Show HN: How To Become Obsessed and Achieve Greatness at Anything | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: How To Become Obsessed and Achieve Greatness at Anything

indoctrinator.com

8 pointsshadowrunner15 comments

IMHO there is already too much acceptance of obsessive thinking and addictive habits in Silicon Valley culture (and in American society as a whole).

Although not all obsession or addiction is bad, anything that encourages or pulls a signficant fraction of the population (of Silicon Valley or America) even more in that direction is.

I wish I knew of a well-written book or article explaining how addiction damages communities, but I do not, so here is a badly-written book: Bruce K. Alexander's Globalization of Addiction.

Obsessiveness, when channeled correctly, unharnesses practically superhuman capabilities. It can be used for good. Its how I learned computers (and many other invaluable skills).

Yes, and math addict Paul Erdos proved many theorems, physics addict JJ Thomson moved science forward a lot, and religion addicts (i.e., saints of the middle ages) were a positive influence on the Christian Church and consequently on the West. Life looks easy when you notice only the positive effects of your actions!

Nobody see's only the positive in what they do, no matter how obsessed. Obsession isn't about blindness or having a "one track mind". It's about building momentum until you become unstoppable and finding joy in the work. It's about being fully committed and achieving mastery.

It's not the obsessed whose I am saying are insufficiently aware of the negative effects of obsession -- it is anyone who thinks members of the Silicon-Valley subculture can benefit from even more encouragement to obsession.

We should be encouraging movement in the opposite direction. We should be pointing out that the two most accomplished physicists of the 20th Century (Einstein and Feynman) always had at least one wife or girlfriend. And that setting out to try to become the next Einstein or Feynman is a long game that will take decades. And that life will throw up all sorts of challenges during those decades. And that maintaining an obsession or an addictive habit for a few years will weaken you and make you less able to handle those challenges (and that weakness will tend to last for many years even after you give up the obsession or addictive habit) whereas in contrast a balanced life including regular sexual intimacy, exercise, attention to any special dietary or health needs a person might have, non-specialized non-obsessive learning and (most important) close human attachments will make you more able to handle the inevitable challenges.

I don't disagree with you. You make a lot of sense. Sometimes though, you got to switch into overdrive to get things done. That's what INDOCTRINATOR is for.

Well, ok then. Feel free BTW to re-use any of my words above in INDOCTRINATOR's instructional materials.

Additionally, I'm willing to help you write or edit passages that advise on the potential negative effects of the product and on how to decide when to use it. (Email in profile. No charge for this help of course.)

Thanks Richard. I appreciate it. I'll contact you as I get close to launch.

Sorry but this looks very much like the typical info ware: Someone believes (hopefully) he has the worlds' most valuable information and writing skills, but can't be bothered to write a monetized blog or get a real publishing deal...

Of course, whenever some of these ultra-secret material leaks it turns out to be not much better than an average blog post, but for the price of a couple of scientific text-books.

INDOCTRINATOR is a different animal, so to speak. It's experimental and I think suits publishing and distribution via email perfectly. It may also include postal mail too, but that hadn't been decided yet.

It still reaks of spam/scam.

The very act of doing these kinds of product tells me you want to earn money while avoiding the traditional route of providing value in return.

Thanks for your input.

I'm getting ready to launch Indoctrinator (a program that uses obsession to achieve mastery at anything, even something you used to hate).

I'm happy to answer any questions.

Ok, what are the basic concepts? :)

(As you can imagine, many of us hesitate to upvote anything which might be considered spam, and even flag them; but certainly do upvote submissions which happen to contain insightful comments.)

Indoctrinator is a multi-phase program that walks you through the steps of becoming obsessed.

For example, if you hate exercising or say, accounting, this program will show you how to get obsessed over it.

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