[wmccullough]

I think you may have missed the goal of the exercise friend. I think this is a larger metaphor about walking through the waking life without really observing what’s going on.

Disclaimer: I meant this constructively in case it comes of wrong.

[albertgoeswoof]

I get the metaphor, I just think it’s stupid.

There are an infinite number of things you can observe about the world around you, and there are many many more things you will not see than things you will see. All the way from high society people relations down to individual quantum particle interactions, it’s mind boggling how much there is out there happening at all times in all spaces. It’s not possible to observe all of this and the tiny fraction that we do observe is minuscule.

Pretending that there is some profound way to observe the world comes across as obnoxious and cringe-worthy.

[skookumchuck]

I tend to agree. Our brains have evolved to focus on what is important, and to ignore irrelevance. (For example, we are attuned to notice unexpected movement.) We sometimes get that wrong, but the strategy is advantageous.

[tambourine_man]

“I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”

A Study in Scarlet

[ozzmotik]

profundity is relative to the mind that creates the experience of the profound; it's all with respect to some other ideal. what you may consider as trite and lacking substance or meaning, from another perspective may be perceived to be extremely in depth with several layers of indirection and connection to other ideals and with networks of influence going back and forth between said ideals. it's all in how you look at a thing. i certainly agree that some people can be quite cringe inducing with their perception of the profundity of things, but that being said, that cringe is an experience that I am creating within my own mind based on my reaction to their behaviors and expression, not an intrinsic feature of said behaviors and expression. i just think it's important to remember that whatever we say and think, it really truly does define how we actually perceive reality around us and frame the way we interact with the world.

[ozzmotik]

wow i can't help but wonder what the deal with all the downvotes is, it's not like I said something with no substance or I wasted anyone's time; every time I put a lot of thought into something this is the shit that happens smh