What have you recently tried, and failed at?

Emile

Kaj Sotala said:

[I]f you punish yourself for trying and failing, you stop wanting to try in the first place, as it becomes associated with the negative emotions. Also, accepting and being okay with the occasional failure makes you treat it as a genuine choice where you have agency, not something that you're forced to do against your will.

So maybe we should celebrate failed attempts more often ... I for one can't think of anything I've failed at recently, which is probably a sign that I'm not trying enough new things.

So, what specific things have you failed at recently?

Kaj Sotala said:

[I]f you punish yourself for trying and failing, you stop wanting to try in the first place, as it becomes associated with the negative emotions. Also, accepting and being okay with the occasional failure makes you treat it as a genuine choice where you have agency, not something that you're forced to do against your will.

So maybe we should celebrate failed attempts more often ... I for one can't think of anything I've failed at recently, which is probably a sign that I'm not trying enough new things.

So, what specific things have you failed at recently?

I don't want this man finding out he has this effect me.

It's just a blog where one man writes his opinions. I'm not exactly sure why his blog in particular makes me so angry. Maybe it's because he wrote a couple of posts that reminded me of a traumatizing experience when I was a kid. Maybe his unique writing style. Maybe it's just an accident. But for whatever reason, when I read this man's blog, I get incredibly angry. No other blog (or anything else) affects me this way.

Sometimes when I'm reading his blog and I get angry at him, I imagine punching him. Then I punch myself. Then my brain releases the "someone punched you!" chemicals and I get even angrier. A positive feedback loop until I'm bloody and exhausted.

It's not nearly as bad as it used to be. When I was a teenager I was punching myself practically every day, only instead of getting mad at a blogger I was mad at my parents. I'm not mad at my parents anymore and I just made a half a year without punching myself, so hopefully this chapter will be over soon.

I'm really curious who it is now. Will you tell in PM?

4CronoDAS14y

O_O I'd say that it seems like the problem is that getting angry somehow causes you to hit yourself (rather than that various things are making you angry), but it seems sufficiently obvious that my saying it wouldn't make any difference...

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What have you recently tried, and failed at?

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What have you recently tried, and failed at?

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