The Higher Life | Hacker News Reader

The Higher Life

newyorker.com

50 pointsgwintrob12 comments

From the article, ".. Stanford study .. demonstrated that most workplace stress is caused by things like corporate dysfunction and job insecurity—not by “unmindful employees.”

Corporations like mindfulness, he said, because it “keeps us within the fences of the neoliberal capitalist paradigm. It’s saying, ‘It’s your problem, get with the program, fix your stress, and get back to work!’”

This quote is gold. "Be mindful of the stress that you're causing yourself, but ignore the stress that we're causing you."

It's similar to the reframing of corporate "bank fraud" as individual "identity theft", https://youtube.com/watch?v=oOQBpHN_kS0

Ah yes... there is such a lot of that around. I recall a "work-life balance" seminar held from 7-8pm on a Friday.

(I'd like to think that anyone who turned up was just told to go away and get some work-life balance, but knowing the company involved, I don't think so...)

> keeps us within the fences of the neoliberal capitalist paradigm

That's because the original practices and teachings have been adulterated and heavily re-contextualized. The original context is extraordinarily hostile to Communism, Capitalism, progress, pragmatism, goals, modern society, domestic society, the economy, etc...

Pierre Turlur has an excellent criticism of this particular appropriation, "The Dharma is utterly useless" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvmgpyVcYJc

Where I work, we haven't gotten to the mindfulness phase yet, but we're working on something called the "mood elevator". For a long time, I questioned why I hated it so much (as well as mindfulness), while finding value in basic concepts. Being aware at all times, keeping track of your emotions and trying to remain positive.

I then had a breakthrough when I was looking at the (in)famous productivity vs. wages chart. All of these efforts are nothing more than an attempt to get us to work more without paying more. Rather than seek to identify the real issues in a work place, rather than seek to change your working culture, it's much easier to sprinkle your employees with positive pop psych shit and tell them they are empowered.

I use headspace every day. It's easy to follow and extremely helpful. It's a fad right now, sure, but at least it's a useful fad.

Pro tip: if you VPN onto their site from a European server, you'll get the Euro prices, which are significantly cheaper than USD prices.

I use it daily. One thing that impressed me right away was the engaging visual and interaction design. I'm surprised to read the intended user is male--most "masculine" design seems heavy and dark in palette, while Headspace relies on nearly pastel tints.

They're in Venice Beach, they may just be using the palette and style they know.

It lost me at "TED"

A Venice Beach surfer cashes in with an iphone app. Just go surfing, yo.

    Admirable is he, who when he
    sees lightning, does not say
    "Life goes by like a flash".

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