[HN Gopher] The Discipline of Do Easy [video]
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The Discipline of Do Easy [video]
Author : brudgers
Score : 91 points
Date : 2021-04-20 16:04 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| 99_00 wrote:
| Love to smoke pot and do something like this. Love that it's a
| thing and I can attach a label to it and the idea of doing poorly
| executed sequences again, better. Going to try to do this more
| often in everyday life.
| RandomWorker wrote:
| I have surprising many of these OCD tics when cleaning the lab.
| This is surprisingly useful when working in a lab, cleanliness
| and order is paramount for health and safety. Then the videos
| divulges into some western saloon thing. :P
| JohnDeHope wrote:
| I really enjoyed the absurdist element to this. I think he is
| simultaneously advocating mindfulness and making fun of it, both
| earnest and satirical, obviously silly but also serious.
| Absurdism is great.
| hummusandsushi wrote:
| I was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable the video was and the
| message is very clearly and directly applicable to how we carry
| ourselves in day-to-day life.
|
| If you perform your actions single-mindedly and with purpose, you
| will find that they become easier and more efficient. It is not a
| question of exerting more effort, but exerting it in such a way
| that none goes to waste.
| cleansingfire wrote:
| Love this since I saw it ages ago, and despite a bit of
| Burrough's woo, it helped me to be careful, and strive for
| physical grace, in the things I'm doing. Personally, I tended
| to physical extravagance, and enjoyed that as a goofy hyper
| teen, all edges and elbows. This provided a surprising
| rationale and reminder to move more carefully. Now, I
| reconsider when I find myself flailing or thrashing, so that
| instead of pushing harder, or searching for bigger hammers and
| longer levers, I pause and reconsider. It's a bit of
| nonviolence to the world that results in care for yourself,
| with impacts like walking more gracefully, or remembering to
| turn a wrench so that you don't injure yourself when it slips.
| howlin wrote:
| So far the comments here lack much context. The film here is what
| I believe is a student project of Gus Van Sant who went on to be
| a professional movie director. The narration is from William
| Burroughs, who's most famous for "Naked Lunch".
|
| One interesting fact about Burroughs is that he was a chronic
| drug abuser and managed to shoot his wife during some sort of
| drug fueled accident. The message in this little piece can be
| easily interpreted as Burroughs trying to analyzing his own
| mistakes that lead to her death.
|
| This is really just scratching the surface of how odd and complex
| Burroughs' life and psyche are. If you are a fan of surrealism,
| the beatnik movement or other larger than life writers like
| Hunter S Thomson, it's worth giving his work a chance.
| pitspotter wrote:
| Maybe the 'Do Easy' strategy helps a drug user to cope with the
| low dopamine levels during the hangover period, i.e. when _not_
| high.
| sidcool wrote:
| I watched it but did not get it. ELI5 anyone?
| dsego wrote:
| Do things with intention and don't rush.
| jlos wrote:
| I think its intentionally mixing messages. It combines sincere
| insight into the benefits of mindfulness. However, the world
| the narrator speaks in is clearly a fantasy world detached from
| reality. The video both makes a profound case for mindfulness
| while satirizing its own arguments.
| qntty wrote:
| Basically mindfulness before it was a thing
| hnedeotes wrote:
| You mean B.C.?
| uoaei wrote:
| Mindfulness existed long before hippies and yuppies re-
| appropriated it.
| abledon wrote:
| more like trolling mindfulness
| obventio56 wrote:
| All comments so far seem not to realize this is satirizing
| mindfulness
| timeon wrote:
| I always thought it was about obsession.
| nepthar wrote:
| Why do you think it's satire? I didn't get that read.
| tantalor wrote:
| Is this sincere advice?
|
| - Walk across a room with care
|
| - Open a window with care
|
| - Shoot a guy with care
| uoaei wrote:
| Yes? What's your problem with it?
|
| Have you ever heard of Zen Buddhism? All the "advice" you
| get from Zen teachings is pretty similar to this, except
| with more focus on not-doing as an approach to doing.
| obventio56 wrote:
| I guess it's just the premise.
|
| Retiree transforms his life and solves all his problems by
| doing exactly what he was going before only... more
| carefully? And duel is certainly absurdist.
|
| I enjoyed the film, but I think it's intention is largely
| opposite what is being received here.
| chasebank wrote:
| I don't think it is satirical.
|
| https://www.vice.com/en/article/9aa3vy/do-easy-william-s-
| bur...
| C-x_C-f wrote:
| While the video certainly contains absurdist elements (the
| duchess scene gets me every time), I've always seen it as
| being sincere in tone. It feels a bit like a fable or a
| parable, in that it contains deliberately unrealistic parts
| to get the point across, but remains in good faith
| nonetheless.
