What is Digg?147 Comments
- SmackMyMac, on 10/11/2007, -3/+130It's a Jump to conclusions mat.
You see it's a mat, with a bunch of conclusions on it, that you can jump to. - YacozA, on 10/11/2007, -4/+113hey lifehack,
how about "10 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR SERVER" - sockpuppets, on 10/11/2007, -3/+53Many of our problems come from within our own minds. They aren’t caused by events, bad luck, or other people. We cause them through our own poor mental habits. Here are 10 habits you should set aside right away to free yourself from the many problems each one will be causing you.
* Stop jumping to conclusions. There are two common ways this habit increases people’s difficulties. First, they assume that they know what is going to happen, so they stop paying attention and act on their assumption instead. Human beings are lousy fortune-tellers. Most of what they assume is wrong. That makes the action wrong too. The second aspect of this habit is playing the mind-reader and assuming you know why people do what they do or what they’re thinking. Wrong again, big time. More relationships are destroyed by this particular kind of stupidity than by any other.
* Don’t dramatize. Lots of people inflate small setbacks into life-threatening catastrophes and react accordingly. This habit makes mountains out of molehills and gives people anxieties that either don’t exist or are so insignificant they aren’t worth worrying about anyway. Why do they do it? Who knows? Maybe to make themselves feel and seem more important. Whatever the reason, it’s silly as well as destructive.
* Don’t invent rules. A huge proportion of those “oughts” and “shoulds” that you carry around are most likely needless. All that they do for you is make you feel nervous or guilty. What’s the point? When you use these imaginary rules on yourself, you clog your mind with petty restrictions and childish orders. And when you try to impose them on others, you make yourself into a bully, a boring nag, or a self-righteous bigot.
* Avoid stereotyping or labeling people or situations. The words you use can trip you up. Negative and critical language produces the same flavor of thinking. Forcing things into pre-set categories hides their real meaning and limits your thinking to no purpose. See what’s there. Don’t label. You’ll be surprised at what you find.
* Quit being a perfectionist. Life isn’t all or nothing, black or white. Many times, good enough means exactly what it says. Search for the perfect job and you’ll likely never find it. Meanwhile, all the others will look worse than they are. Try for the perfect relationship and you’ll probably spend your life alone. Perfectionism is a mental sickness that will destroy all your pleasure and send you in search of what can never be attained.
* Don’t over-generalize. One or two setbacks are not a sign of permanent failure. The odd triumph doesn’t turn you into a genius. A single event—good or bad—or even two or three don’t always point to a lasting trend. Usually things are just what they are, nothing more.
* Don’t take things so personally. Most people, even your friends and colleagues, aren’t talking about you, thinking about you, or concerned with you at all for 99% of the time. The majority of folk in your organization or neighborhood have probably never heard of you and don’t especially want to. The ups and downs of life, the warmth and coldness of others, aren’t personal at all. Pretending that they are will only make you more miserable than is needed.
* Don’t assume your emotions are trustworthy. How you feel isn’t always a good indicator of how things are. Just because you feel it, that doesn’t make it true. Sometimes that emotion comes from nothing more profound than being tired, hungry, annoyed, or about to get a head-cold. The future won’t change because you feel bad—nor because you feel great. Feelings may be true, but they aren’t the truth.
* Don’t let life get you down. Keep practicing being optimistic. If you expect bad things in your life and work, you’ll always find them. A negative mind-set is like looking at the world through distorting, grimy lenses. You spot every blemish and overlook or discount everything else. It’s amazing what isn’t there until you start to look for it. Of course, if you decide to look for signs of positive things, you’ll find those too.
* Don’t hang on to the past. This is my most important suggestion of all: let go and move on. Most of the anger, frustration, misery, and despair in this world come from people clinging to past hurts and problems. The more you turn them over in your mind, the worse you’ll feel and the bigger they’ll look. Don’t try to fight misery. Let go and move on. Do that and you’ve removed just about all its power to hurt you.
