tired tired - you recognize you are tired this moment and decided to reschedule the important activity.

Therapy gives same tool - you recognize you are having an episode and take steps to avoid typical negative outcomes.

Everyone wants to get a diagnosis of ADHD and/or autism so they can spend the rest of their life never growing or improving

If you ever saw someone get an ADHD diagnosis, along with appropriate medication and mental tools, you might not hold this antiquated, bigoted view of others.

    s/dopamine/motivation/g

You're right but the core of my sentiment stays the same

I think my language learning problem is motivation.

Reading this post, that is alot of work, for something that doesn't have clear pay off.

I think it would be cool to be able to speak Spanish and Mandarin(and others) But there isn't that much practicalness for me it especially when everyone speaks English.

Have you ever actually tried to learn a language? I'm learning Korean as a native English speaker. I thought it would be a grind, which it kind of is, but learning new words and grammar is actually really fun. I use anki cards and get a dopamine hit whenever I remember the word correctly.

Yeah, I think OP drank the kool-aid on neurotransmitters.

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