IGX

I think the biggest cause is something that happened when I was a kid. I had a falling out in middle school with my entire friend group. I spent a few months totally alone, and when I turned to my dad for support — my mother having died of cancer a few years earlier — he turned his back on me too. E...

Lenny, thanks for your words! Based on your suggestion, I created a folder on my phone to track sleep and diet. And started logging. I use my workout log here as my main personal journal. I love being able to notice something, write it down, and puzzle it out. I think everyone should journal, in a w...

Am 60 pages into the Hughart book, recommended by Benny above, and it’s laugh-out-loud funny. —— Finished Stolen Focus by Johann Hari. It’s mainly about technology high-jacking our attention, but covers a lot of ground: the importance of free play for children, diet, sleep, and so on. I found it inf...

Yeah…ok but missing the larger point. A guy who attracts problems isn’t necessarily the guy who is the path to solving them. Fix yo shit first. I appreciate you pushing this point! Set February goals yesterday: get a good night’s sleep (electronics off at 930, lights out at 10); get back to a whole...

That's all you can do, man. Yeah… When I told my buddy with the (self-identified) drinking issue I was gonna do a sober February to support him, he said he’d join me. Making dinner with friend #2 this week, and friend #3 was stoked on the comic strip. Finally feel like I’m on the right path with th...

Thought about, and talked about, this subject a lot over the past few days. Finally, I asked, “What does each friend need, more than anything else, that I can provide?” One has a drinking problem, so I told him I’m gonna do a dry February to support him. One can’t seem to do more than eat a meal tog...

Lenny, your friend sounds like a huge piece of shit. I’m happy he’s out of your life! As for your own struggles.… You exercise and consistently show a thoughtful, kind heart in your posts. That’s worth a lot! When my clients complain about being old or non-athletic or whatever, I ask them if saying ...

MJ&S, in regards to your second post and self-control…. I’m reading a really good book — Stolen Focus by Johann Hari — that addresses our modern attention crisis. He relates people’s tech addictions to the obesity crisis. I’m going to extrapolate his analogy to mental health in general. Decades ...

You shouldn’t. Most of your friends should be healthy and going positive places. If all your friends tend to have issues that suggests you have something in you that you need to work on. I think you raise a good question. Am I picking healthy, positive people to be friends with? My three best frien...

They’re not in total war mode. And you’re right, that’s not my fault. I know some people with self-imposed physical problems. They’re overweight, have high-calorie/high-alcohol diets, and don’t exercise….and I accept these choices. I hangout with them, never bring it up, and enjoy their company. Som...

I looked over my own comments, and I don’t know that I’m adding something new here…. I have three best friends in San Diego, and all three are depressed. I feel like I’m at a crossroads. Do I keep pushing them to meet up, do stuff, or show up randomly at their door? Or do I look for other people to ...

Haha, glad you’re hanging out with her more. Was gonna rec this movie to you if you haven’t seen it yet, Lenny.

Ad-free (I think). “The Yin and Yang of Gerry Lopez”

https://youtu.be/GeTMPJ2B5VE

I’m on my third week of no internet browsing. Searching is fine, but it’s seldom. Initially, it was easy. But now, all the extra time has me on edge. I’ve added ten minutes of art a day (AWESOME!!), but it’s not enough. The next step is to create one highly memorable experience each week — past exam...

Your response reminds me of an interview with Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi. They’d both been #1 in the world at tennis and donated massive amounts to charity. Additionally, Andre had a lifetime of battling depression, low self-image, and drugs before finding purpose and peace later in life. One of t...

I don’t think there are any wrong answers. I grew up with a father who worked very hard, and with a lot of joy, at art and music. Although he worked as a professional artist, his own art projects, and music practice, remained massive priorities. I bring him up because I owe him credit for how I view...

Have been asking the above question and have enjoyed the responses.

One said that they felt success meant “leaving the world a better place.”

Another said they felt success was “when they did something and felt good afterwards.”

Benny, In 60’s Europe, men were legally able to rape their wives and women weren’t allowed to open bank accounts. In our lives, we’ve had a black president, and gay marriage and pot has been legalized. These are big changes! It wasn’t the people at the top deciding to do this out of the goodness of ...

Thanks for taking your time to look at that article! You’ve clearly read and thought a lot about this subject — do you think there’s actionable, impactful, steps for the layperson to take? Or is it all at the macro-level with embracing nuclear power, shifting economic priorities, and punishing the w...

Thank you!

Will give them a try

Benny, I don’t know if you watched Planet of the Humans, but thought of that documentary while reading your post. Did a little searching and found this: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidrvetter/2020/05/13/what-michael-moores-new-climate-documentary-gets-wrong-about-renewables/?sh=2b885530464d It’s ...

Johann Hari on the modern struggle with focus: https://youtu.be/HloHNf8KZG4 An example I liked: A mask might help, but it isn’t a solution to air pollution. Likewise, things like meditation or a better diet help focus, but aren’t solutions for the pollution of attention-media like Instagram, TikTok,...

Ordered the Hughart book. Looks great! Thanks for the rec

Thanks for the response! Never heard of cluster B, some of these symptoms sound spot on. Have stuck with being a friend — let’s surf! come by and watch a movie! — and encouraging therapy, but could gently nudge more. On the positive side, he’s working four days a week instead of six with no more hel...

Perfect!

https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/ Not sure what the range of functions are, but typed in: “Write an essay on Taoism” And “Write an essay on a pull-up program” Both times it quickly spit out a decently written paper in ~20 seconds. The Taoism one only lacked a better conclusion (a carbon copy of the s...