The tool you essentially have in the face of determinism despair is awareness of distributed causality. It is the ‘thinking about/sense of’ part that is (or seems to be) causing it. A practical exercise I like is asking “If I had to bring myself to face the most ‘makes me feel bad about myself’ cause of my demotivation, what would it be?”. Existential despair often masks some other pertinent but deeply invalidating anxiety.
A practical exercise I like is asking “If I had to bring myself to face the most ‘makes me feel bad about myself’ cause of my demotivation, what would it be?”.
Could you please explain that again? This sounds like it could be useful, but I don’t completely understand it.
Sure! I think a bunch of other answers touch upon this though.
The idea is that it’s not determinism in itself that’s causing the demotivation, that’s just a narrative your subconscious mind brings forward when faced with a tough task, to protect you from thinking about something that is more difficult to face, but often actionable, eg. “I feel I’m not smart enough”, “I think I will fail”, “I’m embarrassed about what others will think”. By explicitly asking yourself what that ‘other’ cause is (by phrasing it as above, or perhaps by imagining a stern parent/coach giving you a reality check), you can focus on something that might be very tough but not literally impossible to solve like the universe being deterministic.
The tool you essentially have in the face of determinism despair is awareness of distributed causality. It is the ‘thinking about/sense of’ part that is (or seems to be) causing it. A practical exercise I like is asking “If I had to bring myself to face the most ‘makes me feel bad about myself’ cause of my demotivation, what would it be?”. Existential despair often masks some other pertinent but deeply invalidating anxiety.
Could you please explain that again? This sounds like it could be useful, but I don’t completely understand it.
Sure! I think a bunch of other answers touch upon this though.
The idea is that it’s not determinism in itself that’s causing the demotivation, that’s just a narrative your subconscious mind brings forward when faced with a tough task, to protect you from thinking about something that is more difficult to face, but often actionable, eg. “I feel I’m not smart enough”, “I think I will fail”, “I’m embarrassed about what others will think”. By explicitly asking yourself what that ‘other’ cause is (by phrasing it as above, or perhaps by imagining a stern parent/coach giving you a reality check), you can focus on something that might be very tough but not literally impossible to solve like the universe being deterministic.
Hm. This might be a valid point. Thanks.
Hm. This might be a valid point. Thanks.