I love Adam Mastroianni's writings. There is a lot of good advise (which I promptly forget about for historic reasons) and an awful lot of measured hope (which is a balm to my parched soul). He...
I love Adam Mastroianni's writings. There is a lot of good advise (which I promptly forget about for historic reasons) and an awful lot of measured hope (which is a balm to my parched soul). He also just has a great approach to science and communication in general.
Also also - he usually release all of his articles in audio form, narrated by himself. Those are available in podcast form wherever you get those. It's how I ingest most of his articles, the definite highlight of my podcast "recents".
I've had this thread and article in my tabs for weeks, but only got around to reading it now. It's a really fantastic piece of writing, a wonderful observation brought across in a digestible...
I've had this thread and article in my tabs for weeks, but only got around to reading it now. It's a really fantastic piece of writing, a wonderful observation brought across in a digestible format.
I really wish I had more to say on this, but there's nothing to critique here. The lessons are all correct, the only thing is that sometimes, unforseen circumstances can fuck you over even after you've gone through your gauntlet of suffering. We are the captains of our own destiny, but the first officer is still life.
I would argue your statement needs an amendment to reflect the article's message: Know your Why, and How much you are willing to willing to give for it becomes more clear, and perhaps more...
Know your Why, and the How becomes more clear and bearable.
I would argue your statement needs an amendment to reflect the article's message: Know your Why, and How much you are willing to willing to give for it becomes more clear, and perhaps more bearable if it can be endured through a lens of optimism.
I really appreciate when people, like this author, are honest enough to say that life sucks at many points. To fight against the "grindset" that plagues a lot of conversation, especially in professional/career oriented spaces. But at the same time, some level of "grind" may be worth it if you will be at least somewhat happy with the end result.
The challenge is we often don't know the end result. We can speculate, and reach conclusions more easily for some topics than others. It is the great unknown that poses a significant challenge for me, and a lack of feeling in control of it that drove me to a dark place in my past that was incredibly difficult to get out of.
And to be truthful, I am not completely out of it and likely never will be - there will always be things out of my control, and some will bother me more than others, but I have learned that I can retain control (to some degree) over my reaction to these things.
To your two last paragraphs about the future being unknown, may I propose that you read more of his work? Not only is he good at illuminating the measured truth of complicated questions, and going...
To your two last paragraphs about the future being unknown, may I propose that you read more of his work? Not only is he good at illuminating the measured truth of complicated questions, and going against commen sense with rigor, humility and charm, he also has a lot to say about our avility to predict future outcomes, when it is possible, how we usually end up doing it wrong, and how it often clash with our human intuitions and heuristics.
He even dips his toes in it in this one, presenting the idea that we often try to predict the outcome of hard work by how many are willing to start doing it instead of how many were happy when they came out the other side. Thisn kind of "predicting your own future by observing those that have already walked your path" is one he mentions often in one shade or another, and rings true to me, even if it is a bit uncomfortable.
With regard to the example the author uses: I myself was on Roaccutane (as it was branded in my country) for months, and in retrospect I'm not sure how much it helped, because I still get...
With regard to the example the author uses: I myself was on Roaccutane (as it was branded in my country) for months, and in retrospect I'm not sure how much it helped, because I still get recurring acne past my twenties. What it did was dry out my skin to such an extreme I resembled Father Christmas, to the point of needing to slather on moisturiser to avoid cracking and chin-based dandruff, while being forbidden from drinking - which wasn't a big deal, I don't drink much, but all three side effects led to me feeling excluded and depressed.
I did two rounds of Accutane. I never got the supposed depression or feelings of sadness from it. I did get frustration though. Because in the US, patients on Accutane have to get monthly blood...
I did two rounds of Accutane. I never got the supposed depression or feelings of sadness from it.
I did get frustration though. Because in the US, patients on Accutane have to get monthly blood tests. Without the test, you can't get your monthly prescription. A new prescription had to be written every month. And then if the prescription wasn't filled in time -- like I forgot to drop it off at the pharmacy or there was an insurance issue or the pharmacy just forgot to fill it -- it expired quickly and I had to call my dermatologist's office for another prescription. Lots of jumping through hoops, that for a teenager/young person, was incredibly annoying. They wanted to make sure I couldn't get pregnant, due to Accutane's teratogenic effects...even though I'm a guy. I think the US has eased up on some of that since, after lots of complaints.
