You are a more than competent commentator, Jeremiah, and I can verify that at least one member of your audience is real - the rest of these fellows could be bots, for all I know.
I'm currently in a bit of a rut because I'm not really satisfied with life and I have come across this advice a few times already, but what gets me is that I don't really feel like starting...it's not much of a "I don't know what to do" feeling, it's rather something like "I have an idea of what sort of thing I could try to help me feel better but I really can't get myself to start because it feels insurmountable". I'm a big-time content-consumer in the form of books and I would like to get down to writing something myself, but why bother if I am writing for the sake of writing? I feel like I have nothing remotely interesting to say...I feel awed by the simple fact there are people out there such as you who are able to put out good quality writing on a regular basis because my brain feels so foggy and so drained I can't even come up with a single original thought, let alone the amount necessary to produce a measly post such as this...
I could say this is me wishing I was already good at it without going through the effort of just starting and improving over time, but I guess I have always had a big problem with looking like a fool who doesn't know what they're doing. Maybe that's also stopping other people who struggle with this piece of advice.
Write for yourself not others. Original thoughts are not important. What is important is can you convey valuable thought processes which could help you or anybody else. Write for yourself privately and revisit it after few days and edit. Enjoy the process not the outcome. What Jeremiah has written is not original at all but it is important.
I wish the best for you my fellow human, try doing little things. As simple as making your bed everyday, eat few fruits, walking 5 mins, exercise 2 mins.
Plan before sleeping everyday 2-3 things you will do. Simple acts which make you happy. Things which make you proud that you did them.
Start taking walks. You can go out the door and go right back if you want. But let your feet carry you a little. Find a different route to the places you normally go. Just to see what’s there, what else there is.
Wanted to add a second comment because this has been ping-pong-ing around my brain for a bit now.
The distinction for a lot of people is just taking the first step. It's not a lack of ideas, it's literally just never taking the first step. I'm not some exemplar of a driven person, right? But in my 40ish years on Earth, I have attended a convention at 16 with a press pass, studied abroad, was an indy pro wrestler for 11 years, did some open-mic stand-up comedy a few times, and have done martial arts now for a few years. I am not the most successful person I know at any one of those things. That said each of them has something in common; they usually started with me and some friends joking around about doing them and I just happened to do the first thing, whatever it was. Make the call, go to the info meeting, sign up, ask the right question. The awkwardness that people imagine in new situations is real, but it evaporates for the most part after step #1.
And crucially, each new activity gives you a new way to connect with people over shared experiences, but also let's you speak with some small amount of credibility on different topics. I am pretty non-violent, I think violence is usually dumb, you should avoid fights for many good reasons, etc., but one of the reasons I believe that is BECAUSE I have been in a fight before, and it was indeed dumb and counterproductive. Very often now you get people lecturing on topics they've only engaged with theoretically.
"Nobody, on their death bed, expresses regrets that they tried too many things, took too many chances, or did too much stuff. If they have regrets, it’s almost always about the thing they could have done, but didn’t do. They regret they chance they never took."
This right here has been the guiding principle of my life since I turned, like 18, and I am now 41. I would say I am generally a fairly risk-adverse person, too, so you don't have to be some iconoclast to do it, you just have to ask yourself, "When I am dying, am I more likely to regret this, or when I spent an entire weekend binging some show I can't even remember the name of now?"
That one question can shock you into action if you are honest with yourself in the moment.
I have a normal 9-5 job in manufacturing but I recently took up a second job waiting tables at a Chili's to fund a vacation this summer. And while young people can be annoying to work with, it's also been refreshing to be around people who aren't beaten down by life, who are trying weird, new shit all the time because they don't have everything figured out.
I remember when you made a whole twitter thread on this very topic and it has always stuck with me. I’m not on that site anymore so unfortunately I don’t have access to it so I’m glad you’ve put it down somewhere else.
I struggle with this constantly - a pull toward laziness and consumption, and even though my head keeps saying 'Stop playing Factorio and DO SOMETHING!' the rest of me just wants to stay planted in place making the numbers go up. It's like trying to get water up hill - I naturally want to stay sedentary, and it takes effort to do what I know I should be doing. That was a big part of growing up, and something I wish I picked up on earlier in my life. I think that's something a lot of us humans have to work through - pushing the water up hill, going from a low-friction easier time of just consuming 'content' from ten thousand YT channels and Twitter feeds, to getting up and making better use of our time. For some of us, life imposes itself and forces us to a different track, but for others (like me) there's nothing holding me back and keeping me in place but me.
Also, we're around the same age, and as soon as a paragraph or two passed I thought 'this sounds an awful lot like that Cracked.com New Years article from a while ago...' - I used to go on that site every day, and reading that article all those years ago hit like a bucket of cold water, but it took another decade for the lessons to really sink in.
Over the last few years like so many other software types I've taken up woodworking. It gets me away from the scree, working with my hands, and makes for great gifts - plus it smells really nice.
