I understand our instant gratification monkeys can stop us from enjoying effort. And intrinsic reward from effort is perpetual while extrinsic reward is a crutch. But how does one become a monk? I've heard about dopamine fasting or detox. I think the first insight I recall on this topic is from Nir Eyal's Indistractable, about noticing your escapism when an activity is uncomfortable. And his "surfing the urge" is like a buddhist idea that given 10 minutes of "sitting" in a feeling of the "pain of wanting", it goes away. And I've heard Joel Goldstein characterize it is a muscle you can train. I was recently reading about Allen Hillman 55 year old , one of the fewer than 2,000
who have swam the English Channel, and how he was successfully able to get into and stay in the zone for most of his 11+ hour swim. That's a long time so after I am sure he felt great and I know it is the journey and not the destination and I often also feel the calm stoic trance that Matthew Inman describes, which others may see as "unhappiness".
But they call it "delayed gratification" for a reason right? No? Is the marshmallow experiment last one standing an endurance competition or is it more like musical chairs where if you're standing you lose? In an interview I heard longevity expert, David Sinclair saying he gave up dessert at 40 but that it is okay to steal dessert. And given what I understand from Huberman about how dopamine is a reinforcement and not a reward, that if occasionally stealing a dessert , then there is no habit loop to form since the ice cream say is not a reinforcement . And Huberman has also said, even for work achievements, he tries to only celebrate his wins half the time. That's when I bought the three D20s that sit on my desk, in hope of breaking some of my own reincorcement crutch-loops 😅.
Probably David Goggins is the only monk? One day I would like to learn about this. Nir Eyal wrote also, yea it's not that willpower is a finite resource, but that your perception of its finiteness is also a constraint.
Affirmational for me has been (also) in Indistractable and Manoush Zomorodi's Bored and Brilliant and Ali Abdaal's Feel Good Productivity, celebrating curiosity and play and fun as the answer to deeply dig into everything and anything you do. The five why's and how about the ten "hmmms"? And burn out, I think I have read Arthur C Brooks characterize often, as that lack of connection, agency, autonomy, impact, fulfillment and growth. But I do like how in Feel Good Productivity, Ali underlines the obvious other form of burnout is simply getting tired no matter how purpose-driven and impactful your contributions feel. So is rest enough? If Goggins bends his willpower into submission by force, I think Stephen Wolfram sounds like he has dominated his neural energy into some kind of forever burning flame (pardon the Olympics reference). He seems to know precisely how to navigate his curiosity muscles in a way that he doesn't lose during the explore and exploit balance.
I appreciate being able to look up to all of these distant mentors in the monk arts, (forgetting to name drop Tim Ferris among the best of these such stoic students), and I understand that at the "end of the day" we alone must nurture our mindless mindfulness gardens 😀 to tame that 🙈.
who have swam the English Channel, and how he was successfully able to get into and stay in the zone for most of his 11+ hour swim. That's a long time so after I am sure he felt great and I know it is the journey and not the destination and I often also feel the calm stoic trance that Matthew Inman describes, which others may see as "unhappiness".
But they call it "delayed gratification" for a reason right? No? Is the marshmallow experiment last one standing an endurance competition or is it more like musical chairs where if you're standing you lose? In an interview I heard longevity expert, David Sinclair saying he gave up dessert at 40 but that it is okay to steal dessert. And given what I understand from Huberman about how dopamine is a reinforcement and not a reward, that if occasionally stealing a dessert , then there is no habit loop to form since the ice cream say is not a reinforcement . And Huberman has also said, even for work achievements, he tries to only celebrate his wins half the time. That's when I bought the three D20s that sit on my desk, in hope of breaking some of my own reincorcement crutch-loops 😅.
Probably David Goggins is the only monk? One day I would like to learn about this. Nir Eyal wrote also, yea it's not that willpower is a finite resource, but that your perception of its finiteness is also a constraint.
Affirmational for me has been (also) in Indistractable and Manoush Zomorodi's Bored and Brilliant and Ali Abdaal's Feel Good Productivity, celebrating curiosity and play and fun as the answer to deeply dig into everything and anything you do. The five why's and how about the ten "hmmms"? And burn out, I think I have read Arthur C Brooks characterize often, as that lack of connection, agency, autonomy, impact, fulfillment and growth. But I do like how in Feel Good Productivity, Ali underlines the obvious other form of burnout is simply getting tired no matter how purpose-driven and impactful your contributions feel. So is rest enough? If Goggins bends his willpower into submission by force, I think Stephen Wolfram sounds like he has dominated his neural energy into some kind of forever burning flame (pardon the Olympics reference). He seems to know precisely how to navigate his curiosity muscles in a way that he doesn't lose during the explore and exploit balance.
I appreciate being able to look up to all of these distant mentors in the monk arts, (forgetting to name drop Tim Ferris among the best of these such stoic students), and I understand that at the "end of the day" we alone must nurture our mindless mindfulness gardens 😀 to tame that 🙈.