W
Wisdomination
wisdomination.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2015
Personal blog on discipline, motivation, weight loss, startups and the future, with some politically charged posts.
What HN saysHN commenters link its survivorship bias explainer as the best they've seen and its discipline post, while one criticizes the author's racist remarks.
26HN people shared it
15linked it in comments
17stories submitted
613story points
4 years agolast shared
2015people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Screw motivation, what you need is discipline18 people · 561 points · first shared 2015 · 116 comments on HN
- 2Practical discipline4 people · 9 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 3What is Survivorship Bias (2015)2 people · 3 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 4Startups and Cultural Optimism1 people · 22 points · first shared 2015 · 4 comments on HN
- 5Why some people get what they want, and others don’t1 people · 7 points · first shared 2015 · 1 comments on HN
- 6What the hell happened to the future?1 people · 6 points · first shared 2016 · 2 comments on HN
- 7How to actually lose weight1 people · 2 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 8Of course you can outrun your fork1 people · 1 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
- 9Accurate Dictionary1 people · 1 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 10The life-changing magic of compound interest1 people · 1 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
- 11My islamist uber driver and modern slavery1 people · first shared 2023
What HN people wrote when they linked it
TheAlchemist · 2017-04-21
This one is also great:
http://www.wisdomination.com/what-is-survivorship-bias/
By far, the best explanation I've ever seen !
plainOldText · 2016-12-06
Unfortunatey, we are highly unpredictable and emotional machines. You're going to have to deal with ups and downs, moments of euphoria as well as depression, no matter what.
The key is to stay disciplined, and if you believe strongly that what you're working on solves a real problem no one else is solving appropriately, then keep working on it, very hard.
While at it, keep looking for people to join you on your adventure and hopefully success will come along the way.
Also, a good read: http://www.wisdomination.com/screw-motivation-what-you-need-is-discipl…
vagabund · 2023-04-08
Ha, runs directly contrary to this blogpost [0] that's done well on HN a few times.
> At its core, chasing motivation is insistence on the infantile fantasy that we should only be doing things we feel like doing. The problem is then framed thus: “How do I get myself to feel like doing what I have rationally decided to do?”. Bad. The proper question is “How do I make my feelings inconsequential and do the things I consciously want to do without being a little bitch about it?”.
Just goes to show you shouldn't take these pop psych self-help lessons too seriously. The one I cited more aligns with how I tick, but I doubt there's a one size fits all optimal approach to habit-forming/productivity -- even at such a meta level.
[0] - https://www.wisdomination.com/screw-motivation-what-you-need-is-discip…
vlod · 2023-02-09
Maybe discipline [0] is another way to look at it.
[0] "Screw motivation, what you need is discipline." https://www.wisdomination.com/screw-motivation-what-you-need-is-discip…
badcppdev · 2023-02-07
Is it an ad hominem attack to point out that the author is a raving racist?
"For one, a solid proportion of Uber drivers are one bad day away from committing a terror attack, such as allahuakbarramming a van into pedestrians, "[0]
0 - http://www.wisdomination.com/my-islamist-uber-driver-and-modern-slaver…
mminich · 2023-02-06
I found this one practically actionable and helpful
> Motivation, broadly speaking, operates on the erroneous assumption that a particular mental or emotional state is necessary to complete a task.
> That’s completely the wrong way around.
> Discipline, by contrast, separates outwards functioning from moods and feelings and thereby ironically circumvents the problem by consistently improving them.
https://www.wisdomination.com/screw-motivation-what-you-need-is-discip…
danuker · 2022-09-08
Then there's this (the complete opposite of OP's link): https://www.wisdomination.com/screw-motivation-what-you-need-is-discip…
GreenWatermelon · 2020-11-21
Unfortunately, will power means nothing.
What you need, as I learned, is discipline, which is really hard to train. you basically have Work hard on small things one at a time until you build the habits you want.
On that topic, this is pretty interesting:
https://www.wisdomination.com/screw-motivation-what-you-need-is-discip…
vb6sp6 · 2020-06-17
1. Working in an industry will reveal all sorts of problems. Being a customer may also. If you've ever asked yourself "why is this so difficult/stupid" you may have a good problem to solve.
2. Burnout is a lack of discipline but is often thought about as a lack of motivation. Get clear on the differences:https://www.wisdomination.com/screw-motivation-what-you-need-is-discip…
Invictus0 · 2020-06-17
Motivation is an emotional spark; you need to use that to create structures that enforce discipline, the logs that keeps the fire going. I like this blog post which really breaks down motivation vs. discipline:
https://www.wisdomination.com/screw-motivation-what-you-need-is-discip…
bezchristo · 2020-01-21
I find this post on Wisdomination applicable to this scenario. It changed the way I approached tasks.
http://www.wisdomination.com/screw-motivation-what-you-need-is-discipl…
Smaointe · 2017-01-29
There's an article that goes into motivation versus discipline [1] that holds a similar view to what you're saying - motivation is like waiting to get into Olympic form, whereas discipline is what gets you to Olympic form.
[1] http://www.wisdomination.com/screw-motivation-what-you-need-is-discipl…
hso1 · 2016-12-21
What do we need our passion for? To motivate ourselves? IMO, we have a problem when we expect to feel motivated to do stuff.
I think we need to learn to do stuff even if we "don't feel it" yet, that state comes later as a reward for doing.
Long ago I read an article that made me think about this: http://www.wisdomination.com/screw-motivation-what-you-need-is-discipl…
howlett · 2015-10-24
You might want to read this: http://www.wisdomination.com/screw-motivation-what-you-need-is-discipl…
jndetlefsen · 2015-07-19
Screw motivation, what you need is discipline.
http://www.wisdomination.com/screw-motivation-what-you-need-is-discipl…