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Comment by Mongoose | Hacker News Reader

As much as I appreciate Leo and ZenHabits, his content us ultra-cyclical. I understand the efficacy of repetition, but I unsubscribed after the 500th post on "doing less." This post is more of a teaser and linkbait for the rest of his site than a solid example of his capacity to inspire.

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I admire this guy. I have been following his blog since the very beginning. He has come a long way. Having quit his job, works from home, quit smoking, shred ~25 pounds, completed multiple mini-marathons, published books, moving to California from Guam with family (6 kids) and he just recently removed all ads on his most popular blogs which easily gets him 1+ million page views per month. He was charging ~2k per month for a single 125x125 ad. Basically easy money.

I also find his writing repetitive, but I realized that I have grown as a person too over the last ~3 years that I was reading his blog, what seemed inspirational then seems repetitive now, because I have grown out of those concepts and most of it doesn't apply to me anymore. Maybe he was able to sustain his willpower because he is repetitive?

I think this is the same with most people putting out inspirational/motivational material. At some point, it isn't inspirational to you, but it still is to others. That means you've grown and developed, and other people can too.

I used to listen to Dave Ramsey a lot years ago to get some motivation and get certain things drilled in to my head. After about the 300th show, I could tell you about 95% of the time what he was going to say, almost word for word. That doesn't mean it's bad or he's repetitive (well, he is) but that it's 'worked' already - I don't really need that type of motivation in my life as I once did, as it did the trick.

His other blog, http://mnmlist.com/ is slightly better and more personal. It still is a bit cyclical, but feels better.

The oft echoed sentiment "if you're feeling $EMOTION, just stop feeling $EMOTION" isn't insightful advice or good advice. It's a naive solution repeated by armchair psychologists and, frankly, does more harm than good.

"Abused by your father? Find yourself lusting after children? Hey, just stop! It's that easy!"

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