You are a more than competent commentator, Jeremiah, and I can verify that at least one member of your audience is real - the rest of these fellows could be bots, for all I know.
Everyone but you on the internet is a bot, including me.
Thank you for this post.
I'm currently in a bit of a rut because I'm not really satisfied with life and I have come across this advice a few times already, but what gets me is that I don't really feel like starting...it's not much of a "I don't know what to do" feeling, it's rather something like "I have an idea of what sort of thing I could try to help me feel better but I really can't get myself to start because it feels insurmountable". I'm a big-time content-consumer in the form of books and I would like to get down to writing something myself, but why bother if I am writing for the sake of writing? I feel like I have nothing remotely interesting to say...I feel awed by the simple fact there are people out there such as you who are able to put out good quality writing on a regular basis because my brain feels so foggy and so drained I can't even come up with a single original thought, let alone the amount necessary to produce a measly post such as this...
I could say this is me wishing I was already good at it without going through the effort of just starting and improving over time, but I guess I have always had a big problem with looking like a fool who doesn't know what they're doing. Maybe that's also stopping other people who struggle with this piece of advice.
Write for yourself not others. Original thoughts are not important. What is important is can you convey valuable thought processes which could help you or anybody else. Write for yourself privately and revisit it after few days and edit. Enjoy the process not the outcome. What Jeremiah has written is not original at all but it is important.
I wish the best for you my fellow human, try doing little things. As simple as making your bed everyday, eat few fruits, walking 5 mins, exercise 2 mins.
Plan before sleeping everyday 2-3 things you will do. Simple acts which make you happy. Things which make you proud that you did them.
Start taking walks. You can go out the door and go right back if you want. But let your feet carry you a little. Find a different route to the places you normally go. Just to see what’s there, what else there is.
“Have a bias towards action”
٩( ᐛ )و
Wanted to add a second comment because this has been ping-pong-ing around my brain for a bit now.
The distinction for a lot of people is just taking the first step. It's not a lack of ideas, it's literally just never taking the first step. I'm not some exemplar of a driven person, right? But in my 40ish years on Earth, I have attended a convention at 16 with a press pass, studied abroad, was an indy pro wrestler for 11 years, did some open-mic stand-up comedy a few times, and have done martial arts now for a few years. I am not the most successful person I know at any one of those things. That said each of them has something in common; they usually started with me and some friends joking around about doing them and I just happened to do the first thing, whatever it was. Make the call, go to the info meeting, sign up, ask the right question. The awkwardness that people imagine in new situations is real, but it evaporates for the most part after step #1.
And crucially, each new activity gives you a new way to connect with people over shared experiences, but also let's you speak with some small amount of credibility on different topics. I am pretty non-violent, I think violence is usually dumb, you should avoid fights for many good reasons, etc., but one of the reasons I believe that is BECAUSE I have been in a fight before, and it was indeed dumb and counterproductive. Very often now you get people lecturing on topics they've only engaged with theoretically.
"Nobody, on their death bed, expresses regrets that they tried too many things, took too many chances, or did too much stuff. If they have regrets, it’s almost always about the thing they could have done, but didn’t do. They regret they chance they never took."
This right here has been the guiding principle of my life since I turned, like 18, and I am now 41. I would say I am generally a fairly risk-adverse person, too, so you don't have to be some iconoclast to do it, you just have to ask yourself, "When I am dying, am I more likely to regret this, or when I spent an entire weekend binging some show I can't even remember the name of now?"
That one question can shock you into action if you are honest with yourself in the moment.
I have a normal 9-5 job in manufacturing but I recently took up a second job waiting tables at a Chili's to fund a vacation this summer. And while young people can be annoying to work with, it's also been refreshing to be around people who aren't beaten down by life, who are trying weird, new shit all the time because they don't have everything figured out.
I remember when you made a whole twitter thread on this very topic and it has always stuck with me. I’m not on that site anymore so unfortunately I don’t have access to it so I’m glad you’ve put it down somewhere else.
I struggle with this constantly - a pull toward laziness and consumption, and even though my head keeps saying 'Stop playing Factorio and DO SOMETHING!' the rest of me just wants to stay planted in place making the numbers go up. It's like trying to get water up hill - I naturally want to stay sedentary, and it takes effort to do what I know I should be doing. That was a big part of growing up, and something I wish I picked up on earlier in my life. I think that's something a lot of us humans have to work through - pushing the water up hill, going from a low-friction easier time of just consuming 'content' from ten thousand YT channels and Twitter feeds, to getting up and making better use of our time. For some of us, life imposes itself and forces us to a different track, but for others (like me) there's nothing holding me back and keeping me in place but me.
Also, we're around the same age, and as soon as a paragraph or two passed I thought 'this sounds an awful lot like that Cracked.com New Years article from a while ago...' - I used to go on that site every day, and reading that article all those years ago hit like a bucket of cold water, but it took another decade for the lessons to really sink in.
Over the last few years like so many other software types I've taken up woodworking. It gets me away from the scree, working with my hands, and makes for great gifts - plus it smells really nice.