
Why do Anything? - diginomsa
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/opinion/why-do-anything.html
======
noobermin
What a curious thing it is to be a strange loop, to contemplate your own
existence, or, in this case, to contemplate non-existence of yourself and
other things? This, I know, Hydrogen nuclei in the sun fusing to make Helium
don't give two shits about their existence, neither do bacteria, or fawns, or
ceiling fans, or cement blocks.

The ideal is always a strange thing too. Mathematics works completely fine for
most things, but the moment you start imagining "complete logical systems",
"ideal programs" that halt when any program input to them halt, you find that
your ideal can't exist. Yet, the Hydrogens still fuse, bacteria continue to
multiple, fawns prance, ceiling fans spin, cement blocks, not sure what they
do in verb form, but they remain heavy I guess...

I recently retook Myers-Briggs and it places me at an extreme intuitive
person. MB has scientific issues, but forgetting that, that makes me more
susceptible to big, abstracting thinking like this than polar opposite
"sensing" people, more concrete thinkers are. However, I've had to learn as a
physicist that at the end of the day, things do exist, move around, interact
whether I care to ponder them or not, and that I have to sometimes cull my
dreaming or ideals and what could be and to look around at what actually
exists and think about that too.

~~~
Kenji
_at the end of the day, things do exist, move around, interact whether I care
to ponder them or not_

How do you know? Maybe things out of your sight that you don't ponder about
cease to exist for brief times.

~~~
a3n
I don't think the brain is powerful enough to maintain and project state for
all the things we can observe these days.

~~~
drdeca
The brain?

I don't think George Berkeley would have attributed that to /the brain/.

If one is considering whether there are objects independent of the objects
being perceived, I would think that doubting whether the brain is what
facilitates(?) our perception would also be questioned.

------
mccoyspace
This is a variation on Apophatic theology [0], the belief that the Devine can
only be understood by what it is not. A great example of it can be found in Ch
4 & 5 of "The Mystical Theology" by Dionysius the Areopagite, circa 500CE.
[1].

In Western thought, these ideas are closely tied to Plato's Theory of Forms
[2].

[0]
[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mysticism/#2](http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mysticism/#2)
[1]
[http://www.esotericarchives.com/oracle/dionys1.htm#chap4](http://www.esotericarchives.com/oracle/dionys1.htm#chap4)
[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Forms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Forms)

------
Apocryphon
If procrastination is anxiety towards the imperfection of creation, maybe the
best way around it is to adopt the idea that all creation are iterative steps
towards perfection- even failed steps.

~~~
johnchristopher
Well, see Tal Ben Shahar's outlook on it:

> Since Ben-Shahar had come so far in the competitive world of squash and also
> in his academic career, he was able to glimpse what others call
> “perfection.” In the process, however, he realized that this goal was an
> illusion.

> “I have not reached perfection,” he admits, “as it’s unattainable.”

> What is attainable, he discovered, was the power to reframe experiences
> based on what he calls “optimal” outcomes. “Perfect is ideal, something that
> cannot be improved,” he suggests. “Optimal is the best possible [outcome]
> given the constraints of reality.”

> Ben-Shahar concedes that optimization is not always easy to achieve, either.
> He claims it can only be achieved by “learning to fail [and] by accepting
> painful emotions.” On the other hand, this new perspective ultimately leads
> to greater reward because it emphasizes the acceptance of all that is
> positive in one’s life.

> “It is about putting ourselves on the line, trying, falling down, and
> getting up again,” Ben-Shahar explains. By “getting up,” Ben-Shahar says
> that we end up higher than when we began, at least in terms of our own
> perspective.

> While optimization may be more attractive and attainable than perfection,
> Ben-Shahar cautions that its achievement involves challenge and potential
> pain. “It’s important to keep in mind that the change cannot happen
> perfectly,” he says. “There are inevitably ups and downs.”

> Optimizationalists focus more on the ups and do not get as distracted or
> discouraged by unavoidable “failures.” Ben-Shahar has been able to formulate
> this idea in a way that works for modern Zen masters like fellow professor
> Jon Kabat-Zinn (whom Ben-Shahar quotes liberally in his book) and college
> freshmen alike. No wonder, then, that Ben-Shahar’s lectures regularly set
> attendance records and have encouraged even the perfection-seeking students
> of the Ivy League to reconsider their lives and how they evaluate them.

