[HN Gopher] Learn, Reflect, Apply, Prepare: The Four Daily Pract...
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Learn, Reflect, Apply, Prepare: The Four Daily Practices That
Changed How I Live
Author : opuslabs
Score : 67 points
Date : 2025-08-11 16:06 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (opuslabs.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (opuslabs.substack.com)
| romesmoke wrote:
| > Learn something _every day_.
|
| It's fine if it doesn't happen every day. Don't be obsessed about
| this stuff. Forgive yourself if you ever behave sub-optimally.
| You're not a machine, neither should you be one.
|
| Tyranny starts with the best of intentions.
| pimlottc wrote:
| It's fine if you have an easy out. Didn't learn anything today?
| Open a random Wikipedia article. There, that's something.
| mancharface1 wrote:
| I believe Oliver Burkeman calls it "daily-ish" because it may
| not be realistic or helpful to force yourself to do it every
| day. But striving for "daily-ish" is worthwhile.
| yardshop wrote:
| He says something similar at the end of the article:
|
| "These four verbs aren't a productivity system or a self-help
| formula. Some days I forget one. Other days, one takes over.
| But when I return to them, they gently reorient me."
|
| You may be overreacting with words like "machine" and "tyranny"
| to an idea simply suggested as a useful and helpful goal.
| romesmoke wrote:
| I wouldn't have commented if the article kept neutral on
| _when_ to apply its ideas. But the push for daily learning-
| reflecting-etc is there. Even the segment you 're quoting
| uses days for accounting. You're downplaying one's potential
| to read something like this on the Internet and try to
| literally live by it.
|
| As for machines and tyranny, they're terms capturing the
| Zeitgeist all too well.
| MoltenMan wrote:
| > But the push for daily learning-reflecting-etc is there.
|
| But this is a good thing; if I waste a day without learning
| or doing anything, I feel bad about myself. And I want to
| feel bad! Always pushing to improve myself has helped me
| immensely. It's easy to keep telling yourself 'oh, I'll do
| better tomorrow'; it's harder to actually do better
| tomorrow.
|
| That's not to say you shouldn't take it easy on yourself
| every once in a while. But figuring out those exceptions
| isn't what this article is about, and it's certainly not a
| 'tyrannical' article. As a society I feel we have gone way
| too far in this direction; sometimes life is hard!
| Sometimes you have to do hard things! And often it will pay
| off later in life and you'll be glad you put in the work.
| rufius wrote:
| See also, the OODA loop.
|
| This lesson shows up periodically in different contexts. In the
| case of OODA, it was fighter pilot dogfighting training.
|
| It's a good practice to build into different parts of life.
| bravesoul2 wrote:
| I like this. My view is I aint doing it if it aint a system.
|
| A system: change diet to always have at least 3 veg per meal. Do
| that until you die.
|
| A non-system: skip a meal and just eat soup for 30 days and try
| to drop 10kg.
|
| Not diet advice and some people may need to drop weight quickly
| under doctor advise. But the general idea is to avoid will-power
| driven outcomes and rely on habit and system driven outcomes.
|
| Not clever org mode needed. To develop a habit just do it every
| day. Track it somehow. Make it not too onerous. Forgive slip ups.
| darth_avocado wrote:
| I see it as designing choices. Want to eat healthy? Don't bring
| the ice cream (or whatever else you struggle to eat less of) in
| your home. Want to get up early? Start going to bed at 8 and
| leave your phone in the other room. Want to exercise more
| often? Force yourself to bike or walk to the grocery store
| instead of jumping in the car.
| genghisjahn wrote:
| Main thing I learned with health and fitness is that, for me, I
| was always trying to do right long enough so I could cheat and
| "reward" myself. And that always lead to failure. I had to
| change my mindset from, "Be good until you feel like you can be
| bad" to ,"You've adopted a new lifestyle. This is you now.
| You're not building up points so you can buy a whole pizza and
| 3 beers. You're doing this because this is you now. This is the
| reward, being able to run miles in the heat. Right now, sweat
| all over you, breath going in and out. This is the reward." For
| some reason that worked for me.
| xyst wrote:
| Wow, rehashing the same platitudes that have been retold
| throughout the eternity. Why didn't I think of this, bro?
|
| How insightful! When's the masterclass drop?
| eaglelizard wrote:
| How banal.
|
| $0.02: the devil's in the details.
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(page generated 2025-08-11 23:00 UTC)