| abledon wrote:
| if you watch the video after 3:50, it starts to crack into
| non-seriousness. esp when it gets to the shot of the guy
| zipping up his open fly
| uoaei wrote:
| Just because it's not something typically shown in film
| doesn't make it absurdist.
| alexdgourlay wrote:
| Sampled in this track by techno duo Minilogue
|
| www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZznUiv1Q5s
| C-x_C-f wrote:
| Funnily enough, this track is credited in the video description
| of the OP video under the "Music in this video" section,
| complete with an ad for YouTube premium...
| tomduncalf wrote:
| Aha I was just about to post this. Great track. First heard it
| in Efdemin's mix CD "Carry On, Pretend We're Not In The Room"
| which is a good one:
| https://open.spotify.com/track/4r3NSfFXLdmTu5TDTETXF2?si=kNJ...
| yboris wrote:
| I re-watch this video about once a year for the past decade.
|
| My take-away for myself is to stop getting angry at some stupid
| things I get angry at. To try to make stupid chores into elegant
| mini-games instead (speed run it optimally, etc).
| stephen_cagle wrote:
| I don't know why this style appeals to me so. I like that it is
| poking fun at while also embracing what we would call
| mindfulness. I like the fact that you can take most anything from
| it. May just be a reflection of being tired of the prescriptive
| (usually appeal to authority) style of so many videos/books these
| days.
| 1970-01-01 wrote:
| I hope nobody actually does this crap. Its not healthy.
| mannanj wrote:
| Why don't you tell us an alternative rather than just shooting
| down without solving the problem?
| 1970-01-01 wrote:
| You can't understand this is comedy/satire? See also:
|
| https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0239404/
|
| Same writer and director.
| Slow_Hand wrote:
| The text is sincere while the video is absurd. People can
| still understand the video as comedy/satire, but the point
| of the original text is still valid and useful.
|
| What do you find to be unhealthy or objectionable about the
| message of the text? It's as if you believe that people in
| this thread who are discussing the merits of the text are
| going to act absurdly like the young man in the video.
| gfiorav wrote:
| I get the irony here, but regardless:
|
| I'm European and live in the US. When I've travelled to the
| Middle East and Japan, both places struck me for people doing
| exactly what this video suggests.
|
| Such a calm, methodic way of handling things... made me realize
| that to them, we probably appear careless.
| aargh_aargh wrote:
| Same video, 2x better quality (240p vs 480p):
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pjQ0FNzkLQ
| jlos wrote:
| Having seen this for the first time, it seems the video is some
| kind of absurdist double entendre: it combines insightful
| comments about mindfulness while seemingly satirizing the entire
| enterprise of it at the same time.
|
| Some supportive points for mindfulness:
|
| - Treating everyday things like works leads you not enjoying them
| and doing them poorly. Yet the bulk amount of time in your life
| is spent doing these very activities.'
|
| - Finding enjoyment in perfecting simple things actually makes a
| lot sense, as its presented.
|
| - If you stub your toe, drop a dish, etc, and don't practise
| doing the movement properly you are likely to make the mistake
| again.
|
| Support in Absurdist:
|
| - He puts the radio, with its neatly wrapped cord, under a sink.
|
| - "Gentle old cop making a soft arrest"
|
| - the contrast between 'gentle' and 'soft' with arrest is clearly
| absurd.
|
| - 10 month year with 26 days
|
| - Taking your time in a gun fight.
|
| Support for Satirizing (comical critique):
|
| - The objects are clearly magical.
|
| - The utensils instantly drop exactly where they need to without
| sorting.
|
| - The toothpaste cup basically cleans itself.
|
| - The chair _actually_ does move in front of him.
|
| - The contrast between the do-easy mindfulness and the ignorant
| way of living are infomercial-level exaggerated.
|
| The ending summarizes the absurd double-entendre: a gun-fight is
| a simple movement done very well in a zen sort of way (the trick
| to moving fast is to practice slowly), but at the same time its
| clearly absurd. Its also a gun-fight. You don't have time.
|
| Really great video. I'll be watching it again
| jadbox wrote:
| I think true brilliance that lies in making a statement that
| cannot be fully interpreted as supportive, critical, or
| satirical. On one hand, it allows the viewer to project their
| oppinion onto the medium. On the other, the medium reveals a
| value to an viewpoint/lifestyle while also being critical of
| it.
| hirundo wrote:
| The first, and non trivial, step, is noticing that you aren't
| doing it easy.
|
| I've been working in very tight spaces where I twist myself into
| pretzels trying to get at a particular spot, all while wrapped up
| in a homemade hazmat suit, to the point where I can hardly breath
| or see. It has gotten better after I established one rule: No
| Stress Positions. Meaning, do whatever it takes to get
| comfortable before proceeding.