[http://www.jpost.com/Features/In-Thespotlight/A-former-
Israe...](http://www.jpost.com/Features/In-Thespotlight/A-former-Israeli-
squash-champions-positive-spin)

~~~
mbrock
Nitpick but Jon Kabat-Zinn is not a Zen Master by any stretch of the
imagination.

------
walter_bishop
Slartibartfast: "Science has achieved some wonderful things of course, but I'd
far rather be happy than right any day."

Arthur: "And are you?"

Slartibartfast: "No. That's where it all falls down of course."

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPWnitDyIOw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPWnitDyIOw)

------
sunstone
Because it's hard to get girls if you do nothing but sit on your ass.
Existentialism 101 bro.

------
dgreensp
No one needs this advice. We already worship ideas. Especially on HN, which is
full of perfectionistic, idealistic founders or one-day founders who will
probably spend the first year or years of their start-up lovingly gazing at
their technical vision, while their "perfect" idea and "perfect" product
mysteriously don't resonate with any customers.

I get it, though. In my teens and 20s, procrastination was the closest thing I
had to meditation or serenity. This is the case when you are very, very
anxious all the time, and your head is full of "I should do this," "I should
do that" \-- tyrannical dictates that won't go away, but at least you can
ignore them for periods of time and try to nurture your authentic self a bit.
However, I would not praise this situation for being more dramatic (more
glorious!) than true calm.

~~~
nibs
Does it go away after a while?

~~~
dgreensp
My anxiety has slowly lessened as I've gotten older. I'm now 32 and married
with kids. I attribute it to getting out on my own, growing up, and letting
things go.

Get out: For most of us, there was something toxic about our home or school
environment. It might be obvious, or it might be something you have to dig
out. You may still be in a toxic environment, where people undermine your
sense of who you are and discourage real growth. (In fact, most school and
work environments have this quality, but it makes a big difference how you
take it and what you're doing with the rest of your hours.) For me, I had to
get some serious distance from my parents and get out of grad school. Get out,
and you'll begin to heal, which is a process that takes years.

Grow up: Take ownership of your body, your living space, your time, and so on.
Clean your apartment. Go to the gym. Get a real job. Enjoy hard, meaningful
work. Have real responsibilities. A lot of people seem to want to avoid
growing up. Have friends and hobbies. Stop coasting on the advantages that
launched you into the world (money, grades, connections, accomplishments,
etc.).

Letting things go: Every once in a while, you'll be relieved to find you just
don't care about something anymore. This is a known side effect of getting
older and could be biological. You don't care as much what people think of
you. You don't care about some old grudge or embarrassment you've been
clinging on to. You don't care what you thought your life would be. You just
live for now.

------
platz
I think procrastination is simply a meachanism to avoid dealing with
stressors, and sometimes too goes to far and becomes habitual.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
I think procrastination is something we've be taught to believe is bad, where
as I'm with Naht Hanh on this one: we don't need any reason to sit, we can
just sit because we enjoy sitting. We don't need to be avoiding anything, or
trying to achieve anything.

We don't need to _always_ be achieving something or working toward something,
or putting something off. That thing we think we should be doing? Well, if you
leave it till the last minute it will only take a minute to do.

Yeah sure, hand in the assignment on time, fix the leaking roof, but it
doesn't all have to be done _right now_.

~~~
platz
this sounds like you've not suffered from acute procrastination if it has not
negatively affected your life.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
Auto-resolving low grade acute procrastination, for sure. Chronic low grade
procrastination, for sure.

Severe acute? Probably.

It's the severe chronic you need to look out for.

------
Anthony-G
As a procrastinator – and a perfectionist – I enjoyed reading that article.
However, I lack the imagination to properly contemplate things in their
idealised pre-actualised state – so I can’t justify my procrastination on
philosophical grounds.

