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The Advantage of Abundant Thinking

201 points by sftueni 10y ago

levemi 10y ago
That table layout is really bad on a large screen, at some point there's a nice max for a font and I really don't need giant fonts or text as images. That image is gigantic [1]. And that header hiding animation is so annoying. Why do you do this. :( [1] https://s3.amazonaws.com/marquee-test-akiaisur2rgicbmpehea/Wzqzlm1ITymebh6BLin3_Screen%20Shot%202016-04-19%20at%208.04.33%20AM.png https://s3.amazonaws.com/marquee-test-akiaisur2rgicbmpehea/W...
- djloche 10y ago
  Unfortunately, this appears to be the trend. With mobile/tablet driving ad revenue growth, desktop visitors appear to be on their way to being an ignored/forgotten segment. Fortunately, a quick hop into dev tools fixes the problem. For the primary paragraph content, switching from the current 22px down to 16px makes this read so much easier.
manibatra 10y ago
The main thing that has really impacted my productivity and happiness is following a set routine for an hour whenever I get up. So I do the following : 1. Brush 2. Meditate - 15 minutes 3. Write - I usually write "3 things that I am grateful for" and "3 things to focus on that particular day" 4. Exercise - 15 minute run I do this whenever I get up. So it's not like I get up at 6 in the morning everyday. I just get up 6 hours after sleeping. The advice was given one one of Tim Ferris' podcast and has done wonders for me. I would highly recommend trying it out. Start small. If 15 minutes of anything is too much start with 5 minutes. That's what I did.
- dsugarman 10y ago
  6 hours is not enough sleep
  - pavel_lishin 10y ago
    It is for some people, and it isn't for others, which is why this kind of generic advice is amazing if it fits you exactly, and awful if it doesn't. I can function on six hours, but not well. I also can't easily take 15 minutes to meditate in the morning, because I have a two month old baby I have to help care for in the mornings. This somewhat limits my ability to meditate and exercise.
    - manibatra 10y ago
      I second that! I have tried sleeping for 8 hours and I just end up feeling sluggish all day. Less than 6 hours has the same effect. 6 hours just happens to hit the sweet spot. I would suggest meditating anytime in the day. I dont believe that it specifically has to be in the morning. It could be a placebo but just sitting still for a bit does some to help.
      - gooseus 10y ago
        I don't know how true this is, but it's something I've found true for myself... I've read (or heard) that your sleep cycle is 90 minutes down to deep sleep and back, so it's best to get up after some multiple of 90 minutes because that's when you'll have cycled back to the lightest sleep. So typically I either get 6 hours or 7.5 hours of sleep a night, though if I ended up getting 3 or 4.5 one night I'll sometimes try to get 9 the next night. If I can't get at least 3 hours of sleep, I just stay up. So it's possible the problem with 8 hours is that you're trying to wake up in the middle of a cycle and thus the sluggishness. Or maybe I'm just spreading pseudo-science.
        manibatra 10y ago
        I have heard that too but never really got down to testing it out. In fact I have resigned to the fact that when it comes to sleep to each their own. For eg I have experienced better quality of sleep after taking ZMA ( I weight train ). But I have heard anecdotes where people have said that its just a placebo.
- deleted 10y ago
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- dominotw 10y ago
  Would you mind sharing how long you have done this for.
  - manibatra 10y ago
    5 months. I started with meditating and running for 5 minutes each and increased it every two weeks or more whenever I felt like it. As mentioned doing 15 minutes of each now. Got my dad to do the same. I actually made him start with just 1 minute of each. He is upto 10 minutes after a month. Plus has started weight training. He is 60. I guess the main takeaway is do the smallest possible interval you can ( have no excuses to not do) and don't beat yourself about it. Build it up gradually
    - chris11 10y ago
      Is this from the tinyhabits program? It sounds like BJ Fogg's method for creating new habits.
      - manibatra 10y ago
        Not sure where I read it and I have not heard of the tinyhabits program. Will surely have a look.
        chris11 10y ago
        You should, I went through it and found it really useful. The main ideas in the program is to start extremely small then celebrate and consciously practice doing that habit for a few days. The tiny part is literal, he suggests taking the smallest possible unit and making sure it's less than 30 seconds. For instance if the habit was brushing your teeth you would just need to consciously practice brushing one tooth. And then the celebration is equally tiny, such as just saying "awesome" when you consciously do something. It sounds kind of corny, but it's effective. The idea is to get your brain to automatically associate a new habit with a really tiny action that will instantly give you a reward. So if you wanted to create a habit of brushing your teeth after getting up, you'll do it without much though even thought you only consciously brushed one tooth when you were trying to create the habit.
- epalmer 10y ago
  We do 3 good things at the dinner table. What is good? 1) Why is it good? 2) Why did it happen? Some of them are a result of direct or indirect action. I studied more. Some are a result of external events. The sunset was fantastic because God decided we needed a great sunset. This has done wonders for my kids (now mostly grown) in relating their action to positive outcomes. We don't practice this much anymore but should get back to it. My wife and I exercise for 45 to 60 minutes 5 days a week, most weeks. We rise at 4:30 AM and are done and home by 6:30. We go to bed really early. We are 62 (myself) and 57 and the exercise is helping us a lot with health, vitality and positive outlook. Somedays it is hard to get up and go. It is always a good thing when we are done and we are grateful we went to the gym. I strive for 7+ hours of sleep. I mediate some, mostly at lunch time.
