I did not read the article (what did you expect, we are on HN ;)
Anyway, my experience has been a little bit different. I would summarize it as "good life, good sleep, good learning". And yes, order matters.
The fact is that recently I was completely in my midlife crisis and was at probably 50% of my mental stamina (memory loss, lack of interest, poor focus, and insomnia). I was ok with the fact that I was getting old and accepted all that as normal. Then things changed (my mortgage ended, my children went out of the primal-youth zone, I lost a really demanding job). Now things are really different. I sleep well, things seem to really get into my mind much like it used to be during my youth.
I am not so sure I understand what is happening. But I definitely consider my previous state as impossible to learn anything whatever method I use.
I am slowly getting out of that.
And I now force me into a mental diet to avoid any unnecessary stimulus that would bring me back to my previous state.
So my learning experience is that external conditions are supremely important. The method comes second.
[And yes, supermemo is pretty cool]
OP author is usually biased in one way or another (just like any of us). Reading comments you're pretty much guaranteed to view the problem from multiple angles. When I feel adventurous I read the article first trying to anticipate what the comments will be. When I feel lazy I skim the comments first, then read the article with the grain of salt ready (or not at all).
That resonates with my own experience. I walked away from a bad relationship and my mental stamina, as you call it, improved dramatically. Memory is better, I am much more active and confident. I still have a very demanding job, so maybe I should change that as well.
Oh certainly! That is simply a paradigm and no paradigm can fit the whole (unless there's a better paradigm). Anyways, it depends on your definition of success. If it includes happiness then by definition no. If it's more vague then that then probably. I would define perfect success as something like improving the world and being happy about it.
To that point there are definitely construction workers and nurses who hate their jobs and actively despise but still make the world a better place, are they successful? I believe your internal mental state will reflect and impact upon those around you and the things you are significant for. Does being an unhappy boss who gets great results make you not successful. The core issue lies in definitions. We could dream up a definition of success that could define any number of contradictory traits. That is for you to decide and society at large to gently guide.
For sure, infact "successful" people are probably in general less happy because they do not prioritize happiness. Sure they might be able to more easily achieve some artificially (vacations, new stuff). But that isn't the same as truly learning how to be happy.
Definitely worth keeping in mind, although it is important to remember but these are not a linear series of checkboxes. You’re going to have fluctuating quality of work, happiness, success every single week, month and year. It is also very possible that the causality runs in both directions.
The universe is complex, and ice really don’t have it all figured out, but acknowledging that complexity will prevent a lot of theory induced blindness!
I'd say it's more useful to think of these as a 3 point cycle. Each leads to the other, and if any one gets perturbed out of control it will cause the other two to go south. The cause and effect is not linear but interactive. Then again, perhaps sleep is more basic than a "good life", so there is a little bit of hierarchy embedded...not sure what the article argues as it's currently down for me.
I really think it's a life superpower to realise that a mind's capabilities aren't just due to age, nutrition, genetics etc., and it doesn't just decline with age.
The state of a person's life circumstances, which can change, has a huge effect on mental capability.
Social media:
I did stop arguing on Twitter. And stopped following arguers. Still following informational accounts. But mostly Twitter is back to its original usage: a Google Reader replacement. No more a global chat.
Screens (TV):
I now avoid any kind of TV series that is not already finished. No time for a show that is eventually a bad one after season 1. (a variant of the GoT syndroma. But you could call it XFiles syndroma too, if you are old enough :)
Screens (games):
But the most dramatic change, and the most unexpected one, is that I have started playing FPS games again. It has increased a lot my attention and "good stress" level.
Also, I have started learning piano. Passed the first 2 years and things are getting much better now.
In the end, I suppose that I am no longer able to survive the information deluge that Internet brings. So I now focus on a few things that I consider important, and I leave the rest out of my attention.
PS: oh and let me add that i now learn new tech things through books (from Manning and O'Reilly) instead of loosing my time reading blog posts. Sounds so basic that you may laugh at that, but it made my learning process much more straightforward.
(once again, I was loosing myself in the information deluge of the internet).
I think social media sucks mental stamina because you are exposed to a lot of potential social interactions without actual interaction, and that takes a huge toll on your mind. Real close human interaction recharges the mind whereas the prospect of it depletes it, as many of the interactions has to be simulated (you are only interacting with text and images, the rest is left for the mind to fill in the gaps)
In any case, that is my perception of it, not necessarily true/scientifically accurate.
Agreed. You need to first have a good strategy, and then tackle the tactical points. Having a positive life is way more important than anything else. You can try to give yourself good sleep or good food, but if your life is miserable (not necessary poor, but of poor quality), you won't even have the mood to have good sleep/food.
I strongly believe it's a positive feedback loop:
"good life, good sleep, good learning, good career, good friends, good family, good home, good legacy, good politics"
It comes off the inspiration from my First Big Personal Project:
https://adequate.life
