Conversation

Feb 21, 2021

there can genuinely be a cost to using self-help / mind-hacking / therapeutic / transformative techniques that are okay but not that good; they can sorta help you while also causing subtle forms of damage you have to deal with using better techniques

Isaac Lewis

@isaac_lewis

Feb 25, 2021

I think this is a genius take. On the same note, what do you think of

@pjeby

's writings?

QC (in Berlin 7/29-??? w/ COVID

Replying to

and

i like a lot of his stuff and it's been thought-provoking. i read through part of his "self-help myth" recently and it was very thought-provoking and also i have complicated objections to some of it that won't fit well in tweets maybe

10:47 AM · Feb 26, 2021Twitter Web App

Replying to

and

I actually stopped distributing that one years ago because it's maybe 50% insight porn? The core idea was a useful stepping stone to other things, but it's no longer canon (i.e., not something I encourage people to read to actually solve anything)

PJ Eby

@pjeby

Feb 26, 2021

The idea of long-term loops is now largely replaced with much shorter term ones: the immediate mental flinch away from something unpleasant to less-unpleasant (e.g. guilting yourself, rehashing prior plans or dreaming of perfect futures) has a lot more impact.

Show replies