  - manibatra 10y ago
    That is really great! Being grateful everyday does increase general level of happiness over time I guess.
- Scarbutt 10y ago
  What do you brush?
  - manibatra 10y ago
    My teeth haha! I just listed it down as it is sort of a trigger to follow up with other things.
- Devthrowaway80 10y ago
  Interestingly enough, this is the same routine I've had recommended in AA (minus the exercise, it's an old program). Wake up, immediate meditation/prayer and a gratitude list. Only things missing is contemplating what you need to do today to be a better person at the beginning of the day and reflecting on what you did well and could've done better when you go to sleep. An excerpt from the portion referred to as "On Awakening": "When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid? Do we owe an apology? Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once? Were we kind and loving toward all? What could we have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time? Or were we thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life? But we must be careful not to drift into worry, remorse or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to others. After making our review we ask God's forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken."
chaostheory 10y ago
It sounds like a self improvement system built on top of this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3304496/Be-lucky-its-an-easy-skill-to-learn.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3304496/Be-lucky-its-a...
sidi 10y ago
The power of positive thinking has to be one of the most undervalued capital. I would really like to see if there are any counter examples to this thinking that have worked for others.
- phil21 10y ago
  I've been called negative before. For good reason :) I tend to see the problems with things. The stuff that is good enough, why spend time thinking about? Seems boring to me - it's already done, lets move on. I actually somewhat don't like being labeled as "negative person" since the actual result in my thinking is usually very positive outcomes. I improve things and make them better. How could I do that if I didn't identify what is wrong with something? The new webapp you wrote for me might be 95% awesome, but I'm going to probably be immediately drawn to the 5% that sucks just by the nature of who I am and that's what I'll be focusing my energy on to improve. This worked well for me in my personal life for some time. Identify bad habits, get rid of them. However it can be a grind and I think folks that think the way I do are much more prone to depression and negative feedback loops that result in isolation (largely out of perhaps a frustrated idealist point of view). That's when it get's dangerous. As in all things in life I think it's about balance. As I get older, I absolutely see and believe in the power of positive thinking. I just think some people can take that a bit (or a lot) too far and use it as an excuse to delude themselves.
  - cylinder 10y ago
    Yep. Haven't read, but you might like:Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312658850/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_dkRfxb5YS55X2 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312658850/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_d...
- levemi 10y ago
  Voltaire has a nice bit of insight on "the power of positive thinking" shared through his story about Candide: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candide Worth a read before you start decorating your home with power crystals and fire up the incense.
everyone 10y ago
Why you shouldn't trust successful people's advice.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k7jeQQdqPA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k7jeQQdqPA
- billmalarky 10y ago
  To me that video is not making the absolute claim that the clickbait title suggests (their words not yours of course). The actual video seems to suggest to the viewer to be wary of _only_ looking at the winning perspective and being subjected to survivorship bias. That is, there's nothing wrong with hearing advice from successful people, but make sure to get input from unsuccessful people as well to get a more complete picture.
  - everyone 10y ago
    True, I think in this case you could argue that the title is warranted as it is exceedingly common in our society to examine and emulate successful people whereas it is exceedingly uncommon to do the same for (or even be aware of the existence of) unsuccessful people
  - awinter-py 10y ago
    it's not survivor bias, I think it's attribution error.
allisthemoist 10y ago
Called Paths to Power, it emphasizes the importance of neutrality: The world is not fair or unfair. It simply is. The more you can suspend judgment, the more you can learn and grow your power. Not to be cynical about this approach, but having studied some of these concepts from a Mahayana Buddhist perspective, the idea of utilizing the perspective of Beginner's Mind to "grow your power" is a gross misappropriation and misunderstanding of the entire framework. In fact, within the traditions that originally conceived of these approaches, attachment to power, fame, and/or wealth is seen as the root cause of suffering and mental disenfranchisement and the very conceptualization that is to be let go [0]. Perhaps I need to look into this course a bit more to understand their approach but it seems that this is right in line with what many Buddhist scholars have worried - i.e., that these ancient traditions will be misunderstood and reformed in a way that may have wholly unhealthy effects on those who practice it. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Noble_Truths#Second_truth:_arising_or_origin_of_dukkha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Noble_Truths#Second_truth...