As is the custom on Hacker News, I thought I’d comment on the design of the
page. This is the first article I’ve read from the mobile version of the New
York Times website – and I love it. Firstly, it works really well with my 9
year old laptop (running Lubuntu with Firefox and NoScript). It’s so elegant
in its simplicity and lack of clutter. The typography is beautiful and refined
(with proper em-dashes and typographic quotes). The width of the column of
text is ideal for reading. The links are underlined blue. Jakob Nielsen would
approve.

------
FuNe
I'm not proficient in Philosophy but I think that we just select to draw the
line at some point and accept that perceived things are such and such. AFAIK
there is no way to even logically assert that other people exist (solipsism if
i recall right) but it would make no sense to go that way at least according
to our biological substratum. It makes sense to just assume that such dead-end
philosophic avenues are not the way to go. As long as none of them proves
itself more correct than the more 'realistic/pragmatic' alternatives we can go
about just fine.

------
bwang29
So is a startup ideas' ideal state also when it is being conjured but not yet
made?

------
thyrsus
It is only in extended moments of rage and sadness that I've considered the
non-existence of the universe an attractive state - and then been angry at
such megalomania. Perhaps its because I'm Western, Educated, Industrialized,
Rich, and Democratic[0] that I've never been sympathetic to ideas of nirvana,
but only considered idleness/rest/meditation/sleep as a means to some end. To
embrace it beyond that seems suicidal and mentally ill.

[0] [http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-
dish/archive/2010/10/wester...](http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-
dish/archive/2010/10/western-educated-industrialized-rich-and-
democratic/181667/)

~~~
dredmorbius
The universe did not choose to exist either. We have no right to complain.

\-- Sakari Maaranen

------
skybrian
The things that are truly optional are not the things a procrastinator worries
about.

~~~
bcook
Isn't everything optional?

It just depends how much you are willing to lose.

~~~
platz
you're saying the procrastinator makes an analytical choice to lose their
drivers liscence because they didn't choose to pay their accumulated parking
tickets?

This line of thinking presumes far too much rationality in this process.

------
mjklin
Memo to myself: Do the dumb things I gotta do. Touch the puppet head

------
jokoon
Basically we could have the machines do everything, but we prefer having
people working so that the wealthy can be even more rich.

Politically idleness it not acceptable yet.

------
rdiddly
Ever since the last rock band I played in, the thing I enjoy most now is
dreaming up various stunt bands with funny names. "Wouldn't it be fun to build
a band around [this or that name or concept]." But I'll never actually do
them, because I know in very concrete and experiential terms how much hassle
is involved in putting a band together, rehearsing it, keeping it together
etc. and how it always seems to take some unpredicted course, sometimes for
the better but usually for the worse. Whereas my ideas in my head just stay
how they are. Never realized I was a Gnostic whose thinking has respected
philosophical underpinnings. I just thought I was a lazy perfectionist.

So, bands like Donnie K'Bob and the Shawarmy Gyroes, Fat Man and the Little
Boys, Messmaker, Paper Jam and Proper Fucking English will just have to live
in my mind. Sorry to disappoint all you thronging millions out there. That
doesn't stop someone else from coming along and ruining those ideas of course,
but _I 'M_ not gonna be the one!

Edit to add: Rickety Chair and the Loose Stools

------
lingben
interesting ideas, perhaps the closest we may come to doing 'nothing' is
meditation

------
Cypher
Why is it behind a paywall...

------
jwatte
Deleted -- wrong article

------
ChoHag
Why not?

------
Disruptive_Dave
> the state of perfection that precedes actualization.

i.e. "pre-revenue" :)

------
yawaramin
Because what we do will be observed. Quantum uncertainty translates almost
directly to conscious human uncertainty at the macro level.

------
coldtea
> _Cioran is certainly one. For Cioran, who died in 1995, there was something
> incomparably worse than death — “the catastrophe of birth_

If I find anything "incomparably worse than death" is the constant whining of
Cioran -- the original inventor of "first world's problems" so to speak, who
had critical admiration and a cushy life on top.

I'm all for pessimism and even people contemplating the meaningless of life,
nihilism, suicide, etc. But Cioran was such a bore at that...

~~~
Jimmy
Cioran is certainly the most boring and derivative philosopher I'm familiar
with. I don't know why any of his works are remembered at all.

