I read something the same before, posting the same blog nowadays because ran out of ideas.
Great article, I'll try to make my list when I reach home!
Get this capitalist-humping drivel off of my lichess.
I know the author of this post is not new to this kind of life coaching drivel and I won't ask him to stop because he can do whatever he wants but can you at least spare us from having this on the front page?
Like seriously this kind of "magic mindset fix" nonsense with some overgeneralized trash advice has as much value as astrology to organize your daily life.
Like seriously this kind of "magic mindset fix" nonsense with some overgeneralized trash advice has as much value as astrology to organize your daily life.
As a sports mental trainer for golf and chess, I already know this way of thinking. People who are committed to a goal focus on one thing and do not get bogged down in other secondary goals. If you want to achieve several things in your life at once, you can't avoid tackling them one at a time. Dividing your energy to achieve multiple goals at once wastes your strength and opportunities and ultimately achieves nothing. I also go into this in my book on chess mental training.
This is a lesson from machine learning: you can only evaluate your actions by taking your goals into account. So if you are trying to optimize anything, the most important thing is to define your goals really well. 5/25 is one way to deal with our limited time on earth.
However, I am not sure people should live their lives as an optimization game. While it is important to focus when you have goals, it is also possible that optimization-above-all is not in alignment with human nature leading to a dissatisfied life. I think laziness, interests in many different directions and serenity should not be optimized away.
My personal take on this is: Humans are more important than games. If you want to define goals and apply 5/25, your first 5 goals should all have to do with people (your well-being and the well-being of others).
However, I am not sure people should live their lives as an optimization game. While it is important to focus when you have goals, it is also possible that optimization-above-all is not in alignment with human nature leading to a dissatisfied life. I think laziness, interests in many different directions and serenity should not be optimized away.
My personal take on this is: Humans are more important than games. If you want to define goals and apply 5/25, your first 5 goals should all have to do with people (your well-being and the well-being of others).
Funny how all the "you can do anything if you really really want it and skip dinner to give 107%" structural violence denying crew always have a book to sell...
Gaslighting people into thinking everything that happens to them is 100% their own fault and that the only reason to failure is not trying hard enough (Attribution errors are also probably a concept the author never heard of...) and then selling them a false remedy... disgusting. Like, really, people who do that are repulsive.
And it's not even a matter of opinion, survivorship biais, gaslighting, and structural violence are well documented things, and what avetik writes have been written (and debunked) countless times. Try again if you thought you were original, caus you are just repeating word for word the BS you have been exposed to, without even understanding it.
Being ignorant and loud is a dangerous combo. For the people listening to you but for you as well. But at least this BS is starting to get called out.
@kusoge said in #5:
> I know the author of this post is not new to this kind of life coaching drivel and I won't ask him to stop because he can do whatever he wants but can you at least spare us from having this on the front page?
I actually think it's detrimental for a free, open source platform to allow this kind of really non free, intransparent, manipulative ADVERTISMENT to profit from their work. Yes, they are allowed to do so, but I think they shouldn't.
removing that from the front page would be an error I think. it's on the front page because a lot of people read this BS. If this content is allowed on the site, it should follow the same rules than other content.
I think advertisment, at least under this format, should be banned on Lichess (my opinion). I think that the guidelines should also forbid stuff like propagating obvious misinformation. Like saying the earth is flat, dinosaurs didn't exist, or "you can do anything if you want it enough" are all equally scientifically false. Yet we tolerate the last one.
From the TOS : "Inappropriate communications - These include any private or public chat which makes another person feel distressed or attacked. Some non-exhaustive examples are abuse, harassment, spam, public shaming, cheating accusations, extremism, trolling, racism, sexism, or bigotry."
the whole "you can do it if you want" is (among its other problems) inherently abelist. is this OK?
Attribution errors are one of the main tool of structural violence (because it hides it behind a false personal responsibility) is this OK?
Yes, it might be more "subtle" than direct hate speech.
Nontheless, gaslighting is abuse, and abelism is discrimination. And using these, and other behaviours, for personal financial profit, is disgusting.
It is still almost every week than avetik calls most people "weak" or "lazy", or basically (even though paraphrased) stupid.