- mbrock 10y ago
  What if you use that power to help other beings, though?
  - jdimov9 10y ago
    Then you're an idiot.
    - mbrock 10y ago
      Why?
      - andrewflnr 10y ago
        Humility is required to "enter the kingdom of heaven", and it's pretty difficult to maintain it when you have a fat wallet.
  - swombat 10y ago
awinter-py 10y ago
Famous counterexample to this is the stuff about crisis leadership from a few years ago: http://www.salon.com/2011/08/02/first_rate_madness_interview/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/02/first_rate_madness_interview... This guy's thesis is that in tough times, mental illness is associated with leadership effectiveness. His examples are Lincoln and WT sherman. (the stats argument here ends up being pretty weak). Bottom line -- it's really hard to grade heuristics unless you have enough knowledge to restrict the situations which may occur in the future (and if you do, it's no longer a heuristic).
maxxxxx 10y ago
I think the most important thing about this kind of advice is not to generalize it. For some people it works and for some people it doesn't work. There is no self-help advice that works for everybody. Also: The advice given is not complete. The people who have success with this do the things the article describes, but they also do some important things the article doesn't describe.
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Animats 10y ago
This looks like an attempt to monetize an evangelical Christian concept.[1] From the article: The ideal attitude is what she calls Abundant Thinking — a mindset that gives you the creative agency and grit to reach your vision — and, on a daily basis, to design your own life. When Verresen first meets most of her clients, they’re in reactive mode. It’s like they’re in a movie, acting in their job and life without knowing the script or having perspective. Her goal is to put them in the director’s chair, with more choices, perspectives and possibilities to rewrite and upgrade the script as they go. From an evangelical site: One way of viewing abundant life is to see when people have been changed by the power of Christ; they live different lives, which affects all aspects of their experience. In missiololgy, we call that "redemption and lift." This isn’t just true individually, but can also be on a cultural level. So, spiritual change, accompanied by better decisions, does often lead to better circumstances financially. (Sometimes it get's you arrested and martyred, so don't miss the point here.)" [1] http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2015/march/what-does-it-mean-to-have-abundant-life.html http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2015/march/what-d...
- dang 10y ago
  Lest anyone dive into religious polarization around this, it's worth pointing out that such psychological doctrines have a long history, back through Norman Vincent Peale and Napoleon Hill to the New Thought movement of the late 19th-early 20th century [1] and a whole kaleidoscope of religious splinter groups. Many of these were Christian, but mostly marginally so; a famous example is [2]. Then there's the New Age wing to this (think The Secret) that goes back to the Theosophists and alchemical traditions. Then again there were more philosophical versions, like the Transcendentalists. You can find this type of thing in Emerson. The history and literature is rich. More recently it is beginning (as one would expect) to take scientific and quasi-scientific forms, including attempts to test it experimentally. Not clear yet what will come of those. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Thought https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Thought 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_a_Man_Thinketh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_a_Man_Thinketh
  - duaneb 10y ago
    Not to mention existentialist philosophy, which again can be theist (kierkegaard) or not (too many to count).
rcconf 10y ago
These concepts also work really well for dating and relationships. If you approach girls with a scarcity mindset, you tend to be a lot more needy, insecure and generally feel like a victim. If you approach girls with an abundance mentality, you're much less needy, more confident and you don't really care about the outcome. You're just there to learn about her, and if she's not interested, well, there's plenty of other girls that will be.
- llamataboot 10y ago
  Or maybe if she isn't interested, she just isn't interested? If she was the last woman on earth and she wasn't interested in you would that make it somehow alright to keep approaching her? I mean really, I get what you are saying here, but it comes dangerous close to a guy viewing women as a "resource" and saying that he behaves better when he views that resource as unlimited.
  - dwaltrip 10y ago
    I think you are projecting onto the comment a bit. If the usage of the word "scarcity" was what caught your eye (as an association with women being "resources"), it was simply pulled from the article, which labels the two contrasting types of thinking as "scarcity" and "abundance".
    - andrewflnr 10y ago
      I think the real trick the top-level comment was trying to talk about is that you shouldn't think of women as a resource at all. It just kind of got framed as a resource thing because of the context you mentioned.
  - sridca 10y ago
    What's with all this "objectification" philosophical nonsense? Shouldn't the only thing that matter be how people treat each other? Why are the likes of you not directing their ire at HR departments (where humans of both genders are treated as "resources")?
