Found this really useful. Thanks! (I am leaving a comment rather than trying to leave a comment). The clearest example, for me, was the original picture. And the “trying to earn money” analogy was very powerful. Do you think this is also the heart of the Alexander Technique or is that different?
I've been trying a lot lately, rip. I like the tweets in the post, helps connect the ideas for me. Makes me think about my reactions and thoughts to when I read those tweets vs thoughts now.
Feel like I make the discovery of this post in domain specific ways, try to generalize it to other pursuits and then when I take stock later still find myself trying all over the place.
This helps me frame a bunch of things as an educator (parent and more formally).
If I understood correctly I just need to call the kid "POOP!", or more specifically "POOPYFACE!" a few times a day and everyone will be happier. I can do that.
Ok so I think this relates to an idea I had a while ago:
- "Thing"-ifying anything, like making it into a thing that one can be good or bad at, actually CREATES the "Smile!"/"Poop!" dichotomy.
- People are always intending to do a "thing"; it's impossible to intend to do something that's not a "thing" in your mind.
- Therefore, the only way to be "natural"/good/"Poop!"-like at a thing is to be intending to be doing something ELSE.
Examples of this that I've noticed in my life:
- Rob Burbea giving a Dharma talk: Uses really good public speaking tactics: Pausing, slowing down for emphasis, feeling emotion rather than trying to convey emotion. The speaking is 100% natural because the trying/intending is in the direction of conveying the Dharma talk.
- Practicing vs. Playing a fighting game: When practicing, I notice I'm hyper-aware of all of the ways I'm "doing" movement, and it feels clunky and imprecise. But when I'm in game against another person, the movement is totally automatic because I'm focusing on hitting the other player.
Really liked this. Your point about the gym sticks with me, how people perform the act of being fit (I’m going to do 8 reps) and then scroll to distract from that before continuing. There’s no thought to the energy besides some sort of status game/idea of “being fit”.
I noticed I was doing the same thing when it came to practicing a foreign language. I would trying to practice without actually practicing . Wrote about it a little more here
Found this really useful. Thanks! (I am leaving a comment rather than trying to leave a comment). The clearest example, for me, was the original picture. And the “trying to earn money” analogy was very powerful. Do you think this is also the heart of the Alexander Technique or is that different?
Success! Well done. And, good catch, this is precisely what AT is about/is guiding you to, experientially, in my understanding.
I've been trying a lot lately, rip. I like the tweets in the post, helps connect the ideas for me. Makes me think about my reactions and thoughts to when I read those tweets vs thoughts now.
Feel like I make the discovery of this post in domain specific ways, try to generalize it to other pursuits and then when I take stock later still find myself trying all over the place.
This helps me frame a bunch of things as an educator (parent and more formally).
If I understood correctly I just need to call the kid "POOP!", or more specifically "POOPYFACE!" a few times a day and everyone will be happier. I can do that.
Proud to be of service 😌
but seriously- this is useful and I'll need to think where I'm making this error
Ok so I think this relates to an idea I had a while ago:
- "Thing"-ifying anything, like making it into a thing that one can be good or bad at, actually CREATES the "Smile!"/"Poop!" dichotomy.
- People are always intending to do a "thing"; it's impossible to intend to do something that's not a "thing" in your mind.
- Therefore, the only way to be "natural"/good/"Poop!"-like at a thing is to be intending to be doing something ELSE.
Examples of this that I've noticed in my life:
- Rob Burbea giving a Dharma talk: Uses really good public speaking tactics: Pausing, slowing down for emphasis, feeling emotion rather than trying to convey emotion. The speaking is 100% natural because the trying/intending is in the direction of conveying the Dharma talk.
- Practicing vs. Playing a fighting game: When practicing, I notice I'm hyper-aware of all of the ways I'm "doing" movement, and it feels clunky and imprecise. But when I'm in game against another person, the movement is totally automatic because I'm focusing on hitting the other player.
Really liked this. Your point about the gym sticks with me, how people perform the act of being fit (I’m going to do 8 reps) and then scroll to distract from that before continuing. There’s no thought to the energy besides some sort of status game/idea of “being fit”.
I noticed I was doing the same thing when it came to practicing a foreign language. I would trying to practice without actually practicing . Wrote about it a little more here
https://open.substack.com/pub/lookupandsee/p/1300-days?r=48ue3k&utm_medium=ios
Excellent.