Though I did get insanely chapped lips. Bleeding and painful, even. Luckily, my dermatologist gave me some ointment for it that did the trick. Tacrolimus, I think.
I forgot about those tests - I got them too, I believe it was for liver function. That's why I couldn't drink, Roaccutane was already bad for the liver and alcohol would make it significantly...
I forgot about those tests - I got them too, I believe it was for liver function. That's why I couldn't drink, Roaccutane was already bad for the liver and alcohol would make it significantly worse. My first test was what got me over needle anxiety now I think of it.
I love Adam Mastroianni's writings. There is a lot of good advise (which I promptly forget about for historic reasons) and an awful lot of measured hope (which is a balm to my parched soul). He also just has a great approach to science and communication in general.
Also also - he usually release all of his articles in audio form, narrated by himself. Those are available in podcast form wherever you get those. It's how I ingest most of his articles, the definite highlight of my podcast "recents".
I've had this thread and article in my tabs for weeks, but only got around to reading it now. It's a really fantastic piece of writing, a wonderful observation brought across in a digestible format.
I really wish I had more to say on this, but there's nothing to critique here. The lessons are all correct, the only thing is that sometimes, unforseen circumstances can fuck you over even after you've gone through your gauntlet of suffering. We are the captains of our own destiny, but the first officer is still life.
Thank you for sharing this.
Know your Why, and the How becomes more clear and bearable.
I would argue your statement needs an amendment to reflect the article's message: Know your Why, and How much you are willing to willing to give for it becomes more clear, and perhaps more bearable if it can be endured through a lens of optimism.
I really appreciate when people, like this author, are honest enough to say that life sucks at many points. To fight against the "grindset" that plagues a lot of conversation, especially in professional/career oriented spaces. But at the same time, some level of "grind" may be worth it if you will be at least somewhat happy with the end result.
The challenge is we often don't know the end result. We can speculate, and reach conclusions more easily for some topics than others. It is the great unknown that poses a significant challenge for me, and a lack of feeling in control of it that drove me to a dark place in my past that was incredibly difficult to get out of.
And to be truthful, I am not completely out of it and likely never will be - there will always be things out of my control, and some will bother me more than others, but I have learned that I can retain control (to some degree) over my reaction to these things.
To your two last paragraphs about the future being unknown, may I propose that you read more of his work? Not only is he good at illuminating the measured truth of complicated questions, and going against commen sense with rigor, humility and charm, he also has a lot to say about our avility to predict future outcomes, when it is possible, how we usually end up doing it wrong, and how it often clash with our human intuitions and heuristics.
He even dips his toes in it in this one, presenting the idea that we often try to predict the outcome of hard work by how many are willing to start doing it instead of how many were happy when they came out the other side. Thisn kind of "predicting your own future by observing those that have already walked your path" is one he mentions often in one shade or another, and rings true to me, even if it is a bit uncomfortable.
With regard to the example the author uses: I myself was on Roaccutane (as it was branded in my country) for months, and in retrospect I'm not sure how much it helped, because I still get recurring acne past my twenties. What it did was dry out my skin to such an extreme I resembled Father Christmas, to the point of needing to slather on moisturiser to avoid cracking and chin-based dandruff, while being forbidden from drinking - which wasn't a big deal, I don't drink much, but all three side effects led to me feeling excluded and depressed.
I did two rounds of Accutane. I never got the supposed depression or feelings of sadness from it.
I did get frustration though. Because in the US, patients on Accutane have to get monthly blood tests. Without the test, you can't get your monthly prescription. A new prescription had to be written every month. And then if the prescription wasn't filled in time -- like I forgot to drop it off at the pharmacy or there was an insurance issue or the pharmacy just forgot to fill it -- it expired quickly and I had to call my dermatologist's office for another prescription. Lots of jumping through hoops, that for a teenager/young person, was incredibly annoying. They wanted to make sure I couldn't get pregnant, due to Accutane's teratogenic effects...even though I'm a guy. I think the US has eased up on some of that since, after lots of complaints.
Though I did get insanely chapped lips. Bleeding and painful, even. Luckily, my dermatologist gave me some ointment for it that did the trick. Tacrolimus, I think.
I forgot about those tests - I got them too, I believe it was for liver function. That's why I couldn't drink, Roaccutane was already bad for the liver and alcohol would make it significantly worse. My first test was what got me over needle anxiety now I think of it.