Kurimo 10y ago
So she sells coaching to already successful and wealthy people that amounts to those banners they used to have around my elementary school that said "Attitude is a little thing that goes a long way"? Hooray for snake oil.
eggman 10y ago
some people produce more benefit half-sleep than thirty-five of those who appear to be awake. I'll pass on 'abundant thinking'...
coldtea 10y ago
>The ideal attitude is what she calls Abundant Thinking When I see a marketable name for such things, I immediately know it's some BS mix-match of hogwash to sell to people in need. And sure enough: "sought-after executive coach Katia Verresen, who counsels leaders at Facebook, Stanford, Airbnb, Twitter, and a number of prominent startups".
junko 10y ago
>>"Priming is engaging in any activity that boosts your emotional and mental energy ... [like] photos that make you happy." That's Asian cats from Instagram for me! I'm usually a bit skeptical of bullet point advice like this as reading it always seem like self-evident truism; I think people have to really experience it in order to understand its proper depth. But I'm glad that self-compassion is mentioned here because it's not preached very often and prob less intuitive. When I realised about it in one eureka moment (I know!) almost immediately I could have more respect for myself and found it much easier to forgive personal flaws and mistakes. So if you ever find yourself kicking and loathing over something, do a mental "There, there" patting on your head! You'll begin to see life in a much more whimsical, Woody Allen way :)
- PavlovsCat 10y ago
  Well, one should be fair to other people, and if possible friendly, right? Turns out oneself is a person, too :) > I have expressed my strong interest in the mass of the people; and this is founded, not on their usefulness to the community, so much as on what they are in themselves. Indeed every man, in every condition, is great. It is only our own diseased sight which makes him little. A man is great as a man, be he where or what he may. The grandeur of his nature turns to insignificance all outward distinctions. -- William Ellery Channing I think that can be extended to more than humans, maybe everything. And hey, don't knock eureka moments, especially not your own! When I was 20 and late for work in the morning, I walked by a lawn with a bird on it who was looking for worms, and looked straight at me. I didn't think about it at all, but nodded and said good morning. Then I had to laugh at myself, then I thought about it, and I never quite saw animals the same way. Suddenly it seemed so obvious, of course they're persons. Not ones who speak my language or care about my salutations, but still. I feel similarly about plants, central nervous system or not. I mean, it's not like I could tell you what I mean with "person" to begin with, where the cutoff point is, but something changed and it felt and feels right. But compassion for animals and plants is easy, compassion for humans is trickier... and compassion* for oneself, that's the trickiest part, and as you said, the most often overlooked. It's like we understand just fine that we shouldn't dehumanize others, shouldn't hold grudges, not disappoint people or break promises, and so on, but simply affording ourselves that same respect and basic goodwill often eludes us, which we then compensate with all sorts of things which are far from both compassion and real confidence. * which is a great way to put it.. self-love just doesn't have the same ring of understanding, patience etc. to it; like "loving Justing Bieber" and "having compassion for Justin Bieber" are two completely unrelated things.
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llamataboot 10y ago
Dressed up Calvinism IMHO. You're poor? You just aren't tapping into the abundance of the universe.
- chris_wot 10y ago
  That's not a tenet of Calvinism.
  - llamataboot 10y ago
    sure, but ascribing some sort of otherwordly virtue to people by virtue of their material success is. inverted Calvinism perhaps. Regardless, still taps into the weird part of the US psyche that has a Protestant work ethic that believes that everything is possible for everyone if they just work hard enough filtered through a sort of divine blessing (only this case it is dressed up in a New Age "tapping into the power of positive thinking schtick") -- in any case, it has the same outcome of blaming individuals for the structural circumstances they find themselves living in -- in one case, it is that you obviously weren't one of the chosen, in the mainstream meritocratic case, it's a more easy to digest "you just didn't work hard enough", in this case it is dressed back up with psuedo-religious trappingsabout how the universe wants you to succeed and you get back the energy you put out.
    - chris_wot 10y ago
      Inverted Calvinism isn't really Calvinism though, is it?
      - llamataboot 10y ago
        all goes back to the divine right of kings for me...
        chris_wot 10y ago
        I guess you could call me a Calvinist, but I find Calvin's treatment of Severetus (burning him at the stake) appalling. I just think that he got a lot of what I believe about Scripture correct - the whole TULIP summarization of his theology I largely agree with. I just don't think that properity was ever part of his beliefs - if anything Calvin has been accused of being a gruel eating killjoy...
bottled_poe 10y ago
Hand-wavy garbage. In my mind, there are only three things that matter when it comes to business success: Company reputation, ability to deliver and who you know. Everything else is either not important or fits under one of those tenets.
dbkaplun 10y ago
The author clearly doesn't practice abundant thinking, as the title should be "The Advantages of Abundant Thinking".

