tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055932257464975902.post7855459265053011634..comments2024-03-10T23:01:51.493-05:00Comments on Stupid Motivational Tricks / Bemsha Swing: Advice is UselessJonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09371893596402673898noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055932257464975902.post-8070955152313495632018-03-16T14:43:03.398-05:002018-03-16T14:43:03.398-05:00Yes, but you see you actually followed the advice!...Yes, but you see you actually followed the advice! If you do that then my advice is indeed invaluable. That's the paradox, right? <br />Jonathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09371893596402673898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055932257464975902.post-67973700112887619752018-03-16T11:59:04.117-05:002018-03-16T11:59:04.117-05:00I don't know. I have found your advice to be n...I don't know. I have found your advice to be not just useful but transformational. I knew I wanted to be a research scholar and I was miserable because it simply wasn't happening. I was getting really depressed because there was a gulf between who I was and who I wanted to be. <br /><br />When I discovered your blog and simply started doing what you suggested, it changed everything. I Clarissahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11027134365260069910noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055932257464975902.post-34151175957602789042018-02-25T21:22:39.034-06:002018-02-25T21:22:39.034-06:00Oh, and also: advice might be useless but being ar...Oh, and also: advice might be useless but being around people who are working is not. A lot of what I know comes from the graduate students who were living in this dorm where I lived as a freshman. You could see how they were working and they would say what they were doing. "I am going up against five professors, of whom two have recent Nobel prizes, so I must work out every day and Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055932257464975902.post-34246572492501981172018-02-25T16:42:51.385-06:002018-02-25T16:42:51.385-06:00Sure.
But just speaking more generally: I really...Sure. <br /><br />But just speaking more generally: I really think the reason the STANDARD how-to-get-it-done advice doesn't work is that makes erroneous assumptions, usually based on the idea that the advisee has no idea of discipline, no self-control, and so on, and also no research skills. I think actually people need more beauty, pleasure, and autonomy, not further exhortations on how to Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055932257464975902.post-40753910382175517052018-02-25T15:28:09.493-06:002018-02-25T15:28:09.493-06:00Let me pull one thing out of that and comment: no...Let me pull one thing out of that and comment: nothing is more exhausting than self-doubt, and the effort needed to pull yourself out of it. If it is hard work just to live inside your own head, then there is not much left for anything else. Jonathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09371893596402673898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055932257464975902.post-63301084141011001722018-02-25T13:32:16.451-06:002018-02-25T13:32:16.451-06:00OK, more on this. The circumstances are partly mat...OK, more on this. The circumstances are partly material and partly not. The thing is that you have to have access to the self that does this work, and that self needs recreation and support. Personally, I find teaching and service very, very draining because there is so much low-level drudgery: e-workbooks, data entry, petty politics, and so on. There is also so much caretaking work that really Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055932257464975902.post-5381226251610033772018-02-24T19:37:52.437-06:002018-02-24T19:37:52.437-06:00*My claim is that my advice on language learning i...*My claim is that my advice on language learning is solves matters for people who don't like language. This is what seems not to be true -- everyone must develop their own way of doing things, and people are not rational, not about economics and not about how to work. This is why there is the idea of "inspiration." It's not that you have to wait to feel inspired, it's that Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055932257464975902.post-43198944865445018132018-02-24T19:33:20.808-06:002018-02-24T19:33:20.808-06:00The other thing is that people work in wildly diff...The other thing is that people work in wildly different ways. Ask any writer. <br /><br />What burns me is the idea that the 25 minute segment is universal, and that you should be very, very tolerant of interruptions such as alarm clocks ringing or little hourglasses you have set for yourself running out. I've just realized what it is: my mother would interrupt work constantly, when I was a Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055932257464975902.post-13368166511946678942018-02-24T19:22:37.328-06:002018-02-24T19:22:37.328-06:00You get language learners who don’t actually like ...You get language learners who don’t actually like language too. Jonathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09371893596402673898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055932257464975902.post-223245734077015712018-02-24T19:19:04.065-06:002018-02-24T19:19:04.065-06:00Information helps, though. There are crucial momen...Information helps, though. There are crucial moments when I would have benefited very greatly from information (and only got advice). Nowadays someone in my position would have had the Internet to ask. <br /><br />Editing helps a lot, too, and so does opinion/perspective. "What I think is happening is....". I don't mean the "What I see happening" that is a lead-in to some Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com