flâneur

On growth

lieuzhenghong.com · 896 words · saved by 1 readers

if addiction is the progressive narrowing of the things that bring us joy, growth is the opposite: it's the progressive widening of the set of situations we can be comfortable in. We are all prisoners to our own neuroses. The way to grow past that is to deliberately expose ourselves to uncomfortable situations. My explicit goal in 2025 was to actively and aggressively seek out uncomfortable situations; to "surf the edge of my discomfort", and by doing so become more comfortable with discomfort. I wanted to deliberately seek out failure and put myself in positions to get rejected more. Some personal examples: Discomfort should be carefully calibrated -- too much and you'll be paralysed into inaction, too little and it won't grow you maximally. How I "titrated" my discomfort: Many times our neuroses turn out to be unjustified or exaggerated. People are a lot nicer than you think! Examples: Things won't be perfect; not everyone is going to be OVERJOYED THAT YOU ARE TRYING TO LEARN GERMAN,

On growth home about Projects --> notes CS self-study --> blogroll On growth Sat Jun 14 2025 tags: public featured life if addiction is the progressive narrowing of the things that bring us joy, growth is the opposite: it's the progressive widening of the set of situations we can be comfortable in. We are all prisoners to our own neuroses. The way to grow past that is to deliberately expose ourselves to uncomfortable situations. My explicit goal in 2025 was to actively and aggressively seek out uncomfortable situations; to "surf the edge of my discomfort", and by doing so become more comfortab

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