201 points by sftueni 10y ago

That table layout is really bad on a large screen, at some point there's a nice max for a font and I really don't need giant fonts or text as images. That image is gigantic [1]. And that header hiding animation is so annoying. Why do you do this. :( [1] https://s3.amazonaws.com/marquee-test-akiaisur2rgicbmpehea/Wzqzlm1ITymebh6BLin3_Screen%20Shot%202016-04-19%20at%208.04.33%20AM.png https://s3.amazonaws.com/marquee-test-akiaisur2rgicbmpehea/W...

djloche 10y ago
Unfortunately, this appears to be the trend. With mobile/tablet driving ad revenue growth, desktop visitors appear to be on their way to being an ignored/forgotten segment. Fortunately, a quick hop into dev tools fixes the problem. For the primary paragraph content, switching from the current 22px down to 16px makes this read so much easier.

manibatra 10y ago

The main thing that has really impacted my productivity and happiness is following a set routine for an hour whenever I get up. So I do the following : 1. Brush 2. Meditate - 15 minutes 3. Write - I usually write "3 things that I am grateful for" and "3 things to focus on that particular day" 4. Exercise - 15 minute run I do this whenever I get up. So it's not like I get up at 6 in the morning everyday. I just get up 6 hours after sleeping. The advice was given one one of Tim Ferris' podcast and has done wonders for me. I would highly recommend trying it out. Start small. If 15 minutes of anything is too much start with 5 minutes. That's what I did.

dsugarman 10y ago
6 hours is not enough sleep
- pavel_lishin 10y ago
  It is for some people, and it isn't for others, which is why this kind of generic advice is amazing if it fits you exactly, and awful if it doesn't. I can function on six hours, but not well. I also can't easily take 15 minutes to meditate in the morning, because I have a two month old baby I have to help care for in the mornings. This somewhat limits my ability to meditate and exercise.
  - manibatra 10y ago
    I second that! I have tried sleeping for 8 hours and I just end up feeling sluggish all day. Less than 6 hours has the same effect. 6 hours just happens to hit the sweet spot. I would suggest meditating anytime in the day. I dont believe that it specifically has to be in the morning. It could be a placebo but just sitting still for a bit does some to help.
    - gooseus 10y ago
      I don't know how true this is, but it's something I've found true for myself... I've read (or heard) that your sleep cycle is 90 minutes down to deep sleep and back, so it's best to get up after some multiple of 90 minutes because that's when you'll have cycled back to the lightest sleep. So typically I either get 6 hours or 7.5 hours of sleep a night, though if I ended up getting 3 or 4.5 one night I'll sometimes try to get 9 the next night. If I can't get at least 3 hours of sleep, I just stay up. So it's possible the problem with 8 hours is that you're trying to wake up in the middle of a cycle and thus the sluggishness. Or maybe I'm just spreading pseudo-science.
      - manibatra 10y ago
        I have heard that too but never really got down to testing it out. In fact I have resigned to the fact that when it comes to sleep to each their own. For eg I have experienced better quality of sleep after taking ZMA ( I weight train ). But I have heard anecdotes where people have said that its just a placebo.
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dominotw 10y ago
Would you mind sharing how long you have done this for.
- manibatra 10y ago
  5 months. I started with meditating and running for 5 minutes each and increased it every two weeks or more whenever I felt like it. As mentioned doing 15 minutes of each now. Got my dad to do the same. I actually made him start with just 1 minute of each. He is upto 10 minutes after a month. Plus has started weight training. He is 60. I guess the main takeaway is do the smallest possible interval you can ( have no excuses to not do) and don't beat yourself about it. Build it up gradually
  - chris11 10y ago
    Is this from the tinyhabits program? It sounds like BJ Fogg's method for creating new habits.
    - manibatra 10y ago
      Not sure where I read it and I have not heard of the tinyhabits program. Will surely have a look.
      - chris11 10y ago
        You should, I went through it and found it really useful. The main ideas in the program is to start extremely small then celebrate and consciously practice doing that habit for a few days. The tiny part is literal, he suggests taking the smallest possible unit and making sure it's less than 30 seconds. For instance if the habit was brushing your teeth you would just need to consciously practice brushing one tooth. And then the celebration is equally tiny, such as just saying "awesome" when you consciously do something. It sounds kind of corny, but it's effective. The idea is to get your brain to automatically associate a new habit with a really tiny action that will instantly give you a reward. So if you wanted to create a habit of brushing your teeth after getting up, you'll do it without much though even thought you only consciously brushed one tooth when you were trying to create the habit.
epalmer 10y ago
We do 3 good things at the dinner table. What is good? 1) Why is it good? 2) Why did it happen? Some of them are a result of direct or indirect action. I studied more. Some are a result of external events. The sunset was fantastic because God decided we needed a great sunset. This has done wonders for my kids (now mostly grown) in relating their action to positive outcomes. We don't practice this much anymore but should get back to it. My wife and I exercise for 45 to 60 minutes 5 days a week, most weeks. We rise at 4:30 AM and are done and home by 6:30. We go to bed really early. We are 62 (myself) and 57 and the exercise is helping us a lot with health, vitality and positive outlook. Somedays it is hard to get up and go. It is always a good thing when we are done and we are grateful we went to the gym. I strive for 7+ hours of sleep. I mediate some, mostly at lunch time.
- manibatra 10y ago
  That is really great! Being grateful everyday does increase general level of happiness over time I guess.
Scarbutt 10y ago
What do you brush?
- manibatra 10y ago
  My teeth haha! I just listed it down as it is sort of a trigger to follow up with other things.
Devthrowaway80 10y ago
Interestingly enough, this is the same routine I've had recommended in AA (minus the exercise, it's an old program). Wake up, immediate meditation/prayer and a gratitude list. Only things missing is contemplating what you need to do today to be a better person at the beginning of the day and reflecting on what you did well and could've done better when you go to sleep. An excerpt from the portion referred to as "On Awakening": "When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid? Do we owe an apology? Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once? Were we kind and loving toward all? What could we have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time? Or were we thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life? But we must be careful not to drift into worry, remorse or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to others. After making our review we ask God's forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken."