|
| Before, if my back would start to hurt from a difficult stance, I
| wouldn't really notice, I'd just speed up to try to get it done
| before my back gave out, frequently botching the job and cutting
| or scraping myself in the process. Now, I notice that I'm
| breaking The Rule, think about the topology, reposition myself,
| maybe add cushions, maybe spend some time to move things out of
| the way. Fixup my mask and goggles, and then take my time.
|
| Before I'd only take notice of my discomfort on failure, when I
| just couldn't do it anymore. And that resulted in a strong desire
| to quit. Now I spend the effort to get myself in an "I could do
| this all day position", and I _can_ do it all day. I think the
| same thing applies to washing dishes or making breakfast. First
| step, just notice that you aren 't doing it in easy mode.
|
| It's summed up by the old Two Bulls on a Hill joke.
| s3tz wrote:
| It goes for almost anything. I think a good way sum it up would
| be: Don't pretend it's something it's not. For whatever reason.
| gypsyharlot wrote:
| Excellent advice! Thank you for sharing
| rubicon33 wrote:
| How does one apply this "easy mode" to software development?
| Jtsummers wrote:
| TDD or other approaches which shorten the feedback loop, a
| bit of planning, selecting a task-appropriate language and
| task-appropriate libraries (either standard to the language
| or external), frequent refactoring.
|
| Don't spend a manic day writing 10k lines of code and only
| compiling it at the end of the day. Don't go in without a
| plan and develop the structure in an ad hoc fashion. Don't
| delay refactoring until after the first 100k lines are
| written. Ideally never even write 100k lines because you've
| selected an appropriate language and libraries to let you
| write something that closely matches the problem domain.
|
| Use templates/frameworks where possible for common
| activities. These don't even need to be heavy weight, but
| relates back to using libraries. If you're making your 100th
| CRUD site in some language and you don't already have a
| default structure, you're doing it the hard way.
| dkarl wrote:
| Improve developer ergonomics. Standardize the boring parts of
| your projects. Simplify code. Fix flaky tests and flaky
| automation.
|
| Keep a calm, steady frame of mind, so you have a more uniform
| appreciation of time passing. Don't fall into a busy frenzy
| or a puzzle-solving trance that allows a haphazard or
| complicated way of doing things to feel quicker than it
| really is. Don't let boredom blind you to the virtues of
| smooth, simple things.
|
| A common mistake people make is identifying boring,
| predictable tasks as the most urgent focus for improvement.
| This is misguided. A task that is boring and predictable is
| already well-engineered. It can and should be further
| improved by automation, but much bigger gains come from
| standardizing the tasks that seem to go differently every
| time, the tasks that are typically handled by the most
| experienced developers. Making an "interesting" task boring
| saves much more effort than the subsequent step of automating
| it.
| stephen_cagle wrote:
| First, I agree. Second, I don't know if I would call it a
| mistake as much as non-optimal.
|
| I would say that getting the boring & predictable ones out
| of the way frees you from keeping them in mind. This allows
| you to address the ones that "go different every time"
| without keeping track of the details.
|
| Removing the boring/predictable stuff also means you can
| enter flow much more quickly (and regularly). I find that
| for me programming is more of a psychological game than a
| technical one. The ability to quickly get into flow is of
| very high value to me. However, in other domains and with
| other people "standardizing" the "offbeat" task may yield
| greater productivity gains.
|
| XKCD made a comic about automating task ->
| https://xkcd.com/1205/
| brudgers wrote:
| Use the same tools year after year.
| zokier wrote:
| Especially how do you avoid trying to boil the ocean while
| trying to "do easy"? I feel you could spend a lifetime to get
| truly comfortable, to not get constantly hit by small snags
| and papercuts.
| dsego wrote:
| Festina lente = make haste slowly. There's another similar
| saying, not sure about the translation, but something along the
| lines of "the longer way may be quicker than the shortcut".
| Jtsummers wrote:
| Another saying: Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Apparently
| from the US Navy SEALs though I didn't learn it from that
| context (best effort to recall my first hearing of it was my
| dad, who probably learned it in a military context as he was
| a USAF pilot).
|
| He also taught me the phrase "lazy man's load", in reference
| to trying to haul everything from the car to the house at
| once. Taking less each time reduced the risk of an accident
| (like dropping a bag of groceries or having the bottom tear
| out because it's not properly supported), even though it
| means more trips it (usually) produces the better result.
| Which also seems appropriate here, the lazy man's load is
| born of haste and is decidedly not the easy way in many, if
| not most, situations.
| potta_coffee wrote:
| Was going to say this too ("slow is smooth..."), this is a
| common mantra in the USMC and there's real truth in it. If
| you perform a task 10k times, slowly and smoothly, it will
| become muscle memory and speed will come on its own.
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