What I suspect is that I spent the last several years running on fear, and I spent most of last year running on hope. Hope felt a lot better. It felt incredible! But it turns out hope has all of the same problems as fear.
-
Show this thread
-
The shape of my hope was this: all I have to do is this feelings stuff, and then people will love me. And then I won't feel so alone. And then everything will finally be okay.
2 replies 0 retweets 25 likesShow this thread -
QC Retweeted QC
QC added,
QC @QiaochuYuanThe problem with being powered by hope is that you can't look at things that you sense would cause you to lose hope. The hope becomes intertwined with a fear of losing hope. You get addicted to it and it distorts your behavior. I hurt someone I cared deeply about this way.Show this thread1 reply 0 retweets 21 likesShow this thread -
It took the almost complete dissolution of my most important group of friends for me to begin to understand that hope wasn't the answer any more than fear. That, in fact, there was nothing I could do that would make it all okay.
2 replies 1 retweet 27 likesShow this thread -
I have been slowly losing hope over the last year, and I want to be very clear that I think this is progress. I don't know how to do it. I don't know how to do the things I want to do in the world without risking hurting people. I don't know, yet, how to act without hope.
6 replies 1 retweet 36 likesShow this thread -
What I do know is that there is something I care about, and that something matters.
2 replies 0 retweets 24 likesShow this thread -
I'm gonna spend a decent chunk of the day trying to say nice things to strangers on Kind Words if anyone would like to join me:https://store.steampowered.com/app/1070710/Kind_Words_lo_fi_chill_beats_to_write_to/ …
6 replies 1 retweet 38 likesShow this thread -
Commentary on this thread from my friend and mentor Pete Michaud on Facebook, re: emotional capacity, reproduced with permission: https://www.facebook.com/qiaochu/posts/10156289323935811?comment_id=10156303178865811 …pic.twitter.com/W4nC7Hq96Y
2 replies 8 retweets 24 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @QiaochuYuan
Very interesting! But how would you measure the "bigness" of emotions if not by contrast to the strength of your system 2, willpower, etc?
1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes -
Replying to @yashkaf
i'm not sure, but one idea is to look at the strength of the physiological response, e.g. increased heart rate, changes in body temperature, shaking, etc.
1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
seems to me different people could have the same physiological response at various disaster scales. toddler breaks a toy, failed a class, got dumped, lost your job. Their physiology reads the same but the size of emotion they're holding differs vastly.
-
-
Replying to @brownian19 @yashkaf
what do you mean by "size of emotion" here if not the physiological response?
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @QiaochuYuan @yashkaf
ah, I mean the "complexity of the situation" they're holding.
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes - 2 more replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.