chaostheory 10y ago

It sounds like a self improvement system built on top of this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3304496/Be-lucky-its-an-easy-skill-to-learn.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3304496/Be-lucky-its-a...

sidi 10y ago

The power of positive thinking has to be one of the most undervalued capital. I would really like to see if there are any counter examples to this thinking that have worked for others.

phil21 10y ago
I've been called negative before. For good reason :) I tend to see the problems with things. The stuff that is good enough, why spend time thinking about? Seems boring to me - it's already done, lets move on. I actually somewhat don't like being labeled as "negative person" since the actual result in my thinking is usually very positive outcomes. I improve things and make them better. How could I do that if I didn't identify what is wrong with something? The new webapp you wrote for me might be 95% awesome, but I'm going to probably be immediately drawn to the 5% that sucks just by the nature of who I am and that's what I'll be focusing my energy on to improve. This worked well for me in my personal life for some time. Identify bad habits, get rid of them. However it can be a grind and I think folks that think the way I do are much more prone to depression and negative feedback loops that result in isolation (largely out of perhaps a frustrated idealist point of view). That's when it get's dangerous. As in all things in life I think it's about balance. As I get older, I absolutely see and believe in the power of positive thinking. I just think some people can take that a bit (or a lot) too far and use it as an excuse to delude themselves.
- cylinder 10y ago
  Yep. Haven't read, but you might like:Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312658850/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_dkRfxb5YS55X2 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312658850/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_d...
levemi 10y ago
Voltaire has a nice bit of insight on "the power of positive thinking" shared through his story about Candide: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candide Worth a read before you start decorating your home with power crystals and fire up the incense.

everyone 10y ago

Why you shouldn't trust successful people's advice.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k7jeQQdqPA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k7jeQQdqPA

billmalarky 10y ago
To me that video is not making the absolute claim that the clickbait title suggests (their words not yours of course). The actual video seems to suggest to the viewer to be wary of _only_ looking at the winning perspective and being subjected to survivorship bias. That is, there's nothing wrong with hearing advice from successful people, but make sure to get input from unsuccessful people as well to get a more complete picture.
- everyone 10y ago
  True, I think in this case you could argue that the title is warranted as it is exceedingly common in our society to examine and emulate successful people whereas it is exceedingly uncommon to do the same for (or even be aware of the existence of) unsuccessful people
- awinter-py 10y ago
  it's not survivor bias, I think it's attribution error.

allisthemoist 10y ago

Called Paths to Power, it emphasizes the importance of neutrality: The world is not fair or unfair. It simply is. The more you can suspend judgment, the more you can learn and grow your power. Not to be cynical about this approach, but having studied some of these concepts from a Mahayana Buddhist perspective, the idea of utilizing the perspective of Beginner's Mind to "grow your power" is a gross misappropriation and misunderstanding of the entire framework. In fact, within the traditions that originally conceived of these approaches, attachment to power, fame, and/or wealth is seen as the root cause of suffering and mental disenfranchisement and the very conceptualization that is to be let go [0]. Perhaps I need to look into this course a bit more to understand their approach but it seems that this is right in line with what many Buddhist scholars have worried - i.e., that these ancient traditions will be misunderstood and reformed in a way that may have wholly unhealthy effects on those who practice it. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Noble_Truths#Second_truth:_arising_or_origin_of_dukkha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Noble_Truths#Second_truth...

