r/videos • u/Jtaimelafolie • May 30 '17

This guy's presentation on ADHD is excellent

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JowPOqRmxNs
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u/[deleted] May 30 '17 edited Nov 21 '20

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u/TiredMold May 30 '17

Nothing wrong with planning! But when it comes time to act, don't hesitate. You have to train yourself to DO, not THINK. When you're actually making progress you won't be obsessing over it being perfect because you'll be focused on working.

If you catch yourself hesitating to start, don't "set a timer and start when it goes off" or "watch one more Youtube video" just fucking GO. You'll feel a million times better when you're working.

Just take the first step! Dig in and GO and build that beautiful momentum!

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u/Gyeff May 30 '17

Weird, that goes exactly counter to Joseph Conrad:

"Action is consolatory. It is the enemy of thought and the friend of flattering illusions."

I don't know who to trust.

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u/TiredMold May 30 '17

They're not mutually exclusive!

Think all you want, think and plan and prepare and analyze and all that good stuff--but when the time comes to ACT, you've got to GO GO GO.

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u/Gyeff May 31 '17

I understand your perspective. It makes sense to act in order to be a functional human being. We should carry out our genetically coded proclivities in order to be happy during the brief time we are here on planet Earth. So logically and functionally it makes sense. Any psychologist would make the same argument because their responsibilities are to your mental health and functionality in society first and foremost.

But, I also understand Conrad's perspective. When he talks about thought, I don't think he is talking about thinking about future actions. I think he means thought in general. Thinking about the universe and your place in it, for example.

You might think and wonder whether any of our actions have any real consequence in the universe. I do not know anything about my great great great ... great grandfather, am I to suffer the same fate? Will I be lost into obscurity just like him? Will it become as if I never really existed at all? If a tree falls in a forest, and nobody hears it fall did the tree really fall?

You can generalize this logic to not only the individual, but all of humanity. Humanity will become extinct some day. The sun will turn into a Red Giant (as per the natural lifecycle of a star) and engulf the entirety of planet Earth along with all of humanity's artifacts. Did humanity ever really exist at all?

Considering such disturbing thoughts, maybe you are right, maybe we should not think, maybe we should simply carry out our genetic proclivities with utmost conscientiousness and be happy. Still, there is a part of me that wonders...