3. ‘Locus of control’ is also basically the same thing that is referred to as ‘agency’. (See https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/rXX6vd2RrKHfePPfE/cultivating-and-destroying-agency) Another argument for ‘internal locus of control is good’ is that, if you’re too used to taking your goals from school, relatives, video games with clear objectives, etc., and too used to being given specific directions ‘okay which action do I do now’ by your school, relatives, your video games, by ChatGPT, etc., this makes your life significantly more crappy than the alternative. In fact, that has direct consequences: In scary situations, I’m so bad at noticing that I can actually *do* something that I once let my lunch burn in the oven, staring at the smoke detector like an idiot until my roommate took the food out of the oven and dumped it in the sink. If she hadn’t been there, I’d have had the stupidest death ever when the house would have burned down ; similarly, if I choose my career by default rather than because I feel like I can make choices, I’ll have a shitty job. And perhaps the worst part of that is how terrible it feels to notice that you think you have zero control over your life, and that, for every goal you might have, your brain just refuses to build and implement a good plan about getting there, because it’s not used to doing that.
Clearly Ozy ought to be universally beloved though. :) :P
This seems relevant: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/03/24/should-you-reverse-any-advice-you-hear/
Old post, but:
1. This was very good
2. You are, indeed, a great writer
3. ‘Locus of control’ is also basically the same thing that is referred to as ‘agency’. (See https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/rXX6vd2RrKHfePPfE/cultivating-and-destroying-agency) Another argument for ‘internal locus of control is good’ is that, if you’re too used to taking your goals from school, relatives, video games with clear objectives, etc., and too used to being given specific directions ‘okay which action do I do now’ by your school, relatives, your video games, by ChatGPT, etc., this makes your life significantly more crappy than the alternative. In fact, that has direct consequences: In scary situations, I’m so bad at noticing that I can actually *do* something that I once let my lunch burn in the oven, staring at the smoke detector like an idiot until my roommate took the food out of the oven and dumped it in the sink. If she hadn’t been there, I’d have had the stupidest death ever when the house would have burned down ; similarly, if I choose my career by default rather than because I feel like I can make choices, I’ll have a shitty job. And perhaps the worst part of that is how terrible it feels to notice that you think you have zero control over your life, and that, for every goal you might have, your brain just refuses to build and implement a good plan about getting there, because it’s not used to doing that.
Also I'm glad that you did find a migrane medicine that worked.
I prefer the Calvin and Hobbes version of the serenity prayer: https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1992/08/28