mbrock 10y ago
What if you use that power to help other beings, though?
- jdimov9 10y ago
  Then you're an idiot.
  - mbrock 10y ago
    Why?
    - andrewflnr 10y ago
      Humility is required to "enter the kingdom of heaven", and it's pretty difficult to maintain it when you have a fat wallet.
- swombat 10y ago

awinter-py 10y ago

Famous counterexample to this is the stuff about crisis leadership from a few years ago: http://www.salon.com/2011/08/02/first_rate_madness_interview/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/02/first_rate_madness_interview... This guy's thesis is that in tough times, mental illness is associated with leadership effectiveness. His examples are Lincoln and WT sherman. (the stats argument here ends up being pretty weak). Bottom line -- it's really hard to grade heuristics unless you have enough knowledge to restrict the situations which may occur in the future (and if you do, it's no longer a heuristic).

maxxxxx 10y ago

I think the most important thing about this kind of advice is not to generalize it. For some people it works and for some people it doesn't work. There is no self-help advice that works for everybody. Also: The advice given is not complete. The people who have success with this do the things the article describes, but they also do some important things the article doesn't describe.

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Animats 10y ago

This looks like an attempt to monetize an evangelical Christian concept.[1] From the article: The ideal attitude is what she calls Abundant Thinking — a mindset that gives you the creative agency and grit to reach your vision — and, on a daily basis, to design your own life. When Verresen first meets most of her clients, they’re in reactive mode. It’s like they’re in a movie, acting in their job and life without knowing the script or having perspective. Her goal is to put them in the director’s chair, with more choices, perspectives and possibilities to rewrite and upgrade the script as they go. From an evangelical site: One way of viewing abundant life is to see when people have been changed by the power of Christ; they live different lives, which affects all aspects of their experience. In missiololgy, we call that "redemption and lift." This isn’t just true individually, but can also be on a cultural level. So, spiritual change, accompanied by better decisions, does often lead to better circumstances financially. (Sometimes it get's you arrested and martyred, so don't miss the point here.)" [1] http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2015/march/what-does-it-mean-to-have-abundant-life.html http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2015/march/what-d...

dang 10y ago
Lest anyone dive into religious polarization around this, it's worth pointing out that such psychological doctrines have a long history, back through Norman Vincent Peale and Napoleon Hill to the New Thought movement of the late 19th-early 20th century [1] and a whole kaleidoscope of religious splinter groups. Many of these were Christian, but mostly marginally so; a famous example is [2]. Then there's the New Age wing to this (think The Secret) that goes back to the Theosophists and alchemical traditions. Then again there were more philosophical versions, like the Transcendentalists. You can find this type of thing in Emerson. The history and literature is rich. More recently it is beginning (as one would expect) to take scientific and quasi-scientific forms, including attempts to test it experimentally. Not clear yet what will come of those. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Thought https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Thought 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_a_Man_Thinketh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_a_Man_Thinketh
- duaneb 10y ago
  Not to mention existentialist philosophy, which again can be theist (kierkegaard) or not (too many to count).

rcconf 10y ago

These concepts also work really well for dating and relationships. If you approach girls with a scarcity mindset, you tend to be a lot more needy, insecure and generally feel like a victim. If you approach girls with an abundance mentality, you're much less needy, more confident and you don't really care about the outcome. You're just there to learn about her, and if she's not interested, well, there's plenty of other girls that will be.

llamataboot 10y ago
Or maybe if she isn't interested, she just isn't interested? If she was the last woman on earth and she wasn't interested in you would that make it somehow alright to keep approaching her? I mean really, I get what you are saying here, but it comes dangerous close to a guy viewing women as a "resource" and saying that he behaves better when he views that resource as unlimited.
- dwaltrip 10y ago
  I think you are projecting onto the comment a bit. If the usage of the word "scarcity" was what caught your eye (as an association with women being "resources"), it was simply pulled from the article, which labels the two contrasting types of thinking as "scarcity" and "abundance".
  - andrewflnr 10y ago
    I think the real trick the top-level comment was trying to talk about is that you shouldn't think of women as a resource at all. It just kind of got framed as a resource thing because of the context you mentioned.
- sridca 10y ago
  What's with all this "objectification" philosophical nonsense? Shouldn't the only thing that matter be how people treat each other? Why are the likes of you not directing their ire at HR departments (where humans of both genders are treated as "resources")?

