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The quiet art of attention

(billwear.github.io)
865 points billwear | 2 comments | 13 Oct 24 15:01 UTC | HN request time: 0.404s | source
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mistermann ◴[13 Oct 24 17:20 UTC] No.41829740[source]▶
As much as I love the sentiment, these sorts of pieces (written or verbal) always contain contradictions, usually important ones relative to the claims.
replies(2): >>41829985 #>>41831299 #
youoy ◴[13 Oct 24 20:28 UTC] No.41831299[source]▶
For me contradictions are unavoidable when speaking about the mind. Usually the aim is not to give you specific objective truths, but to evoke something in your mind that feels evidently true to you. That is why usually the most effective communication tools that are used are metaphors. And communicating that way correctly is very very difficult. That means that most of these sort of pieces are going to be very bad... But I actually think that this one is not that bad
replies(1): >>41831803 #
mistermann ◴[13 Oct 24 21:31 UTC] No.41831803[source]▶
> For me contradictions are unavoidable when speaking about the mind.

"It (seems like it) is my opinion that {some opinion}" has very few ways of going wrong, and has the side benefit of reminding one that they're dealing with a subjective map, which is in part the goal of most authors of such pieces, imho anyways.

I think mindfulness gang could up their game.

replies(1): >>41832241 #
1. johnnyanmac ◴[13 Oct 24 22:26 UTC] No.41832241[source]▶
It's a writing choice at the end of the day. If you have to spend so much time reminding people that this is your opinion, you're going to get the same criicism of pacing and meandering that any other fruity prose does to people who want to get straight to the point.

Sometimes you just need a footnote in your profile of "thoughts are of my own" and to not worry about the peanut gallery.

replies(1): >>41833663 #
2. mistermann ◴[14 Oct 24 02:25 UTC] No.41833663[source]▶
If one follows this general approach (most do in my experience), contradictions may indeed be (metaphysically) unavoidable.