I think it is a bad point for lichess to help them doing so by publishing these factually wrong and psychologically dangerous ideas on their site. Free speech doesn't mean that we have to help people propagate their BS. Just because someone have free speech doesn't mean we have to give them a microphone and a stage.
@RoundEarthShill
Thinking that communism (I assume thats what you wanted to refer to with Goulags) is the only alternative to capitalism is also sign of a really limited knowledge and power of immagination. But your 4 posts on lichess suggest that you like posting "ambiguous" things and avoid making a clear point. I think I know why.
Gaslighting people into thinking everything that happens to them is 100% their own fault and that the only reason to failure is not trying hard enough (Attribution errors are also probably a concept the author never heard of...) and then selling them a false remedy... disgusting. Like, really, people who do that are repulsive.
And it's not even a matter of opinion, survivorship biais, gaslighting, and structural violence are well documented things, and what avetik writes have been written (and debunked) countless times. Try again if you thought you were original, caus you are just repeating word for word the BS you have been exposed to, without even understanding it.
Being ignorant and loud is a dangerous combo. For the people listening to you but for you as well. But at least this BS is starting to get called out.
@kusoge said in #5:
> I know the author of this post is not new to this kind of life coaching drivel and I won't ask him to stop because he can do whatever he wants but can you at least spare us from having this on the front page?
I actually think it's detrimental for a free, open source platform to allow this kind of really non free, intransparent, manipulative ADVERTISMENT to profit from their work. Yes, they are allowed to do so, but I think they shouldn't.
removing that from the front page would be an error I think. it's on the front page because a lot of people read this BS. If this content is allowed on the site, it should follow the same rules than other content.
I think advertisment, at least under this format, should be banned on Lichess (my opinion). I think that the guidelines should also forbid stuff like propagating obvious misinformation. Like saying the earth is flat, dinosaurs didn't exist, or "you can do anything if you want it enough" are all equally scientifically false. Yet we tolerate the last one.
From the TOS : "Inappropriate communications - These include any private or public chat which makes another person feel distressed or attacked. Some non-exhaustive examples are abuse, harassment, spam, public shaming, cheating accusations, extremism, trolling, racism, sexism, or bigotry."
the whole "you can do it if you want" is (among its other problems) inherently abelist. is this OK?
Attribution errors are one of the main tool of structural violence (because it hides it behind a false personal responsibility) is this OK?
Yes, it might be more "subtle" than direct hate speech.
Nontheless, gaslighting is abuse, and abelism is discrimination. And using these, and other behaviours, for personal financial profit, is disgusting.
It is still almost every week than avetik calls most people "weak" or "lazy", or basically (even though paraphrased) stupid.
I think it is a bad point for lichess to help them doing so by publishing these factually wrong and psychologically dangerous ideas on their site. Free speech doesn't mean that we have to help people propagate their BS. Just because someone have free speech doesn't mean we have to give them a microphone and a stage.
@RoundEarthShill
Thinking that communism (I assume thats what you wanted to refer to with Goulags) is the only alternative to capitalism is also sign of a really limited knowledge and power of immagination. But your 4 posts on lichess suggest that you like posting "ambiguous" things and avoid making a clear point. I think I know why.
Awesome article. Thank you
Of course you can agree with TurtleMat, but I think he has misunderstood him completely. I have been coaching various participants in my courses for many years now and, for the most part, it always comes back to the same causes. A large proportion of people have made significant progress after changing their behavior, but not all of them. You can't promise a person that everything will get better if they do this or that or don't do it, but as a coach and in this case as an outsider, you can make suggestions that, if they are willing to follow them and integrate them into their lives, show them a way forward. Whether this path then finds its way into his personal life or not, or whether he wants to make this effort, is still up to him. For every participant whose life improves as a result, it is a gain in the end, the rest must continue to search or find another path for themselves. If someone has many years of professional experience in showing a way, as here in chess, and they want to earn money with it, they can at least offer their services. Just because there is an offer doesn't mean you have to accept it. The experience he has gained in his field didn't fall from the sky, but he has worked for it, taken lessons himself, etc. It is an offer, no more and no less, and everyone can decide for themselves whether they want to accept it and follow it or not. To condemn it and make a mountain out of a molehill is, in my opinion, too much hot air.