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by magikarp
4897 days ago
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Let me get this straight.
You've hired a Zen master so that your team can encourage people to meditate in order not to lose the money they've gambled? You seriously think you can inspire true meditation in someone by making them worry about the money they'll lose if they don't "meditate?" What's wrong with you? More importantly, what's wrong with the obviously fraudulent Zen master that's helping you do this? First of all, meditation shouldn't have anything to do with a financial worry/financial incentive. This is one of the most dishonest things I've seen on HN. It's a cheap way to make money off the unsuspecting, naive crowd that's never had the patience or discipline to try meditation and has money to waste. Your website isn't even technically innovative; it makes money by encouraging people to give you their money, and you get to keep it if they don't achieve deeply personal goals that involve detachment, peace and personal discovery. How are you helping? How is taking money hostage contributing to the spirit of true meditation? If you want to make money, go beyond an HTML page that laughs in the face of meditation and make something actually useful, like a real product. I'm saying this as someone who did specialized research in Zen buddhism in an academic environment for one year. |
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"meditation shouldn't have anything to do with a financial worry"
I disagree with this in principle. Meditation is very much a habit and I think it's quite possible to incentivize developing the habit without somehow 'tainting' the practice. It is much like how many people learn to write or play in instrument. It begins as a painful task that they are forced to do when they are young. Once they have learned the skill, and the habit of practicing, it is more easy for them to express complex and subtle ideas and feelings. Ironically this is a tactic consistently employed with children in many East Asian cultures.
It's true that meditation shouldn't have to do with financial worry, but the cultivation of the habit and the later cultivation of the practice that depends on the habit can be decoupled.
"It's a cheap way to make money of the unsuspecting"
This may be true if the tactic is actually unsuccessful in getting people into the habit of meditating. I honestly can't be sure whether financial incentives are effective here. I know that some businesses charge their employees with $20, or some escalating amount when they are late to work and it works quite well, but that's a different sort of situation.