Used to be more so, because I had a huge problem in seeing anyone else as wrong, so I had to twist my mind in order to make their input "true" in some sense even if not in a meaningful sense. You could say my philosophy used to be the strong version of this and is now a weaker version...

First of all, I don't believe I said anything about detachment from emotion.

Many Buddhist organizations see and practice meditation as a form of psychotherapy / relaxation, which is different from what I'm talking about. What they said to you seems in line with that style of practice---one that aims at not being stressed, not reacting in unhelpful ways to emotional upsets, not worrying over what one can't control, etc.

Many people seem to find that style of practice extremely helpful for themselves. For a person whose sole goal is to gain insight into the workings of their mind, I would probably not recommend it.

I wouldn't say that the group you're mentioning has "crazy ideas" or "bad communication". I'm sure they mean exactly what they say, and what they say doesn't seem especially unreasonable. Many people would benefit from being less reactive. I think it's simply a case where their goals are to become less reactive, and they practice accordingly, whereas a person who does not have that as a goal of meditation (and instead has the goal of e.g. insight into the defects of their own cognitive processes) would not meditate in a way that aims solely at cultivating that attitude. Different strokes for different folks.

I got the impression that Elspeth and Jacob's relationship remains non-romantic. Is that correct?

The writing errors in this story are very distracting. I did not click past chapter 1. Is there something to recommend it so strongly that I should get over the bad grammar etc.?

Before I say anything, I'd like to say that convincing other people to become atheist is really hard. Really hard.

I have to completely disagree, although in practice this will make no difference.

Convincing other people to become atheist is so easy that you don't even have to do it. They will do it all by themselves, given one condition. That one condition is that they value knowing what's real (which includes verification of "How do I know that what I know is true?") more than they value almost anything else - including fitting comfortably into the social groups they've been raised in. If you can get them to place such a high value on truth then you don't even need to bring up the question of god. At some point they'll stumble upon it themselves and then they are trapped - they won't be able to stop until they've completely disabused themselves of the notion.

Unfortunately, getting people to care more about knowing what's real than almost anything else is really hard. Really hard. So in practice, the difficulty of the task hasn't been altered at all.

Actually, thinking about this possibility it seems by far the most likely that it depends strongly on the specific of the person watching it, some like this kind of thing and others don't.

To me, keeping the weight off after reaching your "maintenance weight" is the real challenge. To keep it off for 5 years or more would be truly impressive. How long have you kept it off?

Agreed, a fine twist indeed. I wager, in fact, that the poor woman has become Didyme for all intents and purposes, and that the bond will therefore retake. Quite plausible to handwave with Aro's high-fidelity brain dumps.

I, for one, would welcome such a positive plot twist (cough for not-long-ago our sworn enemy) for a change.

I wonder how much personality plays a role in this question. For myself, I can say that I have noticed a strong trend toward pursuing things with a high novelty value. Documenting work experiments with a new piece of note-taking software. Tracking tasks with a new task manager. Setting up a new piece of equipment. Getting to document an experiment with a high-speed video camera for the first time. But this fades. In the case of software tools, this is dangerous as I expend more time looking for a shiny tool than actually using it.

I could also list "work" done at home that would seem like work to others but not to me. Consider the following:

• My enthrallment at setting up a fresh install of Linux compared to an IT employee who does so every day
• My recent acquisition of a table saw and subsequent fling with woodworking projects compared to a carpenter who does all he can not to quit
• My excitement at spending spare time learning Python compared to a programmer who can barely bring himself to look at another line of code
• My buying of a road bike on craigslist, then excitedly taking the entire thing apart and rebuilding it for maintenance compared to someone at a bike shop who hates what he does

I guess I'm not exactly giving you an answer, but simply sharing some personal data points. My endeavors that don't feel like work generally don't last very long. My attention wanders to something new that I get excited about. My energy toward that arena becomes almost unlimited and it never feels like work even though I'm accomplishing tangible results. Even though novelty and interest fade, these types of things can be cyclical for me. After some time has passed, it may regain it's glow.

I would love to hear if anyone has managed to maintain a doesn't-feel-like-work relationship with something for an extended period of time. I don't think I have a single example of something in that category for myself.

Welp, that's my idea gone! XD