Comments on: Not Noticing

By: G

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 21:10:29 +0000

“It’s more severe in people like me.”

???

Sounds like defensive fragility – means you’re wrong somewhere, even if your opponent is ‘an idiot’. Ask why you have this hair-trigger.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 02:05:33 +0000

Haven’t visited your blog in while Ryan, love the redesign.

Should also mention, thanks for the heads up on Meditations. Bought it off your blog months back and loved it … but re-reading it this past May, well, it just about saved my life as I went through one of the most difficult trials of my life.

Rock on bud

-Anthony/Dream

By: Casey

Casey — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 22:44:01 +0000

I love the new bullshit-free layout. Great write-up, and thanks for the new reading list.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:44:31 +0000

Thanks for sharing this Ryan, it’s a nice reminder for me, particularly today.

Do you ever have trouble letting go of things? Even after I recognize how silly and inconsequential some of the things I hold onto are, I still have trouble prying open my grasp on them.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 18:17:48 +0000

You just have to keep in mind that those people are idiots, or they are projecting their own frustrations outward and it prevents them from understanding things. But yeah, most of what I’m writing is to myself with the idea that maybe it applies to other people too.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 06:55:35 +0000

“Always shun that which makes you angry.” I wouldn’t say “always” shun, but I can see his point. Freud basically reiterated this in his theory of hedonism.

I think it’s better to not avoid that which makes you angry but to control one’s emotions. Avoiding entails close-mindedness, not the ideal type of thinking for rationality nor emotional responses.

I have some questions for you, Ryan.

1) Do you recommend avoiding the event (external trigger) or the response (internal trigger)? “Meaning, you identify the triggers and you opt out of being a part of pulling them.” By this statement, it appears as if you avoid the (negative?) emotions that can arise from actions you do not like. Other statements such as “don’t listen” and “don’t even open it” show that you want to avoid the external stimuli.

2) This is an honest question. I have read your blog for a while now, and I see the verbal attacks in your general direction from some of your readers. Not that those matter specifically. What is the purpose of your messages? I have always read them in the sense that they are a personal diary of yours written in a manner that others could possibly gain some tools to use for personal insight (with the help of Skeptical philosophy). From the attacks that you receive (based on your messages or presentation or whatever it is that people decide to attack you with), I can tell that others do not read your blog with the same thought process. I’m interested.

Anyway, keep up the deep thinking. Not too many others share it (not to mention the number of people who refrain from actually doing it).

By: jonthn

jonthn — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:48:28 +0000

I like the new layout man. I’m in politics and I receive emails from all sorts of people. One guy is particularly adamant about having me read global warming apologetics despite the fact that I “believe” already.

I could have pulled that trigger, shot off an email, but my inner stoic resisted.