Adrian Savage is a writer, an Englishman, and a retired business executive, in that order, who now lives in Tucson, Arizona. You can read his other articles at Slow Leadership, the site for everyone who wants to build a civilized place to work and bring back the taste, zest and satisfaction to leadership and life. Recent articles there on similar topics include How to save yourself from being hooked again and Why fear of failure is the most common blockage to success. Adrian’s latest book, Slow Leadership: Civilizing The Organization, is now available at all good bookstores. - sockpuppets, on 10/11/2007, -0/+38I know you're talking about me.
- 5Twelve, on 10/11/2007, -1/+27What self respecting digger hasn't seen Office Space?
- miriclaire, on 10/11/2007, -6/+31This is good advice. I think anyone who DOES these things to an EXTREME are exhibiting signs of mental illness: overdramatization (histrionics), taking every occurance in the world as personal attacks on them (paranoia), getting depressed, jumping to conclusions (ability to rationalize gone) etc etc. People who exhibit excesses of these traits are difficult to be around.
- AnotherCanadian, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2212 dont shave your gooch. jesus christ, the chaffing
- swrostmore, on 10/11/2007, -7/+25#12: Start smoking weed. Learn that your "reality" isn't as rigidly defined as you may believe it to be.
- Ajajadude, on 10/11/2007, -2/+18Easier said than done to change these patterns of thinking/doing.
- revenge7, on 10/11/2007, -4/+19That's the worst idea I've ever heard in my life, SmackMyMac.
- LxRogue, on 10/11/2007, -3/+17Eh, it was pretty vague advice, and most of it is common sense.
- swOhio, on 10/11/2007, -0/+14So basically all 10 things can be said in 1 phrase.; Chill the ***** out.
- Error601, on 10/11/2007, -0/+13So, basically don't do anything you see people do in digg discussions.
- kh99, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12I know a few people who could use this advice. Problem is, they all think they are perfectly normal and everyone else is messed up.
- antiver, on 10/11/2007, -5/+16How about "10 instant ways to improve your virtual life" instead?
- miriclaire, on 10/11/2007, -1/+11I'm a"she". But, yeah, spending too much time on Digg can make ya a bit nuts, too. You start trolling people in REAL LIFE! :-P
- danlovejoy, on 10/11/2007, -1/+11These are all great suggestions, but much easier said than done. (Speaking from experience about perfectionism)
Being a perfectionist, being dramatic, taking things personally, etc.. are symptoms of past hurts or other problems. Most people need therapy and/or recovery to "get over" the underlying problems. Most people can't just wake up one day and say, "I'm going to be less dramatic." - Daniel001, on 10/11/2007, -1/+10It is common sense, but I bet most people slip up on some of those points from time to time. I reckon it's not a bad list, even if it isn't a revelation.
- andrewrocks, on 10/11/2007, -2/+10Why are the two mutually exclusive? Marijuana helps me cope with abundance of "reality" I'm forced to deal with on a daily basis. Heroin, on the other hand, does indeed inhibit ones ability to deal with reality. Get your ***** straight, son. Maybe blaze a bowl...it might loosen you up.
- funsutton, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7Man I really needed to hear this....
*wipes tears from eyes* - molson66, on 10/11/2007, -2/+9PC load letter? What the ***** does that mean?!
- OutThisLife, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8I love dead servers.
- jacobu9, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Yes, this idea, it is horrible.
- Insolent, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Cynic's Guide to This Article:
1. Let people walk all over you. Who knows why they do it? Who cares (about you)? I know I don't! And why should I? I'm self-absorbed like 99% of people out there. Just don't take it personally.
2. Don't have morals. Morals are for pussies. Call them 'rules' if you care even less.
3. Stop talking, you worthless curmudgeon. Again, no offense meant. But seriously, nobody wants to hear you complain, even if you feel bad.
4. Forget about the past. It may explain your current situation and may still be an obstacle to your success or happiness, but that doesn't mean we can't just ignore it!
5. Be optimistic. So your life is in shambles, you don't like anybody, and you see no way out! What are you complaining about? At least you're not a starving Ethiopian orphan with AIDS, and it's not like you have to write stupid unscientific new-age religious ***** on your blog every day, like me, to make ends meet. - Reziarfg, on 10/11/2007, -4/+10No girls on the internets.
- GoingPostal, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6If my ex-wife followed these rules, we would most likely still be married.