Kurimo 10y ago

So she sells coaching to already successful and wealthy people that amounts to those banners they used to have around my elementary school that said "Attitude is a little thing that goes a long way"? Hooray for snake oil.

eggman 10y ago

some people produce more benefit half-sleep than thirty-five of those who appear to be awake. I'll pass on 'abundant thinking'...

coldtea 10y ago

>The ideal attitude is what she calls Abundant Thinking When I see a marketable name for such things, I immediately know it's some BS mix-match of hogwash to sell to people in need. And sure enough: "sought-after executive coach Katia Verresen, who counsels leaders at Facebook, Stanford, Airbnb, Twitter, and a number of prominent startups".

junko 10y ago

>>"Priming is engaging in any activity that boosts your emotional and mental energy ... [like] photos that make you happy." That's Asian cats from Instagram for me! I'm usually a bit skeptical of bullet point advice like this as reading it always seem like self-evident truism; I think people have to really experience it in order to understand its proper depth. But I'm glad that self-compassion is mentioned here because it's not preached very often and prob less intuitive. When I realised about it in one eureka moment (I know!) almost immediately I could have more respect for myself and found it much easier to forgive personal flaws and mistakes. So if you ever find yourself kicking and loathing over something, do a mental "There, there" patting on your head! You'll begin to see life in a much more whimsical, Woody Allen way :)

PavlovsCat 10y ago
Well, one should be fair to other people, and if possible friendly, right? Turns out oneself is a person, too :) > I have expressed my strong interest in the mass of the people; and this is founded, not on their usefulness to the community, so much as on what they are in themselves. Indeed every man, in every condition, is great. It is only our own diseased sight which makes him little. A man is great as a man, be he where or what he may. The grandeur of his nature turns to insignificance all outward distinctions. -- William Ellery Channing I think that can be extended to more than humans, maybe everything. And hey, don't knock eureka moments, especially not your own! When I was 20 and late for work in the morning, I walked by a lawn with a bird on it who was looking for worms, and looked straight at me. I didn't think about it at all, but nodded and said good morning. Then I had to laugh at myself, then I thought about it, and I never quite saw animals the same way. Suddenly it seemed so obvious, of course they're persons. Not ones who speak my language or care about my salutations, but still. I feel similarly about plants, central nervous system or not. I mean, it's not like I could tell you what I mean with "person" to begin with, where the cutoff point is, but something changed and it felt and feels right. But compassion for animals and plants is easy, compassion for humans is trickier... and compassion* for oneself, that's the trickiest part, and as you said, the most often overlooked. It's like we understand just fine that we shouldn't dehumanize others, shouldn't hold grudges, not disappoint people or break promises, and so on, but simply affording ourselves that same respect and basic goodwill often eludes us, which we then compensate with all sorts of things which are far from both compassion and real confidence. * which is a great way to put it.. self-love just doesn't have the same ring of understanding, patience etc. to it; like "loving Justing Bieber" and "having compassion for Justin Bieber" are two completely unrelated things.

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llamataboot 10y ago

Dressed up Calvinism IMHO. You're poor? You just aren't tapping into the abundance of the universe.

chris_wot 10y ago
That's not a tenet of Calvinism.
- llamataboot 10y ago
  sure, but ascribing some sort of otherwordly virtue to people by virtue of their material success is. inverted Calvinism perhaps. Regardless, still taps into the weird part of the US psyche that has a Protestant work ethic that believes that everything is possible for everyone if they just work hard enough filtered through a sort of divine blessing (only this case it is dressed up in a New Age "tapping into the power of positive thinking schtick") -- in any case, it has the same outcome of blaming individuals for the structural circumstances they find themselves living in -- in one case, it is that you obviously weren't one of the chosen, in the mainstream meritocratic case, it's a more easy to digest "you just didn't work hard enough", in this case it is dressed back up with psuedo-religious trappingsabout how the universe wants you to succeed and you get back the energy you put out.
  - chris_wot 10y ago
    Inverted Calvinism isn't really Calvinism though, is it?
    - llamataboot 10y ago
      all goes back to the divine right of kings for me...
      - chris_wot 10y ago
        I guess you could call me a Calvinist, but I find Calvin's treatment of Severetus (burning him at the stake) appalling. I just think that he got a lot of what I believe about Scripture correct - the whole TULIP summarization of his theology I largely agree with. I just don't think that properity was ever part of his beliefs - if anything Calvin has been accused of being a gruel eating killjoy...

bottled_poe 10y ago

Hand-wavy garbage. In my mind, there are only three things that matter when it comes to business success: Company reputation, ability to deliver and who you know. Everything else is either not important or fits under one of those tenets.

dbkaplun 10y ago

The author clearly doesn't practice abundant thinking, as the title should be "The Advantages of Abundant Thinking".