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PaperclipPerfector  8mo ago (text post)   3471 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 10, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Go do things that are viscerally enjoyable. See some mountains, or the ocean. Go for a walk in the woods. Do some star gazing. Take a trip to a national or state park. You can't see or experience anything cool after skipping to the end, so enjoy the ride. You'll get there eventually anyway, no need to be hasty.

Go do things that are viscerally enjoyable.

That's the thing — nothing's really enjoyable.

See some mountains

We've got plenty of those right to our east

or the ocean

Not sure what the big deal about that is supposed to be — but then, the ocean here looks so much more gray and dull than the blue I see on the screen.

Go for a walk in the woods.

I do that pretty often — there's a ski/hiking trail through some woods near my apartment that work for getting in some exercise.

Take a trip to a national or state park

Like, 90% of Alaska is composed of those two things. It's a bit hard to get out there without a car, but I've done that.

Look, "touch grass" is not a purpose.

You'll get there eventually anyway

After possibly several decades of further suffering. What reason do I have to put myself through such misery?

Move states. A change in scenery can help. An honest consideration might just moving somewhere with more sunlight. Places that are cold and dark most of the year don't help anhedonia.

Or take the opposite route and go volunteer for something purposeful. What purpose? Whatever you want. Don't want anything? Try something arbitrary that other people want, and maybe you'll see what they see.

Or invest in bettering yourself in some pursuit. Running, lifting weights, origami, piano tuning... whatever.

But I don't think there is any way for people on the internet to convince you of meaning, purpose, or enjoyment. You have to venture out and do things.

Doing things hasn't worked? Do new things.

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A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

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