- pseudononymist, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Stop overgeneralizing
- Ecrivaine33, on 10/11/2007, -4/+9OMG, I think they wrote this for me. I am absolutely guilty of most of these, esp. Number 1. I would not call doing these things "EXTREME" signs of mental illness, however. A lot of these ways of interacting w/life come about from growing up unable to trust the adults in our life, feeling scared and thus unable to trust anyone later down the road; and so we try to define and control our world as we think it should be (mostly done unconsciously), instead of just sitting back and letting go of the reins once in a while and relaxing a little. I'm only just now trying this approach.
- stickyhoney, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Funnily enough the Google ad on the page below the first article says:
Get Faster Internet
Damn right that'd improve my life. - inotocracy, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6PC LOAD LETTER is an error message encountered when printing on older HP LaserJet printers such as the LaserJet II, III, and 4 series. The error is always displayed fully capitalized.
The actual meaning of the message is very convoluted: "PC" stands for "Paper Cassette", the tray that holds blank paper for the printer to use. "Load", in this context, is an instruction to refill. "Letter" is the standard paper size used in the United States and Canada. Thus, the error is instructing the user to refill the letter paper tray. A variant is PC LOAD LEGAL, meaning that the printer requires legal size paper be loaded.
...god I'm a nerd. - roadtrippy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4"Let go and move on." Yeah, I know a person or two that has trouble with that one...
- VaporBro, on 10/26/2007, -1/+5Hey Insomniacal...try smoking some weed. Might help you sleep better.
- patrickloggins, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Don't ruin the reference.
- darrenpauli, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Pfft... yeah, they may be good commandments to live by, but a degree of pessimism cures naivety.
Read the Desiderata.
http://www.lifemagick.net/manifesting/desiderata-in-life/ - microview2007, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3It took me 3 years of therapy and $$$$$ of dollars to come to the same conclusion.
- OutThisLife, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4I wish I didn't play WoW so I could start "improving my life".
Oh well. - kalleanka, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4It can't be to specific. We all live were different lives and I think the list is general enough to apply to most of us.
- andrewrocks, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4It isn't a question of who's weaker or stronger. It's a question of who's living their life to the fullest. If marijuana isn't detracting from my ability to handle life's stresses, then what it is doing (and quite effectively) is making my life that much easier and worry-free. Certainly you don't consider one who drinks a nightly glass of wine a "weaker" mind because they indulge in alcohol to unwind. So why would you be stronger than me?
As for marijuana being a crutch, I would only agree if you considered anything you enjoy doing a crutch. If drinking soda, eating chocolate, playing sports, or having sex are to be considered "crutches," then I'd also consider marijuana a crutch, being that they're all valid forms of relaxation/enjoyment which aid in dealing with daily problems.
Marijuana also has medicinal qualities (at least according to the state)...so you might want to try some out, INSOMNIACal. - HairyFotr, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3More girls on the internet :P
- dtham, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Samir: No, not again. I... why does it say paper jam when there is no paper jam? I swear to God, one of these days, I just kick this piece of ***** out the window.
Michael Bolton: You and me both, man. That thing is lucky I'm not armed.
Samir: Piece of *****. - kingcam, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Or politicians
- KaneElson, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Holy ***** inotocracy, learn to recognise a officespace quote when you hear it.
- patrickloggins, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Even if it does take a long time to change them, if you immediately START changing them, then you and others will notice a dramatic difference. It's really easier than people think it is.
- patrickloggins, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2You didn't put it into action.
- patrickloggins, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I think you can. It's really easy. Letting go of the world is the main step in doing that, and the other steps in the article let you do that.
I've known people to stop being less dramatic almost instantly. You can't actually just stop immediately, but you can wake up one day and say, "I'm going to be less dramatic", work at it, and get over things in a very short amount of time. - dodus, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Hey Insomniacal: pull that stick out of your ass.
- glowend, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2You sound quite happy. I assume your take on things is more "realistic".
- patch6, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I'd say that having a better grasp of the most-abused logical fallacies will lead to a better quality of living, since they help people discern the quality of given information.
This article is peppered with them. - pseudononymist, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2You had two minutes to revise, wtf
- hamobu, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2One Caveat to all this: It takes Long time to change your habits, and all the advice in the articles is asking you to change your mental habits.
The advice given is easier said than done. -
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