Hacker News Reader

Comment by mapcars | Hacker News Reader

> Regarding gym beast - it has few effects: - you eat bigger portions - you go to gym more often - you try harder

I mean there is nothing stopping one from doing all that without thinking "I'm a gym beast now". I feel that its more about breaking the mental structure one is used to, eg "I'm not good at the gym", in that case it might help, but I would argue that instead of replacing one with another why not drop it completely and just do what is needed for the goal one has set. If you do the right things the results will always follow.

View on HN

You're not wrong. But only right in a "if you're homeless, buy a house" sense.

"stop having low self-esteem bro" is not an constructive advice.

We human are peculiar in that our perception of things (about ourselves) often affect the outcome. "it won't work anyway..." mindset when starting usually end up being a source of self sabotage. Probably somewhere along the line with protecting ego or creating surrogate objective such as "See it didn't work. *I* was right". Creating a vicious loop.

Blind optimism have shown, to many, is a good antidote. Some enforced enlightenment or rationalist talking points usually don't

Per Scott Adams' "Passion is Bullshit", what really helps with motivation is to succeed already. If you have good luck and your initial efforts pay off, you'll probably want to build on that. If you have bad luck and it all collapses, you'll probably want to stop. The lesson there is, I don't actually know. Try sometimes maybe but don't overdo it?

If you're reduced to the philosophies of Scott Adams, you're not succeeding.

Why's that? I read that chapter of his book and liked the idea expressed. You got a beef with Scott Adams?

Plenty of people have a beef with how Scott Adam has conducted himself. Are you unaware of his polarizing positions over the last decade?

Yes, entirely unaware. I had a hunch it would be that he said or did some terrible thing, but I don't suppose it diminishes the value of this concept about motivation, does it?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com