Mentally Strong People: The 13 Things They Avoid | Hacker News Reader

Mentally Strong People: The 13 Things They Avoid

forbes.com

40 pointsFunky_Donkey17 comments

Is it just me or is there a higher cognitive load because the headlines are written in the negative? I know the headline is "13 things to avoid" but I would have preferred to read the list phrased in the positive.

Instead of "Shy Away from Change" it would say "Never Shy Away from Change" or "Embrace Change".

Instead of "Give Up After Failure," "Use Failure as a Chance to Improve"

Maybe you're just not mentally strong enough ;)

Obsessive over details :)

user24: good one :)

Nope, I thought of the exact same thing you said. It was confusing that the headline differentiated from the subtext.

14) This list

Or, in fact, click-bait internet "top 10" lists in general.

To be fair, this list is actually pretty good and something many people would do well to read (and "understand").

I can assure you if you have mental problems reading top 10 lists on the internet won't help you. Unfortunately. Most people with problems I know (including me) read several books and know pretty well where the problem is. Acting on it is the hard part.

Seems kind of like a giant "fuck you" to the non-mentally strong (mentally weak?). Kind of like a "Look at all the things you can't do!"

Is the top one "Worrying about things mentally strong people might avoid"? and are the rest blank?

Never mind then eh...

Do we need to know Ayn Rand to 'truly get this' ridiculous list? Coz it sure seems like self-preservation/-idolatry is the goal here.

Fact: you cannot live without other humans.

weak article for the front page of HN. No real insight, only a somewhat desirable list of qualities we all have bits of to varying degrees.

And it's a bit black and white, I'm sure you'll find cases of people benefiting from resenting other success and using to propel themselves or by expecting immediate results they don't dwell on failing ventures... if you hit the comment first I wouldn't recommend reading this.

This is almost entirely a list of tautologies and over generalizations, I can't imagine it being useful or actionable for anyone.

Fit people: The 13 Things They Avoid,

1. Over Eating

2. Not Exercising

3. Getting Fat

To be more precise they're not tautologies but endless variations of one rule which would be something like "ignore unactionable sitations". And then endless expansion on what it means to be unactionable or the opposite of actionable, or what ignore means, or what is a situation, examples, etc.

The fit people thing would be harder, depending on your local definition of fit, it would probably be something like "exercise often" followed by 15 paragraphs of what is the definition of exercise, or the definition of often, or "can't exercise safely and effectively if you're fat, so don't be fat", and helpful tips for noobs like "don't go long distance swimming if the water temp is below 40F" or "don't go marathon running by yourself in a deserted area with no water when the air temp is over 120F" and similar. Not to mention "lifting a beer can in front of the TV is not exercise" and stuff like that. Shouldn't say things like this too loud; they'll hear and get ideas and this will be a linkbait article tomorrow, somewhere.

Most of these also fit in a "things rich able-bodied people don't need to worry about" list.

Some "5 hour Energy" is all I need to be mentally strong.

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